Your top three recommendations to make DC a better place for locals and visitors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
2. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
3. Enforce the damn traffic laws.

Except Idaho Stop and red light running for bikes, right?. Not those traffic laws.

[Anonymous]

1, 2 and 3: A nice recession to drive all of these progressive, urbanist, YIMBY, cyclist, criminal justice reform, democratic socialists back into their parents basements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Prosecute parents for the crimes of their children and truancy
2. Make DC way more business friendly
3. Shopping

I love DC and live in it. I think that if many parents would lose their housing benefits or government subsidies if they can't control their children, it would be very effective.

But where would that leave them? This could just lead to more crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
2. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
3. Enforce the damn traffic laws.

Except Idaho Stop and red light running for bikes, right?. Not those traffic laws.

Idaho stop is legal, there's no law against it to enforce.

[Anonymous]

Build more housing. At every price point.

[Anonymous]

Put homeless in SROs, ban camping in public parks or sidewalks or highway sides

Enforce traffic laws: heavily fine or arrest people double parking, arrest people doing U turns on busy streets like Connecticut Ave

remove subsidies from metro, let prices be what they may be to fully fund it year over year

[Anonymous]

Ops are the best by far. While equity is good, it can't be the PRIMARY goal of the DC govt. Get a grasp on the city, be strict, and DC will begin to shine again.

DC should be the cleanest major city in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1, 2 and 3: A nice recession to drive all of these progressive, urbanist, YIMBY, cyclist, criminal justice reform, democratic socialists back into their parents basements.

You seem nice.

[Anonymous]

More parking. Get rid of bike lanes no one uses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to get into specifics, but I moved here from a liberal blue city in a liberal blue state and could not believe the low expectations and tolerance for lawlessness in DC.

This. Blame city council.

[Anonymous]

1. Relax the height restriction in a sensible way, with preference given to new residential and mixed uses.
2. Improve enforcement of traffic laws with ticket reciprocity and an enforcement division.
3. Improve and densify public spaces, with more events and more control over commerce in public spaces
(this last one is really an NPS issue re: the Mall and downtown parks, but DC sure would benefit from solving it).

A lot of the quality of life things that people cite are actually a function of #1. Downtown isn't dense enough to be fully vibrant without 100% in office workers, and in much of downtown its uses aren't diverse enough. Also, a lot of larger private sector business stays in VA because they can't find contiguous space to expand in DC.

Trying to make DC more suburb-like (with more parking and less bike infrastructure) will never work; the suburbs will always win on that front, and the city has spent decades and millions of dollars undoing the negative consequences of pursuing that strategy from the 50s to the 80s. DC has to lean into what makes it special and interesting and unique, which means emphasizing being around other people and doing cool things. More density downtown and better use of public spaces for events, food, and commerce would bring more people downtown, better traffic enforcement would make the experience of being out and about more pleasant, and a lot of the other stuff people worry about would just follow along. Also, more residential density downtown would raise revenues again to help offset the decline of office space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Relax the height restriction in a sensible way, with preference given to new residential and mixed uses.
2. Improve enforcement of traffic laws with ticket reciprocity and an enforcement division.
3. Improve and densify public spaces, with more events and more control over commerce in public spaces
(this last one is really an NPS issue re: the Mall and downtown parks, but DC sure would benefit from solving it).

A lot of the quality of life things that people cite are actually a function of #1. Downtown isn't dense enough to be fully vibrant without 100% in office workers, and in much of downtown its uses aren't diverse enough. Also, a lot of larger private sector business stays in VA because they can't find contiguous space to expand in DC.

Trying to make DC more suburb-like (with more parking and less bike infrastructure) will never work; the suburbs will always win on that front, and the city has spent decades and millions of dollars undoing the negative consequences of pursuing that strategy from the 50s to the 80s. DC has to lean into what makes it special and interesting and unique, which means emphasizing being around other people and doing cool things. More density downtown and better use of public spaces for events, food, and commerce would bring more people downtown, better traffic enforcement would make the experience of being out and about more pleasant, and a lot of the other stuff people worry about would just follow along. Also, more residential density downtown would raise revenues again to help offset the decline of office space.

i'm sick of hearing about "bike infrastructure". I spent the better part of a month with my sister in Tokyo and our combined 4 kids and we biked everywhere every day with no bike infrastructure. We rode on the shoulder of the road, or the sidewalk, or cut through alleys, and carried coins to park in paid bike parking lots owned by private businesses. It is not the government's job to make people ride bikes and I say this as one of the rare people who bike for most trips when it's above freezing. When I bike in this country the number one annoyance is sexual harassment from lowlifes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Build more housing. At every price point.

Yippee, yay, YIYBY!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Relax the height restriction in a sensible way, with preference given to new residential and mixed uses.
2. Improve enforcement of traffic laws with ticket reciprocity and an enforcement division.
3. Improve and densify public spaces, with more events and more control over commerce in public spaces
(this last one is really an NPS issue re: the Mall and downtown parks, but DC sure would benefit from solving it).

A lot of the quality of life things that people cite are actually a function of #1. Downtown isn't dense enough to be fully vibrant without 100% in office workers, and in much of downtown its uses aren't diverse enough. Also, a lot of larger private sector business stays in VA because they can't find contiguous space to expand in DC.

Trying to make DC more suburb-like (with more parking and less bike infrastructure) will never work; the suburbs will always win on that front, and the city has spent decades and millions of dollars undoing the negative consequences of pursuing that strategy from the 50s to the 80s. DC has to lean into what makes it special and interesting and unique, which means emphasizing being around other people and doing cool things. More density downtown and better use of public spaces for events, food, and commerce would bring more people downtown, better traffic enforcement would make the experience of being out and about more pleasant, and a lot of the other stuff people worry about would just follow along. Also, more residential density downtown would raise revenues again to help offset the decline of office space.

Getting rid of the height act restrictions would give away a huge distinguishing feature of Washington, DC, which leads to open vistas, light, green space and a more human-scale city. Otherwise, we'll wind up as another Cleveland or Indianapolis skyline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
2. Enforce the damn traffic laws.
3. Enforce the damn traffic laws.

1. Enforce the damn traffic laws. Vigorously.
2. Enforce the criminal laws. Very vigorously.
3. Curtail the DC voucher program and increase involuntary commitment for crazy or drug addicted street people.