How times change

In this article in the January issue of the Hill Rag, "Hine Redevelopment on Fast Track," I am referred to as:

a consistent voice for rational urban planning.

Wow. That's better than being called a crank for consistently focusing on urban design, historic preservation, civic engagement, thinking about the big picture, and transportation. I guess it takes a few years to make the journey from one position to the other.
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This article is about the redevelopment of Hine School. I am on the board of Eastern Market, so how that site is redeveloped has significant influence on the future of Eastern Market. A problem with public participation is that everyone wants every piece of property to accomplish every possible goal and objective. This is impossible. You have to make choices. You have to weigh costs and benefits. And you should work to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

This site, across from the Metro station, should be leveraged in a way that strengthens the commercial districts on Pennsylvania Avenue and 8th Street SE and on 7th Street/Eastern Market. Given that there are open spaces immediately adjacent and one block away (Seward Square on Pennsylvania) not to mention the Old Naval Hospital site, which is converting to a public, open use, it is unnecessary, costly, and somewhat ludicrous to argue that part of the Hine site should become open space.

Hence my comments. But by not laying out better the city side of the equation in terms of what should be realized from the development, this piece gets shoved aside.