Land Use
Photo by jennifer yin licensed under Creative Commons
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.
-
A suburban hotel grows in the urban city
The most controversial topic at the Dupont Circle ANC meeting was the Hilton Washington, the 1960s building on Connecticut Avenue between Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. The hotel was recently purchased by a private group that wants to renovate the hotel and build a new condo wing on the property, part of a trend of many older hotels adding or converting rooms to condos. The Hilton… Keep reading…
-
Preservation “incompatible” with historic preservation
There is a lot of bad blood between the Dupont Circle ANC and the HPRB. Even before the Third Church issue, there were several other deeply felt conflicts, which led to serious discussion at this month’s ANC meeting about a “historic preservation bill of rights” limiting, in some ways, HPRB’s authority. Some ANC commissioners argued that HPRB is inconsistent… Keep reading…
-
Bad urbanism on the Potomac waterfront
In December, I got into an interesting debate on the Dupont Forum neighborhood list about my feelings concerning the Third Church landmarking. Lance, who considers the building a “masterpiece,” asked if my desire to get rid of most 1970s-era buildings in downtown DC extended to more widely praised structures like the Watergate and Kennedy Center. I replied:The Watergate and… Keep reading…
-
DC keeps getting blank walls
Two new developments in Washington, DC continue the disappointing trend of creating buildings that present blank walls to the street. Just as New York did in the 1970s and sometimes still does, and just like much of today’s downtown DC, developers create fortress-like apartment buildings, offices, and even churches that isolate their residents from the neighborhood… Keep reading…
-
Picking on planners
I’m reading two books about urban planning, Donald Shoup’s groundbreaking work on parking policy The High Cost of Free Parking, and Cato Institute planning critic Randal O’Toole’s The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future whose agenda is apparent from its title. Keep reading…
-
What’s wrong with empowering cities?
Discussing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Illinois Republican and NPV supporter Kirk Dillard said, “I’ve studied a myth among some Republicans that this empowers cities. The statistics do not bear that out.” Wait, Kirk, what’s wrong with empowering cities? Do all Republicans, or even Illinois Republicans, feel that cities should… Keep reading…
-
Can NYC build me a personal garage too?
As even more lurid details emerge of New York’s $340 million giveaway for Yankees parking—that’s right, entirely for parking—we learn that 70 million will go entirely to build a free garage reserved for Yankees and their guests, with no revenue ever being collected to pay back the city; that the total amount the team is paying the city for rent will decrease;… Keep reading…
-
The blank wall today
We can at least excuse the awful blank street-facing blank walls of New York buildings like Manhattan Plaza or the Atlantic Center mall because, when these buildings were built in the 1970s, nobody knew better. Keep reading…
-
Local parks need local government
When you hear the words “national park” you might think of Yosemite or Ellis Island or any of the historic monuments like Concord’s Minuteman National Historical Park at the Old North Bridge where the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” was actually heard. Keep reading…
-
Ward 3 Vision
A community coalition pushing for smart growth in the upper Wisconsin Ave corridor (Tenleytown to Friendship Heights) and elsewhere in DC’s far Northwest ward 3. Keep reading…