Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Best wishes for the New Year

compliments of the Market Street Railway streetcar support and advocacy organization in San Francisco.

posted by Richard Layman @ 12:01 AM&Permanent Link

3 Comments:

At 4:12 PM, Anonymous h st ll said...

Happy New Year!

Hopefully it's a better one for transit in DC than last year.

 
At 4:37 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

THANKS. Just so you know, I always appreciate your reading and comments and hope you continue to do both in 2015!

2. As far as transit goes, the streetcar will start running soon, finally, and that's a plus.

BUT, a couple weeks ago I had a meeting with a highly placed private sector infrastructure specialist, and he said that it is clear that neither the Bowser administration nor the DC business community (e.g., the kind of people who are members of the DC Chamber of Commerce) is committed to streetcars. I guess Akridge doesn't have enough pull.

Plus, I had another conversation today (pure luck) with another highly placed person who was on Bowser's transpo transition committee, and he has never favored streetcars.

... but he did say who is likely to become the DDOT director and the person is no schlub, which is a big plus.

The Gray Administration proved that putting in non visionary and bureaucratic person as director does not serve the agency or the city very well.

If Atlanta could pull off launching a streetcar in 4 years and 2 mos., DC should have been able to pull it off too. Leaddership is key. We already had some streetcars and plans to install the rails (I can't remember exactly when they went in, wasn't it by 2010/2011?)

So whether or not I am right and having a functioning streetcar line will work to push streetcars forward, well the jury is out.

Plus there is the Purple Line issue with the incoming Hogan Administration. And the pretty ordinary "Silver Spring Transit Center" issue. Plus whatever will happen in Arlington on Columbia Pike.

And the intensification around Reston and Tysons will continue apace because of the Silver Line...

 
At 6:43 PM, Anonymous h st ll said...

Keep up the great analysis and writing and i'll continue to read and comment!

I agree its a big year for transit in the region. I'll say more in the post you just put up.

I do think you should work on improving the site some this year. Even dropping the .BlogSpot from the URL would help.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home