Breakfast links: Walmart’s threat

Walmart might pull back

Walmart says it will cancel plans for 2 or 3 of its stores (at Skyland, Capitol Gateway, and maybe New York & Bladensburg) if the DC Council approves the living wage bill on second reading today. (DCist)

Is Walmart bluffing?

It’s possible Walmart is just trying to manipulate the council vote. It’s also possible these are the stores they didn’t want to open in the first place. But they’re the ones where people most lack access to fresh food. (City Paper)

Marijuana bills moving

Tommy Wells and Marion Barry propose to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, setting a maximum $100 fine instead of $1,000 and prison. David Grosso is working on a bill to legalize marijuana entirely. (WAMU)

More of SW is historic

2 buildings in Southwest by IM Pei were designated as historic, as was their courtyard. That means the owner will have to modify and maybe significantly scale back plans to build on the parking lots and between the buildings. (UrbanTurf)

More crashes in Fairfax

Bike crashes in Fairfax County rose 25% since last year. (NBC4) Police specifically mention cyclists not wearing reflective clothing, which isn’t required, especially not in the daytime. (NBC4, WashCycle)

Behond the new Sherman

The Sherman Avenue streetscape is finished. The road now has a grassy median, sharrows, wider sidewalks, and 2 lanes instead of 4. (City Paper)

Metro morsels

WMATA says Metrorail adds about $224 million a year to area property tax revenues. (PlanItMetro) … Another Orange Line train took the Blue Line route. (Post) … The Metro union says it’s reached a contract deal, but there are no details yet. (Post)

See where the hipsters are

Yelp lets you map where people use certain words, like “hipster” and “tourist.” The clusters are mainly where you’d expect. (DCist)

Not much reason in highway rankings

A Reason report on states’ highways assumes that the less a state spends on maintenance per mile, the better. That inherently biases it toward rural states, with a lot of miles but lower wear and tear. (Streetsblog)

We could use some CA HSR right now

Anderson Cooper keeps on attacking high-speed rail without getting the other side. (Streetsblog) … Wouldn’t California HSR be great now to relieve all the LA-SF demand with one SFO airport runway still closed?

And…

A Maryland court won’t overturn contributory negligence; the legislature has to. (Maryland Daily Record) … NYC mayoral candidates who sneered at bike lanes now want to woo cyclists. (Capital) … The Kroger grocery chain is buying Harris Teeter. (Post)