Been there, done that: Lincoln Theatre

The Washington Business Journal ("Lincoln Theatre appeals for more DC funding" and other media report that the Lincoln Theatre (like the Washington DC Economic Partnership, see "DC Economic Partnership may shut down" from the WBJ also), faces closure if the city doesn't increase the amount of funding it provides.

This blog entry, "Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" is from January 9th, 2007.

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Today's Post has an article about the possible imminent failure of the Lincoln Theatre, because an expected allocation of $500,000 from the DC Government does not appear to be forthcoming. See "Storied Stage Could Go Dark," subtitled "U Street Venue Close to Broke, Director Says."

This has the feel of a broken record in terms of problems with funding of local cultural organizations and institutions. See:

-- City Museum on Shaky Ground: After 14 Months, Visitors and Cash Are in Short Supply" (Post article from 2004)
-- Debt-Ridden Source Theatre Closes, Plans to Sell Building (Post article from 2006)
-- Racing to Save a Victorian Gem (Heurich Mansion, Post article from 2006)

Since these articles were published, the original iteration of the City Museum ceased operations, the Source Theatre building has been sold to the Cultural Development Corporation, although the organization had signed a contract to sell it to a restaurant company and I believe the theatre company is folding, and the Heurich Mansion managed to stave off foreclosure through a successful emergency fundraising campaign.

(Source Theatre photo source unknown.)

When the same kind of thing keeps happening over and over, it's an indicator that there is a problem with the system of supporting (or not) cultural resources more generally within the City of Washington.

Relatedly, after the Washington Sculpture Center and the Washington Glass School were displaced by the Washington Nationals Baseball Stadium, these organizations did not relocate within the city. The Sculpture Center has ceased operations and the Glass School is moving to Arlington County. See "D.C. Seizes 16 Owners' Property for Stadium" from the Post.

On the other hand, Montgomery County, Maryland, faced with the imminent sale of the house with the attached building that likely served as the home for the person who inspired the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, took only two weeks to come up with the money to purchase the building. See "Unique Montgomery Property for Sale: Uncle Tom's Cabin," from December 2005 and "Public to Glimpse 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'" from June 2006 both from the Post. [

Exterior, Uncle Tom's Cabin. AP photo.

[Added: Note that the haste to act can have problems too. Apparently, the cabin purchased by Montgomery County doesn't have direct connections to Josiah Henson, the person who was the model for the character in the book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, although the building is part of the original Riley Plantation. See "After buying historic home, Md. officials find it wasn't really Uncle Tom's Cabin" from the Washington Post.]

Or contrast this to how Arlington County supports cultural affairs, such as their expanding the Shirlington branch of their library to include a theater and space for the Signature Theatre, see "Shirlington Redevelops Its Character," subtitled "Flagship Building Will House Innovative Signature Theatre," from the Post. Another theater company resides in the theater at the Arlington County combined facility, the Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Community Center.

And this is an issue all across the country. In fact, it's being discussed now on an national e-list that I'm on, and I'm trying to organize a session on the broad topic of supporting cultural resources for this fall's annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

[Added: the Kennedy Center now has a national initiative supporting local arts organizations around developing the capacity for sustainable operations.]

Because of the systemic nature of the problem within DC, it happens that I wrote a memo about this in September. It hasn't been widely distributed because it is very much an early draft, something I work on from time to time in between other activities.

But there's a need to distribute it more widely given the "deja vu over and over again" that we are experiencing in the city in terms of supporting our cultural organizations.

The funding stream for cultural resources cannot rely strictly on admissions fees. Just as roads are subsidized to the tune of 50%, or schools are paid for out of tax revenues, history is the social and cultural infrastructure of our society and warrants public funding.

But we have to figure out what our marketing message is. The "building public will" session at the Portland Trust conference is really pathbreaking. Our challenge is to figure out what the messages are with history in all its manifestations and how to touch people in terms of their deep, felt values (as the presenter put it).

(Image from the Metropolitan Group website. Their link to the actual paper is not working at the moment.)

I don't think we've done it yet, or we wouldn't be having the problems we're having... I mean, in a couple weeks the National Archives is sponsoring a presentation about the rise in public museums (On January 18th, click here for the calendar) yet, the Archives just massively reduced night-time and weekend access hours because of a $6-$8 million budget cut...

So here it is. Compared to the average blog entry it's very long. Comments encouraged.
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9/27/2006

Note: there are three significant omissions in this draft. The first concerns a broad discussion of tourism development and promotion. The attitude of the author is that creating great places for residents has the fortunate benefit of creating great places for people to visit. The second is providing enhanced visitor services. Many cities locate visitor center services in historic buildings and sites that also communicate local history and significant events, and/or serve as a staging area for tours. The third is a more detailed discussion of support of the visual, media, and performing arts in the context of developing a truly comprehensive cultural management plan.

[Added: of course, since this was written, so many of the organizations listed below have been faced with significant financial exigency and institutions have been closed, and organizations shuttered.]

Washington, DC lacks a thorough and comprehensive cultural management, development, and funding plan and program focused upon locally-owned and directed assets. This is complicated by:

-- the fact that most of the nation and in fact most people around the globe define Washington within the context of its role as the national capital of the United States of America;

-- the large number of federally owned and managed cultural assets located in the city and visited by the public including the Smithsonian Museums, the National Gallery of Art, various National Park Service-controlled properties, a variety of other assets controlled by other departments ranging from the Arlington National Cemetary (U.S. Dept. of Defense) to the National Arboretum (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture);

-- most of the federal cultural assets are open to the public at no charge; and-

- the District of Columbia lacks a county or state government to provide additional financial or technical assistance for managing and funding access to locally-focused cultural resources.

While not directed specifically towards such planning, the concept of the cultural landscape, and a focus on the broad narrative and stories that are encompassed within, provides a useful framework for beginning to think about such issues. The "heritage area" framework is a useful way to operationalize planning for cultural resources at the local and regional level.

The Alliance for National Heritage Areas website defines heritage areas as:

[slightly edited] a region that has been recognized for its unique qualities and resources. It is a place where a combination of natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources have shaped a cohesive, distinctive landscape.

In heritage areas, local communities and leaders cooperate on efforts to preserve the resources that are important to them. The partnership approach to heritage development involves collaborative planning around a theme, industry and/ or geographical feature that influenced the region's culture and history. This planning strategy encourages residents, government agencies, non-profit groups and private partners to agree on and prioritize programs and projects that recognize, preserve and celebrate many of America's defining landscapes.

The heritage areas seek short and long-term solutions to their conservation and development challenges by fostering relationships among regional stakeholders and encouraging them to work collaboratively to achieve shared goals. Preserving the resources and activities in heritage areas in ways that recall the traditions that helped to shape these landscapes enhances their significance.

The U.S. Congress has created a designation system for "National Heritage Areas," which provides some money and technical assistance from the National Park Service to programs around the country. There are upwards of 25 such programs today including the Rivers of Steel NHA in Pennsylvania and Handmade in America in the Piedmont.

States such as Maryland and Pennsylvania have created a system to designate local heritage areas and support broad planning and the identification, development, and support of cultural resources within the designated areas. (The Pennsylvania program predated the national program.)

Two such districts in Maryland include the City of Baltimore Heritage Area, as well as the Anacostia Heritage Trails Area in Prince George's County, which abuts the City of Washington (this program even sponsors boat trips on the Anacostia River which journey into the City).

Whether or not a state or locality has a heritage area program, the process for creating the "management plan and priorities" for a heritage area is a useful exercise, and could be adopted by any city to guide its cultural resources development and management planning.

Using the same kind of framework, states (Maryland was the first) and localities have also created "arts districts" or "arts and entertainment districts" as another way of harvesting and managing cultural assets to achieve a variety of community and economic development objectives.

Examples

States such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Louisiana manage and make available to the public a wide variety of cultural resources. (This complements and supplements the provisions of such services at the county and local level.)

