Real estate investment trusts and transit oriented development: CVS pharmacy moves from a single use site to a mixed use site on New Hampshire Avenue NW, Petworth, Washington, DC

(More from my trip to DC.  And there was so much I didn't have time get to check out--Downtown, Dupont Circle, 14th Street NW, H Street NE, Capitol Hill and Eastern Market, the mixed use Safeway on Kentucky Avenue SE, a bunch of new recreation centers, Georgetown...).  

She tools around in a used electric Fiat 500.  She gave us a tour of Walter Reed.  I think I would have missed a bunch without her chaperoning us.

And I didn't have time to meet up with people outside of our old neighbors--we came out for the high school graduation of the next door girl that "we helped raise" until we moved.

Typically, pharmacy buildings are owned by real estate investment trusts who don't want to complicate a property by making it mixed use ("Problematic outcomes as real estate investment trusts buy more "high street" retail real estate," 2015).  This is counter to good urbanism in cities, but the companies don't care.

That's why when companies like Walmart or Aldi start being okay with locating in mixed use buildings that's a big deal.  Although it's not like they care about the site design or architecture that much.  

There is an Aldi Supermarket on the ground floor of this apartment building on the 800-900 blocks of the south side of H Street NE, Washington, DC.  The Aldi on South Dakota Avenue NE seems like it's more temporary--although that means 20+ years--as the building is under-developed compared to its potential.

If it's a site they want in a leased mixed building setting, they'll take it.  But they'll still build single use buildings, but with underground parking, because land suitable for large parking lots aren't really available in the core of a city ("Lessons from Walmart's foray into DC," 2011, "The reason why Walmart is committed to a store that is part of a mixed use development," 2013). (Also see "LOL: Walmart closing stores, announces it won't move forward with two stores in lower income areas of DC," 2016).

The CVS on Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues in the Petworth neighborhood of DC used to be across the street on a parcel that needed to be heightened but never was. 

I guess they ended their lease and moved to a mixed use building.  There are still other CVS stores in the area that remain single story automobile-focused uses in Takoma DC, on 14th Street NW in Columbia Heights, and on Georgia Avenue NW by the Safeway (still single story although the one in Petworth is not) on Piney Branch Road.  So these remain fallow opportunities for better development.

What this also means for the Petworth site is that the REIT is likely to be willing to sell their single story site now that they can't get an easy tenant for it, allowing for more intense development there, which is a plus for urbanism and the city.

Single story still, while the one in Petworth that was single story has long since been converted into an apartment building with the Safeway on the ground floor.  On the other hand, that site is two short blocks to a subway station.  

Safeway in Petworth has been redeveloped for more than ten years.

This is a nice easy walk to the Takoma Metrorail station, but instead of two short blocks, it's 7/10 mile.  Subway station proximity in DC, which has a transit network contrasted to Baltimore which does not ("WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 5: Making a better transit network | Connecting heavy rail + light rail + railroad "), makes all the difference in properties being worthwhile to develop, or not.  

What the Safeway in Petworth used to be.

A Separated Yellow Line up Georgia Avenue would change the property values overnight, but would require wholesale rezoning like what Arlington County did with Wilson Boulevard, and DC has never gone to that length for land that is already zoned low density residential ("WMATA's 50th anniversary from the start of service, Part 2b | Lessons learned: Proposed expansions and the Metrorail system we don't have," 2026).

It does with commercially zoned land, like the liner buildings along Georgia Avenue, plus industrial land and land at transit stations ("To Create Abundant Housing, Ignore the YIMBY Playbook," Washington Monthly).  But to go beyond the liner buildings a block, the way Arlington did, hasn't been done ("How DC Densified," Works in Progress).

It shows that while the development boom in DC has been astounding, there are still plenty of opportunities for redevelopment, but Metrorail proximity is key ("Today WMATA Metrorail's 50th anniversary from the start of service | Part 1: many lessons can be found, if you look," 2026).

This makes DC's failure to leverage streetcar service for the forthcoming redo of the RFK campus into a mixed use development anchored by an NFL football stadium, all the more apparent ("Bye DC Streetcar | Too small to reshape DC policy, Big enough to spur $1 billion in economic development,").  

With the streetcar, DC's H Street NE is the most intensely developed corridor without immediate Metrorail access (although Union Station is nearby).  

Streetcar on H Street NE.

Visual simulation of what a sreetcar could have looked like on Georgia Avenue NW by Tim Hampton, then of VisArts when this was done, c. 2010.  

This is the Park Place Apartment building at the intersection with New Hampshire Avenue NW.

What Georgia Avenue NW could have looked like with a streetcar.  The apartment building is extant at Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues (built by Chris Donatelli, "Chris Donatelli, a DC real estate developer, dead at 58") but the streetcar is not.

It was proof positive that the city needed to put streetcars on Georgia Avenue-7th Street NW/SW connecting to the Wharf, Rhode Island Avenue, Benning Road-Minnesota Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue/Southern Avenue SE, and Kennedy Street-Riggs Road to spur development by providing better transit access between Metrorail stations, but as a way to spark development more.

