Bike lane blockers: In this comic strip, we see what happens when our hero runs across a car parked in the bicycle lane. No, no cars get keyed. (Tip: Steven)

MoCo launches project viewer: Montgomery County launched a new Web tool providing “three-dimensional and animated views of proposed development.” It’s pretty good, though it would be even better if it included complete plans. Basically, all the drawings and schematics that a developer files with zoning officials ought to go on this site. And the rest of the jurisdictions should do it too.

There was sex in George Washington’s day: A local property owner got fed up with Alexandria’s historic preservationists rejecting plans for an addition. So he rented his space to a sex shop. Preservationists are even more upset now.

Commenter spookiness wrote, “Sex existed in GW’s day, and I’m thrilled that Old Town has a sex shop right in the “historic” center! How Euro! I think it would be VERY cool if they did their mannequins up in 18th century whore-couture, or curated an exhibition of some sort. Alexandria was a port town, so you know there was some of that business going on. Don’t whitewash history.” Slate’s Brian Palmer either read the comment or had the same idea, because an hour and a half later he published an article on the same topic. No, there weren’t sex toy shops, but there were brothels.

Gaithersburg neighborhood to get sidewalks: Some neighbors in Quince Orchard Knolls don’t want sidewalks, because they’ll lose a few parking spaces. They’ll probably get them anyway. (Gazette)

Another argument against modern buildings: Beatus Est argues that modern buildings are less sustainable than old ones. In rejecting the past, the architectural style also rejected all the things that architects figured out about drainage and energy efficiency over centuries.

Tragedy of the cul-de-sacs: Ryan Avent applies “collective action” economic thinking to cul-de-sacs. Each street benefits from cutting itself off to traffic, but the rest of the community suffers. Among other problems, fire trucks take longer to reach homes, costing taxpayers more money.

We appreciate you, Dan: Just Up the Pike’s Dan Reed points out that he wrote several times on families and urbanism just days before our article. I have no idea if Cavan did or didn’t see Dan’s posts, but they’re excellent as well. I, for one, am a strong proponent of linking to whatever site gives you inspiration for a post.

Streetcar and pedestrian Tommy: Councilmember Tommy Wells spoke to the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance about his belief in streetcars as a “transformative investment” and how well they work in other cities around the world. He, along with Jim Graham, also formally introduced a bill to create a Pedestrian Advisory Council, modeled on the existing Bicycle Advisory Council.

And: DC sold a Mount Vernon Triangle lot to a church for a dollar; Apple slightly modified their Georgetown store proposal; Rockville Central has a picture of when Rockville tore down its downtown to build new auto-dependent sprawl, only to reverse itself decades later.