For example, the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism for the State of Louisiana manages:

-- state parks, historic sites, and the state arboretum
-- state museums (5 in New Orleans, 1 in Baton Rouge, and 3 others)
-- state library and archives
-- historic preservation management including archeology
-- the Main Street historic preservation-based commercial district revitalization program
-- other cultural programs
-- tourism development.

Similarly the State of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission operates the State Museum, the State Archives, 25 other museums around the State, the State Historic Preservation Office, and other programs which provide funding and technical assistance to cultural programs at the local level. The Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks and the Pennsylvania Tourism Office provide additional services, whereas in Louisiana, all such functions are in one such office (which is managed by the Lieutenant Governor).

At the local level, many cities have agencies which combine cultural resources programs which might normally be located across a number of agencies into one office (although this may or may not include historic preservation activities).

One example is Baltimore's Office of Promotion and the Arts. This agency handles certain community social and organizational capital development programs such as the "Believe" in Baltimore campaign, the support of two state-designated arts and entertainment districts (Station North and Highlandtown), assistance to farmers markets (public markets are managed by a separate corporation), and arts-related programs. BOPA also mounts Artscape, the largest arts festival in the Maryland, DC, Virginia region, and other city-wide festivals and events.
However, the Baltimore Heritage Area and the city's historic preservation office are both separate organizations, although the Heritage Area works closely with BOPA.

The Chicago Park District is a different kind of entity equally interesting. It is an independent taxing authority defined by Illinois State Statute as a separate (or "sister") agency of the city of Chicago. The CEO of the Park District is appointed by the Mayor of Chicago. The CPD manages over 220 facilities throughout the city – more than 7300 acres of parkland, 552 parks, 33 beaches, nine museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, 10 bird and wildlife gardens, and thousands of special events, sports and entertainment programs. The organization has a $385 million annual budget.

Some of the institutions include the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Garfield Conservatory, DuSable Museum of African-American History, Notebaert Nature Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Adler Planetarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

Comprehensive community cultural planning

According to The Community Cultural Planning Handbook, cultural planning is defined as:

Structured, community-wide fact-finding and consensus-building process; To identify cultural resources, community needs, and opportunities; and To plan actions and secure resources to respond.

A comprehensive community arts and cultural plan (or cultural plan) is a "community-wide plan for broadly defined arts & culture: arts, humanities, ethnic cultures, festivals, historic preservation, community development, social service, open spaces, economic development, etc." and a community cultural assessment is the "comprehensive identification and analysis of a community's cultural resources and needs."

(In the author's opinion, the draft Arts and Culture Element in the DC Comprehensive Plan is more a collection of various programs, and not a comprehensive plan. Additionally, the Comp Plan lacks an element on Tourism Development and Management. Previous plans for creating a Downtown Arts Plan and a "Living Downtown" are not available online. )

Funding and management of local cultural assets Many local museums of all sorts have been and continue to be created, ranging from house museums, African-American history and culture centers and museums, children's museums, transit museums and collections, etc.

The traditional local response of creating a house museum to save and utilize a local historic landmark or the creation of a local historical society to collect and save local knicknacks is becoming a problem in terms of providing quality experiences. And as such offerings proliferate, they are increasingly difficult to fund, especially given the budget pressures faced by local and state governments.

According to the Association for the Preservation of Virginian Antiquities, "as the nation becomes clogged with historic houses and sites, [we are] less able to care for all of them with public funds or private donations,[and] we need to explore alternative solutions."

Newspapers across the country too often run stories about the opening of new museums and programs and not too much later appear follow up stories about problems and failures and funding shortages.

African-American museums in Philadelphia and Louisville face severe funding crises, even as new museums are being created in those cities. The African-American Museum in Detroit opened a renovation and expansion to the tune of $12 million and within less than one year of the opening the organization was on the ropes financially.

The Baltimore City Life Museum failed in the late 1990s (before Baltimore had created the Baltimore Heritage Area and during trying financial times). Open air museums such as Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, and local historical societies such as the Maryland Historical Society and the New-York Historical Society have also experienced or are experiencing great financial difficulties.

The new Lewis African American Culture Museum in Baltimore avoids this problem because the State of Maryland, which created the institution under the auspices of the State Department of Housing and Community Development, committed to the long-term provision of 50% of the Museum's operations budget, and a significant amount towards initial construction. This provides a significant safety net not enjoyed by most local museums.

Even while the Maryland Historical Society currently is experiencing financial hardship, the City of Baltimore, County of Baltimore and private benefactors are providing funds to allow the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walthers Museum to be open without charging admissions, beginning October 1, 2006.

Similarly, the State Library, Museum and Archives located in Augusta, Maine doesn't face the typical year-to-year funding vagaries of a local institution, although like other such institutions around the country does experience ebbs and flow due to changes in political adminstration, which can lead to decreased support for cultural resources, as well as overall budgetary pressures that are increasingly experienced by state and local jurisdictions throughout the United States.

Typically, cultural resources are funded through a variety of sources including from regular government funding sources (property and/or income taxes), special assessments and bonds, and tourism and entertainment taxes, ranging from special taxes on hotel rooms, restaurant meals, car rental, and sporting and entertainment events.

Entities supplement their budgets through membership development and fundraising, retail sales, publishing, and facilities rental. (In Washington, DC, the National Building Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts generate significant revenues from facilities rentals. The Reynolds Center of the Smithsonian looks to do so when the Central Courtyard is enclosed by a Norman Foster-designed glass roof.)

In DC most tourism tax revenues are directed towards the Convention Center and to the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation, which is the local "convention and visitors bureau" tasked with promoting convention business and other tourism development efforts. The WCTC and the Deputy Mayor's Office of Planning and Economic Development provides some financial support to local cultural heritage efforts.

In Orlando and other jurisdictions there has been greater discussion of redirecting some of the tourism tax stream towards the support of cultural activities. Sometimes this runs into opposition over hotel and hospital industry preference for a focus on additional tourism marketing activities or over support for professional sports related arena and stadium development.

DC funds a variety of cultural activities. In addition to those programs funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, other support is provided in what appears to be an ad-hoc, dis-coordinated fashion. Typically, institutions approach individual Councilmembers or the Mayor's Office or agencies, and earmarks are included in various budgets, or otherwise special programs created (such as TIF programs).This has the disadvantage of being unfair, without transparency, and lacking an overall management plan and process, it is not clear that priorities are set, and funds allocated accordingly.

Proposals/Recommendations

1. That DC develop a comprehensive cultural development, management, and funding plan, setting priorities for the development, harvesting, and funding of cultural resources assets;

2. And consider the development of an allied tourism management and development plan, either separately or within the same framework;

3. create a comprehensive Cultural Resources Management office*, likely merging a variety of programs and assets currently spread around various agencies

4. Provide funding, both for capital improvements and operations, that that also considers providing significant ongoing funding to cultural resources deemed important.

5. Develop an open and transparent grant process.* Programs that could be included:

(Feel free to chime in on suggestions for improvements).

The first overall categorization is type, and within types you can separate out city-wide from more neighborhood-based and oriented resources.

heritage/history/visitor services - city wide
Cultural Tourism DC; City Museum/HSW; DC Historic Preservation Office; DC Main Streets Program; DC Archives; Sumner School Museum and Archives (DCPS); The Washingtoniana Collection and the Peabody Room are particularly important related collections, as are special collections at institutions such as GWU's Gelman Library and the Moorland-Spingarn Collection at Howard University;

heritage/history/visitor/cultural/arts services - neighborhood
individual Main Street programs, Brookland Visitors Center; Peabody Room; the developing Mary Church Terrell House and Le Droit Park Visitors Center (in formation); Military Road School; support of neighborhood festivals-community days; community-based arts programs

Public and Farmers Markets
Eastern Market (publicly-owned), Maine Avenue Seafood Market, the Capital City Market (privately owned) and farmers markets

arts generally
DC Commission on the Arts, Cultural Extension Program (not currently extant); support of other cultural facilities; expansion of Arts on Foot into a more than one day Artscape-like extravaganza

theater/performing arts/cinema
Lincoln Theater; Howard Theater; Takoma Theater, Avalon Theater; Ticketplace

visual and decorative arts*
Corcoran Museum; Phillips Collection; Textile Museum; Washington Glass School; Washington Sculpture Center

support for artists specifically
?

