DC as "Metro-Land" vs. constrained transit planning

Like many transit systems in North America, which were built to support land development, London's Metropolitan Railway system actively promoted land development in the Northwest suburbs. For about ten years, from 1915 to 1924, they produced annuals called "Metro-land," which were comprehensive guidebooks to living in the suburbs, with the proviso that the main breadwinner would continue to work in the city through commuting on the transit system.

The London Underground and how it was marketed is one of the world's best examples of the use of graphic design and integrated marketing techniques to build ridership. This was a necessity because the system expanded and lack of ridership pushed the company to the point of insolvency. Frank Pick, a young operations analyst with railroad experience and a great number of advanced ideas concerning design and the role of the Underground transit system in redefining London, with great insights developed this program through the process of trial and error. Of course, the development and design of railroads in 19th century England had a similar focus, and obviously this influenced Pick, who had previously worked at the North Eastern Railway and had followed his boss to the London Underground in 1905.

While I am late to the party in discussing WMATA's proposal to cut late night hours on Fridays and Saturdays, this has been discussed elsewhere, including entries in GGW ("Beware engineer-think on late night hours," "Metro's future rides on Saturday night," and "What does Metro's late night service look like?") and an article and editorial in the Post, "Metro after Midnight: 'No one wants to go out in Georgetown'." and "Keep Metrorail running after midnight: The justifications: safety and business".)

I particularly liked the graphic developed by Erik Weber (Flickr photo), showing data on late night usage.

What unites the entries is the recognition that WMATA is more than a commuter-oriented railroad, but the enabler of sustainable transportation, urbanity, and urban life, and that the less the trains run, the less urban we are as a region.

Reading the book London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design is important, because it's more than just a listing of particularly cool posters. The book is also a good discussion of the role of design in developing, communicating about, and building a business, as well as in how the transit system in London saw its role and mission in a much broader sense than does WMATA.

Some quotes from the book:

"The new idea of London with the Underground at its core." (p. 24)

"Sell the Underground through its destinations, aiming to inspire customers to make journeys that had not yet crossed their minds." (p. 29)

"Early Underground posters featured a full range of urban attractions, as well as inviting passengers to escape to green spaces on the outskirts of the city." (p. 29-30)

"London as a living city, constantly refreshed and changing." (p. 30)

"Conception of a metropolis as a centre of life, of civilization, more intense, more eager, more vitalizing than has ever so far obtained." (p. 37)

"Public transport was not just a way of getting about in the city, but could become conceptually and physically 'the framework upon which a town is built,' a key element in civic progress." (p. 48)

Of course, the failure to achieve something like this in the Washington metropolitan area especially with regard to broad transportation planning is something that has troubled me for years, and has culminated in a presentation I have about the difference between metropolitan transportation planning--where the region first sets its priorities for service frequency and the breadth and depth of the transit network and then contracts with transit providers to deliver the service--and by having the transit operator serve by default as the primary transportation planner, focused on satisficing service because of funding shortfalls, which will always come at the expense of frequency and network breadth and depth.

See:

- Metropolitan Mass Transit Planning presentation

There are many books and publications about the London Transport system. Of course, like most transit systems, originally it was a for profit service without subsidy, so the more riders, the more money the system made.

For transit users, you can't get to and from places when the system isn't convenient or isn't running.

And there is no question that the WMATA system suffers from multiple roles--commuter railroad for far-out suburban commuters vs. "the framework upon which the city is built," the cost of maintenance and upgrades, and the uncertainty from year to year concerning its budget, not to mention the problems with overall leadership and guidance and the local governance system.

Still, the subway system fails because it was created by people who had worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and because they saw their role primarily as creating a transit system to bring suburbanites to and from their jobs in the city.

Until that culture is changed, DC will suffer from the failure of the transit system to truly serve as the foundation and framework on which sustainable mobility is built.

Early design for the Metro system. Caption: Stolzenbach's attack on the freeways led to a political storm and, ultimately, his departure. In 1965, the NCTA proposed a much more modest system and promised that it would work with automobiles, not against them. This plan got Congressional approval., U.S. National Capital Transportation Agency, Rail Rapid Transit for the Nation's Capital, 1965 DCPL. (from the online exhibit Building the Washington Metro, associated with the book The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro by Zachary Schrag.

Note the legend of this proposed subway routing system. I think instead of "motorist" they meant "suburban commuter."

Baltimore Healthy Harbor conference: presentations

I didn't manage to get to the State of the Harbor conference of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore's "Healthy Harbor: Swimmable Fishable by 2020" initiative.

I thought the conference was very interesting in terms of reaching out to interested residents, citizens, and stakeholder groups not just those located in Baltimore City, but across the Baltimore region.

Most of the presentations are now online.

"Planning DC's Future" -- Harriet Tregoning, DC Planning Director, on WAMU Radio

The show, from yesterday, is online here:

Harriet Tregoning: Planning DC's Future

She is a great speaker and great at dealing with questions. People brought up some interesting points, e.g., middling design at subway stations, such as at Fort Totten and Rhode Island Avenue; local retail vs. chain retail; parking; one person called wanting more streetcars and other mobility technologies, using San Francisco as a model; and more specific questions about Walmart's entry into the city, McMillan Reservoir; the city and adding population; the role of the car and parking; and more.

I would argue there are some issues of form vs. substance, and not enough discussion about the gaps in our planning and zoning processes and how to best correct those gaps, but all in all it was interesting.

There is also video for the show online here:

Harriet Tregoning: Planning DC's Future -- video clips

Destination development and marketing and the NTHP "Distinctive Destinations" program

King Street, Alexandria, September.

In 2005, I blogged about "Town-City branding or 'We are all destination managers now'," where I made the point that regardless of who your targeted audience is, places have to be developed and managed.

Fortunately, places that are great for us as residents can also be attractive to visitors, which helps to broaden the retail and entertainment mix that can be offered.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a program that calls attention to distinctive destinations, which can be "downtowns," entire cities, or "neighborhood commercial districts," because historic preservation tends to be a key element of community distinctiveness, and the urban design characteristics that make great places tend to entwined with neighborhoods and districts that are historically designated.

In this year's list, Alexandria, Virginia is one of the listed destinations, and the Trust has a contest to designate one of the sites as "number one."

