Posts about History
-
National links: This month marks 100 years of car-centered streets
The centennial of auto dependence. Why US transit projects are so expensive. Home prices are dropping unevenly across the country. Keep reading…
-
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…
-
A divisive Arlington housing proposal can help save the climate and our wallets
“Missing middle” housing will not only help save our climate, but it will aid in rectifying past housing discrimination and bias in Arlington. Keep reading…
-
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…
-
The many lives of DC’s “Apex” building
The building that would come to be known as the “Apex” on Pennsylvania Avenue in DC has evolved from a hotel to a bank, billboard, liquor store, and now an office for a historic Black women’s association over its nearly two centuries of existence. Keep reading…
-
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…
-
National links: Office commutes scrutinized in efforts to reduce emissions
Office buildings’ largest emission is the commute. Charlotte’s uptown highway wall. Rethinking the benefit of community input. Keep reading…
-
National links: Setbacks mount for self-driving car industry
Anemic progress on self-driving cars. Anthropologist questions how we think about housing. The benefits of reimagining parking spaces. Keep reading…
-
Breakfast links: Evictions increase as pandemic-era tenant protections wane in the region
Washington region evictions increase as COVID protections wane. Maryland plans to demolish old Nice-Middleton Bridge despite cyclists’ protests. DC monkeypox vaccination sites to merge with COVID clinics. Keep reading…
-
National links: Happiness is a walk to work
How transportation choice affects happiness. A tale of two skylines in North Carolina. 75 years of development made the effects of Hurricane Ian worse. Keep reading…