For some reason, DC's elected officials still don't accept that Metrorail is the foundation of DC's economic success since 2000.  Without it, the city would be provincial like, more like a state capital that isn't all that great--like Albany, New York (which loses out because people and many state government agencies prefer New York City).

===

The old streetcar network used to serve the US Capitol via a couple different lines.

I also suggested a heritage streetcar system with visitor centers and an expanded Union Station with transportation museum functions for the National Mall.

-- "Revisiting: a proposal for heritage streetcar service on the National Mall | adding service to the DC waterfront," 2022

Brookline High School 9th Grade Academy in Massachusetts was built directly over the newly renovated MBTA Green Line Brookline Hills Station

The 118,000-square-foot addition at 22 Tappan Street was completed in 2022 and seats 700 seats ("Brookline HS Celebrates Grand Opening Of Tappan Street Building," Patch).

The next best thing would have been to put the football field on top of the building.  

Union Hill High School in Union City, New Jersey did just that ("A Fine New Field Lifts Spirits," New York Times).

DC.  Many of DC's high schools are seriously under-enrolled. The arts high school in Georgetown is only accessible by bus. 

And that area's other high school is overenrolled. 

To shift that HS to better fit the capacity of neighborhood demand, I suggested moving the arts school to either Roosevelt HS (Green Line, and probably more potential students along that line) or to Coolidge (Red Line) and merging the two neighborhood high schools into one larger and more robust school. Alumni groups fight these kinds of changes. 

Prince George's County, Maryland. For years I've suggested Prince George's County Maryland should move its County seat to a Metrorail station, preferably New Carrollton, which also has MARC commuter rail and Amtrak service, and will be the southern terminal station for the Purple Line light rail ("Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown"").

The county has moved a lot of agencies to the Largo Station. But they are big lots, disconnected with minimal walkability. And not the County Council or Executive offices.  Even though these big buildings are there, it's mostly a suburban office park with nothing there.  Although there are a couple apartment buildings trying to leverage Metrorail access--Largo is the eastern terminus of the Blue Line ("Better late than never? DC Metrorail Blue Line Corridor Coalition advocates for TOD, 45 years after line opens").

Suburban Portland, Oregon. I also thought cities on the Portland rail lines should relocate their city halls to be rail accessible.  Gresham didn't have to.  The Light rail station was built nearby.  But it's more of a park and ride, big parking lot kind of station.  

But the city is trying to concentrate activity at light rail stations.  A new East County branch of the Multnomah County opens next week, at the center of the new "Civic neighborhood" -- on Civic Drive -- with its own Light Rail Station.

So they do get it.

The new library.

 

The historical antecedents of rail-based transit oriented development

Today, many transit "nerds" lament how countries like Japan have amazing railroad stations replete with stores and other amenities, or that MTR in Hong Kong is an active developer and a significant amount of their annual revenue comes from property leasing, not just rider fares.

What the nerds fail to recognize is that for that to work, you need incredible passenger volumes.  "Small" stations in Tokyo have at least 100,000 riders per day, allowing the creation of great places that are also attractive to non-train users.

Even in the US, Grand Central Station and Penn Station aren't great places for retail ("MTA struggles to fix the dead mall under New York City," Crain's New York Business) despite their relatively high volumes of riders.  

The food hall at Grand Central Station in better days.

Other cities, even DC or Philadelphia or Los Angeles, with grand stations have a difficult time as well.  Smaller places have no real chance.

That being said, subway systems like DC's have been quite good at fostering economic development, even though it can take decades for the effects to fully play out.  One success in particular has been the infill New York Avenue Station ("NoMa: the neighborhood transit built," Urban Land).

But the reality is that most of the areas served by Metrorail in DC's core, both commercial districts and neighborhoods, have significantly improved in the almost 50 years since the system began opening.

 And because government agencies aren't especially good at entrepreneurship, most of the direct benefits have been reaped by real estate developers, although cities benefit from the tax revenues they generate.

A thread on Reddit got me to thinking about the antecedents that laid the foundation for today what we call transit oriented development.

Before trains there were the waterways--rivers, oceans, ports, canals--and bumpy roads that weren't a network.  Before electricity, water was also used as a form of power for industrial operations in particular "mills."  Lowell, Massachusetts created a set of canals so that flowing water could power all sorts of industry. 

Erie Canal.

Before railroads, George Washington thought what became Washington, DC would become an excellent location for commerce, by developing the C&O Canal to provide access to the nation's interior.  But canals took a long time to dig, especially when they were dug by hand. 

Railroads ended up overtaking canals for the primacy of commerce--although barge traffic is still significant today in some places--because they could serve locations beyond proximity to a river.

Freight Train services facilitated industrial development, transporting raw materials to plants for reproduction into final products, transporting finished goods, agricultural products, etc.  

Food companies trading at the national scale developed in response to railroad-based transportation created the foundation of the mass market of the US as a whole, rather than goods being produced and traded more regionally, because of the high cost to get goods to market before train service existed.  

E.g., instead of just a handful of stove manufacturers or battery makers today, most big cities had their own firms, because of the expense of shipping super heavy items.

