DDOT Announces Workshops on Great Streets

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announces a week of hands-on public workshops to help plan and design over $100 million in transportation improvements for the following Great Street corridors: Georgia Avenue/7th Street, NW; Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE; South Capitol Street; Minnesota Avenue, NE/SE; Pennsylvania Avenue, SE; Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE; H Street, NE; and Benning Road, NE/SE.

Great Streets improvements include new sidewalks, lighting, paving and street trees to improve the physical setting, reduce crime and attract new neighborhood businesses and residents. The workshops will discuss styles and themes for the corridors, priority locations and safety and mobility questions. For more information contact Karina Ricks, District Department of Transportation, Great Streets Project Manager, (202) 671-2542.

Georgia Avenue/7th Street, NW
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
6 – 8:30 pm
Raymond Elementary School
915 Spring Road, NW (off Georgia Avenue)
Metro: Georgia/Petworth Station or bus routes 70, 71

Martin Luther King Jr./South Capitol St./Minnesota Avenue, SE
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
6 – 8:30 pm
Thurgood Marshall Academy (Old Nichols Avenue School)2427 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE
Metro: Anacostia Station or bus routes A4, A8, A48, B2, U2, W9

Pennsylvania Avenue/Minnesota Avenue, SE/NE (middle)
Thursday, October 27, 2005
6 – 8:30 pm
St. Frances Xavier Church
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Bus routes J11, J13, K11, M6, V11, 35, or 36

Nannie Helen Burroughs/H Street/Benning/Minnesota, NE
Saturday, October 29, 2005
9 am – 12 noon
Friendship Edison Academy at Carter G. Woodson
4095 Minnesota Avenue, NE
Metro: Minnesota Avenue or bus routes U2, U5, U6, U8, X1, X2
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I have some concerns about the sound execution of this program, but what's $100 million in the great scheme of things. (See "Mayor Williams Signs New Bus Shelter Contract; $100 Million Earmarked for Great Streets.") I will say that in my opinion, these types of public infrastructure investments can be some of the most effective investments around. My concern has to do with the broader environment. Communities that are transitioning, emerging, or distressed have a variety of issues and streetscape is only a part of it.

Managing the environment for safety, as well as for independent business development (the jury is out still on whether or not the city government can reorient and help foster the development of small businesses rather than chains) is absolutely essential in order to push neighborhoods along on a positive trajectory.

Barracks Row's great transition would likely have been not nearly as successful if not for the fortuitous introduction of the clean and safe services of the newly formed Capitol Hill BID, which began services within weeks of the completion of the reconstruction of 8th Street SE. These types of services are particularly needed in the corridors picked as "Great Streets" in this new initiative.

Rendering produced by Michael Baker Corporation during the H Street Transportation and Streetscape Study process, one of the precursor projects that has been rolled up into the "Great Streets" program.