Breakfast links: Neighborhoods speaking up

by David Alpert • December 8, 2009 9:04 am

Image from DCPL via City Paper.

Libraries + architecture + DC gov = controversy: Ward 8 residents aren't happy that DCPL closed their library even before they have the raze permit to tear the old one down; many don't like the design either. In Tenleytown, DCPL also closed the library only to suffer years of delay; why keep doing that? (City Desk)

Scattershot humps no longer: In response to the speed hump controversy in Chevy Chase, Gabe Klein told the ANC that instead of installing a speed hump when enough residents petition, they'll conduct more comprehensive traffic calming studies of neighborhoods, starting with Chevy Chase, Kalorama, and ones to be named in NE and SE. The studies will include looks at pedestrian and bicycle needs. (Current, freaking huge PDF)

H Street shuttle saved: DC has found money to restore the H Street shuttle, which runs express along the X2 route on H Street but only runs every 30 minutes. I'm all for more transit, but this process of cutting and then restoring transit services, as with the Circulator on Wisconsin Avenue, is a little too political and skips the analysis of whether different transit spending would be better. (Post, Pat O)

Metro didn't "bar" inspectors, but just said yes very slowly?: The Tri-State Oversight Committee's Eric Madison told WTOP, "We want to make it clear: Metro waasn't barring is from the tracks." Metro sent sent out a "correction" to the earlier Post article, repeating that quote over and over. But if Metro was simply taking months to work out a satisfactory safety protocol and TOC got so frustrated they considered asking the FTA to impose sanctions, is this a distinction without a difference?

Transit-oriented concrete plant: Not only does the proposed concrete plant in Prince George's County intensify polluting uses near the same poor, minority residents, but as Dave Murphy notes, it's really close to Cheverly Metro, missing a good opportunity for TOD at the same time. (Imagine, DC)

Warner suggests BRAC congestion pricing: Since the Department of Defense won't pay for transportation improvements on US-1 near Fort Belvoir, Senator Mark Warner wants to explore congestion pricing, to toll the road and more at busy times to raise money for improvements (hopefully including some transit). (WTOP)

Cargo without the car: Cargo bikes are beginning to gain popularity in the US, especially for trips to the grocery store or picking up kids from school and especially in, you guessed it, Portland. (NPR, Steven Y.)

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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Re: Metro

Maybe it is distinction without difference, but it's still not clear to me what the TOC was asking for. The initial reports sounded like the TOC wanted to just put some neon vests over their suits and walk along the tracks - which certainly doesn't sound like a good idea to me. That WTOP article makes it seem like they had some of their own, trained rail inspectors.

So, yeah. I dunno.

by Alex B. on Dec 8, 2009 9:41 am • link • report

Re Scattershot humps: This makes so much more sense than the ad hoc, street-by-street, squeaky wheel approach now taken. Thank you, Gabe Klein.

by ah on Dec 8, 2009 9:45 am • link • report

@cargo bikes: Cue "w" stating how many cases of beer he can carry on the sidewalk in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

@concrete plant: This is like that waste incinerator plant near the Van Dorn Street Metro? What a waste of a station.

by Michael Perkins on Dec 8, 2009 9:46 am • link • report

Why do they close them a little earlier than need be? Because they cost a fortune to operate. The Highlands Library is a large, 50 year old building that, averaged out costs ~$120K a month to operate, more so in the winter.

DCPL had to suffer through a 10% budget cut this year and 40 million per year doesn't go as far as it used to. If neighborhoods want their new library, they have to be willing to compromise a little bit.

The residents of Tenley are to blame for the delay of their own library, not the city, just as the residents of CP are to blame for the delay of the new Giant grocery store. Their level of self obsessed,"development my way or no way", nimby-ism is eclipsed in this town by only Cleveland Park, or maybe Chevy Chase.

by nookie on Dec 8, 2009 9:46 am • link • report

Blaming Tenleytowners misses part of the point. Part of the delay came up when the library was demolished before they had architectural plans. Then they had plans that hit the trifecta of bad architecture: ugly, uninteresting, and cheap. Actually, they were flamboyantly ugly, and the city took the hint when the neighborhood complained. Then they found a new architect and had them design the building. Then someone decided to do the PPP, the neighborhood complained loudly. Then they waited six months, and now they're pouring concrete.

The discussion of the history of the Reno School in the Current is also worth a read if you bother to open the PDF. It doesn't get all the facts straight, but it is a fascinating part of DC's history.

by Neil Flanagan on Dec 8, 2009 10:10 am • link • report

Why do I suspect Warner's support of congestion pricing is a tool to get some more money out of the pentagon?

