Wednesday WMATA Hearing on Rhode Island Metro Development

Don't have time to write about this in more depth right now but this is very important.

Hearing on Parking at Metro Station

Metro will hold a public hearing with the D.C. government about a proposal to reduce the number of parking spaces at the Rhode Island Avenue Station from 387 to 215 and move the spaces to a garage to be constructed there. The hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Isle of Patmos Baptist Church, 1200 Isle of Patmos Plaza NE, and will be preceded by an open house at 6 p.m. The site is accessible to the disabled.
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This is contentious because car-oriented types think that losing these spaces is terrible. Urbanists believe that by making this area more friendly to other types of transportation modes that ridership will increase.

Surprisingly, Brookland Metro, with a handful of parking spaces, has 1,500 more daily riders than the Rhode Island Metro station. Of course, this makes sense, because there are people and places around the Metro station there. OTOH, it's hard as hell to get to the Rhode Island Metro. Of course, the Brentwood Shopping Center is a tremendous missed opportunity to have done mixed use, and to provide more housing types and options. A community could be built at and around the station, if mixed use, including vertical mixed use, is part and parcel of the plans.

According to some pro-urban activists, unfortunately, the powerful city and Ward 5 activist Anthony Hood is against the reduction in parking spaces. This is unfortunate because Mr. Hood, who is truly a fair and aware person, is also on the Zoning Commission.* But Mr. Hood, at least in my opinion, leans a bit towards the car and away from the pedestrian. This isn't a real criticism, I think it's a reflection of the fact that he, like all of us, grew up in a time where the predominate planning and development paradigm in the United States is suburban-centric (car oriented, low density, single-use). Rhode Island Avenue and Bladensburg Road are in serious danger of losing their urban fabric in favor of car-centric building patterns (i.e., the Rite Aid with a drive through on Rhode Island Avenue, the new gas station complex coming in almost at Eastern Avenue).

(* When I testified about the H Street Neighborhood Commercial Overlay proposal, in response to ANC6A's preference for no auto supply stores, Mr. Hood made the point that such services are needed and he mentioned the example of Powell's Auto Service on 14th Street NW. In my testimony I spoke about this extemporaneously, making the point that Powell's respects the urban fabric and is part of the normal streetwall, while places like AutoZone are parking fronted and focused away from the street. NOTE: this is why we need constant education in the city about the principles of urban design.)

To get a sense of how urbanity can be wrecked, drive up Georgia Avenue sometime. From about the Police Station on up, it's pretty bad and increasingly car-oriented. To see what I mean, you can view the west side of Georgia Avenue online by clicking here.