My friend John pointed me towards a grassroots campaign advocating 17th Street NW between Massachusetts and New Hampshire Avenue be converted into a pedestrian-only street. While I am not generally an advocate of such streets and think there’s a whole host of measures that can be taken short of completely closing streets to traffic (medians, […]
The Curious Case of Washington’s Exploding Manholes
A commenter recently pointed out I neglected to mention manhole explosions in my previous post on the manhole covers of Washington, D.C. While I came across reports of these explosions in my research, I dismissed them as isolated incidents. It appears I was wrong. As explained by the website Howstuffworks, manhole cover explosions are caused […]
Rapid Bus Service Starts on Georgia Avenue
Today marks the end of the second week of service of WMATA’s new Metro Extra line on Georgia Avenue. To my knowledge the project is the second Bus Rapid Transit line developed in the region, and the first express bus to operate almost exclusively inside the District. The service, officially Metro Extra Route 79, currently […]
Bike Station Coming to Washington
District officials hope to break ground this summer on a “bike station” at Union Station, located just steps from both the Metro station entrance and the future route of the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The station will offer bike parking (for an estimated $1 a day, or $100 a year), rentals, repairs, accessories, a changing room, […]
What’s Going on at 14th and U?
This post is in reponse to a request by my friend Jim to find out “what is going on” with the property shown here located at 2001 14th Street NW, at the intersection of 14th and U. Construction is underway to renovate this building and construct an addition on a neighboring lot. The building was […]
An Introduction to the Manhole Covers of Washington, D.C.
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about manhole covers recently. I was reminded of the topic at a recent lecture by Dr. Timothy Beatly during a lecture about urban placemaking. He was speaking about ways European and Australian cities create distinctive urban environments. European cities, generally much denser and with higher foot traffic […]
Re-Imagining The Watha T. Daniel Library
Could the site of the closed Watha T. Daniel library in Shaw become home to not only to a new library, but also housing and perhaps even a small store? That’s what Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, is suggesting in a provocative proposal being circulated in the community, that I […]