In time, passenger railroad services helped to develop cities more generally, but also "suburbs," more bucolic places in a metropolitan area not too long a trip from "the city." An astute conductor for the New York Central Railroad recognized he had repeat riders "to the city," and proposed a reduced rate to ride, "commuted" from the regular rate.  It spawned the term "commuter."

The streetcar, in various iterations, facilitated residential development outside of the core of center cities, which were pretty much developed.  These are referred to as "streetcar suburbs" by the academics (Streetcar Suburbs: the Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900).

In the DC area, Chevy Chase is a classic streetcar suburb.  Takoma Park is a classic railroad suburb (Chevy Chase: A Home Suburb for the Nation's Capital).

Within the city, outer areas from the central core, like Mt. Pleasant or H Street NE were opened up to development by streetcar services.

Business districts around train stations.  For both passenger railroad stations and termination points for the streetcars, usually a small commercial district developed, focused on the sale of convenience goods, often times the area around the station may have had tenements, apartments, boarding houses, etc., in part serving railroad workers, but also providing lower cost housing.  

This was true at two different scales, the areas around city train terminals, and the stations serving suburban and rural communities.

Grand Central Station.  According to the Smithsonian Magazine, "New York’s Grand Central Terminal Helped Provide the Blueprint for American Cities. It Happened by Accident."  Trains serving the city ran on the surface, using coal powered locomotives.  It was dirty and grimy.  

Grand Central Station as the first example of Station Area Planning.  Terrible train crashes resulting in multiple deaths led the New York Central Railroad to create a new station, where the yard and tracks serving it were undergrounded, leading to a newly constructed grand station.  To pay for it, they built a deck over the railyard, and then leased those spaces to developers of office buildings, hotels, and other commercial establishments.

The station, bringing together multiple train lines, led to the concept of the "Union Station" or Terminal served by multiple railroads, rather than each firm ending service at its own station.  (Chicago today is a great example of that form of service, as some of the stations predating Union Station still exist.)

Still, creating Union Stations was hard because railroads competing and didn't want to lose what they thought of as their competitive advantage.

Grand Central Station as a civic monument.  The Station is also notable for harnessing the architecture and design around the station as a civic monument and anchor of the city.  Special attention was paid to the design of the station in all aspects, including entryways, waiting areas, retail services including food, and travel to and from the platform--GCS is far superior to Penn Station when it comes to "herding" passengers on and off the trains.

The Santa Fe Railroad versus the Transcontinental Railroad.  President Lincoln initiated the transcontinental railroad project as a national building exercise, linking east to west.  Union Pacific Railroad, from Omaha, and Central Pacific, from Sacramento, met in Utah, creating a nationally serving freight and passenger rail service by connecting to eastern railroads.

But the transcontinental railroad had/has a problem.  It served the northern and upper central parts of the West, which are underpopulated, although still with plenty of business for railroads. But not as much business compared to other areas.

The privately created Santa Fe Railroad, serving the southern and lower central parts of the West, was much better positioned to facilitate and take advantage of commerce ("How the Santa Fe Railroad Changed America Forever," Smithsonian Magazine, "The Entrance of the Santa Fé Railroad into California⁠," Pacific Historical Review).  

Astutely, the company created cities at prominent locations served by the railroad, pairing them with economic development programs (most all the railroads did a form of this) and marketing the areas to future residents ("Santa Fe Railroad Built Empire," Los Angeles Herald-Express), "Railroads and Real Estate - The Pacific Land Improvement Company," Orange County Historyland) and tourists.

The large scale Western National Parks drew millions of tourists arriving by train 

A parallel firm, The Fred Harvey Company, working with the railroad, developed hotels and restaurants along the line, and in the national parks.  The park concessionaire firm Xanterra, has its foundation in the Harvey Companies.

Extension of the Santa Fe to Chicago further facilitated the development of rail-based commerce.  Montgomery Ward created the first large scale retail catalog operation in Chicago, leveraging access to the railroads meeting there, serving all parts of the country.  Etc.

Brightline Florida and modern TOD.  Is a new private passenger railroad service between South Florida and Orlando, home to Disney World.  They intend to extend service to Tampa and possibly at some point, Jacksonville.  

I argue the reason they can make it privately, maybe--right now they are losing tons of money--is because tourists arriving in Orlando don't need a car once they are at Disney World.  

Rendering of a future train-served Downtown in Stuart, Florida.

Anyway, they claim to be driven by real estate development as a significant source of future revenue.

I'm somewhat doubtful, although development is happening at their stations, because of the relatively low usage of the train, plus the fact that station locations don't necessarily lend themselves to development the way they might in Japan or Hong Kong, or even in Downtown DC.

But the real estate believes otherwise  ("Shaping Florida’s Urban Future With Transit-oriented Development," NAIOP, "Beyond the Tracks: A Valuation Expert’s Guide to the Stuart Brightline Station," Walter Duke & Partners).  

Ironically, the State of Florida is a classic example of antecedent TOD as it was opened up to development by Henry Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, and his creation of the Florida East Coast Railway (Henry Flagler: The Astonishing Life and Times of the Visionary Robber Baron Who Founded Florida).

