How will Obama relate to the District?

is an article in the Politico. People, like Mayor Fenty, expect great things according to the article. On the other hand, I favor the idea as expressed by Pasteur--Chance Favors the Prepared Mind--of having your own plans, and taking advantage of changed circumstances to get the money and imprimatur to execute and implement your plans.

We don't have "world-class" thinking in the city as it relates to city government, so we don't have those kinds of plans in place, that favor the new opportunity.

After all, if you look back at the Clinton inaugural (1993) and afterwards there was great talk--young people fixed up the Atlas Theater as part of the festivities only for the theater to continue to moulder--Clinton went up on Georgia Avenue and talked about revitalization, and the federal government pumped $25 million (which face it, is a pathetic amount) into a newly created National Capital Revitalization Corporation (which by now has been merged into the Deputy Mayor's Office for Planning and Economic Development). Now, 16 years later, things are happening, but not really because of the Federal Government.

If you look at older news reports from the Post, in 1977 Rosalynn Carter walked on H Street NE (8 years after the riots) and discussed how the Federal Government would spur revitalization there. Again, things are happening on H Street now, 30+ years after Rosalynn Carter walked the corridor, but not really because of the Federal Government, at least as directed towards H Street (I argue that the $40 million Federal contribution to the $120 Million cost of the New York Avenue Metro Station has probably had more to do with attracting new residents and new investment than the projects built and money expended specifically on H Street).

Chance (opportunity) favors the prepared city.

And I don't think DC is really prepared.

What do you think such monies should go to?

------------
I am not really excited by the Obama "Office of Urban Policy." As I wrote before, I'd rather see a refiguring of HUD around Cities, Regions and Urban Ecology (sustainability), merging in some parts of the EPA and DOE smart growth operations, Ec. Dev. aspects of the Dept. of Commerce, and an urban-regional transportation section that would be a joint agency of the US DOT and the new Dept. of Cities, Regions, and Urban Ecology.

Similarly, I would rename the Dept. of Ag. to Dept. of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Sustainability, and refigure the departments some. Parts of the Dept. of Interior would be merged into it. I don't know how to deal with the National Park Service, probably I would create a Department of Culture, Tourism (from the Dept. of Commerce), Humanities and Arts that would take that function and others. And the Dept. of Education needs to be repositioned and rebranded as well towards lifelong learning and knowledge development and realization.

At the local level, I argue that planning and zoning is supposed to be about improving quality of life first, foremost, and always. Similarly, on the regional-state-national-global dimensions, that is what government is supposed to or at least ought to do.

We need to repattern our government agencies at all levels in terms of their being focused on and achieving these missions.
-----------------
As far as the City of Washington goes, and to some extent the region:

1. I would put the separated blue line subway on the table--with either three tracks or a double tunnel.


-- The revised revised People's Transportation Plan/2008 Transit-Transportation wish list
-- Thinking about the Transit Network
-- Transit and DC's prosperity



2. I would promote the idea of a single regional railroad transportation system (and authority) for DC, Maryland, and Virginia (with some service to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware).

-- Potomac Express Concept Design



3. I would rebuild/integrate the K-12, college, continuing education, and employment services-development system in the city. (Although the people who think they know what to do currently don't, and I would rather see someone like Paul Vallas as U.S. Secretary of Education rather than Joel Klein).

4. Relatedly, I would reposition DC libraries around the IdeaStore concept. While DC Libraries have hired the architect who designed the Idea Store (the libraries in Tower Hamlets borough in London), did he create the concept? And add the "Neighborhood Service Center" aspect, but with expanded services.

-- Social Marketing the Arlington (and Tower Hamlets and Baltimore) way
-- Dispuptive innovation (once again)

And even though DC spent tons of money on separate recreation centers and senior wellness centers, I would rethink these facilities towards combined community centers, linked to the "building a community of learning development and knowledge capacity" and redevelop them.

-- Prototyping and municipal capital improvement programs

5. Streetcars, and not just for DC but for PG, Montgomery, Arlington, and Fairfax Counties too.


Map of Washington, DC , 1908, showing streetcar lines, railroads, and steamship docks (Hammond Company)


Proposed DC streetcar map, 2005.

6. And not only would I put the funding for the Montgomery and Prince George's County section of the Purple Line, I would extend the planning towards the realization of the full concept, at least to Tysons Corner on the west, and south and west from New Carrollton to Alexandria.


The original concept. (Sierra Club image.)


What's in the planning stages (Washington Post graphic).

In short, I would focus efforts on building transformational municipal government as the opportunity presented to DC and the region by the coming of the newly elected Obama Administration

-- Chauvinism, mediocrity and robust systems