Breakfast links: Not easy being green

More soccer please

Pick-up soccer games are getting squeezed out as vacant lots become developed, DC tightens permit requirements for athletic fields, and NPS fences off more spaces. The Urban Soccer Initiative is pushing for more spaces for soccer, particularly for the city’s Latino communities where pick-up soccer is common and usually informal, unlike organized softball leagues. (Post, Gavin Baker)  (Tip: Gavin Baker)

Latest delinquent landlord in Shaw: NPS

The National Park Service is neglecting several properties in Shaw, which have become “magnets for vagrancy, trash, and criminal activity.” NPS says that they have to take their time to develop detailed management plans before they can do anything, and may start doing something in 2012. (City Desk)

Another suburban office building is “greenest”

It’s right off I-270, nowhere near Metro, in an auto-dependent area. It’s set far back from the street with a large, blank wall. It’s Maryland’s greenest office building, thanks to its recycled denim insulation, use of wind energy, and more. It’s just another example of how the LEED green building rating system rewards energy-saving practices but doesn’t encompass all of the environmental impacts of buildings. (Post)

Even energy-saving features sometimes don’t

The huge windows of many new buildings bring in a lot of light, but aren’t that energy-efficient. And many LEED-rated buildings turn not not to save as much energy as the designs predict. (Times, BeatusEst)  (Tip: BeatusEst)

USPS assumes customers drive

The US Postal Service decided not to close the Derwood post office because the nearest station was too far away. But it still wants to close post offices in Friendship Heights and downtown Silver Spring, which have no alternatives easily accessible without a car. (Post)

Walking is Green(belt)

The Gazette profiles Greenbelt through a Walk Score lens, finding that some parts of Greenbelt are very walkable while others are not at all. The town’s core was designed to be walkable, with separated walkways and underpasses and stores located close to homes.

Yellow over Green

A group of Baltimore leaders wants to raise the priority of a Yellow Line extension to Columbia, moving it ahead of a Metro subway (Green Line) extension east of Johns Hopkins Hospital. For more on these and other Baltimore transit plans, check out our Greater Baltimore & Washington Transit Future Version 2. (Baltimore Sun)