Reply to New Cleveland Park library is a missed opportunity

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And yet, like it or not, Van Ness is an economic engine for the area. The Main Street is doing wonders to improve the retail mix and the "community" feel.[/quote]

Van Mess??  It's a traffic nightmare, DC can't keep up with the road wear and tear issues, and [b]it's literally the furthest thing from a community feel anywhere along Conn Ave.[/b]  (And I say this as a transplant to DC who thinks there's nothing that great to write home about even in the other commercial areas up Conn Ave.  CCDC has tons of walkable stores and restaurants compared to Van Ness.  Even Comet/P&P is better.  Van Mess has some lunch spots for the office workers or UDC crowd, but there's not even a good college vibe b/c I don't think anyone actually lives at UDC so it's literally just a daytime lunch crowd at the very most. [/quote]

You clearly haven't been there in a while based on your description.[/quote]

I live really close.  I’m there all the time but I don’t prefer the vibe there.  [/quote]

Interesting observation.  In fact, Van Ness is quite different from the look and feel of other commercial districts which were part of the integrated design of Connecticut Avenue from when much of the street was developed by Newlands and others.  Connecticut was very much designed as a planned street, with concentrations apartment buildings (some quite grand and set back by lawns), and interspersed neighborhood-serving commercial areas which were designed to be lower scale.  Much of the Woodley Park strip, the shops across from the zoo, Cleveland Park, the Politics & Prose area south of Nebraska and then Chevy Chase DC are examples of walkable, human scale retail area with a community feel.  In fact, the designers of Bethesda Row on Bethesda Ave., looked to Cleveland Park for design inspiration.  The Van Ness area may have been like this originally as well, but was developed into large, impersonal buildings, with wide concrete sidewalks and plazas.  The scale and streetscape feel alienating.  Park Van Ness, while not exactly low-scale, is definitely more inviting than the area just north of Van Ness St.
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