Posts about Better Know A SMD
Development
Better Know a Single-Member District: 2B09
Calling this "the fightin' 2B09" is a more genuinely apt mantra in this Single-Member District than in many others. The violent riots of 1968 still leave their mark on DC's traditionally African-American commercial corridors such as 14th Street, 7th Street, and H Street. They are still recovering from the destruction, closed businesses, and subsequent population loss.
SMD 2B09. From Google Maps.
Today, most of these corridors are alive with new development and its consequent controversy, leading to fights of words instead of rocks, but still very passionate. Today's Better Know a SMD looks at the archetypal revitalizing commercial corner and the spot where the 1968 riots began: 14th and U.
Observers point to two events as cornerstones of 14th and U's transformation into the lively housing, restaurant, and entertainment district it is today: the opening of the Reeves Center in 1986, and the first service at the U Street Metro station in 1991. Some dispute the influence of the Reeves Center, but none disagree that Metro has fueled a powerful resurgence.
The area has many new condo buildings (like Langston Lofts and the Ellington) to the north and east of 14th and U, and multiple restaurants and bars (such as Saint-Ex and Bar Pilar) on the east side of 14th south of U. 14th's the west side, however, has been slower to develop, still sporting a McDonald's, several other fast food restaurants, a parking lot, and several vacant buildings at 14th and T.
That southwest corner is the very edge of the Dupont Circle ANC and SMD 2B09, while the other three corners of 14th and U are all part of ANC 1B. Critics of 2B09's commissioner and 2B's current chair, Ramon Estrada, say the imbalance between the more vibrant eastern side and 2B09's western side comes from Estrada's opposition to projects in his district, compared to more business-friendly positions from ANC 1B.
Estrada insists he supports development and businesses in his district. "I would like to see 14th and U commercial corridors revived with vibrant live/work/ Doug Rogers decided to run against Estrada because he believes most neighbors don't share Estrada's positions on development and retail. "I really want this district to have first-rate residential, retail, and transportation," he said. "The west side of 14th is empty, with vacant lots and vacant warehouses, but if you look across 14th Street to the east side, it's full of life. It has diverse, mixed retail along that space between S and U and a lot of vitality. Meanwhile, the west side is dead." Rogers doesn't support just any development proposals uncritically, nor skyscrapers at 14th and U, but would build a greater level of consensus between developers or business owners and neighbors. For example, Constantine Stavropoulos, owner of Tryst and the Diner in Adams Morgan and Open City in Woodley Park, announced plans this summer to open a Tryst/Diner combination restaurant at 14th and T, along with a comedy club, yoga studio, and dance company. Estrada took a firm stance against 24-7 operation and sought to limit outdoor seating, saying that "constituents in close proximity have contacted me to register their concerns." Rogers thinks the constituents Estrada mentions are a "vocal minority," and that the neighbors he's spoken with are almost universally "ecstatic about the possibility of a coffee house. They have concerns here or there, but want to ensure it gets opened there. ... [Estrada] is not listening to what neighbors want, and the neighbors' opinions are not making it into the ANC."
Rogers feels that anti-development attitudes from ANC 2B drive businesses away. "You don't start a conversation with a business owner by saying you're not going to do x, y, or z, period," he said. "Starting with a hostile attitude, you scare off businesses, who'll say, 'why don't I go across the street where the ANC is more sympathetic?'" Several 1B residents and business owners agree that, at least in their opinion, 1B is a friendlier forum to business.
Rogers moved to DC in 1991 to work in politics; coming from Texas, he grew up a Republican, but switched his party loyalty to the Democrats after learning more about the values of each party. He's lived in the Dupont Circle neighborhood for ten years and now works as a CPA. Rogers became a Smart Growth convert after seeing the "cartoonish, cheaply made big box retail" throughout the nation, and after reading Jane Jacobs, Howard Kunstler, and other influential urbanist thinkers.
Estrada, who grew up on the West Coast, has been in DC for thirty years and has run "various trade associations." He now trains and advises boards of directors on, among other things, how to run meetings, which guides his stewardship of ANC 2B meetings as the chair. Estrada cited neighborhood issues like public safety and liquor licenses as the impetus for joining the ANC in 2002.
