December « 2009 « City Block

600,000

2010 Census Mug – CC image from flickr

Ryan Avent takes note of some joyous holiday news for the District:

I always love looking through new population estimates from the Census Bureau. New numbers, estimated as of July 2009, have just come out, and it appears the District is just a few hundred people short of

Continue reading 600,000

snOMG

So, when I asked if DC could have as much fun in the snow as they did in Madison a few weeks ago, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind:

City Paper – DCist

You don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight.

According to an eyewitness, a D.C. Police detective (pictured above w/ gun) went nuts

Continue reading snOMG

Ridin’ the storm out

I can’t resist.

Riding the storm out
Waiting for the fallout
On a full moon night in the Rocky Mountain winter
Wine bottle’s low
Watching for the snow
I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been missing in the city

Other fun items as I sit around with nothing else to do.

FREE CARS!
Be sure to wrap it up…
Brunch report.
Weather nerd happy hour
Guerilla

Continue reading Ridin’ the storm out

Snow day

We got the illest weatherman in the biz on storm watch… – dilated peoples

Metro might have to limit itself to the ‘snow map‘ [EDIT] – Snow map is on – Metro has suspended all above-ground transit service [/EDIT]
Mammoth links to Design Observer’s piece from Sergio Lopez-Piñeiro on snow landscapes.

What remains to be seen is if

Continue reading Snow day

Gehry to Planners: Drop Dead

From Catherine V on flickr

Can’t help but mention this – from the UK’s Independent, a conversation with architect (but not a fucking starchitect, damn it) Frank Gehry: (hat tip – planetizen)

“I don’t know who invented that fucking word ‘starchitect’. In fact a journalist invented it, I think. I am not a ‘star-chitect’, I am

Continue reading Gehry to Planners: Drop Dead

Streetcars have arrived

Our first streetcars are here. DDOT’s facebook page has the pics.

Ruth Samuelson fears burnout!

Since late summer, the city has been buzzing about streetcar lines coming to Anacostia, H Street NE and possibly numerous other corridors across the city. Some people are thrilled. Others cry waste. But until Saturday, no D.C. streetcars were actually in America—they

Continue reading Streetcars have arrived

Let there be light

Following up on recent discussion of Metro’s lighting, it’s important to understand how much the surface that’s to be illuminated matters in Metro’s indirect lighting scheme. Earlier, I noted that Metro is currently going though a process of deep-cleaning several stations in the system – replacing light bulbs, cleaning the walls, etc. The Washington Post

Continue reading Let there be light

Infrastructure + Networks + Security

A series of (somewhat) tangentially related post/items/articles I’ve been meaning to mention here:

1. Security Theater – mammoth

There are always tensions between openness and security, and cities like DC have plenty of examples of this – everything from bollards anchored in 6 feet of subterranean concrete to jersey barriers strewn in front of building entrances. Given

Continue reading Infrastructure + Networks + Security

It’s a Party!

Tuesday evening, 7pm – Greater Greater Washington is having a little holiday gathering in the RFD backroom.

I’ve also had some more stuff to post, but thanks to some lovely Comcast connectivity issues, i’ve lost it in the tubes. Thanks, Comcast.

graphing parking « accessible parking wonkery 11 hours ago
Some rather frightening infographics on how much space we require for parking through our zoning codes.
The business of bike sharing - The Washington Post 2013/05/20
I'm not sure why people focus on commuting via Bikeshare. The major benefit to bikeshare is one-way trips, adding another layer to the other transit modes.
San Francisco upzone: Vulcan logic. 2013/05/20
Star Trek and NIMBYism.
PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station | Observer 2013/05/16
Infrastructure investment goes off the rails.
Check Out the View From the Top of the Washington Monument: DCist 2013/05/15
helmet cams for ironworkers...
Development above the new Fairfax Metro stations: Should preparation begin now? 2013/05/14
Air rights - not a bad idea. However, the depiction here just seems like another suburban pod, isolated from the rest of the land next to the toll road ROW.
Chupacabra Becomes Latest Taco Trucks to Open Restaurant - Young & Hungry 2013/05/13
A nice list of DC-area food trucks that have translated the concept into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The truck allows for proof of concept, and lower barriers to entry than otherwise required to start a storefront business from scratch.
Red Transit Lanes on Church Have Made Muni Faster and More Reliable | Streetsblog San Francisco 2013/05/13
Lessons for any city planning a streetcar line...
Cluck Zoning Board Meeting Monday | Providence Daily Dose¬es 2013/05/11
Zoning - yikes. Parking - yikes. This is not the kind of outcome we want for cities.
2035 Predictions for Washington Avenue Offer Precision Without Accuracy | streets.mn 2013/05/10
The perils of projections.

By Web Design Company

Development costs and housing affordability (1)
- Tony Daniels: Good argument. Some things stand out though. First –...
What’s wrong with ‘Metro Brown?’ (1)
- City Block: puts Metro’s recent discussions about moving away from...
Norman Foster’s aerotropolis (5)
- Alex Block: For more on those photos from Boston dealing with their...
Capacity on the Northeast Corridor (2)
- Alex Block: So, FRA is trying to reassure everyone that this is OK:...
- Alon Levy: The FRA rule changes are mostly about cant deficiency and are...
Towards a DC S-Bahn, part 2 (3)
- City Block: are needed to allow for a combination of increased intercity...
Metro’s ‘station of the future’ – why mess with what works? (1)
- Michael: “Metro Brown” works well with the red tiles and...
Disasters: the more things change, the more they stay the same (1)
- Kenny: When I was in New Orleans for a conference a few weeks ago, I...
Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way (6)
- RTA: Just because a developer provides parking doesn’t mean all...
What would happen without parking requirements? (2)
- benschon: Evidence abounds that zoning mandates to put in parking...

@GeorgetownMet Better than Chivas USA 2.0... - 9 hours ago
Development costs and housing affordability wp.me/pHcGQ-JU - 10 hours ago
@GeorgetownMet @amorrissey No, they knew they would never get in, hence why they joined another, lower-level league. Burned too many bridges - 19 hours ago
@JGluckman great point - we can go (and grow) taller while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: Barcelona and Paris have densities 4 times DC's while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: @HTinWDC suggests Paris and London as models for national capitals that are as much/more known for business and culture. #He… - 3 days ago
RT @JacksonCarnes: Pierre L'Enfant, father of DC urban planning, provided no limit or suggested limit on height. L'Enfant Plan created in 1… - 3 days ago
RT @enf: Graphic illustrations of how much space required parking eats up graphingparking.wordpress.com via @tranlib @urbandata @svrdesign - 4 days ago
Wow. Score one for the common loon. #Birds slate.com/articles/healt… - 4 days ago
RT @BeschlossDC: This is the future Times Square NYC, 1878, altho it almost looks like an intersection in a frontier town: http://t.co/EAjI… - 4 days ago

City Block

600,000

snOMG

Ridin’ the storm out

Snow day

Gehry to Planners: Drop Dead

Streetcars have arrived

Let there be light

Infrastructure + Networks + Security

It’s a Party!

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