Erlich promises to kill Purple Line dreams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those light rail tin cans are a joke.

You forgot to mention "they'll kill us all". You guys are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

You all realize that the Purple line, as it traverses the Capital Crescent Trail, will have enough room to accommodate both the bike/jogging trail and the light rail line, no?

This would be a real backward move. How many times do we need to disprove the "build more lanes to reduce traffic" theory?

The ICC is a massive waste of money and green space.

[Anonymous]

Traffic is one of those things people like to complain about but don't really want to pony up the money to do anything about.

Look at McDonnell. Campaigned on transportation and as soon as he was in office, it was, "Oops, no money for that! Sorry!" (But plenty of time to tell UVA to discriminate against gays.)

Nope, we get the transportation system we deserve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Traffic is one of those things people like to complain about but don't really want to pony up the money to do anything about.

Look at McDonnell. Campaigned on transportation and as soon as he was in office, it was, "Oops, no money for that! Sorry!" (But plenty of time to tell UVA to discriminate against gays.)

Nope, we get the transportation system we deserve.

Hence the great middle-class migration into the city. In ten years, it's going to be Mad Max out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hence the great middle-class migration into the city. In ten years, it's going to be Mad Max out there.

Curious. Last I checked, Loudoun, Fauquier, Howard, and southern MD were growing like gangbusters, but DC was barely reversing its decline.

Now if you want to argue that areas like the southern reaches of Falls Church, Seven Corners, and the Route 1 corridor (and their MD counterparts) might revitalize, I can believe you there.

[Anonymous]

What exactly to you mean by "growing"? Adding new units? I don't disagree with that. As more and more poor and middle-class residents are priced out of the District and inner burbs, they move further and further out. This "growth" in the sprawl-zones is a symptom of the problem, not a sign of health.

The congestion these places is famous for will only get worse, and that pace of change will accelerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What exactly to you mean by "growing"? Adding new units? I don't disagree with that. As more and more poor and middle-class residents are priced out of the District and inner burbs, they move further and further out. This "growth" in the sprawl-zones is a symptom of the problem, not a sign of health.

The congestion these places is famous for will only get worse, and that pace of change will accelerate.

Growing as in population.

People would rather commute 30 minutes longer if it means having a backyard, safe communities, better schools, etc.

Or, I wonder how many of these middle/upper-class DC returnees would send their kids to any DCPS high school other than Wilson or Banneker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all realize that the Purple line, as it traverses the Capital Crescent Trail, will have enough room to accommodate both the bike/jogging trail and the light rail line, no?

This would be a real backward move. How many times do we need to disprove the "build more lanes to reduce traffic" theory?

The ICC is a massive waste of money and green space.

Have you measured? There is absolutely no way two train tracks plus bike path fits there. Furthermore, the current plans call for electric wires which means they won't be able to replant much after they hack down all the trees. Maybe Ike Leggett will build us a tree museum. They also have to knock down a number of apartment buildings, including those that are walkable to the red line. So we want to move people from New Carrollton to Bethesda more than we want to move people from Silver Spring to downtown? This really has nothing to do with the ICC, which I agree was a waste of green space. Nobody is talking about trading the purple line for more lanes. It's beyond me why people can't just get on the bus. I take it daily, it works fine actually. We love to build rail though, it's a sexy project.

[Anonymous]

Because the bus is stuck in the same lousy EW Highway traffic as all of the cars. Unless we are going to invest in infrastructure and provide alternatives, we will have to get used to the status quo of more wasted time, more oil consumption and more pollution in the air.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Have you measured? There is absolutely no way two train tracks plus bike path fits there. Furthermore, the current plans call for electric wires which means they won't be able to replant much after they hack down all the trees. Maybe Ike Leggett will build us a tree museum. They also have to knock down a number of apartment buildings, including those that are walkable to the red line. So we want to move people from New Carrollton to Bethesda more than we want to move people from Silver Spring to downtown? This really has nothing to do with the ICC, which I agree was a waste of green space. Nobody is talking about trading the purple line for more lanes. It's beyond me why people can't just get on the bus. I take it daily, it works fine actually. We love to build rail though, it's a sexy project.

I only wish that were the case. How I would love to have a job downtown instead of in North Bethesda (cough cough Rockville)! Here is why we need suburb-to-suburb transportation -- many jobs actually are in Bethesda and New Carrollton these days. (Many of the companies where I could work are in the burbs and have terrible mass transit access. One more reason why I stay were I am but what I really want is a job downtown.) This is part of the problem with modern mass transit -- it's set up to take people downtown but business development patterns haven't evolved that way.

The purple line debate doesn't really affect me since I live in the District but I have a lot of co-workers coming from Prince George's County to North Bethesda and I bet some of them would like a decent suburb-to-suburb system instead of having to deal with the beltway. It's fine with me if it's a dedicated busway. I don't have a snobbish preference for a rail line that a lot of people do. But something is needed. A bunch of folks I work with have hellacious commutes and having access from New Carrollton would seriously help some them.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I would love if they built the Purple Line. I would use it happily instead of sitting in my car in traffic. And there is no way I can bike to work now; no safe route all the way there. Buses sit in the same traffic I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:" Not all conservatives are stupid, but all stupid people are conservative." HL Menckin

Don't give crap who said it, it's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly to you mean by "growing"? Adding new units? I don't disagree with that. As more and more poor and middle-class residents are priced out of the District and inner burbs, they move further and further out. This "growth" in the sprawl-zones is a symptom of the problem, not a sign of health.

The congestion these places is famous for will only get worse, and that pace of change will accelerate.

Growing as in population.

People would rather commute 30 minutes longer if it means having a backyard, safe communities, better schools, etc.

Or, I wonder how many of these middle/upper-class DC returnees would send their kids to any DCPS high school other than Wilson or Banneker.

Housing values certainly aren't growing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly to you mean by "growing"? Adding new units? I don't disagree with that. As more and more poor and middle-class residents are priced out of the District and inner burbs, they move further and further out. This "growth" in the sprawl-zones is a symptom of the problem, not a sign of health.

The congestion these places is famous for will only get worse, and that pace of change will accelerate.

Growing as in population.

People would rather commute 30 minutes longer if it means having a backyard, safe communities, better schools, etc.

Or, I wonder how many of these middle/upper-class DC returnees would send their kids to any DCPS high school other than Wilson or Banneker.

Housing values certainly aren't growing!

Might want to check your facts, the only houses in the neighborhood that backs up to the trail that have bene on the market more than a few weeks are the two that actully back up to the trail. All the others are moving and over asking proce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly to you mean by "growing"? Adding new units? I don't disagree with that. As more and more poor and middle-class residents are priced out of the District and inner burbs, they move further and further out. This "growth" in the sprawl-zones is a symptom of the problem, not a sign of health.

The congestion these places is famous for will only get worse, and that pace of change will accelerate.

Growing as in population.

People would rather commute 30 minutes longer if it means having a backyard, safe communities, better schools, etc.

Or, I wonder how many of these middle/upper-class DC returnees would send their kids to any DCPS high school other than Wilson or Banneker.

No, you're absolutely right. The population of the suburbs continues metastasize. And as the growth continues to sprawl ever outward, the region's transportation network continues to fall apart, or hadn't you noticed that Metro, the interstates, and all the surface roads are gridlocked for about 10 hours a day.

Meanwhile, more and more folks are flocking to the cities:
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/0120_poverty_kneebone.aspx

Funny, but some people are always the last to know. I'm sure, back in the late 50s/early 60s there were plenty of folks who couldn't imagine the demographic change that was about to sweep the cities and make them uninhabitable for the next half century. Best of luck out there.