According to "USA's newest top distinctive destinations: Which should be No. 1?" from USA Today, the other cities are:

Chapel Hill, N.C. – Well-preserved historic districts and a bustling downtown are some of the assets in a city nicknamed the "Southern Part of Heaven."

Colorado Springs, Colo. – The historic Rocky Mountain town has fabulous views of Pikes Peak from almost everywhere in town.

Dandridge, Tenn. – Set in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, the southern Appalachian town has "a welcoming small town spirit and a charming historic downtown."

Eureka, Calif. – The beautifully preserved Victorian seaport on the state's northern coast boasts "a lively Old Town, the Carson Mansion -- one of the most photographed homes in America -- and nearby forests of majestic old growth redwoods."

Muskogee, Okla. – Once the unofficial capital of Indian Territory, the town has a multi-cultural history that blends Native American, African American and Euro American influences. It celebrates that history with a number of festivals in its vibrant downtown.

New Bedford, Mass. – Scenic beaches, maritime history, architectural and historical riches and a growing arts community make this former whaling port an attractive place.

Paducah, Ky. – The river town has thriving historic districts with one-of-a-kind shops and eateries. It's a community that "creatively celebrates its cultural and artistic heritage."

San Angelo, Texas – "A bustling downtown historic district and vibrant cultural offerings" exude authentic Old West ambiance.

Saint Paul, Minn. – "Visitors can browse the quaint shops of Grand Avenue, dine in the strikingly restored warehouse district, or be awed by the stately mansions along Summit Avenue."

Sheridan, Wyo. – The town has a lively Main Street commercial district, plus lots of recreational opportunities in the shadow of the Big Horns.

Sonoma, Calif. – "The town offers all the perks of being in the heart of wine country, with the added benefit of a laid-back vibe that complements the award-winning wine and food."

Note that I think visiting these kinds of places are incredibly important learning opportunities for people involved in neighborhood, commercial district, and urban revitalization, because you get to see how better functioning places actually work and they give us hope that with the right techniques and programs, we can do the same in our own communities.

HOWEVER, one problem is that a lot of time there is a kind of parochialism about this. For example, people in big cities don't see the opportunity in learning from smaller cities, because of the size difference between the communities.

I argue that people are missing the point. What they should be comparing is not the overall size of a city, but the nature of the "unit" under study, in this case, a commercial district, a neighborhood, a downtown/central business district.

Most neighborhoods and commercial districts are similarly sized, regardless of the total size of a particular city. Similarly, while downtowns may be significantly different in terms of size, the how and why of their function is roughly the same, even if particulars such as the existence and nature of transit service, the type of industries located there and in the region, level of tourism, etc., do in fact differ.

I find that I can learn from any community, large or small, and that big communities can learn from smaller communities, and vice versa.

The only thing I see significant differences on are (1) level of poverty; (2) crime, particular murder; and (3) the level of urban abandonment, which may have been accentuated by riots and other forms of unrest.

But hey, how Petersburg, VA's downtown was decimated by a tornado, or how a Colorado community's commercial district was destroyed by a crazy man who created his own tank and then demolished most of the downtown buildings before he was stopped (he was shot to death by the police) have learnings to offer even big cities...

King Street Alexandria, February.

Great editorial cartoon about public services and paying for them

By John Sherffius of the Boulder (Colorado) Daily Camera:

Sustainable transportation is not about expanding choice, but about optimality, and how to design it into the land use and transportation system

Fast Company Magazine's design section has an article, "A New Design Movement That Can Help Us Beat Obesity: A primer on Active Design, which creates buildings and environments that fight America’s obesity epidemic," on the Active Design movement, which is focused on land use and urban design requirements that build active activity into everyday lifestyle. Since walking and biking are simple, cheap, and infrastructure-optimizing ways to get around, promotion of these modes is a priority in the Active Design method.

From the article:

New York City’s Active Design Guidelines may represent the beginning of a strategic shift in the battle to get Americans to exercise. Instead of trying to change individual choices by using a moral appeal about what is good for us (you should walk to work because it is better for you), it’s about changing the environment to reshape the available choices (you’ll want to walk because it is easier, cheaper, faster, or more enjoyable).

This strategy recognizes that the public’s underlying motivations are not about health, but rather, about what is convenient and enjoyable.

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What this means though isn't just providing the right design, but also making sure other policies and regulations are congruent in ways that promote sustainable mobility (walking, biking, transit).

For example, as long as communities build roads where cars are prioritized and walking, biking, and transit isn't, it's going to be difficult for people to walk, bike, and/or use transit.

As long as gasoline and parking is cheap, while comparatively, transit is expensive and/or inefficient and problematic, people are going to drive.

Etc.

The World Streets blog has an entry, "Editorial: The Seven Simple Truths of Sustainable Mobility (Come argue with me)," that is on this broad topic. The seven truths are reprinted below.

The seven truths of Sustainable Mobility:

If you look hard enough, you will see that there is only one overarching strategy that will do the job. It works like this:

Truth 1. We can’t have a sustainable planet without sustainable cities

Truth 2. Nor sustainable cities without sustainable mobility

Truth 3. The key to sustainable mobility is to ensure that every project, every investment, every step we take will end up by reducing motor vehicle miles or kilometers travelled (VMT, VKT) both in that place and overall.

Truth 4. Moreover these reductions have to be achieved strategically, quickly (in the one to five years directly ahead) and at scale. (Otherwise it fails the responsibility test.)

Truth 5. The policy response involves a strategic combination of generous carrots and rigorous sticks, which will of course be different from city to city and country to country, but even with all the necessary variations to accommodate the uniqueness of each place the central lines of the strategy will be the same:

Truth 6. We do not have to venture into uncertain territory to achieve these objectives. After the last two decades of on-street experience in leading edge cities around the world, we know all we need to know about both (a) the sticks (economic, regulatory and other instruments to reduce, sequester and control traffic, etc.) and (b) the carrots (all those other ways of getting around which need in each case to be woven into a mobility system of affordability, enhanced life quality and choice).

Truth 7. When we reduce VKT/VMT notably and rapidly through the best available means and proven strategies, here are the main benefits
a. We help save the planet: through resource savings and GHG and related emissions reductions.
b. We proportionally reduce today’s crushing dependence of imported fossil fuels.
c. We create a more human and livable city.