Although, like other transit infrastructure projects, its creation is having a positive effect on the residential real estate market too ("Home price boom along Brightline train route in Florida," New York Post).

Better late than never? DC Metrorail Blue Line Corridor Coalition advocates for TOD, 45 years after line opens

TOD = transit oriented development--office buildings, residential buildings, retail, mixed use buildings containing portions of the other three.

Image from REFin Blog.

The Blue Line is one of six DC Metrorail heavy rail lines.  The bulk of the line opened in 1977, at that time ending on the east at Stadium-Armory in DC.  Two stations in Prince George's County opened in 1980, Capitol Heights and Addison Road, along with Benning Road in DC ("Signs of Change, Missing on Metro," Washington Post).  

Largo station was renamed Downtown Largo aspirationally, as a new medical center was built there and with hope renewed for revitalization.

Later Maryland paid to extend the line two stops east, to provide service to professional football's FedEx Stadium.  Service to Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center commenced in 2004 ("Three New Metro Stations To Open Before Year's End," Washington Post).

The area served by the Blue Line in Prince George's County has languished for decades ("The Commanders may relocate. Neighbors say good riddance," Washington Post).  At one point, the area's professional basketball and hockey teams played at Cap Centre, along the corridor.  When the teams moved back to DC, a shopping center was built in its place, and didn't do well.

Once the Washington Commanders football team indicated it would abandon its stadium in Largo, the county has realized it needs to pay attention and put resources into improvement ("Maryland pitched expansive development to keep Commanders — and stave off economic devastation if they leave," Washington Post).  This year the team signed an agreement to move to DC.

Why they didn't do it before, especially because sports teams are lauded as great platforms for ancillary development ("You get what you plan for: the multi-use Miami Hard Rock Stadium versus typical football stadiums | Washington Commanders" and "Sports facilities and the reproduction of retail space often doesn't work for the locals") is beyond me.

Vision for a new Downtown Largo, with the football stadium in the upper left of the rendering.

Out of the failed effort to keep the football stadium, the Blue Line Corridor Coalition was formed.

--"Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," 2022
-- "Backwardness of transportation and land use planning: National Harbor, Prince George's County, Maryland | Why isn't high capacity transit access required from the outset?," 2022
-- Branding for Downtown Largo, Maryland National Park and Planning Commission
-- "Major Blue Line projects aim to transform Prince George’s County. Residents hope it’s for the better," WAMU/NPR
-- Ten Principles for Developing Successful Town Centers, Urban Land Institute, 2007

According to the WTOP article from a few days ago, "Blue Line Corridor Coalition aims to keep revitalization alive in this part of Md.," the initiative is revving up.

The “Blue Line Corridor” is Prince George’s County’s main economic redevelopment and revitalization project, and the wheels were put into motion before the federal upheaval started impacting the region. Those involved say that upheaval has made the job harder, but it isn’t putting a stop to the project.

A group of developers, elected leaders, business owners and residents came together Wednesday to celebrate the creation of the Blue Line Corridor Coalition. It’s a group that aims to bring together all the stakeholders focused on revitalizing the area closest to the D.C. line and make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

“It’s to coordinate our efforts so that we’re moving more strategically, we don’t waste resources, but we also make sure that everyone’s bought in to what eventually happens,” state Del. Jazz Lewis said.

....“We have four metro stops, and 15% of the land around those metro stops is vacant lands,” he said. “Where in other parts of our region can you see vacant land, near Metro? So as the gateway to D.C., with connections to Amazon headquarters, with connections to Dulles and to DCA, not to mention the Capitol, this central part of the county, the Blue Line corridor, is primed for revitalization. We want to make sure that revitalization is community driven.”

But why should it have taken so long to leverage the development opportunity from transit?  The Blue Line stations in Prince George's fist opened in 1980.

From the Washington Informer article, "Central Prince Georgians Launch Blue Line Corridor Coalition:"

“We are here to rehearse the future,” said Bryan Franklin, the deputy director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), to the gathering of 30 people at Mini Plaza shopping center in Seat Pleasant. “At the core of the coalition is the vision to create a thriving Blue Line Corridor where history and culture fuels progress, and those who call these neighborhoods home share in its growth. We’re collectively rehearsing a future where vacant lots turn into new homes, a six-lane highway turns into a walkable boulevard and where empty storefronts transform into places where memories are made. The BLCC is built on five years of community engagement, over $6 billion of investments, and a LISC model to generate a 4:1 return on investment.” 

 (FWIW, DC LISC has never impressed me.  LISC groups in other cities are better.

Past writings:

-- "The future of mixed use development/urbanization: Part 3, Prince George's County, where's the there?," 2011
-- "A recommended new planning direction for Prince George's County," 2011
-- "Another lesson that Prince George's County has a three to five year window to reposition based on visionary transportation planning," 2011
-- "Frustration #3: the talk about transit oriented development and Prince George's County," 2013
-- "Prince George's County still doesn't get "transit oriented development" and walkable communities: Greenbelt edition," 2012

Why did it take so long for them to get purposive? | What to do?