The BRAC move may prove one of the most toxic legacies. 20K workers that used to primarily Metro to crystal city now on cars in Fairfax. All because the DOD was afraid of some car bombs....

by charlie on Dec 8, 2009 10:18 am • link • report

sorry, but I have to disagree about the concrete plant.

Industry is esential part of modern living- and I am also a believer in real genuine mixed use- and that does not mean just office buildings and townhouses. There needs to be a place for industrial facilities close to cities. Im also in favor of locating some of these in more affluent parts of the area.Bethesda used to have a large concrete plant right alongside the old Georgetown spur line [ now the Capitol Crecent trail] and other such plants were located around where now there are just residential units.It drives up prices a lot more when plants like this are pushed farhter out into the Sprawl.

Truth is, there are many industiral plants that need to be located near rail.

And we cannot move EVERYTHING that is industrial to China, as so many of the white collar people are keen on doing...

by w on Dec 8, 2009 10:23 am • link • report

w, There's industry and then there's industry.

A concrete plant will never be moved to China, unless you plan on driving a cement truck across the Bering Strait at low tide so someone can repave their driveway or front stoop.

Similarly, "industry" could mean just about anything. Sure, it would be great to have some light manufacturing or other industrial uses - but there's a very real difference between a contained operation like that and a concrete plant processing raw materials.

by Alex B. on Dec 8, 2009 10:32 am • link • report

PG County has a terrible school system and well-earned reputation for crime and other social disorders. You can build a "transit oriented development" in Cheverly, but you aren't going to get people to invest in it. Expect low-end rotating retail and apartments overloaded with immigrants. That is, if a developer could ever even get the financing to build there.

A concrete plant means jobs, and is better than nothing.

People don't want to live in places like Cheverly. They live there because they have to. Metro didn't change that and a transit-oriented development won't either. Until you improve the PG County schools and get a handle on the crime problem, PG County will not be a desireable place to live.

by pgreality on Dec 8, 2009 10:51 am • link • report

H Street is looking better by the day, but that shuttle is essential because of the limited Metro access, and the fact that it's a transitioning area a lot of people won't walk to. It's not like Georgetown which is filled with people regardless of what bus goes there. Not sure what the city was thinking, plenty of other places to cut $100k.

by David on Dec 8, 2009 10:52 am • link • report

Alex B-

obviously you are far too serious a person to understand when someone is being sarcastic.

No- I never seriously expected the concrete plant to be moved to Peking or whatever.

Concrete plants MUST be located near construction sites- it is the nature of the beast. In order for a city to exist- we need concrete. You can complain all you want about industry and your dislike of it- but the coldfact is- we need to have it.

by w on Dec 8, 2009 11:16 am • link • report

as for the H street shuttle- the neighborhood NIMBYs [ CHRS, etc.] need to make up their minds- do they want a streetcar system[ many of them do not] or do they want to continue to have toxin spewing buses?

The shuttle is a stopgap meausre for sure- but the long term solution is a tram on 8th street- even if it means sacrificing some of their cherished parking spots in the "historic district".

by w on Dec 8, 2009 11:19 am • link • report

Point is, there are a wide variety of 'industrial' uses. Lamenting the loss of industry to China when talking about a process that's entirely local misses the mark.

This isn't an argument against concrete plants, by any means.

I'm also not sure where you get the idea that I dislike industry. I wish DC had more industry, but there has to be a realization that not all industry is alike.

by Alex B. on Dec 8, 2009 11:39 am • link • report

pgreality: I know you're trolling, but regardless of whether there are more nonwhite people in the neighborhood than you'd like or whether you accept the validity of the choices working-class people make, people do live in PG County and choose to precisely because it's cheaper, and if they could live by the Metro, it would also be more convenient.

But I assume you realize this already, because you're trolling just that transparently.

by J.D. Hammond on Dec 8, 2009 11:39 am • link • report

Admittedly, I know very little about the compensation structure at a cement factory, but, yeah, these are (presumably) good industrial jobs within walking distance to a metro station. TOD means more than just gelato places and mixed use this-or-that. That said, I would venture to guess that the Cheverly metro did not factor into the calculus when they decided to locate where they did as much as it should have. But I do find it a little disingenuous to bemoan a new place of employment right in an area populated by people who need employment opportunities, particularly as the place is already loaded with industrial infrastructure and is within a mile of rail transit.

BL: This is investment in our region, will create non-government jobs that diversify the economy and buttress it against (inevitable) contractions in federal spending, is centrally located, provides good jobs for working class people in an area that is not prohibitively expensive to live in. What's the controversy?

by JTS on Dec 8, 2009 11:41 am • link • report

and buttress it against (inevitable) contractions in federal spending

que? You obviously haven't lived in the area for long enough. Has there ever been an overall reduction in spending, not accounting for post-war adjustments?

Besides, if the future of our region is cement mixing, we're in for some problems.

