By David Alpert (Executive Director) • December 30, 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.”
By Malcolm Kenton (Contributor) • December 30, 2019
All but 63 miles of the 457-mile DC-Boston Northeast Corridor higher-speed rail line are served by commuter or regional rail trains, while Amtrak intercity trains cover the route’s entirety. If commuter trains were extended to fill these gaps, it would be possible to travel inexpensively from DC to Philadelphia with one change of train, from DC to New York with three changes, or DC to Boston with six changes.
Under a pilot program set to launch in late January, DC announced it would begin mailing $65 tickets to owners of vehicles who block bike lanes. This change will allow parking control officers to issue tickets to owners of vehicles that drive away before the ticket is printed. (Anna-Lysa Gayle / WJLA)
National Airport is making progress on a new concourse and expanded screening area set to open in 2021. It will replace the airport’s current method of busing Gate 35X travelers to their planes. (Lori Aratani / Post)
DC extended a pilot program that began in May to sterilize its rat population using a new type of sweet bait that renders consumers sterile. DC is continuing to evaluate the program, but the Arizona company that makes the product announced a 77% drop in the ratio of juveniles to adults in the District. (Jodie Fleischer, Rick Yarborough, and Jeff Piper / NBC4)
Local leaders in Northern Virginia list funding for the commonwealth’s Housing Trust Fund and for regional transportation projects as the top items on their wish list from the newly elected Virginia General Assembly. (Alex Koma / WBJ)
Kim Lamphier, a Maryland cycling advocate who passed away in August following a battle with cancer, was the driving force behind the state’s $3.8 million pledge to fund the Bikeways Network Program for the next two years. Governor Larry Hogan funded it after initially vetoing in May. (Kate Masters / Bethesda Beat)
Local officials and activists welcomed the news that the US attorney’s office charged seven incidents from 2019 as hate crimes compared to only five across both 2017 and 2018, their lowest point in at least a decade. Momentum is building to strengthen the city’s hate crime law. (Michael E. Miller and Steven Rich / Post)
At the encouragement of several Girl Scout Troops, the DC Council will hold a public hearing on January 27 on whether to designate the endangered brown bat as the official state mammal. The bats are found in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and each can eat up to 1,200 bugs per night. (AP)