1.  No vision.  Build it and they will come was the paradigm.  Trickle down development takes decades.

 Even though it has a total of 14 Metrorail stations on four different lines, Prince George's County didn't think it needed to change in the face of Metrorail.  Didn't think of Metrorail as an opportunity, a way to leverage and reposition the county's development vision towards transit and away from automobile dependence.

By contrast, Montgomery County has significantly leveraged the Red Line, which often serves what had been preexisting centers and built upon them.  Arlington County shifted to an in-county for the Orange Line from an in-freeway routing, spurring billions of dollars of revitalization ("The Effect of Transit-Oriented Development in Arlington, Virginia on Transportation Choices").

The county has had a few transit focused revitalization initiatives but they were under resourced and support was intermittent.  

2.  That's why you need a related "Transformational Projects Action Planning" ("Updating the best practice elements of revitalization to include elements 7 and 8 | Transformational Projects Action Planning at a large scale") process for transit lines and transit stations, to best leverage the return on investment from transit infrastructure.

3. Relatedly but subtly different is what I call a plan to leverage new transit infrastructure to drive complementary improvements across the transit network, to further improve ridership and the likelihood of success.  I've written a few such conceptual pieces, the most realized is for the Purple Line light rail in Montgomery and Prince George's County.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings," (2022)

-- Setting the stage for the Purple Line light rail line to be an overwhelming success: Part 1 | simultaneously introduce improvements to other elements of the transit network (2017)
-- Part 2 |   the program (macro changes) (2017)
-- Part 3 |   influences (2017)
-- Part 4 |   Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown" (2017, originally 2014)
 -- Part 6 |  Creating a transportation development authority in Montgomery and Prince George's County to effectuate placemaking, retail development, and housing programs in association with the Purple Line (2017)
-- Part 7 | Using the Purple Line to rebrand Montgomery and Prince George's Counties as Design Forward (2017)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line article series after one year: Part 1 | a couple of baby steps (2018)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network (2019)

4.  PG County was given a second chance with the Purple Line light rail line but still hasn't fully jumped on the opportunity.

One thing I'd add to their agenda is extending the Purple Line west towards Virginia to connect to the Blue and Green Lines.  

There is zero expansion planning of the Purple Line currently--the line (from Bethesda to New Carrollton on this map, with 20 stations) is now going to open in January 2028.

It would definitely add connectivity value to the Blue Line corridor.

5.  Fortunately the Blue Line Corridor Coalition appears that they are ready wants to do large scale revitalization planning for the football stadium site,  And the County is already committed to repattern the urban form of Largo ("Downtown is not a word without meaning: renaming the Largo Town Center to Downtown Largo is without meaning," 2021).  It's going to be a couple decade process, especially with the decreased demand for commercial space.

6.  For years, I've suggested PG County move its county center to a metro station catchment area.  They did move a bunch of agencies to Largo, but they are mostly disconnected.  Such a move, while expensive could be transformational.

Racism and Equity

It could be argued that as the metropolitan area's only majority black county that there has been deliberate disinvestment.  I won't argue the point.  But like most regions, the metropolitan area is not unique in shifting west over the decades.

That being said, for decades PG County has been recognized as a relatively high income majority black county.

There is probably less real estate development vis a vis the demographics and because there are better returns elsewhere.  

Some developers say that PG County Schools lag significantly compared to other jurisdictions so they are reticent to build housing for fear it won't sell (or at least not for what they can get in better locations).

There have been attempts to attract government agencies to Metrorail stations.  Some have located at New Carrollton.  Others are in the vicinity of College Park Station.  The County has been unsuccessful in landing the FBI at Greenbelt.  

Like I've argued for DC's East of the River, St. Louis, Pontiac, Michigan, and the East side of Montgomery County, this section of PG County needs a focused revitalization plan.

-- "I wonder if Mayor Fenty hadn't dissolved the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative in 2007, merging it into another city agency, if development would have happened faster?," 2024
-- "Revisiting the 11th Street Bridge Park project as an opportunity rather than a folly: a new revitalization agenda for East of the River, DC," (2024)
-- St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 1: Overview and Theoretical Foundations," (2021)
-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 2: Implementation Approach and Levers," (2021)
-- "Revisiting St. Louis revitalization planning in the face of population shrinkage," (2023)
-- "Pontiac Michigan: a lagging African American city in one of the nation's wealthiest counties," (2022)
-- "East County, Montgomery County, Maryland: Council redistricting spurs ideas for revitalization | Part 1 -- Overview," (2021)

Salt Lake City TRAX light rail is kind of both "monocentric" and "polycentric"

In Cities in Full, Steve Belmont argues for center city centralization and in his discussion about transit, he contrasts the SF MUNI system, which is completely within the city, but complemented by the subway-commuter rail BART, which serves the Greater Bay Area, and the WMATA Metrorail system in Greater DC.

What I figured out that he didn't is that the Metrorail system functions as two different systems, a polycentric commuter rail system reaching out as far as 32 miles into the suburbs (Metro Center to Ashburn on the Silver Line), and a monocentric heavy rail subway system in the core of DC proper.  

WMATA/Metrorail core system in DC.

Full system graphic.

