By Stephen Repetski (Editorial Board Alum) • December 1, 2020
A draft budget unveiled by Metro on Monday would eliminate rail service on weekends, cut trains to run only every half hour, and slash bus service in half from pre-pandemic levels. The agency has a $500 million dollar hole in its budget to fill, and no forthcoming savior in Congress.
Although the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System is more than 70 years old, more than half of its branches were built in a span of just 16 years.
By George Kevin Jordan (Managing Editor) • November 30, 2020
Come bar hop through CyberWashington with GGWash. Learn how to design better cities. Celebrate our Latino environmental champions during the third annual Naturally Latinos Conference and more in this week’s virtual urbanist events.
American bicycling trips skyrocketed 26% at the height of the COVID-19 bicycling boom, but the surge was much larger in small metros than big cities that liked to bike before, a new study finds.
To close a $500 million budget gap for next fiscal year, which starts in July, Metro is proposing its most drastic cuts yet: Total elimination of weekend rail service, closing 19 stations, slashed bus service, and closing of the system at 9 p.m. Only Congress can provide the relief funds needed to prevent these dire cuts, officials say. (Jordan Pascale / DCist, Justin George / Post)
The District is launching a $10 million grant program that will give some landlords of affordable housing, whose tenants have not paid rent, 80% of that rent in return for them forgiving the remaining 20%. (Nena Perry-Brown / UrbanTurf)
Developers had big plans for Gramercy District, an Ashburn “smart city” development billed as the “future of living” and set to open before Metro’s Silver Line extension. But four years later, those ambitious plans look tenuous. (Alex Koma / Business Journal)
Larry Willis, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, who led a union federation representing millions of transportation workers, died Sunday. Willis was critically injured on November 21 in a crash with a motorist while riding his bicycle near the entrance to Great Falls Park. (Michael Laris / Post)
After two years of repairs, Lawyers Mall in Annapolis is reopening. The plaza by the Maryland State House is an important First Amendment gathering space in the state’s capital. (Pamela Wood / Baltimore Sun)
DC and Arlington are among the ten cities with the fastest declines in rent during the pandemic as demand plummeted. Median prices are down about 10%. (Michele Lerner / Post)
As Montgomery County rewrites its long-term development framework, Thrive Montgomery 2050, residents are focusing on themes including racial equity and the county’s need for a more diverse array of housing types. (Caitlynn Peetz / Bethesda Beat)
