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Greater Greater Week in Review: February 21-26, 2011

by Matt Johnson   •   February 27, 2011 3:47 pm

If you can't read GGW every day, you'll still be able to catch all our posts at a glance with Greater Greater Week in Review.

Photo by NeonGods on Flickr.

Featured posts:

Taxes lowest for DC residents and car-free Virginians: Tax debates often involve arguments about how taxes compare in DC, Maryland, or Virginia. A new report from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute found DC's to be the lowest in most cases.

Virginia insiders pulling bait-and-switch for Outer Beltway: After a long battle, it looks like the Virginia General Assembly will approve the Governor McDonnell's borrow and spend transportation plan. Even before this plan has finally passed, state officials are poised to pull a bait and switch to add a controversial Outer Beltway project that wasn't on the list of projects sold to legislators.

DC needs school choice, not vouchers: The Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), known informally as the DC school voucher program, was passed by Congress to subsidize private school attendance for low-income students in DC.

Rock Creek Park trails slated for fixes: The National Park Service and DDOT hope to make Rock Creek's pedestrian and bicycle trails better by adding some connections, fixing some problem spots, and possibly widening the trail.

Most popular:

Manage Rock Creek like Central Park or Yosemite?: New Yorkers and Washingtonians are both blessed with a large protected park in the middle of town. In fact, Rock Creek Park is over twice as large as Central Park.

How will Virginia brand its streetcars?: Arlington is moving forward with streetcar plans for Columbia Pike and Route 1. How might the trains be branded once they start running?

Virginia Senate kills bad anti-livability, WMATA board bills: The Virginia Senate's finance commmittee killed three bad transportation-related bills, all of which would have transferred decision-making over transportation in Northern Virginia to Richmond and away from the region's counties and cities.

McDonnell still refusing to push Congress on Metro funding: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell repeatedly dodged questions yesterday about why he isn't lobbying his fellow Republicans to save the funds for Metro's safety repairs.

GGW discusses: The focus on Anacostia: Why do so many stories about displacement, gentrification, and other housing shifts concentrate on this neighborhood instead of the many others east of the river?

Other posts:

• Listen: Moving stories about getting around Baltimore
• What will VA and MD buy with their borrowing and taxing?
• Imagine a College Park/University of Maryland arboretum
• Who pays for bag searches down the road?
• Solar Decathlon to be held in West Potomac Park
• TBD announces cuts
• Work, intern, or volunteer at CSG, BAC, or NPS
• Treading carefully across the Flickr pool
• Struck in DC last week: 12 pedestrians, 2 cyclists
• Scenes of Washington: George Washington's birthday

Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington region since mid-2007. He has a Master's degree in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He has worked in the planning field since 2006 and lives in Greenbelt, where he serves on the city's Advisory Planning Board.