Breakfast links: Rail to bust
Bus stop sticker shock
Plans for premium bus service along Columbia Pike are finally out, but the Arlington County Board is still worried about rising bus shelter costs. Some argued for less durable shelters to keep costs down. (Post) (Tip: Chuck Coleman)
Midnight closings hard to swallow
Now that Metro will close at midnight on weekends, restaurants are struggling to find a way to make it work for their employees and business. (Post)
Georgetown’s gentrification
Georgetown looked to historic preservation to save its rich culture, but that likely accelerated gentrification. Can Harlem, New York avoid the same fate by building more housing? (Georgetown Metropolitan)
Visitor parking pass vigilante
In Capitol Hill, a nanny received threatening notes about using her employer’s visitor parking pass. Then, her license plates were stolen, twice. The culprit turned out to be a top Pentagon official living in the neighborhood. (Post)
June Housing Bloom
DC will focus on affordable housing this June, with solicitations for developers to build 25 new properties, an action plan for maintaining housing subsidies set to expire in 2020, the city’s annual housing expo, and a roundtable discussion on housing data. (City Paper)
Two more weeks for the Purple Line
The Purple Line deal was supposed to close today, but has been pushed back two weeks to give the private contractor more time to finalize loans. Construction should still start in November or December. (Post)
Patent on pedestrian safety
Self-driving cars are coming, but what about pesky pedestrians who might get in the way? These (satirical) ideas illustrate how the world keeps putting vehicle traffic first. (City Observatory)
And…
Pedestrians have much better chances of surviving car crashes at 20 mph than at 30 mph. (Streetsblog) … The longest rail tunnel in the world opened in Switzerland yesterday. (BBC) … Sprawling southern cities should invest in evolving carpooling services, like Uber Pool, rather than commuter rail, says one study. (Slate)