Sunday, April 09, 2006
D.C.: Activists Prefer Car Lots to High-Rises
Activists Prefer Car Lots to High-Rises
Victories Seen by Some as Intimidation
By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006; C12
For Carolyn Sherman, the latest front in the ground war for her neighborhood is a used-car lot steps from the Friendship Heights Metro station. She says a proposed 79-foot-tall building with condominiums and ground-floor retail would be more of an eyesore than the old Buick dealership on the site.
"It doesn't fit in," explained Sherman, insisting that a seven-story, boxy edifice would be "destabilizing" to the area she loves. Sherman moved to upper Northwest 13 years ago and enjoys listening to the robins chirp in her back yard, watching children play on the tire swing down the block and walking to an independently owned coffee shop just off Wisconsin Avenue.
This area is, in my opinion, Ground Zero for anti-highway, pro-congestion and old-fashioned not-in-my-backyward-ism in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs.
In spite of its location within the corporate limits of the District of Columbia, it is very suburban in apperance - single-family homes predominate off of the main drag, Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
These neighborhoods (never mind the auto-oriented land use) got themselves "saved" from the U.S. 240 (I-270 today) Northwest freeway in the late 1950's and early 1960's, promoting Metro as an alternative (and the Red Line runs below this section of Wisconsin Avenue). But now they don't want the transit-oriented development that's supposed to go with a multi-billion dollar investment in rail transit. Why would that be?
See also Doug Willinger's Highways And Communities web site for more.
Victories Seen by Some as Intimidation
By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006; C12
For Carolyn Sherman, the latest front in the ground war for her neighborhood is a used-car lot steps from the Friendship Heights Metro station. She says a proposed 79-foot-tall building with condominiums and ground-floor retail would be more of an eyesore than the old Buick dealership on the site.
"It doesn't fit in," explained Sherman, insisting that a seven-story, boxy edifice would be "destabilizing" to the area she loves. Sherman moved to upper Northwest 13 years ago and enjoys listening to the robins chirp in her back yard, watching children play on the tire swing down the block and walking to an independently owned coffee shop just off Wisconsin Avenue.
This area is, in my opinion, Ground Zero for anti-highway, pro-congestion and old-fashioned not-in-my-backyward-ism in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs.
In spite of its location within the corporate limits of the District of Columbia, it is very suburban in apperance - single-family homes predominate off of the main drag, Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
These neighborhoods (never mind the auto-oriented land use) got themselves "saved" from the U.S. 240 (I-270 today) Northwest freeway in the late 1950's and early 1960's, promoting Metro as an alternative (and the Red Line runs below this section of Wisconsin Avenue). But now they don't want the transit-oriented development that's supposed to go with a multi-billion dollar investment in rail transit. Why would that be?
See also Doug Willinger's Highways And Communities web site for more.
Comments:
Post a Comment
