Afternoon links: Nonsense

by David Alpert • April 21, 2010 3:38 pm

Photo by mooniker.

National Highways-In-Parks Service?: The Park Service is rebuilding part of Ohio Drive around the Lincoln Memorial. As usual, they'll make sure there is enough room for cars but pedestrians and bicyclists will have to detour around the Memorial. What's the agency's mission again? (TheWashCycle)

Wilson Building ATM machine still running: What huge budget deficits? The DC Council has approved another tax break, this time for a planned hotel in NoMa. CFO Natwar Gandhi says it's irresponsible, that the hotel would probably get built anyway, and that it's unfair to everyone who built in NoMa without trying to get a sweetheart deal of their own. Only Kwame Brown opposed the measure. (WBJ)

Silver Line car price fight: WMATA and MWAA are having a dispute over the cost of rail cars for the Silver Line. WMATA wants to charge the amount per car it would cost even if they bought no more cars, whereas MWAA wants to split the savings with WMATA if WMATA buys more cars to replace the 1000-series as well. This came up in another letter that was secret until the Post got a hold of it. (Post)

Finalists selected for Planning Board: The Montgomery County Council has chosen five finalists for the important post of Planning Board chairman. ACT has created a questionnaire to elicit candidates' views on transit and transit-oriented development.

More cents and sense for Bethesda parking: Bethesda parking fees would rise 10¢ per hour under County Executive Leggett's proposed budget. Also, County Council staff have finally suggested the obvious: charge for parking on Saturdays, when Bethesda garages are too crowded, but Leggett opposes the idea. (As I wrote, I'd make the pricing more nuanced on Saturdays.)

Tenleytown: 60 years of anti: Last year's battle over the Tenleytown library and a potential public-private partnership wasn't Tenleytown's first fight over that library. Back in the 1950s, residents opposed building the library in the first place. (Цarьchitect)

So high-speed, it never stops: A Chinese bullet train concept would not stop at stations, instead dropping off small transfer vehicles and picking up new ones while maintaining speed. (David C) (I've seen this video before, but you might not have.)

Post's new network: The Washington Post has launched a new local blog network which will crosspost some articles from some great local blogs, including BeyondDC, Georgetown Metropolitan, DCist and more, as well as my posts here.

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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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But the Tenleytown residents didn't oppose the library recently. You make it seem like they did/do. Maybe some amplification is in order.

by Jazzy on Apr 21, 2010 4:24 pm • link • report

The issue this time was a lot more complicated. There was one universally reviled design. Then there was a better design. Then the city decided that it would be a great opportunity for development. Then opposition neighbors fought back. Then the economy softened, and they built the library anyway.

I really just wanted to take note of all the amusing parallels.

by Neil Flanagan on Apr 21, 2010 4:31 pm • link • report

ATM machine is redundantly redundant

by JessMan on Apr 21, 2010 4:43 pm • link • report

Wow, that MWAA / WMATA price divide couldn't point out a better downfall of having a project being built and operated by different people.

by Aaron on Apr 21, 2010 5:12 pm • link • report

Wow, that Chinese concept would make induction-powered streetcars look pretty affordable. I'll believe that when I see it working. It seems like it has some pretty large safety issues too!

However: I would dearly like to see American agencies realize that their problem is not the top speed of the vehicle, it is the time spent at low speeds. As far as I can tell, Amtrak just does not care about this. WMATA does in a half-hearted way. Sometimes.

by DavidDuck on Apr 21, 2010 6:08 pm • link • report

$8.1 million, 14% of total project cost for a hotel that would be built anyway. Staggering. How many Metro routes will be curtailed for this?

by Tom Coumaris on Apr 21, 2010 10:00 pm • link • report

This is the first I've heard of that bullet train concept. Not an attractive rendering, but certainly a fascinating idea. I find China's imagination and forward-thinkingness (if that's a word) to be inspiring.

by Matthias on Apr 22, 2010 3:11 pm • link • report

So how does a person whom is in a wheelchair or even on crunches get from the car down to the train assuming this has steps and no elevator.

That just screams ADA violations if anything like that was considered in the US

by kk on Apr 23, 2010 11:51 am • link • report

When the warnings of DC's own CFO are ignored in favor of developers, it highlights who is actually running the city.

by Denis on Apr 25, 2010 8:15 am • link • report