Land Use
Greater Greater Washington writes about where we live, work, and play, why we make the location choices we do, and what forces shape these places.
Many people would like to live in safe, diverse, walkable neighborhoods with access to transit, stores, parks, good schools, and other amenities. While our region has more walkable urban places than most, the demand still exceeds available housing, making these places more expensive (and prices keep rising rapidly).
We must ensure that there are enough housing choices so everyone who wants to live in such a neighborhood can choose to do so. We should ensure that housing in desirable areas is available to people at many points along the income spectrum, and take action to fight segregation. And we can improve the vitality of all neighborhoods by encouraging new retail and amenities to improve the quality of life for all residents.
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Klein demands better plan for 14th & U
After reviewing the separate streetscape plans for 14th and U Streets, NW, DDOT Director Gabe Klein has asked the 14th Street project team to present a better plan for the key intersection of 14th and U that creates a more distinctive civic space. In deciding that this historic intersection will be designed by the 14th Street project team and not the U Street team, Klein is handing… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Local developers learning
Parking minimums can bring profit maximums; Scaling down with the Joneses; Health projects funded instead of BRAC; “Hipster Express” ties U Street, Brooklyn; Food fights; Not another Adams Morgan!; Drivers not behaving in bike lanes, so remove the lanes?; Sincerest form of flattery. Keep reading…
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Let’s convert Scott Circle into Scott Square
Scott Circle is the worst of downtown’s five main roundabouts. The roads are a hostile mess that pedestrians avoid at all costs, and the green spaces are chopped into such small and disconnected fragments that there’s not a useful park among them. There isn’t even a single marked crosswalk leading in to the circle itself. In its current form Scott Circle is… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Cabinet shuffling
Rheesigning; Peck for City Administrator?; Road rash of crashes; VA liquor plan gets worse; Get yer historic DC maps; Ban stoplights?; And…. Keep reading…
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Lunch links: Bike share, Bloomingdale and BRAC
What’s the right bikeshare density?; Cycling is safer in numbers; Bloomingdale supports good urbanism; Modest BRAC impact in PG; Loudoun teacher wins big prize; Keynesian economies; No such thing as full employment. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Dangerous for pedestrians and Transformers
Struck in Montgomery County; Transformers unscripted; Virginia to keep WMATA seats for now; The Monday Metropocalypse that wasn’t; Exercising her right to pee; DC a bargain for singles, PG for families; Chevy Chase retail less limited; Step it up. Keep reading…
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For walkability, install public privies
There are many amenities that residents of a major city in the developed world should be able to take for granted, and one basic and often-overlooked aspect of infrastructure that is severely lacking in most US cities is the public restroom. A stunning graphic appeared in the September/October 2007 issue of GOOD Magazine showing how inferior major US cities are compared to their… Keep reading…
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Weekend links: Full of potential
The art of bikeshare redistribution; Streetcars and intensification; What’s up with conservatives and transit? Another view; Secret garden; Liquor license newspeak; Evicted from a bike locker?; Healing the freeway gash; Stop removal courage. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Where it’s big
Where are the big apartment buildings?; I cannot tell a lie; Metro wants your input; Brown asked to resign; Reduce blight and close the budget gap; The big, greener apple; More than tunnels. Keep reading…
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Jefferson Memorial next to get security wall
An NCPC staff report on a security perimeter at the Jefferson Memorial contains a fascinating before and after photo set of the area: Keep reading…