Great Streets mtg 3/27

Tonight (Tues 3/27) DDOT is hosting their second public meeting about city plans to improve Georgia Avenue. Click here for the full flyer.

6:30pm-8:30pm
Israel Metropolitan Church, 557 Randolph

[Ed. note - the first flyer sent out had only 'Middle Georgia Avenue' as the name of this segment of the Great Streets project. I saw an email from the head of the project, asking that it be changed to 'Middle Georgia Avenue/Petworth'. Guess Petworth is more and more on the radar screen. - Bill]

Comments

[James T.]

Final meeting- April 24th (essentially presenting a final draft to comment on).

Hopefully, materials from the second meeting will be posted at http://www.psivanness.com/georgiaave/default.asp?Lvl1=3&Lvl2=2. They probably won't have a whole lot of context, though.

The meeting was much more sparsely attended than the first one; perhaps 40% of the total number of people showed up (and not a whole lot of repeat visitors, from my memory).

DDOT & their contractor (Rhodeside & Harwell) presented two options. The first option (A) featured upgraded sidewalk materials (mentioned were large stone blocks south of Kansas, brick above), upgraded lamp posts, bulb outs at the Petworth metro station to reduce crossing distance, and an upgraded stone for the metro entrance plaza at NH & GA. Option B added bulbouts to most intersections between NH & KS, upgraded paving material, upgrading the paving in the crosswalks to make them distinctive from the street, provisioning for outdoor seating at Upshur/Georgia and a kiosk at the metro station. Also featured in option B was closing off 9th street from the Shepard/Taylor alley to Taylor, and changing 9th between Taylor and Varnum to 1-way southbound with diagonal, back-in parking. The best way to describe the options is that A is nice, and B is (A + a lot more stuff). Also covered were various types of tree/plant options, including ways to keep trees that are next to sidewalks happy and healty (and presumably not heaving the sidewalk next to it).

There were major concerns durability of the design/maintenability/upkeep costs. A common sentiment seemed to be "it's nice you want to spend the money now to make it look nice, but is DDOT willing to spend the money to keep it up when they've neglected GA for so long?" Additionally, continuity in design with the neighborhoods south & north is another issue (It sounds like the materials in option A are pretty much the default for the entire corridor). Of course, there are more issues, but I heard those two (especially the first) quite a few times.

My opinion:
-The idea of closing off 9th seems pretty good to me. As part of changing it into parking/easily closable for special events, it could help efforts for the Farmer's Market proposal or other special events. It also provides a lot of very visible parking immediately by Upshur St. and the Petworth Rec Area and should help attract people there, leading to further redevelopment (disclaimer- I live on the 800 block of Taylor). I have a concern on the mechanics of the operation (unless they place a light at Taylor, I'd hate to make a left turn onto GA coming out of the south block of parking)

-The bulb outs and special marking of the crosswalks are a good idea. The more shorter and more visible pedestrian crossings are, the better

-I want whatever materials that would be used to be easy to remove and replace for utility work/upkeep. From my memory, London sidewalks (which were specifically mentioned as a model for some of the materials proposed) generally have large (say 2'x2'+) blocks of stone set in sand on top of grading. When utility work occurs, they remove the block, dig out to the utility, do the work & replace the block- no jackhammers, tar patches, or repouring concrete.

-I had some concerns with how the alternatives were presented, and asking which one we preferred. It seemed like the choices presented to us were like 1)an ice cream cone and 2)a waffle ice cream cone. Assuming you're not counting calories (i.e., cost) you're generally going to choose the waffle cone- it's bigger, fresher, and tastier. To ask for a preferance is a bit odd, especialy when we don't know all the implications of the choice.

-I was disappointed that they did not have projected cost info. That would have helped reassure people that either alternative was doable and maintainable. Also, from what I heard, they're pretty much expecting to have a neighborhood group (resident, business, or both) to negotiate with to help maintain some of the 'extra' features (such as flower plantings)- both the contractors and people mentioned downtown as being nice (I heard a couple of specific mentions about the extra street cleaners in downtown and the Golden Triangle BID), but I was wondering how many people are aware that the businesses in those areas essentially tax themselves to get the extra bit. With residents also complaining about the home costs & unaffordability of market rate property (I heard that at the first meeting in volume), I am skeptical of the willingness of people to pay more in property tax (or another tax).

[Sean M.]

I couldn't make the meeting. Can some one fill us in on any new details?