* Can separate out schools-teaching-community learning centers

Adding parks and libraries might be a bit much, but the Central Library, including a variety of special collections, could be included.

Umm, duh, when military bases close, local businesses suffer

I know that media have to report on what is happening "now", but I remember back to high school, and reading about the impact of military base closures on local economies including the closure of air force bases in Michigan, which had been closed as the effects of the Cold War began to wane and the military no longer felt the need to have as many air force installations across the northern part of the U.S.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that restaurants and liquor stores are losing business now that the Walter Reed Medical Center has closed. See "Walter Reed closes, nearby businesses go bust" from WTOP Radio and the AOL story from 2005, "Military Base Closures and the Towns They Leave Behind."

From the AOL story:

When a military facility closes, the effects ripple throughout the surrounding community as families lose their neighbors, businesses lose their customers and workers lose their jobs. In a thriving city, a closure can be an adrenalin shot to the local economy as hundreds of acres of land are suddenly made available for municipal growth and expansion. But for many communities -- especially in rural or suburban areas -- closure can translate into years of struggle, as municipal planners strain to fill the empty spaces that the military leaves behind.

From the WTOP story:

Kate Singh, co-owner of Mayfair Liquors on Georgia Avenue near the hospital, says when Walter Reed essentially shut down, her business took a beating.

"It's like, you know, a tsunami came," she says. Singh says business is down 75 percent and she spends her days looking at the door. "I'm so overwhelmed. All day long, I'm looking at the door, and wondering is someone walking in here?"

She's had to let three employees go and now mans the store by herself.

The issue is that this was predictable and the impact on these businesses could have been mitigated with advanced planning and programs.

From the Congressional Research Service report, Military Base Closures: Socioeconomic Impacts:

The loss of related jobs, and efforts to replace them and to implement a viable base reuse plan, can pose significant challenges for affected communities. However, while base closures and realignments often create socioeconomic distress in communities initially, research has shown that they generally have not had the dire effects that many communities expected. For rural areas, however, the impacts can be greater and the economic recovery slower. Drawing from existing studies, this report assesses the potential community impacts and proposals for minimizing those impacts.

Granted, over time "DC" will recover greatly from being able to redevelop the military base into a mixed use community. But that will come at some individual cost, to owners of businesses like Mayfair Liquors, who won't be able to survive the 10 to 20 year process that redevelopment will take.

I don't know if the DC Office of Planning and Economic Development asked for mitigation monies to address the loss of business on Georgia Avenue in DC. I did write about this last year, spurred by a blog entry that Casey Anderson of Silver Spring wrote earlier last year. See "Impact of the closure of Walter Reed Hospital on Silver Spring."

I guess I should have considered mitigation issues then...

Marilyn Monroe statue defaced in Chicago

Image caption: A worker cleans paint off the 26-foot Marilyn Monroe statue that was vandalized early Tuesday at Pioneer Court in downtown Chicago. (José M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

(For the third time.) See "Vandals splash Monroe statue with red paint" from the Chicago Tribune.

Is real estate reporting changing somewhat towards walkability (and bikeability)

According to Christopher Leinberger's The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream, 60% of people are willing to live in walkable places, but most of the available housing market is focused on traditional suburban car-dependent housing.

The increased in-migration to center cities and towns in inner ring suburbs indicates that more people are looking for places that are no so car-dependent.

I haven't done a full-blown "content" analysis, but the regular feature in the Saturday Real Estate section of the Washington Post seems to be changing somewhat and acknowledging this somewhat, in terms of how it describes neighborhoods in terms of their access to biking trails and transit, as well as walkability. Last week's feature, "Where we Live: Warwick Village," about the Warwick Village neighborhood in Alexandria had multiple paragraphs on the walkability element--more writing about this factor than any of the features that I remember even over the past two years.

From the article:

“I thought I wanted the suburban dream,” he said. “I hated it.” Foley, a chef, didn’t like having to drive everywhere, and he didn’t like spending his weekends mowing his lawn and tending to a house that felt too big. After about five years, he sold the house in Springfield and moved back to Warwick Village. ...

“We love the neighborhood,” he said. “You can walk to everything . . . and something about the townhouse setup seems to encourage neighborliness. You see people sitting on their front steps talking.” ...

The neighborhood, which spreads over 12 hilly streets, is just a few miles south of Washington and an easy commute downtown by bus and Metro. It also borders the trendy Del Ray neighborhood. Mount Vernon Avenue — Del Ray’s lively main street, lined with shops and restaurants — is about a 10-minute walk away. Residents can also walk to five neighborhood parks, two farmers markets and other amenities.

Still, center cities can't take their competitiveness on these factors for granted. Leinberger says that 70% of the demand for walkable neighborhoods will be met by suburban communities.

Historic house expos

On Saturday October 8th, the DC Preservation League is sponsoring a historic house expo in Columbia Heights.

Historic House Toolbox
Saturday, October 8, 2011
All Souls Church, Unitarian
1500 Harvard Street, NW
10:00AM-1:00PM
Metro: Columbia Heights (Green Line)

Join DC Preservation League and Historic Mount Pleasant for the opportunity to receive FREE individualized attention from contractors and seasoned professionals who will answer your questions on a range of topics including: working with architects and contractors, roofing, wood windows, masonry, ironwork, painting, energy efficiency and much more.

Two on-site learning sessions will focus on researching the history of your property; and energy audits and greening your house without compromising its historic integrity.

FREE and Open to the Public
Registration Required


Greater Mid-Atlantic Historic Home Show & Designer Craftsmen Show
October 28-30
Fredericksburg, VA

Old House Journal Magazine is sponsoring a similar but much bigger program in late October. I hope to be able to attend it myself.

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I think these kinds of programs are very important because too often, preservationists (or governments generally) "dictate" rules without providing the kind of assistance or education you need in order to carry out the rules efficiently and cost-effectively. This is different from manuals and such. DC publishes great resources, as does the Federal Historic Preservation Program, and many other preservation organizations do as well. E.g., the Capitol Hill Restoration Society has great publications on topics relevant to the historic building stock of that neighborhood.

In a world where most tradespeople focus on new construction, finding people who can do high quality work on older houses is difficult, even in a place like Washington, DC, which has at least 100,000 buildings dating before 1930.

These kinds of trade shows are great places to learn from presentations, but also from the exhibitors, and when you can do contractor consultations too, that's helpful as well.

Earth Advantage Institute Launches Certification Pilot for Vibrant, Livable Eco Neighborhoods

Below is an email press release on something quite interesting, an eco or sustainability measure for neighborhoods that is not associated with LEED (Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design) or LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development), the system devised and managed by the US Green Building Council. The problem with LEED is that it is focused on new construction and inadequately measures sustainability factors for already existing places.

PORTLAND, Ore., September 27, 2011 -- Earth Advantage Institute, a nonprofit green building resource that has certified more than 11,000 homes nationally, invites Expressions of Interest (EOI) to participate in an innovative Eco Neighborhoods pilot program that will rate and certify the livability and accomplishments of existing neighborhoods. The request for EOIs is intended to determine whether there is sufficient market interest in such a certification program. EOIs will be accepted until November 30, 2011.

