Elements of Urbanism: Washington, DC
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A brief tour around the downtown core of the nation's capitol: Washington, DC.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/994
Excellent tour Lake!! Very well done!
After reading the article I feel like I've been to DC.
As someone who grew up in the area, its been impressive to see the renaissance that DC itself has undergone in the last decade....most of the credit goes to Andrew Altman, who was planning director from around 1999-2004....he went on to direct an organization that does redevelopment along the Anacostia riverfront (where the new baseball stadium is located)....and now he's in Philly.
But I seriously question the downtown walkscore of 97....the neighborhoods are very walkable, but I always found downtown to be a bit intimidating as a pedestrian....the Mall itself is almost 2 miles long and I never walked the whole thing as a kid...the buildings are large and monumental and the boulevards are wide...combined with all the angled intersections and traffic circles makes walking a challenge.
Walkscore does not consider the Mall as a part of downtown. However, they do show Chinatown as being a part of downtown. It ranks high because there are a ton of things to walk to at ground level and the buildings are pedestrian oriented.
link to DC walkscore map: http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/Washington_D.C.
Awesome stuff, Lake. I was in DC this summer, first time I'd visited that city since going there a number of times with my parents in the pre-college years...
Georgetown was pretty nice. Interesting that it is not accessed by the metro. I was told that the residents of Georgetown fought against having a stop there, in part, to keep undesirables away. This is just unsubstantiated hearsay though, as both people who told me this said they'd just heard that from others. Of course, two separate people told me this, so there could be truth to it. Or just a widespread rumor.
Kennedy Center is ridiculous! It's the most massive performing arts structure I've ever seen...not sure if i really liked it or not, but it was undoubtedly very striking and impressive.
Dupont Circle was bustling...reading about the history/gentrification, it does make a lot of sense.
Chinatown was weird. And I'm a Chinese kid, if that means anything.
I thought the metro was terrific. Clean, comfortable, and easy to use.
Quote from: thelakelander on January 28, 2009, 11:06:01 AM
It ranks high because there are a ton of things to walk to at ground level and the buildings are pedestrian oriented.
Last time I checked, walkscore didnt take any of the bolded parts into consideration.
I just checked the walkscore site again, and here's what I found. Looks like they haven't updated their algorithm since summer (when I think I last looked).
Among the factors they do not consider:
"Pedestrian-friendly community design: Are buildings close to the sidewalk with parking in back? Are destinations clustered together?
Street width and block length: Narrow streets slow down traffic. Short blocks provide more routes to the same destination and make it easier to take a direct route.
Street design: Sidewalks and safe crossings are essential to walkability. Appropriate automobile speeds, trees, and other features also help."
Also:
"Distance: We are currently using "as the crow flies" distances rather than walking directions. This means if you live across the lake from a destination, we are assuming you will swim. And if you live in a subdivision with long curving streets with few intersections, we hope your neighbors don't mind you walking through their back yard."
Somehow, I doubt they consider whether the stores in their equation are on the ground level or not.
Very Nice article, Im interested in transit!
Quote from: ProjectMaximus on January 28, 2009, 02:17:40 PM
I just checked the walkscore site again, and here's what I found. Looks like they haven't updated their algorithm since summer (when I think I last looked).
Among the factors they do not consider:
"Pedestrian-friendly community design: Are buildings close to the sidewalk with parking in back? Are destinations clustered together?
Street width and block length: Narrow streets slow down traffic. Short blocks provide more routes to the same destination and make it easier to take a direct route.
Street design: Sidewalks and safe crossings are essential to walkability. Appropriate automobile speeds, trees, and other features also help."
Also:
"Distance: We are currently using "as the crow flies" distances rather than walking directions. This means if you live across the lake from a destination, we are assuming you will swim. And if you live in a subdivision with long curving streets with few intersections, we hope your neighbors don't mind you walking through their back yard."
Somehow, I doubt they consider whether the stores in their equation are on the ground level or not.
Indirectly, I think pedestrian oriented (I guess the better word would be compact) design/development plays a major factor. If they are using "as the crow flies", more compact development would still result in higher numbers than sprawl oriented development. However, you are right, stores being at ground level is certainly not a part of their data.
Interesting that Jacksonville did so poorly as a whole, when they throw out what they don't take into account. Imagine if they DID take that into account.
I wonder if they expect someone to walk across the intracostal or the river?
Seriously though, excellent Job. Take particular note of the blends of new and old in DC. The folks in Jacksonville say you can't do some of the VERY THINGS that the pictures above show.