Wednesday's Better Know a SMD, 7D06, touches DC's highest pedestrian crash intersection, Minnesota and Benning. 14th and U is DC's number two, and safety is top of mind for both candidates. Estrada lauded recent signal changes to add leading intervals, where pedestrians begin crossing before cars are allowed to move. "I also think the bump-outs at intersections, like shown on both the 14th Street & U Street Streetscape designs, will be a welcome improvement." As for bicycles, Estrada brought up constituent suggestions that bike safety training be part of the driver education process.
Estrada would like to see more parking at 14th and U, though he also lauds the conversion of surface parking lots into other uses. He's pleased with the promise of parking for restaurant patrons inside the 14th and U project, and cited proposals floated in the past for a municipal parking lot.
Estrada is also skeptical of performance parking's promise, saying the neighborhood "needs more daytime activity to support our businesses; therefore it seems extremely important to make it convenient for visitors to come via all modes, including cars. ... We want people from outlying areas, out-of-state and from abroad to come to our neighborhood and have an enjoyable experience." Performance parking supporters contend, however, that performance parking actually makes it more convenient rather than less for visitors to arrive by car by ensuring availability of parking spaces.
Estrada and Rogers both appreciate 14th and U's bountiful public transportation. Estrada feels the 14th Street bus currently works well, but would welcome the addition of a Circulator; Rogers feels that 14th, 16th, U, and the connector to Adams Morgan could all use more service and "would love to see light rail one day" in the neighborhood. 
Ramon Estrada and Doug Rogers.
Development
Better Know a Single-Member District: 7D06
"The fightin' 7D06"
SMD 7D06. From Google Maps.
Walkable urbanism is coming to 7D06 and the surrounding neighborhood. The burning political question in the area is, are residents ready for it, and will it benefit their community?
7D06 is one of four Single-Member Districts touching the corner of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, often called "downtown Ward 7." For better and worse, this is a transportation hub of the area, with two Metro stations (Minnesota Avenue station and Benning Road station) and a busy intersection that carries many bus lines and large numbers of car commuters from Maryland each day.
The traffic makes this a prime location for retail, and the transportation makes it a great spot for mixed-use housing. But the heavy traffic, pedestrian and auto, also makes Minnesota and Benning the number one pedestrian crash intersection in DC, narrowly beating 14th and U.
Planners have a lot of plans for the area. Benning is one of DDOT's Great Streets priority corridors. Minnesota will get new mixed-use, mixed-income housing, as Cavan wrote about this morning. These plans could transform a fairly suburban-style, busy vehicular area into a real center for this community.
Residents see both promise and danger. There is a great deal of fear, some founded, some not. As Tony Scurry, current ANC commissioner for 7D06, told me, "many residents worry that [the developers and city officials] only want our property, only want our land, and are going to price us out" of the neighborhood. They fear that taxes will rise and they'll no longer be able to afford their homes, especially the older residents who make up a large percentage of 7D06.
Tony Scurry and Willette Seaward.
Scurry, who owns his own event planning firm, was on the advisory committee of the Ward 7 vision project, and participated heavily in the Great Streets planning, knows that's not the intent of planners and economic development officials, but it's a real fear in the neighborhood. That's why communication is so important from city agencies, and whether in poor Ward 7 or affluent Ward 3, that's not always as forthcoming as residents would like.
Willette Seaward decided to run against Scurry for the ANC seat in 7D06 specifically because of transparency. She feels that not enough residents receive enough information about plans for the neighborhood. For example, talking about the Great Streets project, Seaward argues that "[DDOT] came with a plan and then they told us about it." Especially since many residents of 7D06 are not online, she would try to find other ways to communicate, including conducting regular surveys of residents and quarterly SMD meetings.
In my experience, no matter how many announcements, flyers, public meetings, newspaper notices, or other communication agencies conduct, many residents nonetheless feel left out, and the less politically engaged the population is in an area, the stronger and more widespread this feeling.
Both Scurry and Seaward listed affordability as the most important issue in development. Scurry said planners need to ask themselves, "when we bring in mixed use, are we bringing in mixed income?" and ensure area residents can afford the new housing. Seaward suggested tying inclusionary zoning and other affordable housing programs not just to area median income but to a more local, ward medan income; AMI includes the high-income parts of the metropolitan area and thus is far above the median income in Ward 7.