In order to achieve these ambitious – but completely doable – goals, we have to open up more choices and better and fairer mobility for all those in and around our cities who are at present NOT well served by the old (20th century dominant) own-car, no-choice pattern (bearing in mind that this is a majority of all citizens). And we need to understand and orchestrate the very large number of often very small measures and actions will make up the new mobility system into coherent packages of measures.

Bike planning minimum requirements

I wrote the blog entry the other day, "State and county advocacy agenda setting for biking (walking/transit)," about creating a model set of criteria to do as part of a state-wide advocacy and capacity building program, a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of local jurisdictions with regard to their bicycling infrastructure and programming.

But that amount of survey items is pretty ambitious, great for researchers, maybe not so necessary for improving mobility.

A Washcycle entry, "Glenn Dale Citizens Association asks PG County Executive to Hire a Bike-Ped Coordinator," about how a local civic association is calling on the Prince George's County Government to hire a bicycle and pedestrian planner, brings the point home.

At the minimum, all "urban" counties in the State of Maryland (and any state for that matter) should have:

- a bicycle and pedestrian master plan (including coverage in the transportation element of the County Master Plan)

- at least one bicycle and pedestrian planner

- a bicycle and pedestrian oversight committee

- implementation program for the recommendations in the bicycle and pedestrian master plan.

That's it, and it's based on the findings of the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community program, which has determined those are key factors that differentiate the quality of the bicycling-mobility environment between better performing and lesser performing communities.

It's very simple to evaluate all the jurisdictions in a state on that level of criteria, and pretty difficult to evaluate all the jurisdictions in a state on the 24 items listed in the entry from the other day.

Another self help example: Girl Scout to clean up run down walking tunnel in Pennsylvania

Former Liberty Bell Trolley Line underpass below Reading Railroad in Perkasie PA. Photobucket image by sneezehorse.

According to "Girl Scout plans project to beautify Perkasie trolley tunnel" from the Perkasie News Herald, Meghan Kennedy, an eighth-grader at Pennridge Middle School North, is going to clean up the graffiti and trash in an "abandoned" trolley tunnel, which is now used as a walking route.

From the article:

Kennedy has been a member of Girl Scout Troop 3768 for eight years and plans to complete the project to earn her Silver Award, which requires 50 hours of planning and work on a service project.

On walks home from Menlo Aquatic Center last summer, Kennedy noticed the graffiti and broken glass that littered the tunnel. She plans to paint the walls with graffiti-resistant paint, clear debris from the path through the tunnel, and plant flower-beds. As part of the Silver Award requirements, she researched the history of the trolley line and is working on gathering a team of 10 volunteers whom she will lead in the beautification effort.

DC has community service requirements for high school students, but I sure don't see much in the way of actionable projects and results.

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On New Year's Day, in "New Years post #3: How about more community self-help (Peter Riehle and Eastern Market Metro Plaza)" I mentioned Peter Riehle, now an Eagle Scout living in DC's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and his project to restore benches in one of the park spaces across the street from Eastern Market Metro Plaza.

Given the increasingly pressed budgets faced by local governments, we are going to need to step up and do more ourselves--not to mention behave better to begin with in terms of litter and graffiti--in order to maintain and improve our communities.

I hate it when journalists don't dig and therefore don't add value to the discourse: bicycling and snow removal edition

Yesterday's DC Rider column in the Express ran a question from a reader about the failure to remove snow from the Mount Vernon Trail and the Capital Crescent multi-user trails, but did mention that in DC, DC's Dept. of Transportation is removing snow from cycle tracks and the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

The response was about Departments of Transportation in Virginia and Maryland overlooking the trails.

The response missed the point entirely.

The problem with snow removal on trails is that for the most part, trails are located in parks, and parks are run by the National Park Service and/or local parks departments. (Other places don't have to worry about the NPS, but transportation access to trails in State Parks tend to be an issue as well.)

Parks departments aren't transportation departments.

They think about trails in terms of recreation.

So a snow covered trail becomes a good opportunity to do things other than bicycle, such as cross-country skiing.

Flickr photo of the Crystal City spur after the GW Parkway underpass, February 21st, 2010 by darbofumi.

Not about trails as transportation infrastructure that therefore needs to be maintained in a variety of weather conditions--including snow--to support the users.

Somehow--I don't claim to have the answer on how--parks departments need to understand that their mission must expand with regard to snow removal from multi-user trails used for transportation.

Maybe that means working with local transportation departments to develop "memoranda of understanding" to share services to address the issue.

Many of the region's master plans for Park and Recreation Departments and for Bicycling tend not to address these two issues:

(1) park infrastructure used for transportation;

(2) maintaining park infrastructure for transportation in all seasons and weather conditions.

and bike master plans (and pedestrian plans for that matter) tend not to address:

(3) maintaining infrastructure in all seasons and conditions.

Obviously that needs to change. And columnists--not just transportation writers--for local newspapers ought to expand their knowledge base so that they know what the issues are and write about them accurately.

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Note that I made recommendations about snow removal and transportational use of infrastructure located in parks and under the jurisdiction of the County Parks Department in the Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan.

There it's a bit different, because some parks and trails are in areas defined as rural (although this is tricky because the Patapsco Valley State Park is defined as rural, but it abuts urban areas of the county and the Grist Mill Trail is used by bicycle commuters). What I recommended is that for trails in parks in the urban county, snow removal plans should be developed, and that for trails in parks in the rural county, they wouldn't be targeted for snow removal.

Note that even Harford County, Maryland does snow removal on what they thought was a strictly recreational trail, the Ma & Pa Railroad Trail, because of requests from residents.

Interesting Union Station business story

Union Station keeps seeking a tax abatement (exemption) from property taxes, although the City Council has yet to go along. I have been against this because I argue why would the leasing company have paid $160 million for an 84 year lease if the building is too expensive to run--thereby justifying a tax increase.

I happened to eat at Burrito Brothers on Capitol Hill last night, before an Eastern Market meeting, and I asked the manager about why Burrito Brothers was shrinking as a company.

For example, they used to have a store in the Union Station Food Court, but now there is a Taco Bell there instead--freshly made real food burritos from Burrito Brothers, or Taco Bell "meat product." See the 2010 article, "The Makeover of the Union Station Food Court Has Begun" from the Washington City Paper, which discusses how independent businesses in the food court have been thrown over for chains.

