Breakfast links: Moving earth
Photo by thecourtyard on Flickr.
Politically in PG
A Prince George’s independent delegate candidate is running solely to stop the Purple Line, while a Republican candidate focused in his interview on his support for transit, including the Purple Line through UMD’s campus and MARC. (Gazette)
And…
In the Post’s Local Opinions section, I talk about frequent calls for underground parking on the Mall, maybe like Budapest’s garage (Smilla) … Fairfax Village (a neighborhood in River East) is getting speed bumps (Life in the Village) … Montgomery’s best blogger on pedestrian safety is legally blind. (Post)
Did you feel it?
There was a 3.6 magnitude earthquake in Gaithersburg at 5:04 am (City Paper) … In other seismic news, reporters dug up more on Kwame Brown’s unpaid Maryland traffic fines, and the Court of Appeals affirmed DC’s decision not to hold a referendum on overturning same-sex marriage.
The line on Purple
Maryland MTA officials announced that maintaining the Capital Crescent Trail alongside the future Purple Line will cost $40 million more than predicted (Post) … Roger Berliner is no longer pushing the single-tracking idea (Examiner) … And five houses may lose part of their yards in Silver Spring, but the state hadn’t told homeowners about it. (Newschannel 8 via DCist)
An urban Wal-Mart?
Small businesses worried about a likely future Wal-Mart in Ward 5 probably can’t do anything to stop it, but DC might be able to push for better urbanism on the site, though even there it has little leverage. (Housing Complex)
Obama vs. sprawl
Under Obama, HUD, DOT, and EPA are working together to retool federal programs to stop creating incentives for sprawl, but trillions of dollars pushing sprawl over 70 years has created a lot of inertia that will take time to reverse. (The American Prospect via Matt Yglesias)
Oregon to bag the bags?
Portland’s mayor, Sam Adams (really) has pledged to ban plastic bags, while Oregon is close to a state law to ban them and charge a fee for paper bags. I prefer fees to bans, myself. (OregonLive via @TommyWells)