Posts tagged Repost
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How and why to start a walking school bus
When kids walk to school, they benefit from the physical exercise as well as interaction with their community. One way to make it easier for kids to walk to school safely is a walking school bus. Keep reading…
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Walk-up windows continue to be good urbanism
A decade ago, local urbanists were debating whether a macaron shop could successfully run a walk-up window. Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, walk-up windows have become fixtures in several popular pedestrian areas. Keep reading…
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Best of 2022: Here are MDOT’S 7 possible alternatives for the North-South Transit Corridor in Baltimore
The Maryland Transit Administration has released 7 North-South Baltimore transit alternatives for review. Here they are at a glance. Keep reading…
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How the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad and the Penn Line shaped the region’s suburbs
Much of DC beyond the original L’Enfant city and Georgetown consists of “streetcar suburbs,” namely late-19th and early-20th Century communities that grew up around streetcar lines. While electric streetcars didn’t extend to Maryland until the 1890s, Washington’s first steam railroad line, to Baltimore, opened in 1837, and commuters from Maryland rode trains into the city as early as the Civil War. Keep reading…
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In 1931, this parking lot in Cleveland Park changed how Washington shopped
Many people are perplexed as to why Sam’s Park & Shop in Cleveland Park is a historical landmark. While it may look like an ordinary strip mall, the Park & Shop was one of the first examples of retail architecture designed around the automobile. Keep reading…
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Here’s how neighborhoods west of Kenilworth Avenue in Northeast DC became isolated from the city
The neighborhoods of River Terrace, Parkside, Mayfair, Eastland Gardens, and Kenilworth in Northeast DC are isolated from the rest of the District by the Anacostia River to the northwest and DC Route 295 to the southeast. While these neighborhoods are very isolated and contain some of the lowest-income Census block groups in the District today, they were sited to take advantage of direct transportation routes to downtown and built for higher-income professionals. Keep reading…
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A 1944 proposal for a DC streetcar subway would have been the largest in the US
In 1944 there was a proposal for a DC streetcar subway that would be twice as long as other US systems. Keep reading…
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What lies beneath DC? Many more tunnels than you might think!
Have you ever wondered what’s under your feet in the District? Everyone who rides Metro regularly has some sense of where the subway tunnels in the region are, but may not know that DC also has a number of former streetcar tunnels, currently-used railway tunnels, and a collection of road tunnels as well. Keep reading…
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These three DC neighborhoods almost became freeway-oriented suburbia
Planners in the 1950s wanted to replace large swaths of central Washington with freeways. Canceling those plans saved the city not just from the freeways themselves, but also from an equally stunning plan to demolish thousands more blocks alongside said freeways and “renew” them with a suburban landscape of strip malls, office campuses, and apartment towers. Keep reading…
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Advocates have pushed for a subway in DC since FDR and WWII
Between 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, and 1941, when the US entered the war, the District’s population rose by nearly 50%. This spike in population led to overloaded buses and streetcars, as well as severe automobile congestion. The city was in desparate need of transportation alternatives. Keep reading…