He said the management company, to "refresh" the food court, basically terminated the leases of most of the previous tenants. They didn't do this exactly through termination, but by demanding payments of up to $1 million to renovate their spaces. Obviously, a small business wasn't going to be able to pony up that kind of money, so they left.

That's not the kind of behavior deserving of a tax abatement.

Wikipedia image by Kmf164 of the previous version of the Union Station food court.

Trainings from the Project for Public Spaces

I am a huge fan of the Project for Public Spaces, and highly recommend their trainings. I've done the full "How to Turn a Place Around" workshop, as well as an abbreviated version of that workshop done as a training for Scenic America, in 2004. (That workshop resulted in excellent suggestions for improving the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, which I wrote about in this blog entry, "Eastern Market Metro Plaza.")

Register now for PPS' NYC-based training programs and read more about new training, Placemaking: Making It Happen, a course about how to implement and manage your public space! NEW COURSE Placemaking: Making It Happen June 9-10, 2011 This new two-day training course focused on how to move ideas into reality by using a place-based implementation and management strategy. This training course will describe the roles that different types of public space management organizations play, complemented by lessons learned from experts with hands on experience implementing improvements and managing public spaces. Also included are narrated site visits to a few of the best managed spaces in New York City and numerous opportunities for networking, including an optional welcome reception the evening of June 8. The course will feature presentations by PPS staff, along with Norman Mintz, industrial designer, historic preservationist and designer of public space amenities, Eldon Scott, Director of Urban Space Management and developer of "lighter, quicker, cheaper" projects, and Alan M. Hantman, FAIA,10th Architect of the US Capitol and former Vice President of Architecture, Construction, and Historic Preservation at Rockefeller Center. Streets as Places April 28-29, 2011 Streets as Places will introduce participants to new ways of thinking about streets as public spaces and how Placemaking can be used to build great streets and great communities. It is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, including transportation professionals, civic and elected officials, and citizen activists. Specific topics will include transportation and land use, community engagement, street design flexibility, transit and station planning, and bicycle friendly streets. Participants will visit New York City sites that have been turned into pedestrian quality places, including Times Square, Broadway Plazas, and Greeley Square. How to Turn a Place Around May 5-6, 2011 How to Turn a Place Around introduces new ways of thinking about public spaces and how Placemaking and creating the city of the future can be transformative for neighborhoods, towns, cities, regions and even countries. Drawing upon PPS’ work in cities across the globe, this training course will provide a variety of tools for evaluating public spaces and case study examples of successful solutions that unlocked the economic potential of public spaces. How to Create Successful Markets May 20-21, 2011 How to Create Successful Markets will focus on four crucial elements to successful markets: the right mix of vendors and products; a strong sense of place; solid economic and operational underpinnings; and a firm commitment to the surrounding community. Through presentations, working groups, and on-site tours of New York City’s markets, the workshop will examine the benefits of markets, market planning and management, partnership building and community engagement. All courses will take place at Pratt's Manhattan Campus at 144 West 14th Street (between 6th and 7th Aves) in New York City. For questions, please contact Dana Kitzes at dkitzes@pps.org.

Quote of the day: social media

This comes from a piece on baseball (sports) and the justified hype about a new young player, Bryce Harper, who is 18 years old. See "With Nationals rookie Bryce Harper, timing is everything" from the Washington Post.

Tom Boswell writes:

One problem for the Nats is that fame for the unproven seems to rise exponentially with the multiplication of new media platforms.

I feel this way about some of the hype about new media generally, and its application to civic discourse and civic engagement particularly, especially with regard to planning and social organization. It all comes down to platforms and what they enable (also see the book Maximarketing, about direct marketing, but still relevant).

Ultimately the issue is substance vs. form.

If something is cool and neat but with little substance, the lack of substance needs to be

An interesting element for state-level bike and tourism planning: a state-wide network of bicycle routes and trails

Signs for the Route Verte abut a bicycle sharing station in Montreal.

While there are a number of instances of extremely long multiuse walking and biking trails, some as long as 300+ miles, I have written before about the Province of Quebec's Route Verte, a network of bicycle paths across the entire province, through and linking cities, towns, suburbs, and rural areas, totalling more than 4,500 km/2,795 miles of marked routes.

The idea, based on similar examples in Europe, was proposed by Vélo Québec, the province-wide bicycling advocacy group, and it took many years to convince Transport Quebec and the local jurisdictions to take up and implement the idea.

Now it is marketed as a significant element of Quebec's tourism program, with a special program to support provision of accommodations to bicyclists along the route.

Velo Quebec image.

Andy Clarke mentioned the Route Verte (and indirectly the Trail Towns bicycle tourism promotion effort in Pennsylvania) and it occurred to me that Maryland should work to develop such a program.

The State of Maryland does acknowledge the importance of tourism as part of bike infrastructure development as part of the Strategic Trails Initiative, but they haven't extended the idea to something along the lines of Route Verte.

After all, it would support local tourism, but also local biking for residents. (Note that a number of counties in Maryland such as Carroll County, Talbot County, Caroline County, and Wicomico County--partly in association with the Great Delmarva Trail program, but they don't have unified signage, have particularly well-formed bike tourism programs.)

Pennsylvania has a set of state bicycle tour routes and Virginia is the only place I've seen that marks the national bicycle routes identified by the Adventure Cycling Association, but the Route Verte system and marketing program is much more comprehensive.

National Bicycle Route sign, Route 1, East Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia.

Howard County Police Department Best Practice on Aggressive Driving

One of the presenters at the Bike Maryland Symposium yesterday as Howard County Chief of Police William McMahon.

He made the point that in Howard County, there are relatively few homicides, 4-6 each year, while each year there are 20-25 motor vehicle related deaths, and that nationally there are more deaths from motor vehicles than there are from homicides. (In Maryland, this is true for every jurisdiction except two, Baltimore City and Prince George's County.)

He made the point that a death is a death and that deaths from motor vehicle accidents should be treated as seriously as homicides.

One of the practices he mentioned that the department does is a practice that definitely needs to be taken up by other jurisdictions.

While there is a high standard of evidence required for the police to be able to write a ticket or charge someone with a crime if a police officer did not witness the incident, the Howard County Police Department encourages people to report acts of aggressive driving involving cars, pedestrians, or bicyclists.

They will send a letter to the owner of the vehicle stating that (1) a report was made; (2) concerning the vehicle and a particular illegal act; (3) the consequences from acting in this fashion; and (4) an "apology" if this report was made in error.

