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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I drove past the new Cleveland Park pedestrian zone last night at around 5:30. You know, the one that was supposed to revitalize that retail strip? It was a beautiful night. There were literally three people on it, and two of them were camped out outside the 7-11. There was no outdoor dining, there was no huge pedestrian presence, no one was patronizing any of the stores or restaurants. Completely desolate at 5:30 on a beautiful evening, and that's not the first time I've noticed how dead it is. [/quote]

[b]I'm absolutely surprised no one wants to do outdoor dining next to one of the busiest "stroads" in the city during rush hour. [/b]This is the fundamental problem of this strip that can't be fixed with a few bike lanes or parking tweaks. Its a fundamentally bad design, that has to compete with better designed places like the Wharf and Union Market. As more and better places for people are developed in the city and region, the worse things are going to get here. [/quote]

This statement is 10000 percent untrue, and you know it. There is outdoor dining up and down Connecticut Avenue, but not on the newly pedestrianized stretch in Cleveland Park. Hell, there is outdoor dining *directly across the street* from the new pedestrian zone. So yes, despite sarcastic (and laughably untrue) claims from GGW sycophants, people are fine eating outside on Connecticut Avenue, but for some reason it is not happening in this one location that recently got a drastic alteration under the promise that it would encourage more streetside activity. In this regard, it's an absolute failure.[/quote]

Are you arguing that the outdoor dining along CT is packed from 4-6PM on weekdays? It only ever seems "busy" outside of rush hour, wonder why that is? [/quote]

Because dinner doesn't usually start at 4pm[/quote]

You should walk around outside at Union Market or the Wharf at 4pm on a nice day, and tell us what you see. [/quote]

I guess that’s because the Wharf and Union Market both have bike lanes?

[/quote]

You don't find it odd that two areas with worse free-parking situations, farther from metro and farther from the rich part of the city have thriving dining scenes while CT Ave struggles? Why do you think that is? 
[/quote]

Vibrantdenseandtallmixeduseurbanistsmartgrowthbuzz?[/quote]

Let me just drop this from the Rosemary's Bistro thread:
"It wasn’t that long ago that a car veered off the road into the bread and chocolate sidewalk cafe and killed someone. Just up the street from here. I agree - why would you choose to basically sit in the road and have a snack. Don’t get the appeal. . ."[/quote]

It was Parthenon not Bread and Chocolate and the guy driving had stroke while accelerating.  That's neither something that can be planned against nor something that can be assumed to happen.[/quote]

It actually can be planned against, its one of the functions of curbs after all. The guy went over the curb at a high speed because he was driving an SUV with greater ground clearance and larger wheels. Curbs were designed and standardized for lower vehicles with smaller wheels. We can either regulate away these "light trucks" being used as grocery getters or build curbs high enough to protect people from SUVs.

Lacking either of these solutions, then you need more physical separation from the road to protect people. Like what you see at the Wharf. [/quote]

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