Seaward was very involved in the Benning Library and its associated controversies. Leading among them was a proposal to move the Benning Library from its current site (on the south side of Benning across the street from Fort Mahan Park, which is the large park in the middle of 7D06) to a new spot farther south and east. As Scurry explained, moving the library has its good points: right now, it's on a major road with no light or crosswalk to let people cross in front of the library, and it's hemmed in between two retail developments, limiting its future growth. The owners of the surrounding retail proposed a land swap to a site on 40th Street, at the end of a new pedestrian-friendly road through their current shopping center.
However, the new site is farther from the Benning-Minnesota "downtown" area, and would move the library away from the future Benning "great street." The best solution would place the library at the corner, to anchor a new walkable downtown like the Rockville library in Rockville Town Center. But that wasn't one of the options, and DCPL is moving ahead with the library at its current site.
Seaward personally opposed the move, among other reasons because the current site has a good view down Benning and H Street. She'd hoped to get a second floor to provide more expansion space, pointing out that "when employment is down, library use is up," at least in poor communities like 7D06, with people using library facilities to create and send resumes.
While many residents along H Street and in Northwest DC are dying to get streetcars, residents of Ward 7 are still skeptical, and both Scurry and Seaward echoed these concerns. According to Seaward, many residents have told her, "What do we need streetcars for? We have enough problems with traffic now." Scurry pointed out that Ward 7 has the highest percentage of residents who don't drive, and already use the Metro or buses. Therefore, a streetcar has less effect on Ward 7 residents. Scurry said many residents "feel like they woke up one day and heard that the streetcar is coming."
Seaward has one specific suggestion for traffic safety: move the bus transfers from the Minnesota-Benning corner into the Minnesota Avenue Metro station loop. That station is set off from the neighborhood in a suburban style, with parking and a traffic loop. Currently, Seaward explained, many people transfer between buses at the corner of Minnesota and Benning, forcing them to cross the street (sometimes at a run to catch a bus). Instead, she'd have all the buses stop inside the Metro station, where the environment for pedestrians is more protected.
That's a car-oriented suburban-style solution; it might reduce injuries, but would also inconvenience bus riders and slow buses. It would also harm prospects for a vibrant and walkable downtown in Ward 7. At least to some residents, currently laboring under the burden of heavy traffic, traffic danger, and high poverty and illiteracy, that may sound like a good tradeoff. (The Great Streets plan also moves stops, but to safer locations still near the intersection, and adds a small side street.)
It's harder to think about the long-term benefits of urbanism when people don't have jobs and are afraid to cross the street. Shifting the land-use paradigm in a place like Ward 7 will take a lot of time, a lot of careful commmunication to build community buy-in, and most of all, active listening. We affluent, mostly white, well-meaning urbanists must take careful care to tailor our plans to the needs of the community and ensure they really do solve the community's problems and enrich the community's current residents.
Education
Better Know a Single-Member District: 3C03
SMD 3C03. From Google Maps.
"The fightin' 3C03"
3C03 is one of three SMDs in the neighborhood of Woodley Park. Woodley combines some large residential buildings along Connecticut with single-family homes farther away, a small but lively retail strip, and perhaps the greatest concentration of large institutional land uses in any neighborhood its size. There are two very large hotels, the Omni Shoreham and the Marriott Wardman Park; the Marriott is the largest hotel in DC and host to many large conventions. Woodley has several schools, including the Oyster Bilingual charter school, the Maret private school, and the Aidan Montessori School. It has a Metro station. And then there's the elephant, or should I say panda, in the room: the National Zoo.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Woodley is a desirable neighborhood, especially for young parents such as Anne-Marie Bairstow, one of two candidates running for the open 3C03 seat. Bairstow's oldest child attends Oyster, and before that was enrolled at Aidan. That brought Bairstow into some of the neighborhood's recent development battles, as Aidan sought to increase its enrollment amidst neighborhood concerns over traffic and other imapacts. Bairstow said that "things were done wrong on both sides" in that fight, and knowing what she knows now, would have "had everyone sit down ... and talk through the process early on." She feels that Oyster doesn't know how to be effectively involved in the Woodley community, and hopes to repair and strengthen that relationship if elected to the ANC. Building bridges in the neighborhood is a refrain all ANC candidates bring up frequently, regardless of their positions on specific issues; Jenelle Dennis, Bairstow's opponent in the race, also talked extensively about working together to solve problems like these.
Left: Jenelle Dennis.
Right: Anne-Marie Bairstow.