They send out over 300 letters each month.

I think it's an interesting program. Most of the time people don't get the cues they need to stop behaving badly, until it's too late. This kind of program ought to be in place in more jurisdictions across the county.

Of course, some departments might argue that it takes a lot of resources. But then, given that in most jurisdictions, more people die or are injured in motor vehicle accidents, maybe the way that resources are allocated need to be changed somewhat to accommodate this fact.

(Images from the Columbia Patch and the Savage-Guilford Patch.)

State and county advocacy agenda setting for biking (walking/transit)

Elected and appointed officials of Baltimore City, in a ceremony after having received the City's designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. (Photo source unknown)

Yesterday was the Bike Maryland annual symposium, held in Annapolis. The session features a variety of presentations, and attendees also carve out some time to lobby their local representatives, Delegates in the House, and Senators in the Senate. There is a Bicycle and Pedestrian Caucus, headed up by Sen. Jon Cardin of Baltimore County.

The presentations were excellent. The sessions relevant to state and county/local jurisdictional advocacy were by Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, Kevin Hardman, director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, and Jack Guanieri, president of the Bicycle Advocates of Howard County.

Andy discussed the broad advocacy environment and the Bicycle Friendly Community/State/ Business/College-University programs sponsored by the League. Kevin made very clear that a statewide organization needs to have a very clear vision (what is trying to be achieved) and mission (what the organization's role is and what they work on). Jack spoke about the various efforts his group has worked on in a concerted way in Howard County (although he is fortunate that the County Executive is supportive, and therefore the Office of Planning, DPW, and the Police Department work closely with the organization.

After a conversation with Carol Silldorf, the executive director of Bike Maryland, at the end of the conference, I got to thinking--based on the Bicycle Friendly Community and Bicycle Friendly State approach, as well as the findings of the League on the factors that tend to be characteristic of communities that measure up on the BFC criteria:

- have a bicycle planner

- have a bicycle advisory committee

- have a bike plan

what would the ideal set of criteria be for rating a jurisdiction from the standpoint of a state-wide advocacy group? Better yet, measure this for every jurisdiction, use this framework to guide local advocacy and capacity building, and publish the ratings every two years or so.

Remember what Peters and Waterman say in the book In Search of Excellence:

What gets measured gets done.

The problem is that oftentimes, we aren't measuring the right stuff, so the right stuff isn't getting done.

Stu Sirota of TND Planning Group also gave a great presentation on "A Paradigm Shift to Complete Streets and Complete Places." He pointed to the report released by Smart Growth America and the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Getting Back on Track: Climate Change and State Transportation Policy," which focuses on making local transportation policies and practices congruent with sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction initiatives, and how this can be a less expensive strategy than the current road building agenda that normally predominates.

The report rates the states, and Maryland ranks well overall, but Stu pointed out how when you look at the individual data items in certain of the ranking factors, the state has serious gaps and deficiencies in policies and programs.

I prefer to think of these gaps as "opportunities" to improve, both at the state level and the local level.

A statewide organization should have an agenda on at least two levels: (1) a statewide-agenda, covering legislation, executive branch policy and operations (planning, transportation, parks, etc.), and the requirements "imposed" on the local jurisdictions (such as having to create and regularly update a master plan, including a transportation element, requirements for the construction and maintenance of local roads, etc.); and (2) the development and implementation of best practices and support of advocacy at the level of the local jurisdiction.

In short, at the state level, the organization is an advocacy group, and at the local level, the organization is focused on the development and support of local initiatives, and capacity building for interested citizens and advocates.

As far as the ranking factors for local jurisdictions, and my predilection would be to extend this to list to include the support of walking, sustainable transportation, and placemaking overall, although for the purposes of this entry I mostly did not do so, here goes:

- the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive or Master Plan of the jurisdiction appropriately addresses biking, walking, and transit and the integration of land use and transportation policy and practice

- and ideally, the jurisdiction has a separate and robust transportation plan (Arlington County, Virginia has the best example of such a plan in the region)

- with transportation demand management planning requirements and a program to implement them

- a sustainable transportation program located in either or both the Office of Planning and the DPW/DOT

- and bicycle and pedestrian planners

- a bicycle and pedestrian commission or even better, a transportation commission (The City of Rockville I think is the only jurisdiction in Maryland with a transportation commission.)

- a bicycle and pedestrian master plan

- that acknowledges and differentiates between urban/town, suburban, and rural conditions as appropriate

- with a plan and identification of funding for infrastructure improvements

- integrates the parks and recreation department in the program in ways that don't diminish cycling--in other words ensuring that when parks infrastructure is used for bicycling as transportation, that appropriate policies exist to support transportation functions, which are not normally considered part of the purview of a parks department

- lays down the concept and works to develop and implement a county-wide trails-cycletrack network

- a complete streets policy, preferably enacted by ordinance, and extended to all agencies of the local government

- a complete streets implementation program, including appropriate bicycling, pedestrian, and transit design requirements in street design and other manuals

- the inclusion of bike-walking-transit elements within sector and community plans

- inclusion of biking accommodation requirements in zoning regulations and development review

- distinguishing between short term and long term bike parking requirements, setting standards for bike racks including installation, with appropriate requirements for the total number of required spaces for parking

- a support program for installation of bicycle parking, starting with the buildings and facilities of the local government

- maintenance and communication of pedestrian and bicycle accident data, and a systematic program engaging the Office of Planning, DPW/DOT, the Police Department, and the State Highway Administration when appropriate, to analyze the data and make identified changes

- maintenance requirements for sidewalks and bicycle facilities, including snow removal

- a Safe Routes to School policy and program, including balanced transportation planning at the school district central administration level, and bicycle racks at schools (and support for bicycle commuting by staff)

- a comprehensive biking and pedestrian curriculum in the schools (for all levels)

- bike and pedestrian programming in the community (including programs at parks and recreation centers), including community walks and cycling events

- bike tourism promotion (if appropriate) and recognition of the economic development aspects of bicycling, transit, and placemaking

- maintenance of statistics on infrastructure and mapping data in planning-transportation GIS systems (rack locations, miles of signed bike routes and sharrows, bicycle lanes, cycletracks, and trails)

- capacity building and support for sustainable transportation advocacy, existence of local advocacy organizations

This is a pretty ambitious set of criteria. Probably not even Portland and Minneapolis do all of this (although Portland might be close).