Eco Neighborhoods Concept
Neighborhoods are critical elements of community vitality and prosperity, and essential contributors to social, economic, and environmental well-being. A wide variety of neighborhoods across the country are working to create exceptionally livable residential and commercial districts, including:

- Residential neighborhoods
- Public housing projects
- Business districts
- Office and industrial parks
- Shopping centers
- Resorts
- Education and medical campuses
- Military housing areas

Certifying the accomplishments of these existing neighborhoods can strengthen local participation, reinforce values, and improve outcomes. To achieve these results, the Eco Neighborhoods concept is distinguished in two respects. First, it will focus on existing, fully developed neighborhoods that are at least five years old and have a demonstrated record of accomplishments. Second, the program’s rating and certification will be grounded in the principles of sustainability, but, importantly, will “go beyond green” to encompass a broader set of social, economic, and cultural accomplishments.

For example, Eco Neighborhoods may have deployed some of the following measures:

Natural Capital
Land – open space protection; erosion prevention
Air – boiler pollution emission retrofits; truck idling reductions
Water – wetlands restoration; onsite stormwater treatment
Climate – electric vehicle-sharing; heat island reduction

Built Capital
Businesses – incubator start-up facility; mentoring program
Transportation- pedestrian/bicycle facility investments; transit service expansion
Energy – onsite renewable power generation; building efficiency retrofits
Wastes - central composting stations; hazardous waste collection

Social Capital
Governance – exemplary inclusion/participation in civic organizations
Social services – tool-sharing program; emergency preparedness training
Cultural institutions – social/commemorative events; historic/cultural exhibitions
Equity – first-time homebuyer assistance; nutrition information access

Human Capital
Health – low-allergen landscaping; seniors active living program
Education – adult literacy program; youth internships
Employment – job training program; local hiring preferences
Recreation – youth athletic league; park improvements

For purposes of this request, “existing neighborhoods” are buildings or groups of buildings that have been constructed and occupied for at least five years, including, but not limited to, residential areas, condominiums, public housing projects, business districts, office/industrial parks, shopping centers, resorts, institutional campuses, and military housing areas. There is no minimum or maximum number of buildings or acres required for an existing neighborhood.

Who May be Interested
Earth Advantage encourages a broad range of organizations to submit EOIs. Potential responders may include, but are not limited to, neighborhood and homeowner associations; public housing tenant associations; business improvement districts and transportation management organizations; community development corporations; and owners/managers of resorts, shopping centers, office/industrial parks, institutional campuses, and military installation housing areas.

To Obtain the Request for EOIs

Earth Advantage Institute
Earth Advantage Institute is a national nonprofit organization that works with the building industry to implement sustainable building practices. Its mission is to advance green building science and create an immediate, practical and cost-effective path to sustainability and reduction of carbon in the built environment. The organization achieves its objectives through an innovative range of programs for certification of high performance homes, remodels, sustainable communities, and commercial spaces. More information is available at www.earthadvantage.org.

For more information contact:

Tom Breunig
Earth Advantage Institute
(503) 968-7160

Local political graffiti in Toronto

Graffiti depiction of Mayor Rob Ford, Toronto, by Deadboy. Photo: Stephanie Findlay/Toronto Star.

Typical graffiti is mostly self-indulgent, as it is about an individual making his/her mark, but isn't a statement of much of anything outside of the individual. It can be relatively dull or quite interesting, artistically speaking. When you see political graffiti it tends to be about national or international issues, not local ones.

-- commentary on gentrification in Shaw (no longer extant)

-- anti-gentrification, anti-change, anti-white people graffiti near Howard University, 2005, by Beth Lawrence

-- Colt 45 graffiti ad (the commodification of graffiti), Flickr photo by the depths

-- typical graffiti on a storefront roll down security door, H Street NE

-- graffiti on railroad track retaining walls, Brookland Metro Station, DC

In Toronto, "Deadboy" has produced graffiti about Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug Ford, a Toronto City Councilman. See "Mayor Ford's antics breathes new life into Deadboy's graffiti art" from the Toronto Star.

Rob Ford, a kind of Tea Party-like Christopher Christie anti-government candidate ("there's billions of dollars of waste" in the city government), won the election and since has applied scorched earth policies and tactics along with his brother, such as the junking of the acclaimed Transit City expansion program in favor of a limited expansion of a likely to be underutilized subway extension, Doug Ford's attempt to build a shopping mall and such on the Toronto Waterfront, and proposed massive cuts to city programs.

Only the heads, replaced with Rob and Doug Ford, differ from the illustrations of Tweedledum and Tweedledee by British political cartoonist John Tenniel that appeared in a 1865 Lewis Carroll edition. STEPHANIE FINDLAY/TORONTO STAR.

In "Metro Hall gets graffiti-bombed," the Toronto Globe & Mail places Deadboy in the context of Toronto's new Graffiti Management Plan. From the article:

The showcase follows on the heels of Toronto’s new graffiti management plan, born from months of public consultation in the wake of a failed graffiti crackdown this winter. Passed by council in June, this radical shift in policy aims to distinguish graffiti vandalism from other forms of street art.

A staff panel and soon-to-be-established graffiti registry will help police differentiate between permitted, legally commissioned street art and vandalism. Designated “Graffiti Alleys,” located along Queen West, have been declared exempt from graffiti bylaw enforcement.

Mr. Lialias based the concept for SAS on various other city models, taking up the issue after learning that the mayor’s “War on Graffiti” in February forced business owners – many running small stores or galleries along the Queen West strip – to pay up to $10,000 for the removal of tags. Mr. Lialias teamed up with the city to consult both street artists and Business Improvement Areas, a process that culminated in the graffiti management plan.

-- Toronto's Street Art Showcase, digital projection of street art images onto a public building

-- Toronto Graffiti Management Plan

Quotes of the day: architecture and planning

From the review of the documentary "Urbanized" by Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times, "Critic's Notebook: 'Urbanized' examines the growth of city life."

-- Urbanized: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit

From the article:

And it includes the most memorable critique I've yet heard of Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation, a nonprofit group that hired several talented architects, including Thom Mayne, Shigeru Ban and David Adjaye, to build sustainable prototypes for new housing after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. The analysis comes — in martini-dry form — from Grover Mouton, director of the Regional Urban Design Center at Tulane.

He refers to Pitt with what is either genuine or tongue-in-cheek naivete — I suspect the latter — as "the movie star," professing to have forgotten his name. And he zeros in on the limitations of projects like Make It Right, which wound up producing a series of architectural one-offs rather than a blueprint for sustainable development in New Orleans at the level of the block or neighborhood.

"The problem with the Lower Ninth Ward is that there is no urban-design recovery plan," Mouton says. "It's a bunch of architects from the West Coast coming in doing all these buildings. To do something like that without a plan — and without a landscape plan, or a landscape architect — goes against every simple little rule" of urban planning and civic design.

Mouton concludes with a line that might as well serve as the mission statement for "Urbanized," given the movie's interest in looking beyond the flash created by high-profile architectural icons to understand the role of comprehensive, forward-looking planning in improving city life.

"Just because the architects are so divinely wonderful," Mouton says, "isn't going to make the place wonderful."

Calgary non-statutory Center City illumination design guidelines

Merriam Theater, Philadelphia. Philadelphia Inquirer photo by David M. Warren. Architectural lighting project, Holidays 2007, by Center City District BID, with Lightiing Practice, Artlumiere, Phillips Lighting, and Vitetta.

For architectural lighting and other illumination questions: CENTRE CITY ILLUMINATION GUIDELINES: Illumination Solutions within the Context of the Centre City Plan

Interestingly, they use a framework based on the concepts expressed by Kevin Lynch in Image of the City, a study of how people make sense of their community, and what Lynch calls "legibility." According to Wikipedia:

Lynch reported that users understood their surroundings in consistent and predictable ways, forming mental maps with five elements:

• paths, the streets, sidewalks, trails, and other channels in which people travel;
• edges, perceived boundaries such as walls, buildings, and shorelines;
• districts, relatively large sections of the city distinguished by some identity or character;
• nodes, focal points, intersections or loci;
• landmarks, readily identifiable objects which serve as external reference points.

In the same book Lynch also coined the words "imageability" and "wayfinding".

The Calgary Illumination guidelines refine this list by adding heritage resources and entries/gateways as additional categories.