Dennis, who does not have children, lives on Connecticut Avenue near the neighborhood's northern edge. She grew up in various neighborhoods of upper Northwest Washington before her family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, but she always wanted to come back here. She attended the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown, returned to Boston for law school, and then finally settled in DC. Dennis now works as a real estate attorney in Bethesda. (And she takes Metro almost every day.)
Bairstow was drawn to DC during college, when she came during her summers to work on national politics but gradually found herself gravitating to local issues instead, first to social work, where she worked with the homeless, and then to urban planning, in which she has a masters from UVA. She worked for the Downtown BID and then most recently was Director of the Adams Morgan Partnership (their BID).
Bairstow also ran Mary Cheh's primary campaign for DC Council. In 2004, a group of Ward 3 residents including Bairstow met with each candidate running for the open Council seat. They were so impressed with Cheh that they decided to throw their full support behind her, and even ran the campaign. As we all know, they succeeded, giving Cheh a huge victory in the primary despite a very crowded field.
As an urban planner and a past board member of WABA, Bairstow believes in urban livability as we do on GGW. She feels that "the suburban way of living is wrong and urban way of living is right," adding that "I feel somewhat self-congratulatory that I made the decision to live in the city" and stay to raise her children. She believes that density is appropriate around Metro stations, including Woodley's.
ANC 3C is the epicenter of development debates today: not so much in Woodley Park, though it's had its share of big fights such as when the Marriott wanted to add a residential tower on their property (the project is now stalled due to the economy), but because of the Giant, which sits at the western edge of 3C. To put it simply, Bairstow favors the Giant, and Dennis, while more cautionary in her statements, does not support the project right now.
In Bairstow's opinion, ANC 3C has been too "anti-development". She emphasizes that she doesn't favor just any development regardless of the merits, but would "definitely like to see a new Giant on Wisconsin". Dennis, on the other hand, agrees that "the area has lost a little bit of its vibrancy" and would like to see something there, but wants to be more cautious given neighborhood concerns about traffic and parking. She'd like to wait for a DDOT study about the transportation impacts, perhaps see some improved public transportation or a shuttle provided by the Giant, and isn't sure the neighborhood can support 150 residences with their associated car trips.
Both candidates also spoke extensively about the Zoo, which draws huge crowds and lots of cars trying to park. Dennis suggests a combination of increased Zoo parking, better awareness of public transportation options, or stricter enforcement of residential parking permits. She's skeptical of performance parking as a tool to deal with this issue.
Bairstow has one specific idea for parking, which GGW strongly endorses: smaller residential parking permit (RPP) zones. Between the Zoo and the Metro station, Woodley sees large numbers of drivers from more remote parts of Ward 3 park on its streets, benefiting from the RPP system even though they don't live in the neighborhood. Bairstow would reform this system to make Woodley RPP street restrictions apply to Woodley or ANC 3C residents, rather than to the entire Ward. Dennis agreed that some neighbors favor that idea, though she declined to take a clear position.
Pedestrian safety on Connecticut Avenue is a big issue in every neighborhood along the street, including Woodley. Dennis would "like better signs, better traffic signals, and better police enforcement" to improve the avenue. Bairstow largely agrees, specifically suggesting retiming the lights near the Metro station to make crossing easier for pedestrians, and repainting crosswalks.
As a sad addendum to my interviews, the evening after I interviewed Jenelle Dennis, she was hit by a car on Wisconsin Avenue. Dennis wrote to me, "The driver said she 'didn't see me' despite the fact that I was wearing a red dress and have blond hair. Nothing serious, just minor scrapes and bruises. But, this just underscored and reemphasized the importance of pedestrian safety issues on Connecticut and Wisconsin." Dennis suggested "better crosswalk lighting or red/green arrows for left-hand turns" off major streets like Wisconsin and Connecticut. I hope I speak for the entire GGW community in hoping Jenelle really isn't hurt and that we can indeed improve pedestrian safety in the area.
Retail
Better Know a Single-Member District: 3F05
SMD 3F05. From Google Maps.
Welcome to a new GGW series leading up to November's election and beyond. I'll be profiling various Single-Member Districts, the areas each represented by an ANC commissioner, and the commissioners or candidates running to fill that seat this November.