I think what this is a case of is the liberals on this boarding getting a blue-collar hard-on. Of course you guys will never work in such a plant, but you guys support it because of some vague notion of factories= old school urbanism.

I'll take a biotech firm over a cement plant any day of the week.

by MPC on Dec 8, 2009 11:47 am • link • report

Incidentally, DCPL had precisely this issue in Ward 7 with the reconstruction of Benning Road. The ANC commissioner and her extended family didn't want an interim library (which was itself significantly improved over the existing library) and didn't want new construction, either. The only solution they would accept was renovation of the existing building, which DCPL would have to somehow keep open to the public through the noise and other hazards that renovating (i.e. gutting) the building would inevitably cause for patrons.

(I claim bias here, as my partner was managing the Benning branch through the meat of this debacle.)

by J.D. Hammond on Dec 8, 2009 11:49 am • link • report

On the H Street shuttle. WMATA in the process of restructuring the X-2 route. In addition they are also in the process of re-evaluating their bus stop spacing. If these changes are made, then it makes sense to re-evaluate the H Street shuttle to determine if that money can be better spent elsewhere.

On the Georgetown Connector ("Blue Bus"). I understand that DDOT currently subsidizes the route for about $1.5 million annually--about $700,000 is paid by Georgetown BID. DDOT is proposing to take over the whole service since the BID's funding runs out in May.

by kreeggo on Dec 8, 2009 12:02 pm • link • report

JD-

The people who "choose" to live in Cheverly, do so because they lack the means to "choose" to live somewhere better. The same can be said of all of us to some extent.

My point is that large parts of PG County, especially the area we are talking about, are simply not attractive to people who can choose to live somewhere else.

Building a new transit-oriented development isn't going to change that, and PG County's experience with this sort of development (Largo Town Center) has been, mixed, at best.

by pgreality on Dec 8, 2009 12:25 pm • link • report

I know a number of people who make their homes in the town of Cheverly. It is actually quite a nice little area in between those more typical "garden apartment" 1940's era slums that are very prevalent in PG. Cheverly has some nice housing stock and a very active and vigilant neighborhood association. It is a very mixed neighborhood- and is accepting of all kinds of people. Home values have been maintained even with the so-called "great recession" ,and people care a lot about their homes. A good friend of mine has a 1920's era Sears home- which she has done a lot to- and others that I know have also done a lot to invest and bring their homes up to date in Cheverly. The fact that an industrial concern is so close by has never come up in any of my discussions with these folks- who are all seemingly concerned about keeping up their gardens and trees- which are quite beautiful and set the town of Cheverly apart from some of less desirable places around it.

by w on Dec 8, 2009 12:38 pm • link • report

@MPC -

Um...

1. Plenty of contractions in federal government. Yes, we're buffered from the 'real economy,' but being a one-horse town is not smart. Remember the end of the cold war?

2. Clearly someone who runs a cement plant thought locating here was a good idea, so economically it must make sense. Competitive advantage is a bitch.

3. I'll take both biotech and cement plants. With both it means more people of different means and abilities have access to employment. Our future is not in cement mixing, but the region is growing at a rapid pace, and all the better if those raw materials are profitably manufactured right in our backyard as opposed to PA, NJ, or elsewhere.

4. I'm not entirely sure what old school urbanism means, but having lived in DC my entire life, I'm pretty sure that factories never really had much to do with it.

5. I'm not sure what exactly youre criticizing. Do you not want the factory because you want other service/information economy TOD like gelato places, or because you are just trolling and have no real opinions or ideas of your own?

6. I'll reserve my liberal hard-on for bike sharing

by JTS on Dec 8, 2009 12:49 pm • link • report

@JTS

1. Plenty of contractions in federal government. Yes, we're buffered from the 'real economy,' but being a one-horse town is not smart. Remember the end of the cold war?

Don't you hate it when facts get in the way of your argument?

by MPC on Dec 8, 2009 1:05 pm • link • report

JTS

I mostly agree with you- but I have also lived in DC my entire life- and factories are still an important part of this city's economy- despite what you may think. Many of the people in my family have worked in them or continue to do so. There has always been a large private sector printing industry in DC and now more so in the suburbs. DC has a lot more blue collar employment than most people are aware of. Many of these people live in bigger homes than most of the bloggers here could possibly afford. Unfortunatley , most of these workers also drive great distances to their jobs.

Much of what we now see in SE DC was built because of the gigantic Naval Gun Factory that was the largest cannon facory on earth until the 1960's when it was closed down. DC had and still has- 2 of the worlds largest printing factories- with many many blue collar jobs in both plants. These are not the kinds of jobs that transient group house, non-profit job or think tank type people with MAs from Ann Arbor or Berkley would find themselves in- but they are good paying jobs and afford a quality standard of living. Just because you do not see these places in DuPont or Adams Morgan means that they are not here in DC.