But a rating system can be developed, and the communities measured and ranked, and the information collected and reported on regularly. Each report should highlight case studies of best practices around the state, and work to get more jurisdictions to adopt similar policies.

Umm, it's the system

Over the weekend, the Washington Post ran a couple articles about political privilege in the city, how Mayor Gray has hired more people at the executive level, is hiring cronies and/or their children, and is paying higher salaries compared to Mayor Fenty ("Gray hires more senior staffers than Fenty did, and is paying them significantly more") and how Council Chairman Kwame Brown has induced the city to lease for him very expensive SUVs ("'Fully loaded' SUV puts D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown on the spot"").

This is something I wrote on a local e-list on January 7th, 2010:

The mistake in the ABF [Anybody But Fenty] type argument is expecting that different people who are products of and participants in the same system are somehow different.

The problem isn't Fenty per se, but the system that produces him and other people just like him (M. Brown, K. Brown, R.D. Peebles, V. Gray, etc.).

On occasion there are outliers (i.e., Paul Wellstone), but it doesn't happen very often.

What the real issue is the problem of the "system" and "network" -- how and why it doesn't generate the outcomes we want and prefer -- and our role in maintaining it. (This is abetted by weak neighborhood and civic organizations and the lack of any substantive "good government" advocacy organization in the city. But you can't blame people necessarily for the lack of civic capacity and capability. We haven't built solid institutions to assist people in developing their own efficacy.)

I try to fight the power through analysis. But most people tend to ignore it and search somehow for a savior as well as maintain a militant refusal to look within to see whether and how they contribute to the dysfunction.

As long as we do that, we guarantee that things won't change. (E.g., just because you change a burned out light bulb doesn't mean that the light fixture is somehow significantly different.)

How to find local flavor when visiting other places

This is tough, because it depends on the community. I like to stop first at the visitors center, ask questions and pick up brochures and information, go to the local library, read the local newspapers including alternative weeklies and other publications, check out traditional commercial districts and neighborhoods, bookstores, etc.

As it becomes harder and harder to find "third places," especially ones that question the mainstream, think of places like Red Emma's Bookshop and Cafe in Baltimore or an independent coffee shop, it becomes harder for progressives to organize.

I think that one way to find out about those kinds of things in a community (besides bulletin boards at local college student unions, kiosks, and classroom buildings) can be the bulletin board at the local independent coffee shop. In Richmond, Virginia, that's a place like Lamplighter Roasting Company (which also has great lox bagels and other food items). Not Starbucks.

Bulletin board, Lamplighter Coffee Roasters, Richmond. On the board are flyers promoting various interesting community initiatives including urban agriculture, art programs like a support center for printmakers, bicycling-related initiatives, etc.

As retail businesses chains up, the ability for "local" retail establishments to serve as a third place and a central information point concerning civic and community affairs becomes constrained.

Parochialism and historiography

Today's Post has a column on promoting racism through how the Civil War is commemorated through Government proclamation in Virginia. See "Revisionists having a ball with Civil War anniversary" by Courtland Milloy.

Ironically, this weekend we spent a couple days vacationing in Richmond--partly because an exhibit on Picasso opened Saturday at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts--and because I like commercial districts there like Carytown and the Fan District (the Black Swan Used Bookstore in the Fan District is particularly great), it's compact and easy to get around, and there is a lot to see.

Of course, the building stock is great, with a greater variety of types of buildings (compared to DC) from the period of say 1870-1930, which is the period of U.S. urban architecture development that I like particularly. For the first time, we went to the Byrd Theatre, a historic theater that shows $2 movies. Maybe "Burlesque" wasn't that great of a movie, but with organ music playing beforehand, and on that super large screen, it was still a great experience...

HDR photo of the interior of the Bryd Theatre by DMPhoto. (Note that the theater is more threadbare than indicated by the enhanced photo.)

When we go to places I also like to go to the local history museum(s) to see how they interpret local history and how they deal with difficult issues and whether or not difficult issues are addressed.

This comes up for me with regard to the interpretation and presentation of the local story of history in Washington, DC and the region, and a failure, often, to be direct. From time to time when I am given the opportunity to review projects that may be in development, I tend to comment on this issue, and what I call "community building" and making people feel good, versus presenting history and its challenges as an opportunity to learn.

WRT the Civil War, as Courtland Milloy discussed, this is a difficult issue. For example, I have written about how Petersburg, Virginia's local history sites don't do a very good job of interpreting the Civil War in terms of a broader perspective--even in the late 1960s sociologists like Barrington Moore discussed the Civil War in terms of refashioning the American Economy on industry.

Richmond's Valentine Richmond History Center is the local history museum, and one of the permanent exhibitions, "SETTLEMENT TO STREETCAR SUBURBS: RICHMOND AND ITS PEOPLE," logically, is an overview of Richmond's history from the standpoint of broad narrative and the major themes up til about 1900.

The exhibit shocked me in how it treated the Civil War because it was direct and not about myth, and involved more current interpretations. The exhibit discusses how Richmond's business elite, because the city was the South's most industrialized city, did not favor secession; it covers the creation of the "Lost Cause" myth--which is still the narrative of today's apologists; as well as Segregationist policies and Old South/New South interpretations.

Given how the Smithsonian Institutions are "forced" to interpret history in terms of acceptable beliefs about American Myth, Memory, and National Identity, and how this trickles down in terms of how the local story is told, it was interesting to see. The museum is smaller than say the Pittsburgh History Center, but they cover a lot of ground with the resources they have.

At the VMFA, there is also a great exhibit on the "Special Artists" of the Civil War (Civil War Drawings from the Becker Collection), the artists who drew battle and other scenes from the Civil War, which were published in nationally distributed magazines such as Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Harper's Weekly, and the Illustrated London News. This exhibit was drawn from the archives of the Leslie Newspaper, which were saved by the paper's art editor, Joseph Baker.

From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.

The interpretive panels discussed how the drawings were subsequently modified and embellished before printing, in ways to strengthen the message and communicate various positions. It made me consider the published drawings in new ways, that the idea that you can't always believe what you "read" in the newspaper is hardly a new phenomenon.