There's little agreement on what to call the part of the city represented by 3F05, which spans Connecticut Avenue just south of Nebraska. To the east is Forest Hills; to the south is North Cleveland Park; to the north, Chevy Chase DC, and to the west, Tenleytown. Most of us know it as the area with Comet Ping-Pong and Politics and Prose.
As you can see from the below map, 3F05 is much smaller than many of the Single-Member Districts in ANC 3F, which spans from the eastern part of Tenleytown to Rock Creek and contains the area around Van Ness Metro. 3F05 and its southern neighor, 3F04, are small because that portion of Connecticut Avenue contains many large apartment buildings among single-family homes in most of the surrounding area.
Consequently, this part of DC is a bit of an urban-suburban tweener zone: it has a retail center, but it's small; there is pedestrian activity, but many people also drive; it's near Metro, but not quite that near; it's more than a sleepy hamlet, but less than a bustling village; Connecticut is a major commuter route, but also the neighborhood's main street. 3F05 is where a pedestrian was killed on Connecticut Avenue last week. It also played host to the recent controversy over Comet's outdoor pong-pong table, or benches in front of the local market and Politics and Prose.
While some residents and Commissioners opposed any outdoor activity that might cause noise, the ANC voted to support Comet's petition for outdoor seating. One of the supporters was 3F05's commissioner, Mital Gandhi.
Mital Gandhi.
Gandhi wants a vibrant retail corridor for Connecticut Avenue, both in his section and down around Van Ness Metro. Gandhi said, rhetorically, "Who wouldn't like retail? Who wouldn't like more of a walkable city?" (There seem to be at least a few people nearby who in fact wouldn't.) He knows upper Connecticut will never be a giant commercial district, and maybe Connecticut and Nebraska won't ever be able to support an ice cream shop or a bagel store, but he'd like to see these kinds of shops near Van Ness, and stronger retail (in an urban rather than suburban form) all along Connecticut.
How can the neighborhood encourage retail? First, he feels the ANC should take a more welcoming stance toward business. Many businesses shy away from certain areas because of the headache of working with the ANC; 3F shouldn't be that way. And second (Gandhi frequently answered questions by listing two or three numbered bullet points), the whole area could market itself better, such as with free Wi-Fi throughout the corridor.
I suggest branding the area as well. Right now, with no discernible name for the Connecticut-Nebraska corner, people don't think of it as a concrete retail district. How about Comet Square?
Long term, he hopes DC can grow in numbers of people as well as in businesses, calling DC's population "stagnant". "The way we're going to do that is by being more competitive," he said, such as with competitive tax rates to those in Arlington, and by trimming the city's bureaucracy. He'd like to see "smart development", including in appropriate areas of Ward 3 (though he declined to give specific suggestions), dislikes large surface parking lots, and is open to market-based parking pricing downtown.
Representing 3F05 isn't Gandhi's only public service; he also sits on the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) board, where he tries to bring the same commitment to successful retail corridors to his decisions about liquor licenses. He's lived in DC since attending American University in the mid-90s, in "Comet Square" for five years, and on the ANC for four. He's unopposed for reelection this November. Gandhi now owns his own marketing communications firm, PeopleReach, which among other things is helping the Nationals sell naming rights to the stadium.
Gandhi has spent a lot of time lately thinking about the pedestrian situation on Connecticut. Slowing drivers is the top priority, but he's skeptical of replacing the reversible lane with a median, even though it will slow traffic; "we do need to get people out" of the city, he said, "but we need to slow them down."
He'd like to see more noticeable signs, especially on the reversible lane, warning drivers; after the recent death, DDOT put in two big LED signs in the area. Gandhi also made some handmade signs (which, by being less conventional, are more noticable) and talked to the local elementary school about having kids make some big signs with glitter to ask drivers to be careful.
After the neighborhood meeting with Councilmember Cheh, DDOT and MPD, police have been ticketing in the area; the police have been ticketing drivers speeding and talking on their cell phones as well as pedestrians crossing outside the crosswalk. Gandhi repeatedly spoke about the need for enforcement against both groups; I'm still concerned that MPD will see jaywalking as the primary cause of deaths like these, and while encouraging drivers to slow down with signs and tickets does help, there's no substitute for making a road feel narrower, with tools like medians, to make drivers ease off on the gas pedal. A lively retail corridor with more pedestrian traffic will also increase safety by ensuring drivers expect to see and avoid pedestrians.
@ggwash
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