Greater Greater Washington. The Washington, DC area is great. But it could be greater.

Roads


The more things change

The New York Times ran an op-ed on Sunday about politicians running for President coming up with proposals to ease the pain of high gas prices. Only this op-ed was from the summer of 1996, when average nationwide prices were rising from about $1.07 a gallon to $1.23 per gallon. The author, Russell Baker, wrote:


$1.59 a gallon for regular, March 5, 2000.
Sure I'm mad about the price of gasoline, but what I'm really mad about is having to buy the stuff just to go to the grocery.

I'm mad about the grocery having relocated from just around the corner to three miles away in what used to be a cornfield out in the country. And why? Because the grocer needs 15 acres of parking lot to accommodate cars that have to be driven three miles every time you want a bag of grapefruit and a gallon of milk.

I'm mad about not having a bus or streetcar system left like the one that once enabled people to travel those six miles for a little pocket change.

If only we'd started fixing this problem twelve years ago.
David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. 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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