Day: January 20, 2006

Values are the things you keep when they are most inconvienent.

In using this definition, affordable housing apparently isn’t a value of mine. It should be as it should be for all of us but with a little soul searching, ah, nah. There have been proposals in this and nearby neighborhoods for some sort of building of affordable housing. Have I supported any of it? Um, no.
The inconvience of some affordable housing is the opportunity costs that we factor in our heads. Instead of some plot of land going to fulfill some societial need that we’d rather have tucked away in some other part of the city, we could get people like ourselves who could make the area more attractive to the businesses we like. Besides we already have one affordable housing complex in Truxton. Then there are the perceived (as this is predicting the future) and real costs of crime, trash, and noise that come with living with affordable housing, be it a group home, a string of section eight housing or an apartment building.
Don’t get me wrong I do appriectiate the income diversity in the neighborhood. However looking at my own actions my efforts to protect and defend affordable housing around here is pitiful. So who am I kidding?
I do admire, even if I don’t agree with, those who speak up for the working poor and the like in meetings and other venues where they face the wrath of their neighbors. It is one thing to rail against complete strangers regarding whatever unpopular (or popular) social program or project. It is a whole ‘nother thing when you fight or go against people you know and who you like on a day to day basis.

Riders have suggested extending the line to Greenbelt as a way to ease crowding and to bring trains more often to the growing areas of Petworth, Columbia Heights, U Street and Shaw.

What’s your opinion?

First Community Meeting
Monday, January 23, 7 p.m.
DC Housing Finance Agency, 815 Florida Avenue, NW – Auditorium
(U Street/Cardozo Metro)

Councilmember Jim Graham, WMATA Incoming CEO Dan Tangherlini, Board Member Gladys Mack, several ANC commissioners and the leaders of the Mid-City Business Association are scheduled to attend.

Extension of WMATA Yellow Line rail service? What are the Options? What are the Costs?

The WMATA Board of Directors held a town hall meeting at the Reeves Building in December where I brought up the idea of extending Yellow Line Service as a potential option for attracting, retaining, and expanding rider ship by providing more frequent service to stops along the Green Line. These stops such as Shaw, U Street, Columbia Heights, and Georgia Avenue are all being developed using Transit Oriented Development principles of high density residential and retail concentration centered on public transportation hubs. However, right now these transportation hubs are not being fully utilized primarily because of 20 year old decision that did not foresee the expansion and growth of the middle of Washington, DC.

Have you ever gotten on the Green Line late at night or on the weekend, right as the train is leaving, to then spend twenty minutes waiting on the platform for the next train? Infrequent trains during off peak hours is a result of a decision made in the 80¹s not to bring the Yellow Line service to near West Hyattsville and then build east towards Bowie as was called for in the original WMATA rail plans. Instead it was decided to build a turnaround at Mt. Vernon Square that would serve as the end of the line.
Since the Yellow and Green lines share the same tracks from L¹Enfant to Mt. Vernon Square, terminating the Yellow Line service at Mt. Vernon Square means that all the stops north of Mt. Vernon Square can only have half the possible rail service.

Since December WMATA has examined several enhanced service possibilities, the needs required to implement, and the overall costs involved for each of several options and will be providing this information at the public meeting on January 23, at the Housing Finance Agency Building. A very fitting location for this meeting given the 1000¹s of new housing units being built in the next three years within three blocks of the eastern entrance to the U Street Metro at the African American Civil War Memorial. This new urban density has spurred the necessity to reexamine the frequency of service at these stations.

My personal belief is that extending ³Yellow Line² service to Greenbelt during off­peak hours on evenings and weekends will be revealed as a cost effective solution that does not require costly new construction or the purchase of new rail cars and that will only require operations capital to implement now. The major expenses involved in the development of the Inner ³Green Line², land development, building tunnels, etc has been paid for already, yet we are not fully leveraging that investment by terminating Yellow Line Service at Mt. Vernon Square.

I want to personally thank Councilmember Graham for his leadership and follow through and WMATA for their quick action and comprehensive approach in exploring and providing an understanding for all the potential extension options. I believe this public meeting represents the recent commitment by WMATA to work to meet the needs of its riders while operating more efficiently and economically. I encourage everyone to attend this very important meeting in order to get a full understanding of all the options and to make sure that the Councilmember and WMATA get the necessary community feedback.

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday night,

Scott Pomeroy
Development Officer
MidCity Business Association
202.577.6786

The MidCity Business Association is pleased to co-host this meeting and
encourage you to forward this invite to all potentially affected
residents
or businesses at any of these Green Line stations.

I’m at my computer waiting for the pain meds to kick in (arm hurts) and checking my email I have been alerted by the City Paper (ah, someone at the City Paper likes me) that the Days Inn on NY Ave NE (is that anywhere near the hooker hotel?) will be hosting Chinese workers to work on the Chinese Embassy on Van Ness for possibly the next two years. So expect a small spike in Chinese speaking folk who may or may not come through Chinatown (man they are going to be disappointed) and Shaw and all points in between.
Because the arm is hurting I left the DCist happy hour. I was glad to see John who I knew from my swing dancing days, he’s now a photoblogger. John you are an excellent dancer, email me when you decide to venture out to a dance. Also I’m getting old, loud music (unless I’m playing it) doesn’t do it for me.