Is parking really such a problem in Kalorama Heights, a neighborhood of large single-family mansions? The new ANC Commissioner for ANC 2D01, the northern half of Sheridan-Kalorama, wants to make more streets one-way to provide more residential parking.

Two-way streets are better than one-way for many reasons I’ve gone into before. Are the residents of Kalorama, a low-density neighborhood, really that strapped for parking? It looks like most houses there are wide enough to fit two cars along the curb and usually have their own off-street spaces as well. Maybe they have ten cars like the future residents of the former Italian Embassy in Adams Morgan must have?

Maybe a lot of the families in Kalorama want four or five cars, one per parent and one for each child to take to school. But even though that’s a neighborhood often chosen by families moving from large suburban houses, it’s still a mere two miles from downtown, served by many buses, and simply not a place where everyone should have a car and store it on public property for free.

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Tagged: anc, dc, government, kalorama, one way streets, parking, roads

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.