Posts tagged Urban Plans
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Breakfast links: A hop, skip, and a jump
A new Hopscotch Bridge; New approach to New Communities; A much bigger Reston; New allies for bikes and peds; Entrepreneurial enterprises; Development downers; Sneckdowns inspire upgrades; And…. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Our new reality
Changing habits with new cuts; Northeast maglev in 10 years?; No credit cards in some taxis; More people, more policing; Don’t expect speed from streetcar; Who wants the Pike streetcar?; Your brain on green space; Doctors’ responsibility in preventing traffic deaths; Lone Star biking; Even lower height limits; And…. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: The constant skyline
No height increases in L’Enfant City; Inner Harbor improvements; New development may fund housing; Microsoft is coming to St. Elizabeths; Further details emerge on FBI site; Opposition threatens King Street bike lanes; The future of retailing; HOT lanes’s first birthday; And…. Keep reading…
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Plans seek to keep Mid City East affordable
The neighborhoods north of Union Station are one of the last affordable, walkable areas close to downtown DC. Can an area change for the better while keeping prices low? That’s what DC’s trying to figure out with the Mid City East Small Area Plan and Livability Study. As U Street to the west and NoMa to the east have boomed, the Mid City East neighborhoods of LeDroit Park,… Keep reading…
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North Capitol: Competing visions for handling traffic
Capitol Quarter isn’t the only bland urban renewal project being replaced with townhouses. Last week, Express reported that developers have been chosen for Northwest One, which will replace the Sursum Corda and Temple Court projects near New York Avenue and North Capitol with mixed-use redevelopment that has the potential to become a walkable neighborhood. But… Keep reading…
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Maybe they can build ‘em like they used to
During the dark ages of urban planning (the 1960s and 70s), many old residential buildings were replaced with boxy, alienating public housing projects, until Jane Jacobs discredited the idea. Block after block of attractive row houses are gone forever, even though brownstones in places like Brooklyn, Boston, San Francisco, and DC sell for a million dollars or two, or more. Can… Keep reading…
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Density on U Street?
I got my first taste of local politics last month by attending the Dupont Circle ANC meeting. DC is divided into a number of regions each with an Advisory Neighborhood Commission, a group of unpaid local elected representatives. They do have certain powers, such as reviewing and approving liquor license applications, though most of the board’s actions are advisory, like giving… Keep reading…
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The Upper West Side of the future
What if Upper West Side streets devoted more space to pedestrians and less to cars? StreetFilms created a series of photo simulations re-imagining Amsterdam Avenue, 81st Street, and Broadway. Keep reading…
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Ramp spaghetti on the Potomac
The National Mall in Washington DC is an American icon, visited by millions of tourists, but also somewhat threadbare-looking; since 2001, increasingly choked with security barriers; and gradually becoming overbuilt with memorials for every group with clout in Congress. The National Coalition to Save Our Mall is fighting these disappointing trends. Keep reading…
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Hope for DC’s waterfront
DC’s Southwest Waterfront neighborhood is a classic example of failed urban renewal - old row houses and tenements (some nice, some less so) were razed, replaced with a freeway and 1960s/70s-era buildings where cars enjoy more square footage than people. The dinner cruise on the Potomac Stefanie and I took for our six-month anniversary departed from a pier in Southwest, and… Keep reading…