The fact is that these kinds of exhibits need to be supported by journalists and public intellectuals. When discourse is constrained, key questions get ignored. And frankly, the Washington Post has contributed to this with regard to the Smithsonian Institution, at least in terms of some of the writings of Marc Fisher with regard to the National Museum of the American Indian (see the journal article "The National Museum of the American Indian as cultural sovereignty" from American Quarterly) and the National Museum of American History--in my opinion anyway, he has supported very traditional forms of interpretation, rather than more expansive perspectives. (Note that the writings of Blake Gopnik, with regard to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's censorship of a particular work in the Hide/Seek exhibit have been much different from this standpoint, compared to Fisher.)

But when journalists focus on the Sons of the Confederacy, and not some of the more serious scholarship, interpretation, and presentation, it becomes harder for curators to present more modern narratives that challenge the status quo, not easier... and becomes another reason to question the accuracy of dominant media institutions.

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Note: I have written before about the public art program of Tri-Met, the transit authority in Portland, Oregon, and how the public art/public history projects incorporated into the Yellow Line light rail project and art at particularly stations also challenged convention in gutsy ways that is typically quite unusual for government entities.

Parochialism...

I wonder how long you have to live in a place, for people not to call you a carpetbagger in order to denigrate your arguments and participation--because otherwise, they don't have an argument. (Of course this is in response to a private email thread wrt the "Walmart" issue.)

I have lived in DC for 23+ years (well, for about 2 years of this period, I lived in either Montgomery or Prince George's Counties in Maryland, for a few months in 1989 and for about 18 months in 2007-2008).

Still, people pull the "I'm a native Washingtonian" argument against me.

But I guess it's because they lack other ways to argue against your arguments.

Here is some of what I say on this general point:

1. DC is unique because all places are unique, but how the city functions is various ways, especially with regard to traditional commercial districts, is not exceptional. Places can be compared, the stories are similar, the underlying processes of how places function are pretty much the same from place to place.

2. WRT the valuing of learning and interpretation "versus" practical experience, I prefer Bismarck's quote:

fools learn from experience; I prefer to profit from the experience of others

to the line:

experience is the best teacher

and the recognition that you need both experience and theory, and that it's better to mine the experiences of others so that you don't make their mistakes, and accelerate your success as a result.

Similarly one of my favorite quotes, attributed to many, but I first heard it attributed to Kurt Lewin, one of the founders of the field of social psychology, and known for his work concerning group dynamics and experiential learning:

there is nothing so practical as a good theory

which is about the fact that understanding processes through "theories" based on interpretation of observation is ultimately very practical and "here and now."

3. Related to Lewin's quote, my experience is that most practitioners aren't able to mine their experiences in terms of generalizable meta-learning and aren't able to adequately explain and teach others the why of how and what they do.

Group dynamics -- when people in groups also talk about and interpret their experience functioning as a group, often with facilitated assistance--was created by accident. After a workshop, the professionals were meeting and interpreting what they thought happened. An attendee or two happened by, heard the interpretations, and butted in, challenging it. The back-and-forth dynamic ended up creating one of the key techniques in the field of organizational development.

There is no question that there isn't enough of this kind of back and forth in local civic affairs. The work is out there--amazing stuff is being produced in academia, in research tanks, and in the field--but it isn't well-mined and diffused outwards to practitioners in order to reshape and improve practice in real time.

It's why we keep going around in circles, but it's sad because we don't have to.

4. Time in a place does matter though. Because things that some people might think are forever practices often are more a function of the moment. But unless you have a longer term perspective and awareness of how things have functioned over time, you aren't going to know this.

-- This is a problem with a lot of the discussion about revitalization in DC over the past 7 years, which was during a period when the city's municipal institutions functioned better post-Barry, coincident with residential choice trends favoring urban living and an incredibly strong real estate development market. Even I get frustrated at times with the blogsphere's interpretation of events, which may be constrained due to the lack of a longer term perspective.

-- Or I remember eavesdropping on a conversation at a Cosi in Capitol Hill. The guy was lamenting how DC doesn't have ethnic neighborhoods comparable to places like Little Italy in Baltimore, where he had been the previous day. He didn't know that DC once had such agglomerations, but through the process of ecological succession, suburban outmigration, and the velocity of real estate development initiated changes of neighborhoods at the core of the city, these types of ethnic bastions were "reproduced" out of existence. Or how, for different reasons (cost of property, strife in particular countries overseas, etc.) ethnic bastions in the DC area often end up getting created in the suburbs (e.g., Latinos in Langley Park, Asians first in Clarendon, then farther out in Fairfax County, etc.).

5. Patience and wisdom as necessary elements of community improvement. I won't claim to be all that wise, but it wasn't until 5 years ago that I began to understand the necessity of patience out of a recognition that change takes decades and a lot of people working on "the" issue, in a variety of ways, and that the process doesn't "privilege" knowledge and good ideas as much as you want. Without understanding this fact and the need to maintain efforts over a long period of time, effecting change takes even longer. (It's also relevant in terms of Erikson's writings on identity and the life cycle, in terms of what he called "generativity." Look it up yourself...)

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A related but different argument is based on place. E.g., if you don't live in X neighborhood, then you have no standing or authority to comment. My response to the charged question of:

"where do you live?"

is always

"the District of Columbia."

DC relies on commercial property tax revenues (not that we didn't know this)

Related to the point I made in a blog entry earlier in the week about comprehensive plan "theory" and the importance of including a section on public finance, the Washington Business Journal has an important story, "D.C. property values: The District's reliance on commercial property taxes."

From the article:

The 106 taxable D.C. properties with the highest assessed values in tax year 2011 generated nearly 22 percent of the city's property tax revenue in fiscal 2010 — $407.7 million of the $1.88 billion collected. Their total assessed value in 2011 is $19.7 billion, down from $22.2 billion last year. ...

The vast majority, 95, are commercial office buildings. Five are hotels — the Grand Hyatt at 10th and H is the most valuable of that group — and four are primarily residential.

The city's assessment is supposed to represent the estimated market value of a property, that is, "the most probable price for which you can sell your property given normal terms and conditions of sale." But the assessed value, especially in the commercial office market, is often a far cry from the sales price.

Invesco Real Estate, for example, bought 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW last year for $220 million. The property's 2011 value, according to the city, is $154.2 million.

The article includes a list of the 105 buildings.

The point being is that people who advocate X and Y and Z need to be conscious that programs cost money and somehow, the revenues need to come from somewhere.

