One of the (many) reasons that DC City Council bugs the @#$%^&*()_ out of me

DC Wire (Post) reports:

Where Did All The Gas Stations Go?

If you think it's hard to find a gas station in the District, you're right, according to D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5).

Thomas introduced legislation today to encourage the construction and retention of gas stations by giving them tax breaks. The details, he said, would be worked out later. But he said the city must stem their closings. The number of gas stations dwindled from more than 200 to 108 in recent years, Thomas said.

Several council members signed on as co-sponsors at the council Committee of the Whole meeting today.

G** D*******.

This is but one of as many as 100 examples of how DC doesn't have a transportation plan, and by not having one, City Council attempts to legislate transportation policy through a variety of ill-conceived bills and appropriations.

And this includes some of the people who are considered to be more knowledgeable about transportation policy. (I was just lamenting about this with a DDOT employee last weekend. About how no City Councilmember truly understands transportation policy.)

One of the things that I really appreciate about how the Arlington County Master Transportation Plan lays out the goals and objectives for the transportation plan out front (MTP Goals and Policies), and then _every subsequent element of the transportation plan is designed to realize these goals and objectives through specific policies and actions_.

For example, one of the primary goals of the plan is to reduce automobile trips (especially single occupancy vehicle trips). So what that means in the Parking and Curb Space Management Element Draft, is that parking for privately owned automobiles is not prioritized.

Instead, use of the limited inventory of streetspace is prioritized for other more preferred and/or optimal uses, i.e., dedicated spaces for shared cars instead of for privately owned automobiles. (I don't know if they've made the really hard choice and started to charge a lot more for residential parking permits. Arlington btw was the first jurisdiction in the country to initiate residential parking permits.)

In other words, there is no way in hell that Arlington County property tax policies would encourage tax subsidies for gasoline stations, because privately owned automobiles are not prioritized in the Arlington County and therefore such a policy would be inconsistent.

In my opinion, the reason DC doesn't have solid plans and procedures for many actions is because it allows for the continued wild wild west atmosphere that promotes developers at the expense of other considerations. (Note: I am not against development, just stupid development and stupid government policies and government failures to put appropriate and necessary plans and policies in place, to yield an environment of accountability and checks and balances.)

And yes, Loose Lips was right ("Loose Lips Daily: Vivek Gets Back to Work") this likely will piss off us urbanists.

This is doubly ironic because DC is the original truly planned U.S. city. You'd never guess this to be true, given the rampant "idiocy" that we see espoused so often by our elected officials.