How could anyone in their right mind say this is worth preserving? (Change is Scary)

Current conditions at the "Starburst" intersection where Bladensburg and Benning Roads, Maryland and Florida Avenues, and H Street NE all meet.

For more photos of the current conditions at this intersection, click here.

The Frozen Tropics neighborhood blog reports, in two parts, on the most recent Starburst Plaza redesign meeting, Part 1; Part 2.

In part two, she writes:

What happened after the presentations was a departure from the earlier part of the meeting. At this point 4 women who identified themselves as being from the 1400 block of Morse spoke up and pretty much objected to idea of a plaza all together. They said things along the line of (please excuse me if my quotes are slightly off, these are to the best of my recollection) "just pave it over," "we don't want it," no you can't speak," and "I don't have to listen to you." They essentially accused DDOT & PPS of coming into a neighborhood that the organizations knew nothing about and imposing this plaza plan. They stood and shouted their opinions in the most disruptive manner they could muster. They were joined (somewhat) by a gentleman who objected to the changes in traffic DDOT proposed.
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Given how contentious these issues--change particularly with regard to land use, always are-- this is an important lesson on the importance of a longer time frame to build an informed citizenry and the process. For budget reasons, and probably time (the Benning Road reconstruction process within which this has now been included is in process), DDOT chose to approach the redesign of this intersection on an accelerated basis.

What happened is no surprise. This happens time and time again throughout the city with regard to change.

This is but one more example that demonstrates the need to improve the capacity of citizens to participate in civic life on an informed basis.

Charrettes are good, but at least the ones I've seen in DC don't seem to leave participants with much in the way of meta-learning, learning about urban design and livability principles that they can apply to other situations.

This is something I wrote about these issues yesterday, on the pro-urb list, in response to the thread about Clarksburg, Maryland, nimbyism there, even though it's a deliberately "new urbanism" designed community that is supposed to be more walkable and more dense. (The Post and the Baltimore Sun have been full of articles on the debacle there, where it has been discovered the Montgomery County Planning Department seems to have let the builder construct buildings that don't conform with the zoning.)

Ironically, nimbyism in Clarksburg appears to have led the developer to drop an attractively designed mixed-use retail and residential project in favor of a more traditional parking-fronted big box retail development that they could construct as a "matter of right".

RL wrote:

nimbyism... don't you think the solution is way more upfront education and explanation? There had to have been a few people in Clarksburg that had some awareness of urban design issues. Granted I get very frustrated and depressed about this in DC. There are too few people fighting off suburbanization of the building stock, even in DC we have a terrible upward rush of pro-property rights types fighting historic preservation--which was the #1 stabilizing force for city neighborhoods for decades, and there is the ugly race issue, which tends to get intricately woven into most development issues in some way, shape or form. Part of this is deliberate, by developers and the land use bar eager to use any and all levers to sunder people and get their way...

I have to believe that an informed citizenry is a possibility.

I find that when you talk to people one on one on this stuff, they understand and appreciate, but it takes so g** d*** long to do it that way, and in the interim, you lose a lot.

Fear of change and a society that is no longer too knowledgeable about the principles of urban design and quality architecture leads to many many situations like this, and the quality of the built environment continues to degrade.

Amy Presley of Clarksburg Town Center points to differences between the plan residents were shown by developers and what is being built. Residents say they are not getting the neotraditional design they were promised. (Baltimore Sun photo by David Hobby) Jul 29, 2005.