The smallest circle is the core of DC.  From Cities in Full.

Most every station catchment area in the DC core has revitalized, while many out-city station areas remain poorly developed ("Transit oriented development station typology revisited," "Welcome to the loneliest Metro stop," Washington Post).

I was arguing with New Urbanists about a "new urban development" in the Daybreak community of South Jordan ("Downtown Daybreak opens, a mixed-use city core," CNU), stating that an itty bit of urbanism, 200 acres, in the midst of hundreds of miles of sprawl is but a wee bit forward.

One of the counter points was that Daybreak "has light rail."  It will, but at 20 miles from the core of Salt Lake City, it's almost exurban ("Transit oriented development station typology revisited"), and research finds that the best ROI from transit is within the first 10 miles of the system.

TRAX came about because of the 2002 Winter Olympics and I think it functions pretty well within its transit shed ("Updating the mobilityshed / mobility shed concept" and "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform").  It's just that the State Legislature has been more focused on far suburban extensions of the system, rather than more intensive additions in the core of the system.

I wouldn't say TRAX in the core is exactly monocentric, but complemented by a decent enough bus system, if you live within one half mile to one mile of a station, it works pretty well.  The main core line, on 400 South in Salt Lake, hasn't seen the kind of more intense development and urban re-design that is necessary to adequately leverage the transit infrastructure, but for a city of its size--210,000 people--it does reasonably well.

I was skeptical of the proposal for the new Orange Line ("Utah Agency Picks Preferred Route for $400M Salt Lake City Light Rail Expansion," Engineering News-Record), because it is mostly duplicative of the existing transit shed, but it does add some stations in the Central Business-Residential District as well as a couple on or near the University of Utah campus, and proposes TOD at one of the stations on the campus also.

The favored route would include 2.8 miles of new track. Map courtesy Utah Transit Authority

Interestingly, this would move TRAX a couple stations towards Foothill Avenue, which is the main arterial in my neighborhood, leading to I-215.  

The new stadium station would provide a different route from the current station at 1300 East, which is at the bottom of the stadium/park and ride lot.

The blue line on the map is I-215.  On the northeast end, it runs into Foothill Drive, about two miles from the University of Utah campus.

To my way of thinking, the best intensification effort would be to have a line on I-215, either light rail or commuter rail to the University campus and research park (the Frontrunner train is also decent, a single line though, within its catchment area).  

And then separately with a light rail along Foothill and down to Sugar House to connect to the S-Line streetcar and back to the light rail, in an orbital route.

Of course, such line extensions could happen but beyond my life time.

Current Affairs Magazine: US Transit is Abysmal and Unacceptable

The article, "US Transit is Abysmal and Unacceptable," isn't particularly scintillating.  But it has tons of great links, so it's worth mentioning.

US land use development and planning after 1920 favors the car.  Transit is abysmal because after the era of the transit city (1890-1920, see "Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis,") cities have been built to optimize and depend upon the automobile.  

There are many reasons for this, but mostly because at that time "planning" was done by the private sector for both residential development and transportation--by default private sector transit organizations were the planners for transit.  And people enjoyed the expansion of personal mobility through car ownership.  

Plus, the car and freedom were seen as "better" than mass transit.  Certainly, the automobile manufacturing industry including parts like tires, oil companies, and residential housing builders, financiers, etc., liked sprawl because it was more profitable that a more centralized land use paradigm that favored transit.

Homogeneous versus heterogenous mobility systems.  I call our mobility system homogeneous, because it was set up to optimize the car.  92% of all trips in the US involve a car.  But Germany shows us you can have an economy with a heterogeneous mobility system, promoting cars--they have a great automobile industry, and transit, because they recognized that transit was the best way to get around major cities.  Same with Japan.

Bahn (trains) and Autobahn (motor vehicles) in Germany.

In metropolitan areas, the reality is that there is only so much land that can be dedicated to roads.  The more you can shift trips to transit, biking, and walking, the better.

Streetcar conspiracy fact or fiction..  While lots of people blame "GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil." for the destruction of rail transit through their program of buying streetcar systems and converting them to buses, that's somewhat facile.  Even though a court case found them guilty of such, but awarded minimal fines.

Elevated terminal station, Dudley Square, Boston.

Without the boost from WW2's gasoline rationing, transit use--including passenger railroads, had been trending downward for decades.  Increasingly, cities began subsidizing transit, including passenger railroads, as the private firms said they were losing money providing the service--abetted by a refusal to raise fares.

Cities owning their own.  Some cities, like NYC had already been developing public transit services.  San Francisco started in 1912, with the MUNI-municipal system. In the 1890s, Boston was involved in subway planning, but still expected the private sector to carry it out.  

Cities buying/taking over declining systems.  Later, as private sector operations went bankrupt, cities like Chicago and Detroit stepped in and bought the systems, to be able to maintain service.

Interestingly, one of the few streetcar systems the GM group didn't totally eradicate was Philadelphia's, because it's set of underground tunnels serving downtown was unbeatable by surface transit (or automobiles).

By extension, that's the case too for transit cities in the US.  The big ones are NYC, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, which are legacy cities with legacy transit systems that optimized mobility, in a manner analogous to Philly's Downtown streetcar tunnels.  

