Posts by David Alpert — Founder
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Greater How?
Urban centers and walkable suburbs in America are experiencing a renaissance, including the Washington, DC region. Unfortunately, too many people are forced to leave great neighborhoods to find affordable housing or good schools. If people want to live in single-family homes, they certainly may. But everyone should have the choice to live in an apartment or townhouse in a walkable,… Keep reading…
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Alexandria wants new Metro stations
Members of the Alexandria City Council want developers to contribute to new Metro stations as part of potential new developments in Potomac Yards (between National Airport and Old Town Alexandria) and Eisenhower Valley (where the Blue Line goes west from Old Town to Van Dorn Street). Via Ryan Avent. Keep reading…
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DC sidewalks are for people, not backhoes
Everyone is blogging about DC’s decision to require developers to build a covered sidewalk or provide a walkway next to construction projects. This is common practice in New York and elsewhere and seems obvious—a walkable city requires, first and foremost, that you actually be able to walk around it. Good for DC. Keep reading…
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“Structure of voids” and chain restaurants in Ballston
Last weekend, we visited a friend who recently bought a condo in Ballston. Zachary Schrag highlights the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor as the region’s biggest success from Metro’s original construction, creating a new transit-oriented Smart Growth development around the subway, and it’s true: there were people and shops and other signs of life everywhere,… Keep reading…
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LA: smart move on parking, dumb move on roads
Today on Street Heat LA, the LA DOT took a knee-jerk position around moving cars smoothly at the expense of pedestrians when it insisted that the LA County Museum of Art remove a traffic light and crosswalk across Wilshire in front of its entrance and actually fill in the median to prevent people from crossing the street. On the other hand, the LA City Council is pushing for greater compliance… Keep reading…
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Three projects to watch
All over the region, consulting organizations are going through the legal requirements for Environmental Impact Statements, necessary for any major project: convening public scoping meetings, collecting input, evaluating alternatives, and so on. They’re doing this in downtown Columbia, along Rockville Pike, and on both sides of the 14th Street Bridges, used by I-395,… Keep reading…
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Walkability’s comeback
Planetizen links to an article in Governing Magazine that says what anyone in Adams Morgan or Park Slope or San Francisco knows: walkable neighborhoods are on the rise. But it’s not just old cities: Plano, Texas has a booming Smart Growth development. And “it’s not just the New Urbanists who are talking the language of walkability now,” writes the author,… Keep reading…
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Another argument against one-way streets
An Op-Ed in the Louisville Courier-Journal argues against one-way streets downtown, making many points relevant to the 15th Street reconstruction in Logan/Dupont. Some I hadn’t heard before, like the fact that drug dealers and drive-by shooters prefer one-way streets. Via Richard Layman. Keep reading…
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Cannon almost stopped the Lincoln Memorial
A fascinating story in the Washington Post Magazine explains how Illinois Congressman and Speaker of the House Joe Cannon (who has a House office building named in his honor) fought the establishment of the Lincoln Memorial on what was then a swamp along the banks of the Potomac, preferring a smaller memorial near Union Station; years later, he admitted he was glad he had lost that fight. Keep reading…
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The Yards waterfront park squeezes bikes to the edge
NCPC has preliminary plans online for a new watefront park at The Yards, a new development next to the Navy Yard in Southeast. The park has many very nice features including a large terraced lawn, a landscaped garden, and a cool-looking pedestrian bridge (though one NCPC staff recommends be made to look more open, light and inviting). But the designers seem to have forgotten about bikers,… Keep reading…