One of the things that really stands out in DC is the blend of old and new. I'm very impressed by what the DC design community has been able to create with limited space. It was also nice to see older obsolete buildings being incorporated into larger projects. It would have been great if we were able to do something like this with the public library and the old Rhodes Furniture Building.
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Even glass boxes can be attractive
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Also, my first time seeing a green gas station
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Wow; it does look like a European City. What's up with the huge population loss in the last 30 years or more?
Heights Unknown
Probably a mixture of the same things that resulted in Jax's inner city population decline over the past fifty years. A combination of white flight, growth of suburbanism, smaller household sizes, failed urban renewal projects and gentrification.
However, it appears that DC has bottomed out and turned the corner. The city has added nearly 20,000 new residents since 2000.
D.C. is indeed an incredible city.
In the last 20 years it has made a remarkable turnaround. After decades of horrible leadership from the wretchedly corrupt Marion Berry and the inept Sharon Pratt Kelly, the city's revival really began in ernest when those clowns exited stage left.
It was not that long ago that DC was reknown for crime and murder more than jsut about anything except the mall/monuments.
Quote from: Steve on January 28, 2009, 05:06:44 PM
Interesting that Jacksonville did so poorly as a whole, when they throw out what they don't take into account.
I wonder if they expect someone to walk across the intracostal or the river?
Seriously though, excellent Job. Take particular note of the blends of new and old in DC. The folks in Jacksonville say you can't do some of the VERY THINGS that the pictures above show.
I don't believe that Jacksonville would think like that. Besides, a part of downtown on the east of Hemming Plaza almost resemble a bit of D.C. architecture. But that's just my perspective.
I just moved back from DC to Florida last year. I lived on 14th and E. Capitol St. in Capitol Hill. It is truly a great city, with a number of different neighborhoods. This is a great article, but I feel that DC's relationship with the region needs to be noted. DC has around 600,000 residents, in a region with approximately 5 million residents. There are many great TOD projects in Northern Virginia on the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor that contribute to the region's vibrancy. DC was planned by L'Enfant in 1791 and furthered by the McMillan Commission in 1901. Gone are the days of platting entire towns at once (aside from select megaprojects). Therefore, I feel that Jacksonville should look at programs instituted by Arlington County, Virginia and Montgomery County, MD. Both are renowned for their successful use of TODs and TDRs. The programs could become models for Jacksonville's suburbs.
I have much family in the DC area and my mother was born in the City, pre-WWII. She likes to tell of when the front lawn of the White House was an unfenced, public park! Now, DC gov't buildings are patrolled by guards with machine guns!
The Metro is great but it has become a victim of its own success. If you want to park and ride, most suburban stations are sold out by 7AM or so. That leaves drop offs only. Some stations in Maryland and Virginia have high rise cities now built over them. Since there are no limits in height in most of these areas, it's not unusual to find some pretty tall skyscrapers in suburban cities like Bethesda (it actually has its own "downtown").
Another oddity of DC is that neither I-95 or any other interstate goes go through the City's core. You must take the suburban Beltway to through-transit the area. The Beltway is a traffic engineer's nightmare - mostly a 10 lane racetrack where, at places, lanes disappear on the right and reappear on the left forcing lane changes for ALL through traffic (like at the I-270 interchange in Md.). It's so overcrowded most of the day, it's often a parking lot. Locals work hard to avoid major pieces on it. I once spent 2 hours on a summer SATURDAY morning trying to exit the Beltway to I-95 South in Virginia. Found out I was trapped in the Virginia Beach exodus by the locals. It took 4 hours to get through it all at Richmond.
Another unique facet of the DC area is that it has a majority upper middle class due to the giant numbers of government employees and government-dependent professionals (lots of lawyers, lobbyists, trade associations, think tanks, consultants, non-profits, defense and other contractors, media, etc.). The super wealthy (successful corporate types and entrepreneurs) and low income are marginal in numbers compared to like-sized major metro areas. This creates a more stable and balanced economy and community which is also highly educated and engaged unlike most anywhere else. After all, DC is to politics what Broadway is to theater or Hollywood to movies.
For everyday excitement, DC rivals NYC for America's most vibrant community IMHO.
