Breakfast links: Life on the street

Food trucks collect tax

DC’s food trucks have started collecting sales tax. Brick-and-mortar restaurants said the previous arrangement was unfair, since they had to pay sales taxes and the two often compete. (DCist)

Slow down on 17th Street

DDOT will narrow 17th Street SE on Capitol Hill to 1 lane plus a bike lane, and add bulb-outs and electronic speed signs to slow drivers. 19th Street will get sharrows. (Flahaven 6B)

More disability parking?

Mary Cheh has worked out a bill with DDOT to add red top parking meters. 11% of the District’s total parking spaces will be reserved for drivers with disabilities in hopes of reducing parking fraud. (Post)

Don’t dump in this yard

A construction company dumped debris in the Trinidad yard of the blogger behind Frozen Tropics, and then allegedly said DC officials never respond to complaints. This time, they did, and the company got a fine. (Huffington Post)

A vote for autonomy

DC residents might vote in a referendum on budget autonomy, under a bill to let DC spend locally-raised tax revenue without Congressional approval. Scholars are divided on whether the District can make the change on its own. (Post)

Change Stead Park?

A petition was circulating saying plans for Dupont’s Stead Park would cut sports fields 25%, but the folks behind the plan say it’s not true. There will be a public meeting Wednesday. (Borderstan)

Is mobile technology rewiring cities?

Lydia Depillis says mobile computing is responsible for shrinking big box stores and the declining primacy of private cars. Is the mobile revolution “changing the shape of cities for the better?” (The New Republic)

New York streets get more dangerous

New York City experienced a rise in traffic fatalities over the past year, after years where new traffic policies were accompanied by falling traffic deaths. (NYT)

And…

A driver lost control on 6th St NW and killed a pedestrian on the sidewalk. (Examiner) … The U Street streetscape work resumes after a 5-month break. (Borderstan) … WMATA has opened a new bus storage yard. (BeyondDC)