As for a future in cement- don't laugh- cement is a vital substance- even if you can't use it in your computer world or to type on it.
With the possibility of global warming cement factories will become much more commonplace- as we seek to put up walls against the encroaching water.

by w on Dec 8, 2009 1:07 pm • link • report

w trolls better than i do.

now THAT'S impressive.

by MPC on Dec 8, 2009 1:27 pm • link • report

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hmdb.org/Photos/34/Photo34017.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp%3Fmarker%3D10822&usg=__FZtO4SmDG-7uHCaWYVPR-pUvvs4=&h=433&w=649&sz=57&hl=en&start=6&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=-WtHgBHjV6X5rM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbreech%2Bworks%2Bshop%2Bwashington%2Bnavy%2Byard%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

by w on Dec 8, 2009 1:33 pm • link • report

True. This is exactly why I think a cement factory near metro is not such a bad thing. It has nothing to do with my 'old school urbanism' or whatever MPC has to say.

@MPC

Sorry. My mistake. Didn't realize the feds spent $800 billion a year in the DC metropolitan area, and DC-MD-VA contributed another $200 billion.

by JTS on Dec 8, 2009 1:34 pm • link • report

@MPC, I'm trying to figure out that graph. Is that Defense Discretionary, Mandatory, Non-Defense Discretionary or what? I'm trying to figure out what category of spending was about $800B in 2007.

by Michael Perkins on Dec 8, 2009 1:37 pm • link • report

Don't flatter yourself, Meerschaum Pipe Craftsman.

by Neil Flanagan on Dec 8, 2009 1:39 pm • link • report

@JTS: LOL, I think you just insinuated MPC actually has something to say.

by J.D. Hammond on Dec 8, 2009 1:42 pm • link • report

Don't you hate it when facts get in the way of your argument?

Don't you hate it when your lolcows realize you totally conceded the other five points, including the both tacit and explicit admissions that you're trolling yet again?

by J.D. Hammond on Dec 8, 2009 1:48 pm • link • report

There should be absolutely no problems with a factory being near Metro.
I'd much rather have a factory near Metro than a sea of surface parking lots.

It is a lot better to have the workers take transit than to drive to their jobs.

It is very much of a fact that many people who come to the DC have an very ingrained prejudice against the Blue Collar. This is sad- and it is reflective of the movement away from people in the USA respecting those who actually make real things that have added value. Recent studies have been done that point out that many Blue Collar professions actually pay a lot more than white collar jobs that require a college education- this is because so many people go towards the academic track and too few engage in the Blue Collar pursuits- with many of the choicest jobs going unfilled. Many of the present day Blue Collar jobs also are being given to college graduates who take on additional apprenticeships to bring them into this level of work.

Today's Blue Collar is not your grandpa's Blue Collar.

by w on Dec 8, 2009 2:01 pm • link • report

This is sad- and it is reflective of the movement away from people in the USA respecting those who actually make real things that have added value.

If only there was some theory that dealt with the value of labor?

Yea, we should all be begging for the opportunity to be able to turn a wrench all day.

But I agree. People like urban planners add no value to society.

by MPC on Dec 8, 2009 2:09 pm • link • report

Again, a factory and a cement mixing plant are not the same thing.

Light manufacturing and a steel mill both qualify as industry, too. But I can guarantee that most people would rather live next to one rather than the other.

by Alex B. on Dec 8, 2009 2:09 pm • link • report

both are better uses of the land than having a giant surface parking lot

...and modern steel mills are not at all like the old ones.

by w on Dec 8, 2009 3:15 pm • link • report

Factual inaccuracy:
20000 people are not getting dumped on US-1.

18000 people are getting dumped on I-95 midway between Newington and Springfield, on the former "Engineering Proving Ground". They will not be using US-1.

The rest will go to Fort Belvoir proper.

by Squalish on Dec 8, 2009 4:56 pm • link • report

In my opinion, the problem isn't the factory use so much as it is the likely form that factory would take.

If a factory/plant/whatever is spread out in a one-storey building over an acre, plus an extra acre of parking, it's not really the most efficient use of space by a major transit station.

Factories and other industrial uses prior to the advent of contemporary trucking (and 1950s parking arrangements) were denser, operating over a number of floors. Thus, they made much more efficient use of land and transit networks.

If we can get a couple hundred workers per acre in that factory use near a Metro station, I don't see a major problem with it. But if the factory is going to employ only 50 people and take up 50% of the land that's walkable to the station, then it's a terrible use of that land.

by Joey on Dec 8, 2009 5:58 pm • link • report

very good points Joey

by w on Dec 9, 2009 10:53 am • link • report