DC is lucky in that unlike any other jurisdiction in the U.S., it keeps all of the income tax revenue it collects. But even so, commercial property taxes generate the bulk of the city's income, even though a goodly portion of the city's real estate isn't taxed (properties of the federal government and many nonprofits, including colleges and universities).

New software for accident analysis investigation could improve fairness in evaluating crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists

If you have frank conversations with most professionals--transportation planners and even officers from traffic enforcement divisions of police departments--they will admit that police officers need more and better training concerning accident analysis and reconstruction.

The State of Missouri, working with the Kansas City Transportation Department, has introduced a new software system that significantly improves the process of accident analysis. The report on the program, "Kansas City Police Use Forensic Mapping to Investigate Accidents," from Government Technology magazine, doesn't discuss potential improvements for the analysis of accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists, but I queried the project manager and he wrote back:

This equipment will be utilized to investigate and reconstruct crashes, including those involving pedestrians. I share your concerns about the proper investigation of pedestrian [accident]s. I think that too many times officers don't have the training to accurately determine the true cause(s) of crashes.

I hope that the officers will be able to both investigate/reconstruct crashes, and make recommendations regarding design/engineering. To add to the issues, officers can't properly enforce laws if they can't determine the true cause of crashes.

He didn't mention bicyclists, but I think his comments can be extended to the consideration and analysis of accidents involving bicyclists as well.

I really liked this British television miniseries, even though it didn't involve a pedestrian accident.

Ranking of metropolitan areas by level of independent retail

The Indie City Index, a groundbreaking ranking of American Metropolitan Areas by the proportion of retail activity captured by independents, was conducted by Civic Economics and sponsored by the American Booksellers Association.

- alphabetical order
- Study report
- appendices
- maps

The Washington region is listed as 113 out of 363.

But I wonder some about the methodology, which I guess is based on totals. At the micro level, there are great independent commercial districts across the country, regardless of the ranking of the overall metropolitan area. E.g., Richmond is ranked 266, but Carytown is one of the best independent commercial districts between Philadelphia and Richmond (Downtown Frederick too and Hampden Village in Baltimore). Etc.

Borders Bankruptcy leads to store closings in DC, MD, and VA

The bankruptcy of the Borders Company will result in the closing of 200 stores across the United States. In the DC region, stores in DC at 18th and L Street NW Downtown and in Friendship Heights on Wisconsin Avenue will be closing (another store downtown closed a couple years ago), as will stores in Bowie, on Rockville Pike/Kensington and the Boulevard at Cap Centre in Largo in Maryland, and in Vienna in Northern Virginia (other stores are closing elsewhere in Virginia).

See the Borders store closing list.

Unlike most of the other DC elected officials, Councilwoman Bowser has stepped up to the plate vis-a-vis Walmart

Councilwoman Muriel Bowser speaking at a May 2010 event heralding the completion of the Takoma DC commercial facade improvement project.

I had not been a strong supporter of Councilwoman Bowser, because she was handpicked by former Mayor Fenty to take the seat he relinquished when he became Mayor, Mayor Fenty's supporters poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race as a result, and I was hoping for a more progressive candidate, to mix things up on DC City Council, which needs some mixing up.

That being said, Councilwoman Bowser is active and visible at events across Ward 4 and supports the right side of most issues that groups are working on, especially those concerning revitalization efforts, which are the issues I tend to follow most closely, whether or not I am involved with the specific project at hand.

But given how most DC public officials are falling over themselves to suck up to Walmart with regard to their entry into the city (see "How Walmart Won Ward Six," "Tregoning Defends Walmart: “They’re Bringing Groceries”," and "A Tale of Two City Councils" from the Housing Complex blog at the Washington City Paper, and "New DC economic chairman supports Ward 5 Wal-Mart" and the editorial, "Why Wal-Mart should come to retail-challenged parts of D.C.," from the Washington Post), the fact that Councilwoman Bowser produced a press release laying out some preferred guidelines with regard to the company's entry into the city is gutsy.

I just looked at the press release:

- A Walmart plan I can support

and I have to say, considering all the other statements from the Mayor, the other members of City Council, and the Washington Post, it's pretty good.

Her statements support the kinds of points that the enlightened Ward 4 citizens have been making as part of the subcommittee review process I have been participating in, on a committee created by ANC4B to do fact finding with regard to the issue, even when public statements by other public officials--elected and/or appointed--have pointedly ignored the issues we have been raising. (E.g., as discussed in this op-ed, "Temper Walmart Glee with Planning," that I wrote in the Washington Business Journal -- note that since it's been one month since publication, the full article is now visible to non-subscribers.)

• Respect our Comprehensive Plan
My comment-- the Foulger Pratt proposal doesn't satisfy the recommendations of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and the recommendation to reposition parts of the Georgia Avenue commercial district around walkability and she acknowledges this.
• Invest in D.C. and Ward 4
She states that the company should pay decent wages and use local construction firms and employees to build their buildings.
• Help build a better Brightwood
She states that the project by Foulger Pratt and Walmart should strengthen and support the adjoining commercial district, not diminish it and the need to promote transit and walkability.
• Make sure urban means excellent
The press release calls attention to the failure by Foulger Pratt to include housing in their development proposal.
• Put all the cards on the table
She states that Walmart should deal with the city simultaneously on each project, but collectively, rather than picking off communities within the city one by one.

Maybe it's sad that all Councilwoman Bowser is doing is asking for a reasonable approach to planning and for respecting and responding to community concerns--she's a realist and knows that the company's entry meets the basic requirements of the Zoning Code and can't be opposed, and practically, it's damn hard to oppose Walmart given how much grease they are spreading around the city in terms of charitable contributions and hordes of lobbying.

But I am pleased nonetheless. It's practically the only recognition by any DC elected official (and the appointed officials that serve at the pleasure of the Mayor) that despite the clamor for jobs, more retail, and food deserts, that there are some fundamental defects with the proposal for the Georgia Avenue site/store for one, and that these defects need to be addressed, regardless of the other happy talk.

Walk Bike Transit Mode Split By Congressional District

Speaking of mapping, John Boyle, the Research Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia created a map that allows you to view different modes or see walk/bike and walk/bike/transit combined, organized by congressional district.

Map - Walk Bike Transit Mode Split By Congressional District