While Baltimore’s streetcar network never included tunnels, from 1893 to 1950 the city did have an eight-block elevated trestle for streetcars, including several stations along Guilford Avenue.
By Wyatt Gordon (Virginia Correspondent) • April 7, 2020
Petersburg Area Transit (PAT), which services the Tri-Cities, a conurbation just south of Richmond, appears to be the first in the nation to cease operations completely — at least for a day.
Despite calls for street closures to provide more safely distanced outdoor space for people, Arlington and DC have refused, citing essential workers’ need to travel and concerns over drawing crowds into the street. Montgomery County closed sections of Sligo Creek Parkway to cars on the weekend, but does not plan on doing wider closures. (Jordan Pascale / WAMU)
In the Council’s first-ever Zoom meeting, lawmakers unanimously passed a bill to allow the mayor to extend the city’s public health emergency, freeze rent increases, and expand rent deferrals and early release conditions. A provision dropped from the bill would have provided financial supports for undocumented immigrants in the city. (Post)
Attorney General Brian Frosh wrote to Governor Hogan to ask that the state release elderly and nonviolent inmates to reduce the public health risk of coronavirus spreading in jails and prisons. There are at least 17 cases of coronavirus among employees and inmates in the Maryland prison system. (Danielle Gaines / Maryland Matters)
A report by the Urban Institue found that one in four rental units nationwide have federally-backed mortgages from HUD, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and are therefore covered by HUD and FHFA’s eviction moratorium during the pandemic. (Nena Perry-Brown / Urban Turf)
The Office of Zoning wants to offer deadlines extensions for the rest of the year on development projects that have to be approved by the city’s Zoning Commission or Board of Zoning Adjustment to account for construction and regulatory slowdowns caused by the pandemic. (Alex Koma / WBJ)
An analysis of projected standardized test scores estimates that if DC does indeed close schools for the rest of the academic year only 24% of DC students would test proficiently in math, and 28% in English, well below the projected 34% and 44% projected without the school closures. (Debbie Truong / WAMU)
While transit ridership nationwide has plummeted its important for transit advocates to continue to speak out for the systems that are still carrying essential workers, and to support the transit workers keeping systems open for necessary use. (Transit Center)
