Reply to MacArthur High School

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "MacArthur High School"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The MacArthur Vice Principal and head of operations were at our elementary school last week during dropoff hours to discuss the new HS with parents.

I had only a brief discussion with them but came away impressed. The VP said that the renovations right now are just sprucing up to get the school ready for this year. He stated that DCPS will be spending $85M over the next two years to do a true gut renovation and will construct new buildings/expand existing footprints. He said it’s going to a big construction job.

I wonder if anyone heard anything else? Sounds like they will be touring all the feeder schools in the next week or two.[/quote]

Did they discuss the transportation issue? For me, that's the biggest issue.[/quote]

The bus system overhaul - which starts in June I believe - has a new bus running to and from Foggy Bottom metro. The original proposal had the same bus running up to Tenleytown, but the Glover Park NIMBYs killed that.[/quote]

what are you talking about? glover park fought for that route (literally read the minutes of the ANC meeting). they also wanted another route that was direct to dupont and more frequent.[/quote]

The original Better Bus plan would have axed the D2 that runs from GP to Dupont in favor of a new route that connected Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom via MacArthur HS.

ANC3B fought the loss of the D2 bitterly and Frumin essentially copy pasted their arguments into his letter to WMATA. Of course, one could split hairs by claiming that ANC3B were not arguing against the new route but rather in preservation of the D2, but those making those arguments knew full well that WMATA doesn’t have the resources to be running both routes all day in a part of the city where few people ride the bus.

So what WMATA did based on Frumin’s reaction - and again, he just simply passed on ANC3B’s complaints - was that the D2 was preserved by WMATA as the “D96” and the route between Chevy Chase and Foggy Bottom - the “C85” - became a “rush hour only” service that runs northward from 7 to 8am in the morning and southward from 2:30 to 5pm in the evening.

Anyone who has been paying attention to this process can draw a straight line from ANC3B’s advocacy - and Frumin’s willingness to parrot their talking points - to the lack of a bus connecting Glover Park and neighborhoods north to MacArthur HS.[/quote]

why would the students need non-rush hour service?[/quote]

They don’t and there would be no problem if the C85 was a rush hour bus running in both directions. But, like many rush hour buses, it will only go in one direction.

You will be able to take the C85 from Foggy Bottom to Chevy Chase in the morning and from Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom in the afternoon.

But you will not be able to take it from Chevy Chase to Foggy Bottom in the morning or from Foggy Bottom to Chevy Chase in the afternoon.

The ONLY purpose the C85 will serve is to connect the Orange / Blue / Silver lines to MacArthur HS (and, strangely, the neighborhoods in the MacArthur HS boundary to J-R). It will be useless for all families that are IB for MacArthur HS.[/quote]

That seems totally backwards.

If they ran this bus south in the morning and north in the evening, like every other one-way commuter bus in NWDC, it would take the Lafayette kids to Deal/JR, the Hearst/Eaton/Stoddert kids to MacArthur, and a slew of adults downtown to their office jobs, then take everyone home again in the evening.

Instead this bus runs backwards from all other commuter buses, carries no one anywhere, and leaves three important groups of commuters stranded.

Are they doing this on purpose? Is it just a typo?[/quote]

I completely agree that this makes no sense. It could be a typo, but I doubt it. There have been multiple revisions to the new bus routes and this schedule has remained the same throughout.

This ridiculous C85 bus route is the result of WMATA twisting themselves in knots trying to keep their elected officials happy.

On the one hand, DCPS and the mayor’s office want to make MacArthur HS more accessible to families outside Ward 3. The connection to the Foggy Bottom metro achieves that.

On the other hand, you have Frumin and Glover Park insisting that the D2 not be cut (as it was in the original proposal, which the C85 running a regular schedule).

WMATA doesn’t have the buses to run both the D2 and the C85, but has to keep the D2 and improve connectivity to MacArthur. Thus it was essentially forced to create this ridiculous reverse rush hour bus.

Folks in Glover Park may not like it that others are pointing fingers at their ANC for engineering this outcome, but it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the C85 would be running in both directions were it not for their insistence that the D2 not be cut (and Frumin’s eagerness to parrot their talking points).

It’s a shame that special interests won out here. The D2 has low ridership and that’s why WMATA wanted to cut it in the first place. A C85 running in both directions on a regular schedule would have had a much higher ridership. MacArthur, its students and parents, and hundreds of commuters from across Ward 3 will suffer as a result of the few dozen people who wanted to keep the D2. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics