By Wyatt Gordon (Virginia Correspondent) • January 5, 2021
The successes and setbacks of creating safer streetscapes in big cities dominate our imagination, but many corners of small town America are quietly undergoing a complete streets transformation as well. The compact street grids of smaller cities like Hopewell, Virginia that developed before the advent of the automobile represent low-hanging fruit in the fight for safer, healthier, and more sustainable communities.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation rated the Bay’s health a D+, in large part due to a struggling rockfish population. The six Bay states and DC will need to meet clean water targets over the next four years to turn the trend around. (Elizabeth Shwe / Maryland Matters, Christine Condon / Baltimore Sun)
Washington Housing Conservancy bought the 825-unit Crystal House apartment to preserve lower rents in the neighborhood near the future Amazon HQ2 location, using financing from Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund. (Kyle Swenson / Post)
Pro-Trump demonstrators, including the extremist far-right Proud Boys, continue to rally in DC after six people were arrested last night, some on charges of gun possession. DC has closed many streets downtown and leaders have asked residents to avoid the area to reduce violence, but racial justice organizers have asked them to denounce the groups and their beliefs more strongly. (Luke Lukert / WTOP)
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced that the National Guard will support vaccine providers in order to combat a slow vaccine rollout. He also announced that facilities that distribute less than 75% of their vaccine allotments may have future allotments reduced. (DCist)
Acording to census estimates DC ended 2020 with 7,067 more residents than it had counted at the end of 2019. DC’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer will release its own count of residents and the final census numbers will be available later in the year. (Nena Perry-Brown / Urban Turf)
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a driver in a hit and run early on Wednesday morning near Joint Base Andrews at Allentown and Suitland Roads. In a separate incident Wednesday afternoon a pedestrian was hit and seriously injured in the parking lot of a Safeway in Alexandria’s West End. (Dana Hedgepeth / Post, James Cullum / ALX Now)
In special elections to fill empty seats voters in Northern Virginia elected Democrat Candi King from Dumfries to the seat that Jennifer Carroll Foy left in order to run for governor. In Norfolk, Democrat Angelia Williams Graves was elected to replace to Joe Lindsey who left the legislature to become a judge. (Daniella Cheslow / DCist)
Author Jacob Anbinder writes that falling rents during the pandemic show that high housing prices aren’t the result of “luxury housing,” but instead stem from housing scarcity in high-demand areas. (Jacob Anbinder / The Atlantic)
Top image: One of the most troubling indicators on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's report card is a struggling rockfish or striped bass population. Image by Chesapeake Bay Program licensed under Creative Commons.
