Posts tagged History
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Arlington can’t forget what made it what it is
It’s a truism in politics that if you repeat a statement often enough, people will believe it, regardless of whether it’s true. In Arlington, a cohort of commentators and activists has been chanting that the County Board is full of profligate spenders. Now that claim has started to have currency in county politics, even though it’s grounded in little at all. Keep reading…
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In 1979, was your neighborhood “sound” or “distressed”?
DC looked very different in 1979. A map of neighborhood housing conditions shows just how much. In many neighborhoods in Washington now in high demand, 35 years ago the housing stock was in danger. Keep reading…
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Were you there when the region was still building Metro?
My dad worked for the Urban Mass Transportation Authority, now the Federal Transit Administration, in the late 1970s. As a result, my family went on several tours of the new transit system. My mom recently brought me this promotional item from a tour in 1980 or 1981. Keep reading…
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Today’s problems were visible decades ago, but zoning has blocked solutions ever since
No one could have foreseen that DC’s zoning could push middle-class residents out of the District and force people to drive even to get milk, right? Actually, planners in 1970 warned of exactly of these dangers. 44 years ago, when Richard Nixon was president, the same consultants that noted outdated ideas at the root of DC’s then-outdated zoning code foresaw other… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: More travel
More lanes around Dulles?; 24 hour bus service, anyone?; Let cities decide on transportation; Assaults rise on area trails; How Clinton helped save DC; Markets, movies for Courthouse Square; Can the Garden City be the future again?; And…. Keep reading…
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Downtown DC could have been more like L’Enfant Plaza
Poking through the archives of the Washington Post, Tom at Ghosts of DC found a plan to sink several roads in downtown DC into trenches, build tunnels, and create a large underground parking structure beneath a big plaza where Freedom Plaza now stands. Keep reading…
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The DC zoning update has already had triple the public input as the enormous 1958 zoning code. Enough is enough.
Last week, Mayor Gray asked the DC Zoning Commission to wait until at least this fall before considering the proposed DC zoning update. This comes after nearly seven years of deliberation and resident input, and will now mean an entire year after a full draft was released for public review. Public involvement is a critical part of good planning, but on this project, city… Keep reading…
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How politics sank a radical monument 105 years ago
The simple Commodore Barry monument in Franklin Square gets lost among the many dead generals of Washington. The original design was very different, but was scuttled amid battles over how much a memorial in Washington, and immigrants in American society, should maintain a clear identity or assimilate into the conventional. Keep reading…
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Here’s where they cleaned the streets in 1898
In 1898, streets in downtown DC got cleaned by hand every day, while many streets in Logan Circle, Capitol Hill, and what’s now NoMA got cleaned 3 times a week. Keep reading…
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Hungry for neighborhood eateries, Anacostia could get a Busboys & Poets
Neighborhood restaurants can be the foundation of a community. In Anacostia, plans to bring popular local chain Busboys & Poets to the area are moving forward, while residents remember one sub shop that was the “spot to come to” before closing a generation ago. In recent years, restauranteur and mayoral candidate Andy Shallal has hinted he intends to open a… Keep reading…