In fact, NYC especially for Manhattan, would be impossible to get around if it were motor vehicle dependent.  There just isn't enough road capacity.

Modern heavy rail transit (1950s-1990s).  And DC.  DC lost its streetcars gradually during the postwar period until 1962, when because Congress refused to renew the streetcar franchise in the mid-1950s, forced a shutdown and replacement with buses.  But the city still had the transit city urban form, which was perfect for the introduction of a subway system, starting with planning beginning in the 1960s. (Ephemera-wise, I just got a copy of the initial transit study for the city, published in 1965 during the Johnson Administration.)

DC's system is more a commuter rail, focused on moving commuters from the suburbs to their once held jobs in the city center.  The system wasn't designed to improve DC neighborhoods, but it did by default, although it took a few decades to see the results.

Other systems from this era: Atlanta MARTA, Baltimore's single line subway, BART in SF, and Miami didn't have the same impact.  Baltimore because they were late to the game, and could only build one line, even though its urban form is transit city, and Atlanta, Miami and SF not so much.  BART was good for extending the range of transit, especially in SF which already had a great city-serving system, but it's best ridership was about 5/8 of DC's.

Atlanta keeps trying to expand their system, but are stymied by suburban anti-transit interests.  Miami too, sort of, but the problem with that system is that it was designed "to help declining areas" and they didn't think to provide service to high in demand healthy areas as well, which would have led to a much greater ridership.  Its ridership pre-covid was less than 10% of DC.  Although Miami created a people mover system to complement the commuter rail like Metrorail, and that adds about 18,000 daily riders.

Light rail.  After this period, transit planning and funding shifted to light rail.  Generally, heavy rail subway service is for places that can deliver multiple hours of 30,000 or so riders.  So few if any light rail systems would be better as heavy rail.  People say Seattle, which is developing one of the more successful LR systems,, because it more compactly services the center city, should be heavy rail but they don't meet the criteria really.  LA has a mix of heavy and light rail.  Other cities like San Diego have pretty good systems, for the area's they cover.  Denver, Dallas, and Houston are pretty "sprawl-y.  

Portland was really the first modern LR system with a lot of forethought and complementary to land use planning which focused development on the central business district.

Other lines like Buffalo, Charlotte, Norfolk, New Jersey, etc., have pretty paltry ridership considering.

Light rail + bus.  Especially when complemented by bus.  E.g., Salt Lake City is small and has LR because of the 2002 Olympics.  The transit system isn't great overall, but in the primary catchment area of the TRAX system, complemented by bus service, it works pretty well.  Even though higher density TOD isn't really part of the equation.

True commuter rail.  Legacy systems.  Big systems in the Northeast centered around serving NYC, Boston and Philadelphia.  Chicago.  The DC area has old lines from B&O and Pennsylvania Railroad, and a new line in Virginia (transit service by train had diminished in that area long before more modern times).  Chicago has an extensive system.

New.  Many newer transit systems, like Seattle, Miami, and Salt Lake, have complementary commuter service.

California has three successful modern systems, Caltrain in the North, which has gone through a great deal of electrification, Metrolink in Greater LA, and Coaster in San Diego County (which really should be amalgamated into Metrolink).

I worked on this 16 years ago... "Metro seeks development partner for Brookland-CUA Metro station"

 According to the Washington Business Journal ("Metro seeks development partner for Brookland-CUA Metro station"), WMATA is looking for proposals to redevelop two acres it has on the east side of the Brookland Metro Station.

This was subject of a small area land use planning process back when I was a commercial district revitalization manager in Brookland.

There are reasons projects like this take time.  Most of the development energy in Brookland has been west of the station and railroad tracks, on land owned and redeveloped by Catholic University ("Takoma's Brookland moment: some opposition to apartment development on the WMATA station site," 2013).  And secondary markets get developed only once better sites are built out ("More about chain vs. independent retail in the urban setting," 2007).

Also because the Brookland citizens are so obstreperous when it comes to planning, in both that process and a related streetscape and transportation plan, they weren't interested in working with the planning teams, were more focused on demonstrating their superiority.  

And the residents didn't want a comprehensive approach to 12th Street NE, which is why it remains so disjoint more than a decade later, and why economic activity has shifted to the CUA development on the west side of the Metrorail station.

This comes out of Brookland's civic history as a key factor in the fighting off of urban freeways.  They learned that they should oppose everything, rather than be judicious.  Some things they successfully fought off, like rowhouses at the Brookland Metro in the 1990s, were beneficial.  It was the wrong type of building for that type of property.  But making 12th Street NE into a cohesive retail district wasn't something to oppose.

16 years...

Although to be fair there have been other attempts over the years, which the community's response bollixed up also.  For example, in 2011, "Harris Teeter said to be eyeing Brookland," Washington Post.  

And 2014, "MRP, A&R, Four Points, Donatelli among Brookland Metro bidders," Washington Business Journal.  From the article:

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has received four proposals to redevelop a pair of parcels adjacent to the Brookland-CUA Metro station, each offering a couple hundred residential units and varying amounts of retail. 

