Lunch links: Attitudes in the city

Red light cameras catch unsafe driving

Neighbors are complaining about a red-light camera at Nebraska and Fessenden (one block from Connecticut), but stats from MPD show some really unsafe behavior. Good for the camera! (TBD On Foot)

Opinions of fence flip over 20 years

In 1991, DC installed a fence around the Potomac Gardens public housing complex amid a crack epidemic. Residents protested. Now, many neighbors want to remove the fence, feeling it creates a divided feeling in the area, but residents of the complex now like it and want it to stay. (Housing Complex)

Metro pass advocacy gets a site

Our own Michael Perkins started a site to explain the concept of electronic SmarTrip passes and build support for the idea. The effort is already getting press coverage. (Post)

Gray taking steps

Mayor Gray met with business leaders, including some from Northern Virginia, to discuss recent scandals; later in the day, he dismissed his Chief of Staff, Gerri Mason Hall, saying her presence has become “a distraction.” (Post)

MD could adopt station overlay districts

The Maryland House will consider legislation to create overlay districts around the state’s rail stations. The bill would enable localities to holistically plan smart growth development centered on their stations. (Post)

A tea party-urban coalition?

Ed Glaeser suggests tea partiers make common cause with urbanists to repeal the mortgage interest deduction, which subsidizes owning suburban homes over renting urban ones, to increase school choice, and more. (NYT)

Hunger rising in suburbs

Some of the Washington region’s biggest hunger problems are in its suburbs, especially Northern Virginia. (WAMU)

Shrinking cities grew in the core

Baltimore and many midwestern cities including Chicago lost population since 2000, but they actually gained population in their urban cores. Cities that grew also saw bigger increases in their centers. (The Transport Politic)