The District of Columbia has some of the the strongest historic preservation laws of any major U.S. city with thousands of structures preserved either as individual sites or part of historic districts. In the city’s 27 historic districts, construction of any type must be approved by the city’s Historic Preservation Office. Major projects or new […]
Shiloh Baptist Church Properties
Shiloh Baptist Church is often mentioned in discussions of the problem of vacant structures in Shaw. Using public city sources I created the map above illustrating the properties owned by the church in the Shaw neighborhood. The church owns seven vacant rowhomes and two parking lots in addition to three occupied church buildings. I have […]
Nationals Stadium Taking Shape in Southeast
Today I visited the Southeast DC neighborhood where the Nationals new baseball stadium is under construction. As you can see from this photo the form of the roughly $600 million stadium is taking shape. Fans can follow the project on this website created by the construction companies that features two webcams and a daily archive […]
No Connection Between Metro Stations and Crime
The urban legend is often repeated in D.C. that Georgetown didn’t get a Metro station because that neighborhood’s rich residents feared an invasion of crime and undesirables. The statement is totally false, and has been debunked thoroughly by Zachary Schrag in academic articles and his book about the history of the Metro where he describes […]
First-Ever Guide to Planning Schools Published
Because I know a lot of my planning-interested friends read this blog, I thought I would note that I just noticed the urban planning website Planetizen has published what I believe to be the first-ever comprehensive guide to Urban Planning graduate programs in the U.S. and Canada. The directory includes program rankings, and here is […]
The New Puritainism: The Politics of Alcohol in DC
Since 2001, the regulation of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the District has been controlled by the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, a seven-member regulatory body of city government. ABRA issues licenses to all types of sellers of alcohol in the city, monitors compliance with city law, and has the power to issue […]
DC Launches Pedestrian Master Plan
Heard about this from an email from the planning school: The District of Columbia Pedestrian Master Plan has launched their project website AND online survey (see links below). If you live or work in the District, please take a few minutes to complete the short survey, and then forward it along to any friends/colleagues/neighbors who […]