Breakfast links: Big links on big stories

RIP Constance Holden

WABA has installed a ghost bike to Constance Holden, the cyclist killed by a military truck driver Monday. The Post has more details of what happened; WashCycle fears little will come of it. The tragedy was enough to get WTOP to write about “windshield perspective.”

Outcry smashing ARTS overlay cap

DCRA and the Fenty Administration are reassuring residents that they support raising the 25% restaurant and bar cap on 14th and U Streets. OP is hard at work on a text amendment, which looks on track to traverse the rezoning process in record time. This experience is also educating residents that federal agencies still have a big say in local decisions. (Examiner, DCist, Yglesias)

Gaithersbargain wins straw poll

The Montgomery County Council has reached a compromise on Gaithersburg West, now renamed Great Seneca Science Corridor (since it’s not in Gaithersburg), that involves reducing the amount of development and more strictly requiring the Corridor Cities Transitway. 8 of 9 members supported the plan in a straw poll; dissenter Marc Elrich worries Hopkins can still fill the space with generic, non-life science office park uses. (Gazette)

Not all Loudoun roads need to be 8 lanes

Loudoun County plans to widen many arterials to 8 lanes is stirring Smart Growth pushback from residents who want better bus service and walking and biking facilities instead of massive auto expansion. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill)

Pulitzer for distracted driving reporting

One of the Pulitzers not given to the Washington Post rewarded NYT’s Matt Richter for his series on distracted driving including the amazing photo of one teen driver texting while a passenger holds the wheel. Ray LaHood sees this as a sign that distracted driving has really penetrated the “national conversation.” (Fast Lane)

And…

The USDA turned a parking lot into a community garden at their Independence Avenue headquarters (Post) … A bus driver hit a pedestrian at Alabama Avenue and Irving Street, but not apparently fatally. (Post)

Development dispatches

The Wheaton Safeway could become an 18-story apartment building containing a larger store and parking hidden inside the building (DCmud) … An Arcadia, CA developer is on a hunger strike to protest the City Council’s rejection of a plan to allow a denser downtown (LA Times via @SmartGrowthMD) … An Arlington court threw out the lawsuit against an affordable housing project planned atop a church. (Post)