Christmas Eve links: What Santa’s bringing you

Have yourself a Merry Transit Christmas

Let your commute be light. From now on, Metro’s troubles will be out of sight. (Switchboard, from NRDC) … To spread that cheer, a Metro station manager decorates her kiosk every year for the holidays. (Post)

All I want for the holidays…

WashCycle and Rethink College Park have both created holiday wish lists for how to improve cycling in the region and College Park, respectively.

FreshDirect in DC?

FreshDirect, which brought convenient online grocery shopping to many car-free New Yorkers, might expand into DC and Baltimore. It would compete with the existing Peapod service, which has more restrictions on times and minimum orders and a less usable website. (Bloomberg via WBJ)

Bike parking to be enforced

The bill to enforce bicycle parking requirements in new and renovated buildings over a certain size also passed the DC Council on Tuesday. Next, the executive branch will write regulations to implement the law. (WABA)

Baltimore United?

The Maryland Stadium Authority, which seems inherently oriented toward building stadiums, and a consultant have estimated a DC United move to Westport, outside Baltimore, would generate a bunch of revenue. (Post)

DC not really least business-friendly

Those rankings that put DC last in business-friendliness are pretty bogus, basically ignoring a lot of important factors (like small business incentives, or transit) and focusing on factors that happen to appeal to certain types of conservatives. (City Paper)

Freeways that weren’t

Tom Vanderbilt takes a look at unbuilt freeways around the world, including Washington’s. Planner Harland Bartholomew originally emphasized routing freeways around rather than through neighborhoods, but by the time he made plans for DC, cost trumped those considerations. (Slate)

And…

Mt. Pleasant will get a “temporium,” or temporary retail space for local artisans occupying a vacant storefront.  (Prince Of Petworth) … Rogue States has reached a deal to reopen under its smell-related injunction (DCist) … NASA envisions small “pocket airports” linked by low-noise, low-emission “Suburban Air Vehicles” (Gizmag via Planetizen) … A physicist devised mathematical equations to model cities. (NYT)