Posts from October 2012
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Funding, partnerships, and rules hamper DC federal parks
On Thursday, residents from all across the city asked the National Park Service to do better for DC, and praised the progress NPS has made this year, at a town hall meeting from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. If you didn’t get to attend, you’ll have another chance to talk to park superintendents about DC parks at another event NPS is organizing on November 13. At… Keep reading…
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What makes a place “walkable”?
DC resident Jeff Speck wrote Suburban Nation, the best-selling book about city planning since Jane Jacobs. His new book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time comes out on November 13. Greater Greater Washington is pleased to present 3 weekly excerpts from the book. We’ve known for three decades how to make livable cities—after forgetting… Keep reading…
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DC Home Rule almost had… nonpartisan elections
During Hurricane Sandy, I passed the time by reading the legislative history of the DC Home Rule Act. This 1973 bill, which gave District residents the right to vote for local leaders who can make local laws for the first time in 99 years, established the system of government DC has today. But what might have been? Congress considered a lot of different alternatives for Home Rule. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Storm stories
Sandy hits the Northeast hard; Climate change does cause Sandy-like storms; Pepco does a bit better; Why Sandy didn’t flood Bloomingdale; Teleworking: why just in storms?; Region still faces risk of flooding; More storm stuff; Parks get more private money; Housing recovery doesn’t reach everywhere. Keep reading…
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Where does the water go?
An awful lot of stormwater just fell on the Washington area. DC Water shared this 2011 video about what happens to a raindrop after it falls in a storm until it gets to a river. Keep reading…
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Breakfast non-links: Sandiest
Yesterday, a giant storm smashed into the mid-Atlantic. Virtually nothing else of note happened. Keep reading…
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Many holidays look like weekends on Metro
WMATA’s planning department has started posting more graphs and charts of ridership data, like one today changes in ridership over 5 years. A few recent charts show how holiday ridership compares to regular weekdays, Saturdays, or Sundays. On holidays like MLK Day and Presidents’ Day, when most offices are closed, Metro runs a Saturday schedule. That seems sensible,… Keep reading…
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L Street cycle track about half done
While most Washingtonians prepared for Hurricane Sandy, DDOT crews were hard at work over the weekend installing the L Street cycle track. The cycle track will run from New Hampshire Avenue in the west to 12th Street in the east. Workers began marking it on Thursday near New Hampshire Avenue, and have been moving east block by block. As of Sunday they reached just past 17th Street. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Hunker down
Sandy shuts down transportation; Farragut Crossing a hit; CaBi gets ads; No love for Hoover; Bus garage at AFRH?; And…. Keep reading…
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Pre-Sandy video: Why the Netherlands went bicycle
Speaking of another part of the world even more prone to coastal flooding, someone recently shared a link to this video about why a top-notch network of bike paths came to the Netherlands. I often hear the question, why do other parts of the world do bicycling so much better than we do? Keep reading…