Breakfast links: Happy New Year

by Stephen Miller • January 1, 2010 9:32 am

Photo by moriza.

A growing city: The latest Census estimates put the District's July 2009 population just shy of 600,000; it's more than likely the city has passed that mark by now. The article attributes the growth trend to a freeze in suburbanization due to the housing market collapse, though planning director Harriet Tregoning credits a desire among more people to live in cities again. Last year, the District grew faster than all but four states: Wyoming, Utah, Texas and Colorado. (Post)

Charles County sprawlway: The Interior Department recommended that permits for the currently-proposed cross-county connector between Waldorf and Route 210 in Charles County be denied, citing the impact road construction will have on wetlands, forests and watersheds. The county maintains that the road is necessary to accommodate auto congestion from planned residential sprawl. (Post)

The ridership is right: WMATA is running a contest; the participant who correctly guesses (or comes the closest without going over) Metrorail ridership on the first day of 2010 will win a $25 SmarTrip card. (WMATA)

C for yourself: On Saturday, DDOT will be hosting the first workshop for C Street, NE at Maury Elementary School. Bill Schultheiss from Toole Design will facilitate an informal discussion on alternatives for the corridor. (C Street, NE Project)

Busted!: The editor of Parking Today, John Van Horn, had been running an experiment where he would not pay or overstay at meters. After a long run of not getting caught, justice finally caught up with this particular scofflaw. (Parking Today, Michael P)

Is that multi-state inter-agency cooperation I see?: Metro-North has begun running special trains to and from football games at the Meadowlands. This involves running Metro-North trains on Amtrak lines through Queens, Penn Station, and to New Jersey Transit stations. If these agencies can make it work, perhaps MARC and VRE could, as well? (MTA)

What's driving business?: Most businesses interviewed say that they have benefited from the pedestrianization of Broadway through Times Square. Tim Tompkins of the Times Square Alliance notes that the discussion has changed from whether the plaza hurts business to how the quality of the new public space can be improved. (Marketplace, JeffB)

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16 comments

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Stephen Miller lived in the District from 2008 to 2011 and is now a student at Pratt Institute's city and regional planning masters program.

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I also heard on WAMU that car ownership in the district was down too... Its great that suburbanites aren't just moving back to the city, but they're truly becoming urban.

by Joshua Davis on Jan 1, 2010 10:40 am • link • report

David, you're missing the actual link in the final entry (about Times Square).

by Joey on Jan 1, 2010 11:36 am • link • report

^ (sorry, not David: Stephen)

by Joey on Jan 1, 2010 11:36 am • link • report

Thanks Joey. Sorry all, I'll try to fix the link. In the event that I can't, here's the link to the Marketplace/Times Square story: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/12/30/pm-times-square/

by Stephen Miller on Jan 1, 2010 11:50 am • link • report

Parking Today! Gotta get that one. I'd even give up my subscription to Grape Soda Monthly to get it, if push came to shove in these tough economic times.

by Gotta have it! on Jan 1, 2010 12:16 pm • link • report

The Cross-County Connector (CCC) case just makes us appreciate that we got the ICC permitted through the Bush administration and not Obama. A once in a lifetime series of events lead to its construction and opening late this new year. Charles County may not be so lucky building their sprawlway as well as the Waldorf Bypass (AKA ICC 2.0). That county has a host of issues, among others is that it is desperate for drinking water. They now buy wholesale from WSSC to suplement their drying aquifiers. Part of the justification for the new 7-foot BiCounty Water Tunnel being discreetly built under Rock Creek Park in the Kensington area is to serve this new demand for water from future sprawl. This pattern of development is unsustainable and is costing taxpayers in established communities. O'Malley has done very little to stop sprawl in Maryland and redirect growth into places like White Flint and Science City.

by Cyrus on Jan 1, 2010 12:19 pm • link • report

@Gotta Have It! It's free, just like Metro magazine and the Journal of Public Transportation. As my brother (not a transit geek) said, "It sounds like the magazines they have in the waiting room for Hell." Guess it's an acquired taste.

by Michael Perkins on Jan 1, 2010 12:55 pm • link • report

@Michael Perkins: "Guess it's an acquired taste." Yep. Sorta like Casket and Sunny Side, which is (or was) the trade mag of the funeral biz. Wouldn't want to miss this month's centerfold from that one, either.

by Gotta have it! on Jan 1, 2010 4:50 pm • link • report

Everybody's gotta communicate with their industry. PT is mostly a magazine for the off-street garage industry, but they do some articles about on-street management and meter technology. Their editor has slowly become a Shoupista over the past year and a half.

