Breakfast links: MoSnow and MoCo
More snowy stuff
Some people are making big bucks providing services like plowing, roof clearing, limo service in SUVs, and more (Post) .. A quarter of DC’s plows are down for repairs (WTOP) … There was some kind of snowball-police altercation last night in Columbia Heights (City Paper) … Snow has meant lower crime, at least. (Borderstan)
Forestry above and beyond
A Chevy Chase resident reports that DDOT arborist Earl Eutsler came to their rescue. A downed tree was leaning on a phone line, but Verizon said they wouldn’t do anything until the line broke entirely. Eutsler came out and removed the tree.
Maryland hearing bag bill
Maryland Senator Jamie Raskin (20, Takoma Park/Silver Spring) and Delegate Al Carr (19, Kensington/Wheaton) introduced bills in their respective houses to institute a 5-cent bag fee like DC’s. There’s a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, February 18th.
Better(-sounding) design for Falkland Chase
The developer of the non-historic third of Silver Spring’s Falkland Chase apartments has abandoned their awful suburban-towers style plans. Instead of one really high building with large dead spaces around, they’ll build multiple buildings with interior streets, ground-floor retail, and a park. Some preservationists vow they will oppose any plan whatsoever. (Gazette)
Lights, camera, zoning
Montgomery County faces a class-action lawsuit over paying speed camera contractors per ticket, which may violate the law … Gaithersburg may reduce parking minimums to the County’s still-high levels … A proposed “CR” zone for mixed-use development may not get approval for Kensington or Takoma Park. (Gazette)
Lots of bike parking or not that much?
GWU’s upcoming Square 54 development will have 70 bicycle parking spaces. Current zoning would require 52 (1 per 20 of the 1026 car parking spaces). But proposed zoning would require 409 indoor spaces, 60 visitor spaces, 3 showers per gender, and 31 lockers. (TheWashCycle)
Down in Atlanta
MARTA may switch to a distance-based fare system. Also, after a contractor bypassed a safety system, they shut down most escalators. (AJC, Matt’)