DC Backyard Habitat-Native plant landscaping workshop

Yesterday I went to a DC Department of Environment workshop on backyard habitats, native plant landscaping. It was very good. A lot of information on why native plants are superior in terms of providing food and cover for native insects and wildlife. We planted some in demonstration plots at the Girard Street Park in Columbia Heights, and even got to take some plants home.

There should be one more program in October, although it isn't listed on the schedule on the webpage for the backyard habitat program. There is contact info listed at the end of the screen.

Another backyard habitat program is sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, and Takoma Park Maryland is very active with it as is Rockville. There are two levels of certification, the individual household and the community. See "Rockville needs 60 more residences to be certified as Community Wildlife Habitat" and "Takoma Park certified as community wildlife habitat" from the Gazette.

-- What Does it Take to Become a Certified Community Wildlife Habitat Like Takoma Park, Maryland?, National Wildlife Federation

-- "Making a Habit of Habitat," NWF

One of the items we received was a copy of the manual, Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat & Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed, published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I don't know if they publish similar manuals for other parts of the U.S. It's a great guidebook for identifying plants, e.g., in our backyard we have some variants of asters (I think), the white snakeroot and the (purple) mistflower.

The first year we were here--they don't flower til October--I thought they were weeds, and pulled them. Then we learned while touring the grounds of Winterthur that they were "asters," native plants, which run rampant on the meadows there.

Billboard ad for Rail-Volution conference, October 16th-19th

At 5th and Kennedy Streets NW, Washington, DC

-- Rail-volution conference website

Marijuana dispensaries and public safety

Comic: Pardon my Planet by Vic Lee, 9/8/2011.

I am libertarian about drug policy. I'd rather that "illegal" drugs be legalized, and money spent on interdiction should instead be spent on rehab and poverty reduction, even though at the same time I don't believe in using drugs or hanging with people who do.

Still, I found it very interesting that a study by the RAND Institute found that in areas where there are marijuana dispensaries in the city there is less crime (California was the first state to pass a "medical marijuana" legalization initiative). See "Rand study finds less crime near pot dispensaries: Crimes such as assaults and thefts rose in areas of L.A. where the shops were forced to close last summer, researchers say. The city attorney's office and a sheriff's spokesman dispute the report's conclusions" and "Putting pot in its place" from the Los Angeles Times).

It's not unlike the inadvertent research in Colorado that found that deaths from smoking related diseases declined with laws requiring no smoking policies in public accommodations such as restaurants, and increased when the laws were repealed.

Counter this too with the findings that the concentration of alcohol sales establishments (liquor, beer, wine) is associated with increases in crime and disorder. (e.g., Waller, L.A., Zhu, L., Gotway, C.A., Gorman, D.M. & Gruenewald, P.G. (in press). Quantifying geographic variations in associations between alcohol distribution and violence: a comparison of geographically weighted regression and spatially varying coefficient models. Stochastic Research and Risk Assessment).

Still, there would have to be laws against driving "under the influence," as well as strong management and security for the "stores," and robust regulatory processes. Hey, I am sure that if legal, CVS, Walgreens, and other pharmacy chains would be happy to sell the goods...

Depending on what the definition of "is" is: Local DC edition

with apologies to Bill Clinton (see "Bill Clinton and the Meaning of 'Is'" by Timothy Noah from Slate Magazine), definition is an issue when it comes to DC Councilmember Jim Graham's defense of his not reporting an alleged attempt to bribe him. See his definitional defense in "Stop calling it a 'bribe'" from the Washington Post.

WalkingTown & BikingTown DC

Aerial view, U.S. Capitol Grounds. Image: Architect of the Capitol.

I have been remiss in not mentioning that this weekend and next weekend, CulturalTourismDC is once again holding WalkingTownDC and BikingTownDC, walking and biking tours of various places across the city.

-- WalkingTownDC-BikingTownDC website

Many of the tours require reservations.

There are still many interesting tours today, and next weekend, plus next week there will be lunchtime and evening "happy hour" tours.

Interesting topics include the Swampoodle neighborhood that is now "NoMA" (although the registration list is full), tours of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, which were designed by Olmsted and Vaux, the Park View neighborhood adjacent to the Petworth Metro Station, the Rock Creek Cemetery), Georgetown, previews of upcoming "heritage trails," a fitness oriented walk of some of the city's circles and squares, the art collection at the Convention Center, a bilingual tour of some of the Hispanic related sites in the city, and one focused on sites related to the "temperance" movement.

BikingTown tours include the monuments, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail led by Councilmember Tommy Wells, the National Arboretum, a Coffee House "Bar" Crawl, and the Civil War Defenses of the city ("Fort Circle Parks").

A truly community planned park: Dufferin Grove Park, Toronto

Image: Tyler Anderson/National Post. Area residents (R to L) Jacqueline Bergen, Leslie MacKay and Astrid Yates cook on a fire and try to stay warm in the increasingly colder evening air at Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto.

The National Post reports, in Dufferin Grove Park isn't like any other in the city, and the locals aim to keep it that way," about a truly unique park from the standpoint of city park systems.

-- Friends of Dufferin Grove Park: Home Page

-- "The Big Backyard: Neighborhood Park Becomes Center of Community Activity," (PPS)

From the article:

On Thursday afternoon at the Organic Farmer's Market in Dufferin Grove Park - wading through throngs that lined up to purchase flowers, bunches of deep-purple beets, sheep's milk and vegan spelt patties (from a groovy looking Rasta guy) - I bought a hearty loaf of whole wheat bread for $4.50.

City of Toronto staff baked this loaf of bread in an outdoor, wood-fired brick bake oven designed by the community and built, in 1995, with money from the Ontario Social Development Council.

At no other place in town can you buy city-baked bread; the baking program is just one of dozens of what city bureaucrats call "anomalies" at Dufferin Grove Park. The park also gives out permits for nightly bonfires at two fire pits, boasts a huge sand pit with shovels and a tap with running water, packed with kids, when the weather is good; offers a snack cart by the wading pool featuring noodle salads, organic hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, at $2 to $3 each (though all food in the park is pay-what-you can). Up to 200 people each week show up for Friday Night Suppers. Last week's supper took in $2,500.

In winter at the rink house, park staff serve up piping-hot squash, lentil and other soups in reusable bowls, hot chocolate, mini-pizzas (75¢) and staff-baked cookies, offer skate rentals for $2 and keep a wood-fire crackling in the skate house, which is always crammed with locals. At 6.3 hectares, the park is one of the city's busiest.

(Years ago, I remember reading about a community oven operation in Australia...)

Joseph Passonneau (obituary)

Image of the bike path along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. From Rocky Mountain Scenery.

Yesterday's Washington Post ran an obituary for Joseph Passonneau, one of the city's leading urban designers.

He is known for his work on DC urban design issues--e.g., he suggested that the Southeast-Southwest Freeway be converted to an at-surface boulevard, and is the author of Washington through Two Centuries: A History in Maps and Images, although the book is focused on the central business district (Downtown), and it has a great set of maps of the district at different points over the past 200 years.

And in the Catholic U architecture library, I came across the Central Washington Transportation and Civic Design Study from 1977, which had, among other graphics, this one, which I publish in various blog entries from time to time.


But the obituary, and two from St. Louis, "Joseph Passonneau dies, architect who fought to build Arch" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch,) and "Joseph Passonneau: Architect and engineer who designed part of interstate highway system" (far more detailed than the others, from the St. Louis Beacon), informed me about stuff I didn't know, that he had been dean of the school of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and he was instrumental in the development of the Gateway Arch there.

Plus, I had no idea he was one of the lead designers of the Glenwood Canyon section of Interstate 70 in Colorado (see "Glenwood Canyon 12 Years Later" from Public Roads. From the standpoint of integrating bicycling as a mode of transportation, and providing connections to park resources, this freeway project is an outlier in the history of U.S. freeway building--the only fault I have "with the project" is that for whatever reason, the Federal Highway Administration didn't capture these practices and processes and communicate them far and wide to the highway departments in other states.