They also have sports coverage of the "Valet-lympics", which features events like the triathlon (Sprinting! Key sorting! Slalom!).

by Michael Perkins on Jan 1, 2010 5:15 pm • link • report

RE: "multi-state inter-agency cooperation". Something should be done in all states to merge these agencies from the customer point of view. The rider doesnt give a crap who's running their service, they just want to take the train. Behind the scenes, the agencies can do what they want, but when it comes to branding, we should have one commuter rail line. How about the MDVR (Maryland Virginia DC Railroad)?

And this goes for other regions as well. Metro-North, NJT, LIRR.... BART and Caltrain etc etc

by J on Jan 1, 2010 11:46 pm • link • report

Pedestrianization of Times Square worked for the same reason that pedestrian malls generally have failed. Times Square already was a high density pedestrian environment and the changes enabled people to take more advantage of that, and created some new commercial niches. In many places, esp. neighborhood and small town business districts, people who park and shop at one store are as important (or more so) than pedestrians and this sort of thing has failed miserably. Chicago couldn't make it work on State Street. New York's dense street grid probably has mitigated the the effects on the change on delivery.

by Rich on Jan 2, 2010 10:35 am • link • report

Times Square is NOT a pedestrian mall. By eliminating traffic on Broadway, there is still traffic running through the Square on 7th Ave and on each of the cross streets. Unlike State Street in Chicago, where traffic was completely eliminated, the traffic remains, but it's just as if the sidewalks were widened greatly.

Essentially, it's a big road diet. Cars still travel through, their routes are much simpler now that the intersections are all just 4-way ones instead of six-way ones.

by Alex B. on Jan 2, 2010 10:48 am • link • report

Hello. I just want to say a couple of things about the Bi-County Water Tunnel that is currently under construction in the Kensington area. It is indeed being built to address future needs of our customers in the WSSC district. It is anything but "discreet". The plan to build underground was developed after many years of input from the community looking for ways to be less disruptive to homes and traffic. All contracts were awarded during public Commission meetings after a public competitive bidding process. Recently stories have run in the Washington Post and on Fox5 TV. Letters have also gone out to residents in the immediate vicinity of current construction. That process will continue as construction progresses. The current construction is easily visible from the exit ramp from the Outerloop of the Beltway on to Connecticut Avenue. It is also visible along Kensington Parkway between Connecticut and Beach Drive. You can read more about The Bi-County Tunnel project on our web site at www.wsscwater.com. Just look under Hot Topics right in the middle of the homepage. It is a fascinating project, an amazing engineering feat and huge undertaking. I encourage you to read about it and I expect more news coverage in the future as this project develops. Thanks.

by Jim Neustadt, Director of Communications & Community Relations, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission on Jan 2, 2010 11:28 am • link • report

Thanks Jim for your response, "discrete" can be a good thing meaning little surface disruption. It would be great if you could address WSSC's future plans to compete with the City of Baltimore to provide wholesale water to Howard and Anne Arundel Counties as it does for Rockville and Charles County.

by Cyrus on Jan 2, 2010 12:30 pm • link • report

Cyrus,
Thanks for clarifying "discreet". And I am happy to clarify the issue of "competing" to provide wholesale water. In short, we don't compete.
WSSC does not actively seek to sell water outside of our water/sewer district. We are chartered under Article 29 of MarylandÂ’s Annotated Code which explicitly directs WSSC to provide water and wastewater services to Prince GeorgeÂ’s and Montgomery counties.
Any requests by other jurisdictions to purchase water are directed to one or both of our two counties to provide us with guidance as to how to proceed.
I hope that clears it up. Thanks

by Jim on Jan 5, 2010 6:26 pm • link • report

I still think the DC population is being undercounted. The Census Bureau estimated 519,000 people in 1999, but the actual 2000 count was 572,000. We shall see what the numbers are in 2010. I can't wait.

I am glad to see that net domestic migration is up. More people are moving to DC now from the US states than people from abroad.

Check out the website Washington DC Demographics and Research for more detailed Washington DC demographics

by washington dc demographics on Jan 9, 2010 3:37 pm • link • report