The transit agency has offered two parcels totaling about 2 acres for redevelopment, both immediately east of the Metro facility. One is located to the north of Bunker Hill Road NE and the other to the south. Metro has asked each bidder to replace the 35-space Kiss and Ride lot at-grade and to preserve the existing Brookland Green.

Revisiting New Carrollton and the opportunity of transit oriented development: New train hall to be built at transit hub

 I've written so much about how Prince George's County, Maryland has been handed so many opportunities to reposition the county around transit oriented development, yet they've failed to take advantage of the opportunities time and time again.

The new train hall at New Carrollton aims to bind together the development of offices, housing and shops. (Gensler/Urban Atlantic).

Today's Post reports, "New Carrollton train hall will unite transit lines, bike lanes, retail," about a new train hall to be constructed at New Carrollton, the county's primary inner ring transit hub, with Metrorail, MARC, and Amtrak service now, and a Purple Line light rail connection whenever it manages to open.

(Note that Alex B./City Block has a good post on how to do a transit hub at New Carrollton, "Missing a chance to create a great transit hub – New Carrollton." I hope they read it.)

I wrote about New Carrollton in depth in 2014, where I suggested that Prince George's County create a center there, moving their government center to a Metrorail-connected location, and beginning the process of redeveloping the conurbation as a more walkable-connected-transit centric place.  Transit oriented development, TOD, although I didn't think of it in that way exactly.

-- "Go big or go home: Prince George's County needs to think big and consider better revitalization examples for New Carrollton" 

and repeated it, with little augmentation in 2017, in the Purple Line series:

-- "Part 4 |   Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown""

how Prince George's continues to be misguided in trying to make Largo its Downtown:

-- "Downtown is not a word without meaning: renaming the Largo Town Center to Downtown Largo is without meaning," 2021

that it shouldn't have taken them 40 years to come up with a TOD plan for the Blue Line:

-- "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," 2022

and that they should have made transit connections central to the National Harbor development:

-- "Backwardness of transportation and land use planning: National Harbor, Prince George's County, Maryland | Why isn't high capacity transit access required from the outset?," 2022

There are lots of links to relevant past blog entries within those posts.

(On an e-list there's been a discussion of suburban TOD and someone mentioned this journal article, "Seven American TODs: Good practices for urban design in Transit-Oriented Development projects," Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2008.)

The discussion in the first piece outlines how New Carrollton could be a TOD exemplar, using the examples elsewhere in the DMV of Tysons and Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia, and White Flint in Montgomery County.  But no, they keep doubling down on Largo, which is a pretty disconnected place.

Maybe this can be a transformational move, but with the competing centers of Largo and the failure to take a TOD/edge city transformation approach to New Carrollton, I am not hopeful.

Two more things.

1.  Start planning to extend the Purple Line to Alexandria NOW!  The original Purple Line series was only focused on the plans for constructing the line from Bethesda to New Carrollton, not on its expansion, or other opportunities.

In a follow up piece, "Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network," in 2019, I made the point in the section on "meta network improvements" that there should commence immediately:

Expansion planning for the Purple Line on the south.  I didn't include beginning expansion planning for the Purple Line, at the very least southwest from New Carrollton to connect to the Blue/Silver Lines at Largo Town Center, the Green Line at Suitland, and even the Yellow/Blue Lines across the Potomac River in Alexandria.

 

 Flickr link.

This would provide a robust transit connection to National Harbor, and provide many more opportunities for transit connection and access and improvements in east-west movement on the south side of the Washington Metropolitan area.  

It would make New Carrollton a much more significant business and residential district.

And it is a part of #12 in the action points list in the 2014 piece.

2.  Improve the Public Schools.  In my talks with planners and developers, they tend to say, given the chance to build in PGC or elsewhere in the region, they prefer elsewhere, because the public school system lags, and people prefer other locations.

Besides College Park failing to take advantage of the University of Maryland as an anchor ("More Prince George's County: College Park's militant refusal to become a college town makes it impossible for the city(and maybe the County) to become a great place," 2015) this is probably why a lot of highly educated people choose not to live in PGC.

The Dallas Transformation Schools initiative is one worth considering as a model for rebooting the PGCPS, which has had oversight and management problems for a couple decades ("This school board can’t stop fighting. A Maryland bill aims to fix it," Washington Post).

-- "Dallas parents flocking to schools that pull students from both rich and poor parts of town," Hechinger Report

They could start with making the schools in the New Carrollton area a "Transformation Schools District," as a way to attract residents and new housing.

Conclusion.  A train hall isn't enough to transform New Carrollton, although I should have included it as a suggestion on the list of actions in the original piece.  

Although #12 is:

Strengthen New Carrollton's "edge city" position by strengthening its place in the metropolitan transit system by developing a separate transit vision plan, including extending the Purple Line light rail from New Carrollton to Alexandria, Virginia, which is part of the original Purple Line proposal (as pictured below), and the creation of MARC (the state's passenger rail system) railroad passenger service from Annapolis to New Carrollton (and on to Washington).

Unless it's seen as part of a much bigger, transformational program.