From the St. Louis Beacon article:

Glenwood Canyon in Colorado has been the primary route through the Rocky Mountains since before wagon trains gave way to the iron horse. But a 30-year controversy over environmental concerns, aesthetics and economics kept the canyon outside of the interstate highway system until 1992. Finally, a long-planned engineering feat by Passonneau and fellow architect Edgardo Contin transformed the 2000-foot-deep I-70 passageway into a transportation work of art.

"It's a monumental accomplishment of great beauty and engineering skill," said Eugene Mackey III, an architect and former student of Mr. Passonneau. "His negotiation with the public was also an extraordinary accomplishment."

The canyon highway's final design included 40 bridges and viaducts, five tunnel bores (traffic openings) and 15 miles of retaining walls for a stretch of freeway 12 miles long.

In 2000, Mr. Passonneau received the Presidential Award for Design Excellence from President Bill Clinton for the canyon work.

Mr. Passonneau's daughter said the beauty of the Glenwood Canyon project epitomized her father's philosophy of his work. "He wanted to ensure that the ecological impact was minimal," Polly Passonneau said. "His maximum focus was on the human."

Commercial district revitalization planning needs to focus more on mobility, not just retail

If I ever do another commercial district revitalization framework plan, I will definitely look into the idea of the district-wide provision of valet parking at night. See "Newtown Borough considering valet parking for its busy main street" from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

From the article:

"I'm not aware of any other town that offers valet parking. It's time to capitalize on it," David Witchell, owner of a salon and spa on State Street and one of two merchants pushing the idea, said last week. "If shoppers know they can pull up and get a map of the business district, business cards and coupons, they'll come."

Under a proposal the Borough Council is considering, customers of the community's 100 or so businesses could drop off their cars in the middle of a block on weekends for a flat fee of $7, freeing up spaces along State Street. The trial would run through the end of the year and then be evaluated.

Britain's impressive tourism promotion campaign

It is only in the last year or so that the US Government has committed to doing focused promotion of the US as a tourist destination for international travellers, after a great deal of lobbying by the tourism-related industry, including advocacy by Jonathan Tisch of Loews Hotels ("Jonathan Tisch: Promoting America" from Huffington Post).

Britain is rolling out a great set of tourism promotional posters in advance of next year's Olympics in London. See "Is Britain Great or Broken? Critics accuse Cameron of delivering mixed messages as £500,000 tourism poster campaign is rolled out" from the Daily Mail.

Of course, it's controversial and not everyone believes it's a good thing. I'm impressed though...


The article shows 10 images in all.

Insights from the sports pages relevant to local government

Long time readers know that I am not into professional sports generally, and this usually carries over into lack of support for publicly-funded stadiums and arenas. But I do skim the sports pages in the newspapers, although I am mostly focused on stories related to the politics and business of sports, and those related to organizational behavior.

Today's column in the Post by Sally Jenkins, "Washington Redskins 2011: No more false hope," is about the recent success of Washington Redskins football team and has a couple of strong paragraphs that I think are directly relevant to thinking about local government in DC (e.g., "D.C. Council's bickering could be omen" from the Examiner) and Prince George's County, Maryland (e.g., "Prince George’s economic development fund bill advances" and the column by Robert McCartney "Landslide confirms voters' approval of county leader's agenda" from the Post).

Jenkins writes:

“Guys are doing their jobs, showing up and being professionals and that’s what I like about it,” says Lorenzo Alexander. Shanahan “holds everybody accountable no matter who you are, or how much you make. Sometimes around the league you get perception if you make more money you can get away with more. I think he actually holds those guys more accountable, because they’re our leaders and they should be showing up and being a good example for the younger guys. Before, I don’t think you saw that going on, especially here.” ...

The reality is that it’s almost impossible to make 53 grown men cooperate on anything if your basic authority structure lacks integrity. Uneven standards undermine belief in the basic competency of the organization. Seemingly silly penalties lead to long-yardage third downs — which in turn lead to turnovers and sacks. And so on. Rules, on the other hand, even seemingly silly ones, create the orderly environment that leads to attention to detail that in turn leads to success.

It may be too early to say that the Redskins have completed the transformation to a winning organization, but they are certainly a disciplined one. ... Look at the players Shanahan subtracted from the locker room, and look at who he replaced them with, and in every instance his personnel moves bespoke discipline. He went for good value, lower profile and high character guys who were, above all, disciplined themselves.

“He says something and he does exactly what he says,” remarks Hightower. “He always talks about a standard, but it’s one thing to talk about a standard and another to have a standard, and to enforce it on a daily basis. The thing you won’t find in this locker room is confusion, about our game plan, or our expectation of you and the team. There is no confusion in this locker room, it’s cut and dried. You may like or dislike it but it’s something you have to respect.”

DC City Council is out of control. And it's because their "basic authority structure lacks integrity."

And while Robert McCartney thinks that the "Results of primary show [Prince George's County Executive] Baker is off to a solid start," I am actually somewhat concerned for two reasons.

(1) The support of Baker's election team probably was essential to the success of Derrick Davis in winning the primary and while Baker "will have an important new ally on the council" at the same time it reminds me of the quid pro quo operations that happened in DC with Mayor Fenty's involvement in the election to the City Council of his replacement--his choice, funded by his supporters, won. And the exact same thing happened in Ward 7 with Yvette Alexander and then Council Chairman (now Mayor) Vincent Gray.

Maybe Derrick Davis is actually the best, most independent and reliable person to represent that district. I hope so. But you have to wonder is this like what happened in DC in 2006/2007, which has significantly shaped the state of DC's local political environment today?

Is Baker building a machine or just working to get the best people elected? We don't know, but as Robert Michels in the classic political science book Political Parties, published in 1911, the "iron law of oligarchy" rules.

... all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic or autocratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop into oligarchies. The reasons behind the oligarchization process are: the indispensability of leadership; the tendency of all groups, including the organization leadership, to defend their interests; and the passivity of the led individuals more often than not taking the form of actual gratitude towards the leaders. (Wikipedia)

(2) Similarly, the desires expressed by the County Executive's team to have limited review of their management of the $50 million fund for economic development incentives, allegedly because of past improprieties by the County Council, is equally troubling, because the executive branch of government tends to manipulate these kinds of incentive programs all the time in other jurisdictions, be it the U.S. Department of Energy and Solyndra, or Gov. Rick Perry and his management of Texas' Emerging Technology Fund, or some of the various tax increment financing deals in DC.

If Rushern Baker truly wanted to build a new structure for ethical activity in Prince George's County, he ought to be the first person calling for oversight of this fund--for both grants and loans.

When either the County Council or the County Executive/Executive Branch have minimal oversight and accountability, problems are more likely, not less likely, to occur.

It's about the "basic authority structure" and "integrity."

Car Free Day is today

In honor of World Car Free Day and the first full year of service for the Capital Bikeshare program in DC and Arlington County, Virginia, there will be an event at Yards Park, from 6pm to 9pm tonight. There will be beer, moonbounces, free tee shirts to the first 1,000 people, and other stuff--hopefully it won't rain.

-- Capital Bikeshare Birthday Bash

-- Arlington County Car-Free Diet

-- Car Free Metro DC

The Post also has a blog story, "Area drivers pledge to go car-free today," and a Dr. Gridlock column, "Car-free, car-lite or on the road as normal? What's your pledge?," which reports that 11,000 people pledged to be car free today--not much I know...

Plus this piece on the bikesharing program, "Mental health study tries Capital Bikeshare as therapy."

On the other hand, in honor of World Car Free Day, the Washington Examiner has an editorial about how cars promote freedom and mobility, "Automobiles gave Americans mobility, prosperity and greater freedom."

-- World Carfree Day

-- How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish.

