Posts tagged Government
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Don’t give away the station, DC Council
The District recently announced a budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2011, estimated from $34 million up to $100 million. Meanwhile, as of this morning the DC Council’s agenda for tomorrow included consideration of a huge, permanent property tax break for Union Station which would cost $34 million over the next two decades. Update: The bill has been pulled for now. Bill… Keep reading…
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Senators threaten MWAA over DCA flight restrictions
Last year, members of the United States Senate were threatening to take over Metro if they didn’t get what they wanted. Now, they’re making those threats against the local airport authority, because it isn’t acceding to western senators’ demands to allow longer distance flights at National Airport. WTOP reports that Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Fewer taxes, longer names
Union Station tax break back?; More Metro station name creep; Maryland marks lowest turnout ever; Arlington County struggles with parking garage; Debating HOT Lanes; What to do with little parks; Prefab rowhouses don’t cut it; Cracking through pavement. Keep reading…
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Are tour guide licenses unconstitutional?
Washington, DC is one of a handful of cities that requires tour guide licenses. As a guide in DC, I’m required to fill out some forms, pay some fees, and sit down for a written test. Thanks to some recent reforms within the District’s Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), this a relatively painless process. I did it in DC and New York, and am none the worse… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Skating into the weekend
Cities on the radio; Imagine the Mall; Really, we’re one city; Inside a liquor license protest; SEPTA gives back; SmarTrip changes to be delayed; Protesting homeowners’ association rules; DC tour guide licensing. Keep reading…
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Live chat with NCPC on activating federal places
Welcome to our live chat with NCPC planners Shane Dettman and David Zaidan, to discuss the federal government’s effort to better activate the plazas and street facades of their buildings in and around Washington, DC. Keep reading…
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TPB’s “aspiration” means HOT lanes, more pollution
Today, the Transportation Planning Board will hear a plan scenario for a major expansion of highway lanes outside the Beltway, coupled with road pricing, BRT, and some concentration of development in “activity centers.” The plan scenario tries to bring evaluates the possibility of bringing road pricing, a controversial yet valuable idea, to the Washington region. Variably-priced… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Buses off, buses on
PG bus drivers on strike; Buses back in service; Metro takes bids on U Street; No more “Highway to Nowhere”; New community center in Shaw; Promoting mixed-income TOD; Not so rapid transit. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Endangered peds, bikes and parking spaces
Why Prince Georgians jaywalk; Cyclist hit on Clarendon Boulevard; Van Ness project wants no parking; DC plans climate action; DDOT parking meter pilot survey; Nightlife at heart of ANC contests; Women lead surge in urban biking; Obama’s helmet is effeminate, cowardly. Keep reading…
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For Ward 5 Council: Kenyan McDuffie
Harry Thomas Jr. has been an unremarkable and disappointing member of the DC Council, getting little done and having few noteworthy positions. In Ward 5, he has favored big-box and strip mall development over neighborhood commercial corridors. For those neighborhood corridors, his leadership was primarily reactive in nature. In Brookland, for example, residents pushed… Keep reading…