More progressive policies and equity

Get rid of half the food trucks on the mall. There will still be more than enough and it will instantly beautify and clear the air.

More window flower boxes. Like London.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

When you live somewhere that has an actual sense of community, people freely will beautify the public spaces in their neighborhoods without the government having to do it. But apparently not in DC, which says a lot about DC.

Clearly you don't understand how home rule works. Nearly all our park spaces, even tiny neighborhood parks, are controlled by the National Park Service. This means that neither local residents nor the city government can do much of anything to them. DC is a small part of NPS's mission, and they are very budget constrained, so many of the improvements that DC residents might want are just not possible. DC has been actively trying to take over the management of more of its parks, in fact.

Walk around Capitol Hill or any of our other rowhouse neighborhoods sometime. You'll see that DC residents do a fantastic job of beautifying the spaces that they control.

I’m not talking about neighborhood parks. I’m talking about basics like juts picking up the trash in the sidewalk in front of your house or mowing the road verge or weeding and mulching the sidewalk tree wells. The rule in DC is that if it’s outside your property line no one will touch it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) A large oceanfront beach;

2) A mountain with powdery snow ski slopes & trails;

3) A very large freshwater lake with houseboats.

This wishlist is going to be hampered by the local geography.

Yes, I know. Hopefully global warming will help to achieve two of the three on my list. As for the mountain with snow,maybe West Virginia will absorb DC.

No trash or litter.

Powerwash stuff

Paint.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

When you live somewhere that has an actual sense of community, people freely will beautify the public spaces in their neighborhoods without the government having to do it. But apparently not in DC, which says a lot about DC.

Clearly you don't understand how home rule works. Nearly all our park spaces, even tiny neighborhood parks, are controlled by the National Park Service. This means that neither local residents nor the city government can do much of anything to them. DC is a small part of NPS's mission, and they are very budget constrained, so many of the improvements that DC residents might want are just not possible. DC has been actively trying to take over the management of more of its parks, in fact.

Walk around Capitol Hill or any of our other rowhouse neighborhoods sometime. You'll see that DC residents do a fantastic job of beautifying the spaces that they control.

16.5 percent of DC lives in poverty, which is only a few ticks lower than West Virginia's 16.8 percent. Maybe we should focus on that? Instead of bike lanes and burying power lines and removing brick sidewalks and other frilly things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

When you live somewhere that has an actual sense of community, people freely will beautify the public spaces in their neighborhoods without the government having to do it. But apparently not in DC, which says a lot about DC.

It sounds like you hate DC, maybe you should not live here.

1. Better pedestrian infrastructure. I honestly don't care that much about bikes -- I'm fine with bike lanes but I think the real issue is that we need to make it easy and pleasant to be a pedestrian in DC. I think about the most beautiful cities I've been too and they have wide sidewalks, lots of shade trees, plentiful and convenient public transportation, and lots of places where you can walk and sit and eat that are not full of cars driving or parking. It's not purely a safety thing (thought that's part of it) -- it's about reducing noise and pollution as well which goes directly to the aesthetics of the city. I'd love to see more parts of the city given over to pedestrians or centered around pedestrians.

2. Get rid of the homeless encampments. Obviously help the people living there find alternative housing, but the tent cities are a scourge and benefit no one in the long run. They occupy public space that could be shared by all people and make it unpleasant even for the people who currently live there. That's not an appropriate use for parks, medians, sidewalks, etc. The people living in these camps need to be in environments where they can go to the bathroom and have privacy. How is this a solution for anything, I don't understand.

3. Not sure, I guess I only have two suggestions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

When you live somewhere that has an actual sense of community, people freely will beautify the public spaces in their neighborhoods without the government having to do it. But apparently not in DC, which says a lot about DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More bikes duh!

The city has spend BILLIONS on bike lanes (this in a city where poverty levels exceed some states in the deep south). So, yes, it would be nice if somebody actually used them....

The city has not spent billions on bike lanes, you liar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

"Beautiful" according to whom's standards?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Wrong and racist.

Like it or not, gentrification leads to investment in homes and an uptick in small businesses including restaurants and stores of all kinds. It increases tax revenues for the city too.

Beauty is not hordes of wealthy people descending upon lower income communities, forcing out those who were there before with artificially inflated housing prices, and eradicating a community’s history, culture, and sense of place with bland “could be anywhere” businesses selling bland and overpriced “could be anywhere” food or products.

Beauty is also not money and tax revenues.

What do you think finances improvement projects like maintenance of parks, roads, public buildings, management of waste, pests, etc? All these things that affect quality of life and make city look beautiful have to be managed and maintained, and it's costly.

Anonymous wrote:DC's beauty has been marred by gentrification and white privilege. Start there.

Example of neighborhoods that had been marred?