I'm not going to say that isn't true, but it can come at a much greater cost to society, because in this case individual freedom as a result of the car usually is associated with great costs for the group, be it the impacts of automobility on land use, the environment, general health, personal health, especially obesity, etc.
Image caption: The Baltimore and Washington areas are the two smoggiest cities on the East Coast, according to a report released Wednesday. Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images.

Of course, one reason that the Examiner probably has a hard time balancing the benefits to the individual at the cost of the group is that the newspaper's owner made his original fortune on oil production...

So it's interesting that two other articles in the same paper discuss problems that result from rampant automobility, "Baltimore, D.C. among nation's smoggiest cities" and the editorial "Transit-oriented paradox in Tysons Corner," which doesn't address directly the fact that it will be expensive to retrofit Tysons Corner for walkability, because the type of road-based automobile-focused development pattern that typified the area "forgot" to accommodate other modes, such as by not providing sidewalks and through routes for pedestrians.

Plus, today's Washington Post has an article about the amount of out-of-county travel in the Washington region, mostly by car, to get to work, Census: More Maryland and Virginia drivers commute to another county than other people in the U.S.

And even though there are serious flaws with the methodology, which is focused on studying freeway congestion mostly, not intra-city mobility (see Driven Apart: Why sprawl, not insufficient roads, is the real cause of traffic congestion from CEO for Cities), the DC area ranks #2 in the nation for traffic congestion, according to the annual report on Urban Mobility by the Texas Transportation Institute.

How much mobility and prosperity do you really have when you spend so much time sitting in traffic?

At least on transit you can read, and if you are walking or biking to get to and from place to place, you get exercise too.

Montreal's "Right of Initiative to Public Consultation"

In Montreal, citizens have the right to petition citywide and/or borough governments to take up an issue. The process requires that 15,000 people, aged 15 or older and resident in Montreal, over a three-month period, sign a petition calling for the creation and implementation of a public consultation process on a particular issue.

-- Office de Publique de Consultation de Montreal

-- Right of Initiative to Public Consultations

-- THE CHALLENGE OF PARTICIPATION: Montreal's public consultation and participation policy

-- City of Montreal Task Force on Democracy

-- Taking Part in Consultation: Becoming Informed, Asking Questions, and Expressing Opinions | A Practical Guide for Citizens

A petition is currently being circulated to address urban agriculture issues. See "Bumper crop ... in the city" from the Montreal Gazette. The article is a pretty good discussion of the issues concerning the state of urban agriculture in cities across North America.

-- Agriculture Montreal Work Group on Urban Agriculture

Think global, act local: DC Taxation edition

Tee shirt available from Zazzle.

The media is full of articles today about yesterday's DC City Council decision to raise the top rate on the city's income tax, such as this one from the Washington Post, "D.C. Council agrees to raise taxes on city’s wealthiest residents."

From the article:

In the 7 to 6 vote, the council agreed to increase the income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 8.95 percent on about 6,000 District residents who earn more than $350,000 a year. The tax increase puts the District at the center of the national debate about whether the wealthy should share a greater tax burden. Mayor Vincent C. Gray is expected to sign the tax increase into law.

DC is unusual in that 100% of the income tax--assessed only on residents--remains within the city.

(Some states, such as Maryland, share the "state" income taxes with the localities. And some cities have an income tax, designed to reap revenues from non-residents.)

The Post is up in arms about the tax increase, according to this editorial, "D.C.’s irresponsible income tax hike," which states that "City residents shouldn’t be penalized because their government lacks fiscal discipline."

I find the issue interesting for a couple reasons:

• DC Fiscal Policy Institute has been making the argument for a couple years that rather than cut programs that disproportionately serve the poor, why not add an additional element of progressivity to the income tax.

• we are having the same argument at the national level (e.g., "Obama’s debt-reduction plan: $3 trillion in savings, half from new tax revenue," "The Plum Line: Yup, moderates and independents support taxing the rich and "Old debate on taxes in new landscape" from the Post)

• nationally, the Republicans are making this out to be class warfare, even though the impact is comparatively minimal (I don't make tons of money...);

• and arguments about progressivity in tax rates are partly about how those who benefit from a functioning government and country (and let me tell you, the rich do benefit) and can afford to pay more ought to;

• at the national level, the New York Times has editorialized many times in favor of tax increases on the rich, such as in "Fairness for all," while the Post is more focused on debt reduction, "Not big enough," mentioning the tax increase proposal in passing but not saying much about it.

Interestingly, with regard to the DC issue, the proponents of the tax increase could have argued better for it, making the case for progressivity in the tax rate and comparing DC's tax burden to the surrounding jurisdictions (generally we pay less in taxes than Marylanders, and more than Virginian's, even though housing values tend to be higher in DC).

But the proponents didn't really make this kind of argument. And the Post should have considered these issues in their editorial also.

As President Obama said, from this article "Obama defends new taxes: ‘This is not class warfare, it’s math’" in The Hill:

The president criticized Republicans for insisting no taxes can be raised, and said it would not be possible to improve the nation’s fiscal standing without new taxes on the wealthy.

He rejected criticism that his proposals amount to class warfare, saying that after a decade of unchecked spending, every American has to pitch in and pay their fair share. Otherwise, Obama said, the U.S. will try to cut programs for the middle-class and the poor while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy.

“This is not class warfare,” Obama said. “It's math.”

At the same time, the City Government should make a commitment to better administration and quality of municipal services. That's what the Post is carping about and I tend to agree with them.

DC ought to be a world class city, truly, and in too many ways, we are mediocre, merely defining "world class" down to whatever level we manage to function at for the various services and agencies.

That's something that the DCFPI never seems to bring up...

An unintended and likely negative consequence in mixed use development

------
This is a reprint from September 2006 and of course is just as relevant today. I did testify about this at a Zoning Commission hearing in 2007, in the context of whether or not the city should review and revise the Zoning Regulations.
------

Delta Towers on the 1400 block of Florida Avenue NE. This building and its dated design contribute to negative perceptions of the Trinidad neighborhood north of the project, as well as to H Street and the surrounding areas.

I am getting involved in a development question in the H Street neighborhood, and along with the recent article "Mediocre Mile" from the Post, the conversation has made me think more seriously about one of the unintended consequences of adding residential development, primarily this is an issue of new construction, to formerly commercial only areas, making them mixed-use, which is something all of us committed to urban living and compact development and sustainable land use and resource planning want.

(This is drawn from an email I wrote.)

The zoning regulations don't provide for design review. It's true that there are some design regulations in the zoning overlay for H St. but they are simple, because the law doesn't really provide much guidance. Design review in all the other neighborhood commercial districts covered by a similar zoning overlay is handled by the Historic Preservation Review Board, because all the other such districts are designated historic.

Anyway, something you need to think seriously about are facades of mixed use buildings, particularly residential, in neighborhood commercial districts, because these buildings aren't likely to change, and they are likely to last.

I mention this because in commercial real estate, (1) it is not uncommon for buildings and projects to have a 10-40 year life span, after which the building is torn down and rebuilt (with a new facade) or (2) during the building's useful life it gets renovated and new skin--the facade is replaced with something more visually attractive.

I think the likelihood of multiunit residential buildings where the units are individually owned going through subsequent facade design improvements comparable in scale to that done for commercial real estate is infinitesimal.

The likelihood of a couple hundred households agreeing to assess themselves tens of thousands of dollars each, to improve the visual aesthetic of the facade, is low, unless a case can be made very strongly that the investment will be equal to or less than an increase in the value of the property. Even so,I find that nimbyism of all types exists, and getting that level of consensus, especially with so much money on the line, to be extremely unlikely.

But the design of the building has tremendous impact on the quality of the surrounding built environment, as well as the property values of others. In this case, your own pecuniary interest should demand that you be concerned about this issue.

But as importantly, it means that the Zoning Commission and the Office of Planning should revisit this issue because it has significant impact on the long term quality of the built environment in so many of the mixed use neighborhoods in our city.

