Weekend links: Higher or lower
The rent’s too damn high
Artists in a Bloomingdale
Truxton Circle apartment building are finding it hard to pay escalating rents. Several artists feel overlooked in the city’s redevelopment renaissance. Should the city dedicate, subsidize, or require affordable housing for artists? (WAMU)
And…
WMATA is improving the translations of its website for foreign visitors. (Examiner) … San Francisco merchants are eager to replace street parking spaces with “parklets.” (Streetsblog)
Lewis: Ease height limits
Columnist Roger Lewis advocates selective increases to DC’s height limits. He proposes modest increases in the L’Enfant City and greater increases around transit and major corridors elsewhere. (Post)
Preservationist frets over views of fat sunbathers
The Georgetown Exxon project looks like a box because of zoning’s absolute height limit. The developer will tweak the design, but won’t shrink it just to placate neighbors. And Old Georgetown Board member Anne Lewis wants to protect against “fat people in bikinis.” (Patch)
Musicians soundtrack the Mall
Two area brothers are developing a free iPhone app that plays different music based on where you are on the Mall. They aim endear the Mall to local residents who usually dismiss the place as a tourist zone. (WAMU)
Bus helps tardy man arrive on time
Chronically late Miles Grant rediscovers the bus as a quick and comfortable way to get from his home to Ballston. Once he knows the bus is quicker, will he just lapse into tardiness anyway? (The Green Miles)
No more ped-bike funding?
House Transportation chair John Mica (R-FL) wants to remove federal requirements that states spend a small amount of transportation money on ped-bike projects. Perhaps ideally, all choice should be at the state or local level, but most states dedicate as much money to roads as they can. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill)
Jakarta goes car-free some days
Like many industrialized Asian cities, Jakarta is immensely clogged with traffic almost constnatly. But now, on many Sundays, it’s an oasis of pedestrians and bicyclists as cars are temporarily banned. (CSMonitor)