Photo by bensheldon.

Hopefully not just like the Pentagon

“In her own Special Olympics-like gaffe, the [DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano] referred to St. Elizabeths as being in ‘a very run-down part of the District of Columbia.’” But, DHS also hopes their upcoming move to the Ward 8 campus will “do the same thing for the surrounding neighborhood that the CIA did for Langley and the Pentagon did for Northern Virginia.” Great, but this is still part of the city, not part of the ‘burbs. Ideally DHS will “do” more for Ward 8 than just drawing large amounts of auto traffic to the area. (DCmud, Jaime)  (Tip: Jaime)  

Life, liberty, happiness and the ability to build sprawl?

County government just can’t make everyone happy. Neighbors complain about development, and developers complain about non-development. In this case, that’s a rezoning for rural southern Prince George’s County to keep more of the Rural Tier land rural. But some landowners are threatening to sue to protect their right to build sprawling suburban developments in far from everything in Accokeek and Brandywine. (Gazette)  

Crosswalks aren’t temporary loading zones

A letter writer asks drivers contribute to safety on Connecticut Avenue by realizing pedestrians need to use the street, too. One SUV driver was blocking a crosswalk and reacted very irately when the writer asked him to move. (Post Get There)  

Commute correlation computation

Extraordinary observations graphically analyzes the relationships between commute times and transit and driving. Does transit use cause long commute times? Or do long commute times spur transit use? Or large cities most often have transit and long commutes? (Chris)  

Seattle starts curbside composting

Residents in Seattle will now be able to recycle food waste through a new curbside composting program. Food waste will be turned into compost for local parks and gardens. Would something like this be possible in DC or are there too many rats?  (Seattle Medium, Lynda)  (Tip: Lynda)  

Mini links

Construction on the Silver Line and HOT lanes around Tysons will complicate traffic for some time (WTOP, Froggie) … Private development around the Silver Spring transit center is floundering due to the economic downturn (DCmud, Jaime)  (Tip: Froggie)