Posts tagged Repost
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How accessible is Metro anyway?
Much more needs to be done to make local rail and bus systems truly accessible. For example, Metro’s 7000-series trains still have a dangerous gap between the cars that a blind man fell through in 2016, and more than half of local bus stops aren’t reachable to people using wheelchairs. Keep reading…
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How Prince George’s County was divided and named in colonial times and after independence
In May, I wrote a pair of articles on the difficulties in naming regions of Prince George’s County. This time, I’m going to go all the way back to colonial Maryland to dive into how regions of the county were divided up and named in the past. Keep reading…
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Lost Washington: The Capital Garage on New York Avenue
The Capital Garage was built in 1926 at the corner of New York Avenue and H Street (1320 New York Avenue) and torn down in 1974. The same location is now occupied by the largely nondescript Daon Building. Keep reading…
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What lies beneath DC? A lot 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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Lessons from an unlikely community organizer
In 2005, Malissa Freese took an eye-opening trip in search of a new home. Coming off DC’s Interstate 295, she hit the block of Benning Road NE that houses a Pepco facility and made a left turn on Anacostia Avenue into River Terrace, a cul-de-sac neighborhood that sits along the Anacostia River (where, full disclosure, this writer grew up). Keep reading…
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Liberty at Lorton: How a notorious prison got a new life as a housing complex
In my previous post about the Lorton Reformatory in Lorton, Virginia, I went over the history of the prison complex from its beginnings in the 1910s to its closure in 1999. In this article, I turn my focus to the long road to redeveloping the prison site and its grounds into a place that the Lorton community could be proud of and see as useful. Keep reading…
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Here’s a fascinating story about the old Lorton, Virginia prison
The Lorton Reformatory is a prison in Lorton, Virginia that closed in the late 1990s. In May 2018, it reopened as a sprawling complex of apartments called Liberty at Lorton about 19 miles outside of DC. The development is a great example of how a historical site can supply housing in a region that badly needs it, while still preserving a historical landmark with a storied history. Keep reading…
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Why do cyclists love green bike lanes?
Green-painted bike lanes make cycling safer, by reminding car drivers to watch out for cyclists when driving across bike lanes. That’s a great benefit, and it works, but it’s not the main reason so many cyclists get so excited over a little bit of color. Keep reading…
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All commuting distances are not created equal in Washington
Our region’s wealthier neighborhoods afford their residents more, faster options for traveling around the region than poorer ones, even if the wealthier ones are farther away from the core. Keep reading…
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These maps show how public housing was manipulated to segregate DC
Since it was created for white families during WWII, public housing has been used as a tool to segregate cities, and whites in power continued to use it for this purpose as more black residents moved in over the following decades. A map project from the historians at PrologueDC illustrates the ways public housing has been manipulated. Keep reading…