Metro

[Anonymous]

I find it absurd that DC does not have a more extensive metro system. Heavily populated areas such as Georgetown, Palisades, Glenn Echo, Chevy Chase, Kensington, 16th street heights, etc. are essentially without public transport (except for a few lame, slow and unreliable buses). At the same time people complain about traffic congestion....

Why isn't there a push to fix this?

[Anonymous]

There was an article in the Post just the other day about bringing Metro to Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Politics. The rich "green" residents don't want public transportation into their neighborhoods. Who cares if their housekeepers and sitters have to wait forever for the bus.

[Anonymous]

The streetcar line is supposed to extend to Georgeotwn eventually.

[Anonymous]

They used to have a great streetcar system covering all these areas. Then the all-powerful auto took over.
I don't think people realize the true price we pay for the convenience of cars.

[Anonymous]

I work as an urban planner and I can tell you a lot of this is political. Gtown residents did NOT want metro but also from an engineering standpoint at the time of planning in the 60s it was difficult to make it work in Gtown.
Palisades hardly counts as heavily populated either. If communties want metro they need to agree to a massive upzonig of the adjacent properties to make it worth while. Look at NY Avenue, the property owners with land around that stop paid for most of that stop to get built and then built the hell up around it. Thus is it ends up paying for itself. the metro was originally designed to focus on suburbanites coming into the city, thus the "spoke" design. Streetcars will help but they need to be dedicated lanes. I like that people are finally getting fed up with hour long commutes and realizing that less house is better than more commute and moving back into the city!

[Anonymous]

Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

+1 to your whole post, but I especially love the long-lived myth that only Metro can bring riff-raff. Do they not have cars like everyone else?

[Anonymous]

This is one of those urban myths

+2. Urban legend, totally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

+1 to your whole post, but I especially love the long-lived myth that only Metro can bring riff-raff. Do they not have cars like everyone else?

Look at crime maps within proximity to metro. It's not a myth. I don't mean to imply that crime is not committed by those with cars, but the rates are different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

+1 to your whole post, but I especially love the long-lived myth that only Metro can bring riff-raff. Do they not have cars like everyone else?

Look at crime maps within proximity to metro. It's not a myth. I don't mean to imply that crime is not committed by those with cars, but the rates are different.

I see East Washington red, West Washington white. Not too many crimes around Grosvenor/Strathmore or Vienna - at least less than in Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

+1 to your whole post, but I especially love the long-lived myth that only Metro can bring riff-raff. Do they not have cars like everyone else?

Look at crime maps within proximity to metro. It's not a myth. I don't mean to imply that crime is not committed by those with cars, but the rates are different.

Correlation and causation are different things. Metro stations are generally in the most dense urban environments in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown never wanted the riff-raff the Metro would bring.

This is one of those urban myths, like no building being taller than the capitol dome. Gtown soil did not support the early tunnel boring metro used, thus the engineering challenge was too great. It isn't now, and Gtown will likely get a metro station and a new tunnel under the potomac. Not anytime soon, of course, but probably by 2050 or so.

And it's no like lack of metro has kept the riff raff out of gtown anyway!

+1 to your whole post, but I especially love the long-lived myth that only Metro can bring riff-raff. Do they not have cars like everyone else?

Look at crime maps within proximity to metro. It's not a myth. I don't mean to imply that crime is not committed by those with cars, but the rates are different.

I see East Washington red, West Washington white. Not too many crimes around Grosvenor/Strathmore or Vienna - at least less than in Georgetown.

Certainly at that level of granularity (and no, I'm not talking about Vienna here). Compare w/in 1000 ft of Tenleytown metro to w/in 1000 ft of the Glover Park Wisconsin Ave strip. (I tried to pick similar areas of commercial development.) 3 times the amount of crimes occurred near Tenleytown. Is that somehow politically incorrect to acknowledge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Politics. The rich "green" residents don't want public transportation into their neighborhoods. Who cares if their housekeepers and sitters have to wait forever for the bus.

Not that I love the residents of Georgetown by any means but it is a myth (that has been confirmed many times in the local media) that they kept the metro from coming to Georgetown. And today apparently they're all on board for plans bringing the metro to Georgetown.