Condominiums at 400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Constructed by Douglas Development, designed by Phil Esocoff. Photo by Dan Malouff

(Sort of a repeat) Without the right transportation planning framework, metropolitan areas are screwed, and that includes the DC area

Proposed transit expansion map, Prince William County, Virginia. From their Master Plan.

The bulk of this blog entry ran on January 14th, 2011, and I have written about this broad issue in the blog since the beginning.

It's worth re-running because today next Monday (September 26th) there is a conference in Prince William County about extending the WMATA heavy rail system there. See "Connolly and elected leaders to discuss Metro extension to Woodbridge" which ran in the Express, as well as the GGW response, "Is a Metro extension to Woodbridge a good idea?."

These past blog entries are also relevant: "Silver Line Metro expansion a classic example of the need to have true regional transportation planning," plus these, specifically about this same issue, "Regional transportation planning and fixed rail service" and "Planning subway expansion in a coordinated and planned fashion."

WMATA extension outward has been an issue for years, with various proposals to BWI Airport, southward on the Green Line from Branch Avenue deeper into Prince George's County, and further into Northern Virginia.

I don't feel like I need to write about the specifics so much, because I have done so before. However, looking at my presentation on Metropolitan Mass Transit Planning: Towards a Hierarchical and Conceptual Framework which is discussed below, I guess I would have to add probably up to 4 slides, first to further discuss Belmont's point about the difference between polycentric and monocentric transit networks; and second, THE NEED FOR SUBURBAN COUNTIES TO PRODUCE ROBUST AND INNOVATIVE AND COMPLETE TRANSPORTATION PLANS, comparable to the Arlington County Master Transportation Plan, but appropriate for their jurisdictions, ensuring that mass transit is covered.

WMATA polycentric rail system graphic, from Steve Belmont, Cities in Full: Recognizing and Realizing the Great Potential of Urban America.

Without a metropolitan scale transportation plan and truly robust county-wide transportation plans for Fairfax and Prince William Counties (the links are to their transportation elements in their Comprehensive plans) this misses the point, especially because heavy rail extensions might not be the best way to provide the necessary level of service--that is, trains and the VRE, which of course, also brings the idea up of needing to plan for passenger rail service on a regional basis too, see "A regional railroad passenger transportation vision for DC, MD, VA, WV and parts of PA" from 2006.."

Concept and map by BeyondDC.

On the other hand, if PW County joined the regional transit compact, then they'd start having to pay into the system--it might also change the political climate in Virginia generally about the provision of financial support to the WMATA system.

But the service would degrade and frankly, DC should stand up with some guts and vote against any system expansion that it is not tied to system expansion at the core of the city (specifically the separated blue line, but other improvements as well).

Reprint of the January entry starts here:

I wrote ... about "metropolitan planning organizations" generally, and DC's in particular, the Transportation Planning Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

I can't claim to be an expert on how MPOs work. Some are more powerful than others, and act for the most part, as regional planning organizations. I was gonna mention the MPO in Minneapolis, which also runs the transit system and manages the regional water system, and does regional parks planning (even if parks are run by the counties/City of Minneapolis), and contrast that to the TPB, which has the misfortune of covering an area encompassing three "states" (technically DC is not a state) and a more complicated political, organizational, and spatial environment. (Another example might be the regional government in Portland, Metro, which has responsibilities across multiple jurisdictions.)

Then I was going to include as an example to strive to be more like, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a nonprofit (not an MPO) engaged in a variety of leading edge planning efforts in the Chicago metropolitan area, on environment and various green initiatives and transportation and community development, as an example of how a metropolitan planning organization could be more innovative and expansive in their role as leading metropolitan best practice land use, environment, energy, and transportation planning.

This comes up in the context of leading edge transportation (and land use and environmental) planning in the DC Metropolitan area, and that we aren't doing it. Or at least, the transportation planners aren't in the front of the pack, when it comes to initiate best practices in transportation planning. I think we can safely assume that the creation of Metrorail was more a happy accident that was the end result of an odd set of circumstances, rather than the beginning of a scalar improvement in metropolitan planning generally and transit planning and operations in particular.

I have a presentation on an idealized framework for transportation planning [which I presented to some academic departments at the University of Delaware in March 2010], and I specifically distinguish between planning for transportation at the scale of a metropolitan area (and regions, and nations, and internationally) and within a metropolitan area (I define a region as encompassing two or more metropolitan areas), at the overall level, within the suburbs, and within the center city, as well as more generalized transportation planning vs. transit planning by the local transit system operator(s).

-- Metropolitan Mass Transit Planning: Towards a Hierarchical and Conceptual Framework

The ideas are based on my observation of how we don't do broad-based transportation planning in the DC Metropolitan area and in response partly to the annual service cuts in response to budget problems by WMATA and the various transit operators.

As far as the plan goes, we don't really have a metropolitan plan as much as a list of priority projects, mostly road-related, from the various jurisdictions.

And rather than focus on making transit work better and having more of it in the areas where transit is more likely to be used, instead most of the metropolitan transit system expansion proposals have to do with extending the system outward, making it even more polycentric, rather than intensifying the transit footprint at the core of the region--the Purple line in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, and streetcar plans in DC and Arlington and Fairfax Counties excepted.

Plus, as I blogged in one of my earlier entries in March 2005, counties like Fairfax County need to not rely so much on Metrorail as much as they need to develop a wide-ranging transportation and transit plan of their own. (Maybe they have by now, I can't keep up.)

BeyondDC has a post on this broad problem, "A whole network is better than one line" in the context of the recent bill put forward by Northern Virginian Congressmen Moran and Connolly to study Metrorail expansion. He writes:

While it’s good news that Northern Virginia’s Congressional representation has an eye towards transit (though Frank Wolf’s absence is notable), the bill is a reminder of the fact that for many people in this region the word “transit” is one-dimensional code for Metrorail. This is unfortunate, because while Metrorail is undeniably great, it isn’t the best solution to every transit problem we face. If we could could make the intellectual jump to accept a more diverse collection of transit modes, we would have the means to provide a better and more comprehensive regional transit network, faster and for less money. ...

The issue is that Metrorail is much, much more expensive to build than other transit modes such as commuter rail, light rail, streetcar, and BRT. Although MetroRail extensions to Woodbridge, Fort Belvoir and Centreville might be wonderful in those individual corridors, for about the same cumulative cost we could put light rail on every major arterial street in Northern Virginia and upgrade all the VRE lines to Metro-like service levels, with trains running frequently all day and on weekends.

Basically, if we were a little more open-minded with modes, we could have a transit system that put rail stations within walking distance of almost everyone in Northern Virginia for about the same cost as a couple of Metrorail extensions.

But I would argue that the post while focusing on the right on point that it's far better to target the right kind of rail investment (streetcar, railroad, heavy rail, light rail) should have more directly discussed the broad problem--the need for planning at the metropolitan level, focused on creating, maintaining, and extending a complete and robust metropolitan transit network.

(Over the years I have discussed all the proposals for extending the Metrorail system in Virginia and Maryland, including in this post, which links to many of the articles in the Post and other newspapers on the subject, "Regional transportation planning and fixed rail service.")

If we were to do true metropolitan-wide transportation (and therefore transit) planning, the specific transit modes take care of themselves, because you are planning for the best possible, most robust total and complete system, not for Metrorail this, or Arlington streetcar that. See the past blog entry for a discussion of the network concept, "Reprint (with editing): The Meta-Regional Transit Network."

And not just on extensions. Note that there are some interesting reports from the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. One report makes the point that the most benefit comes from the first 10 miles of the system, because that area is already likely to be more intensely developed, with the characteristics already in place that support sustainable transportation, ridership, and economic development.

- The Hiawatha Line: Impacts on Land Use and Residential Housing Value (Feb 2010, CTS 10-09)
-Transportation as Catalyst for Community Economic Development (Dec 2007, CTS 07-07)

Would that our Congresspeople learn this, as well as the local and state elected officials across the region.