Breakfast links: Keeping up appearances

by Erik Weber • January 14, 2011 8:33 am

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

Were fancy new libraries worth it?: DC has spent a pretty penny building highly designed new libraries and renovating old ones, but was it a good investment? Some say yes, some say no, but the buildings are winning awards and, it seems, attracting more visitors. (City Paper)

Fake meters go in Shirlington: People are parking at the Shirlington Harris Teeter for other purposes than to shop for groceries, so they're adding meters but plan not to enforce them in hopes they will just scare others off. What happened to simple parking validation? (ARLnow)

Councilmember Gabe Klein?: Gabe Klein is considering running for DC Council at-large in the April special election for the seat where Sekou Biddle was recently appointed as interim Councilmember. (Post)

No Ellwood Thompson at DC USA: Ellwood Thompson organic grocers finally announced yesterday that it will not occupy a space in the DC USA shopping center in Columbia Heights. In November, Jim Graham told the press the store would not open, but the company then insisted it was still negotiating. (TBD)

LaHood listens to ped/bike advocates: Ray LaHood writes about a meeting with bicycle advocates, and appreciated seeing the recent report that ped and bike projects create more job growth than roads per dollar. Unfortunately, LaHood doesn't directly control spending on ped and bike projects. (The FastLane)

Potomac Mills cuts commuter parking: The Potomac Mills Mall in Prince William County is reducing the amount of parking it makes available to commuters down to the county-required 275 spaces, to make way for new businesses that may build on part of the massive parking lot. (Dr. Gridlock)

State avenues make up a nation: A really cool graphic builds a map of the United States out of photographs of streetsigns for the 50 state-named avenues. (DCist)

DC streetcars on the web: The DC Streetcar project now has it's own website and Twitter account from which to tweet about ongoing construction. (Frozen Tropics)

And...: Michael Brown wants to get Congress' attention about DC voting rights by renaming part of Pennsylvania Avenue. (BeyondDC) ... WMATA will eliminate most of the more than 1,000 pay phones remaining in the system. (Transportation Nation) ... Governor McDonnell wants the Virginia Legislature to designate a portion of state sales tax revenue for road projects in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. (WUSA)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

17 comments

Tags: links

Erik Weber has been living car-free in the District since 2009. Hailing from the home of the nation's first Urban Growth Boundary, Erik has been interested in transit since spending summers in Germany as a kid where he rode as many buses, trains and streetcars as he could find. Views expressed here are Erik's alone.

Comments
Add a comment »

To be fair, the study in Baltimore compared bike and pedestrian projects with road resurfacing and repairs. Not that bike/pedestrian projects "create more job growth than roads" per dollar. A subtle difference in wording, but you seem like you are stating that bike and pedestrian projects create more jobs than the roads themselves.

It does make sense that giving additional modes access to an area creates jobs.

by engrish_major on Jan 14, 2011 9:04 am • link • report

Re Pennsylvania Avenue: Remember that Congress can overturn any act of the DC Council. This would just make DC look stupid.

by Tim on Jan 14, 2011 9:28 am • link • report

By all means, rename Penn Ave by the Wilson Building. It should work as well as the renamed Taxation Without Representation Street in SE.

Perhaps Michael Brown can less time showboating on meaningless legislation and more time actually paying his taxes.

by Fritz on Jan 14, 2011 9:50 am • link • report

In that case, wouldn't Congress look at least equally as stupid for spending time and effort on the name of 1 city block?

by rg on Jan 14, 2011 9:52 am • link • report

a few things:

Any map like the street sign one is great until you look at the Northeast. Then it just looks like a jumbled mess.

re Libraries - is there any chance they could get rid of that van de rohe monstrosity or is it historically protected?

And finally, re: Penn Avenue - don't we already have a Taxation without Representation Avenue at South Capitol Street by the stadium? Can the new Congress get rid of that, btw?

by Shipsa01 on Jan 14, 2011 9:53 am • link • report

Although I didn't put them on a cool map, I did manage to snag a shot of every state's street sign in the District last year:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161913&id=535443553&l=29818b6693

by Josh C. on Jan 14, 2011 9:58 am • link • report

I think the new Shaw library looks great, but I couldn't help but think that it might not be the best use of prime land right by a Metro. I would think most people who use the library would come from the neighborhood and thus walk or bike, so it doesn't really benefit from being Metro-accessible. Whereas, say a 6-story apartment building with ground-floor retail could provide Metro-accessible housing and amenities.

by A on Jan 14, 2011 10:49 am • link • report

I wouldn't change Penn Ave. It's not Pennsylvania's fault. I'd specifically change the street addresses of the House and Senate buildings.

Does Congress itself have a street address?

by Jasper on Jan 14, 2011 11:00 am • link • report

@ A
Even better would be a six floor building with say four floors of housing, and a library, and even a small amount of on street retail. The city could pay for the building through some sort of partnership.

A local developer builds the building, but gets the property for free and gets to collect the rent on the apartments / condos. In return the city gets a free library.
.

by Matt R on Jan 14, 2011 12:07 pm • link • report

re: map - Where's District of Columbia Ave?

by Tina on Jan 14, 2011 12:18 pm • link • report

I like that idea a lot. First 2 floors could be the library with 4 floors of apts above. And who wouldn't want to live above a library?!? I would totally jump on one of those. No more late fees!

Unfortunately it all sounds too creative for DC.

by A on Jan 14, 2011 12:19 pm • link • report

@A:

That was the original concept for the new Tenleytown Library and it was shot down by NIMBYs, Janey school parents, and the ANC. I think that concept is what will occur with the West End Library.

by Fritz on Jan 14, 2011 12:37 pm • link • report

@A,

There was some preliminary discussions for doing that at the Cleveland Park branch as well before the economy imploded. First floor library with 5 levels of apts or condos above, new library to be paid for by the developer.

Considering the Cleveland Park Nimbys are far more ferocious than the Tenley ones, and the Tenley library/development got quashed by them I hold zero hope the CP one will ever come to fruition.

by freely on Jan 14, 2011 1:38 pm • link • report

I remember hearing about that Tenleytown plan being scuttled by the NIMBYs. But Shaw doesn't have the same level of NIMBYism does it?

by A on Jan 14, 2011 1:54 pm • link • report

Re: Michael Brown's idea to rename a portion of Pennsylvania Avenue--

How about "Representation Without Taxation Avenue"? (former tax deadbeat E.H. Norton would support that one); or

"Councilmemebers Don't Pay Taxes, Only the Little People Pay Taxes Avenue" (co-sponsored with ex-Mayor-for-Life and deadbeat Councilmember Marion Barry)

by Sarah on Jan 14, 2011 3:25 pm • link • report

RE: Shirlington Harris Teeter

Sounds extremely dumb. If there are multiple retail outlets, doesnt it make sense to park once and do all your shopping? Why force people to shop at store a and then move their car to the spots reserved by store b?

Im all for 30 minute quick spots by the door, but retail exclusive spots hurt everyone.

by JJJJJ on Jan 14, 2011 5:49 pm • link • report

The fancy librarys where certainly worth it. Our society needs to constantly emphasize the importance and nobility of higher learning. Many of these shiny new librarys, while not always my cup of tea, are a breath of fresh air compared to some of the anti urban bunkers they replaced.
Good job DC!

by Thayer-D on Jan 17, 2011 5:17 am • link • report