Here are our top read posts:

This week we had pieces about issues that deserve a second look, from the new face of Downtown Silver Spring, to a video offering a fresh take on the old problem of segregation, to Montgomery County legislators pushing to preserve the Corridor Cities Transitway. Enjoy your weekend beverage with our weekend reads. 

Grappling with the climate crisis, DC’s preservation board rejects front-facing solar panels

By David Alpert (Executive Director) • October 8, 2019

“I applaud your greenness and your desire to save the planet,” said architect and preservation board member Chris Landis, “and I realize that we are in crisis politically as well as sustainably. But I just have this vision of a row of houses with solar panels on the front of them and it just — it upsets me.”

After 15 years, Downtown Silver Spring is getting a big update

By Dan Reed (Editorial Board) • October 9, 2019

A lot of things happened in the summer and the fall of 2004. What sticks out most is the night in August I stood with three of my closest friends at the entrance of a new parking garage in downtown Silver Spring, yet to open, daring each other to go in.

US cities were segregated by design. This video shows how we’re still affected.

By Dave Murphy (Contributor) • October 8, 2019

Generations of housing segregation in the United States has had lasting effects on social issues such as crime, education, achievement, and the environment. Many of the factors that led to the segregated housing situation in America and its subsequent wealth gaps stemmed from policies, often at the federal level, enacted to keep white Americans away from people of color, particularly African Americans.

Restrictive zoning is impeding DC’s goal to build more housing, research shows

By Jenny Schuetz (Brookings Institution) • October 10, 2019

Mayor Muriel Bowser kicked off her second term as Washington, D.C.’s mayor last January by setting an ambitious goal for the District: building 36,000 new homes by 2025. To reduce the likelihood that new construction will displace lower-income and minority communities, the mayor challenged “every ward and every neighborhood” to pitch in toward the city-wide goal.

Some are trying to undo important affordable housing language in the Comp Plan

By David Alpert (Executive Director) • October 7, 2019

Way back in 2016, when we thought updating DC’s Comprehensive Plan would take merely a year or two, GGWash, alongside affordable housing groups, tenants’ organizers, developers, and others, formed the Housing Priorities Coalition. We didn’t agree on everything, but coalition members were willing to put aside differences to craft amendments to the Comp Plan on which they could unite.