As a resident of DC for the past four years (the shot of M Street in Georgetown nearly reveals my house, MetroJax,) and an avid amateur New Urbanist, perhaps the greatest lesson of DC for both Jacksonville and for the country at large is that skyscrapers do not necessarily equal urbanism. In fact, part of the reason that DC is such a beautiful city involves that height restriction. The streets are typically full of people, light, trees and life, all without having to become a high-rise canyon. If downtown Jacksonville never built another skyscraper, but filled in their downtown with 3-8 story buildings like DC, it might not make the top of the list at skyscrapercity.info, but it will be a charming, wonderful place to live, work and visit.
The high-density/low-height feeling of DC has truly had an effect on me; everytime I train up to NYC, I'm reminded of just how grand, imposing and unattractive that city is. One large park surrounded by blocks of buildings blotting out the sun does not a beautiful city make.
^^ Well said, Aaron. Big isn't necessarily better, whether its going up with high rises or out with urban sprawl. Quality, not quantity. Jax has yet to learn that lesson.
I grew up in Orange Park but live in Logan Circle, DC, which is near both the mentioned Dupont Circle and U Street Corridor neighborhoods.
Rather than looking at downtown DC as a model for urban living, look to the the neighborhoods that fan out from it. Capitol Hill, Dupont, Logan, U Street, Adams-Morgan, Georgetown. What you find in each is a blend of medium- and high-density (but not tall) housing mixed (very important) with retail and commercial concerns. Buildings and homes are on or very near the usually broad sidewalks, and cars and trees line the street. Blocks are relatively short. Stores (including grocery stores) are on the street, not surrounded by giant parking lots. The result is that you can walk out of your house and actually be at a store, restaurant, cafe, dog-care, dentist, bar, or school in minutes. Walking in these neighborhoods is always pleasant and never boring.
In these neighborhoods there are fewer and fewer parking lots that actually abut streets, which provides fewer and fewer "dead spaces" along the urbanscape. This doesn't mean there aren't places to park or that there aren't a lot of cars. Cars are everywhere, but they are not the dominant aspect of transportation; they share space with people. (Oddly, the few places where DC has tried making pedestrian streets with no cars the result has been dead zones.) Look at DC in the aerial view of Google Maps and compare it to Jacksonville.
Another great aspect of DC's neighborhoods is that there are alleys everywhere. This gives a lot of residents a place to park behind their houses or apartments and a place to keep garbage cans, etc. But the most important aspect is that it limits garages and curb cuts on the streets themselves, which means the streetscape is basically unbroken. Compare this with alley-less San Francisco, which has garage doors every 20 feet, creating a parking nightmare.
Jax should concentrate on filling in and making Riverside/Five Points, San Marco, and Springfield high-density, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, and provide strong public transportation links to downtown and between those neighborhoods.
Welcome to Metro Jacksonville, cellmaker......great points!
Quote from: cellmaker on January 16, 2010, 09:07:26 AM
Jax should concentrate on filling in and making Riverside/Five Points, San Marco, and Springfield high-density, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, and provide strong public transportation links to downtown and between those neighborhoods.
Amen!
I'm in DC for a business trip. I walked around Georgetown today for the first time today. What a nice neighborhood!
Quote from: JaxAvondale on July 20, 2016, 05:26:16 PM
I'm in DC for a business trip. I walked around Georgetown today for the first time today. What a nice neighborhood!
Its nice, but GT is overrated IMHO. Crowded, touristy & no Metro stop.
Head to Eastern Market. Way more chill, but still nice & has more of a "real DC" vibe to it. Shaw & U Street as well (<but gets crazy on weekends).
Quote from: JaxAvondale on July 20, 2016, 05:26:16 PM
I'm in DC for a business trip. I walked around Georgetown today for the first time today. What a nice neighborhood!
Too funny, I am over on 14th NW now just north of Logan Circle. TheCat is in town too.
This neighborhood is pretty cool, lots of original funky stores. Im having dinner at Ted's Bulletin.
Quote from: spuwho on July 20, 2016, 05:51:41 PM
Quote from: JaxAvondale on July 20, 2016, 05:26:16 PM
I'm in DC for a business trip. I walked around Georgetown today for the first time today. What a nice neighborhood!
Too funny, I am over on 14th NW now just north of Logan Circle. TheCat is in town too.
This neighborhood is pretty cool, lots of original funky stores. Im having dinner at Ted's Bulletin.
Ah! I wish I would had saw this earlier. I'm on 22nd NW and not too far from Ted's.
If you haven't visited Washington DC in the last ten years or so, you owe it to yourself to go. Even since this article originally appeared on MJ, the place has changed immensely. Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill remain great neighborhoods, but whole new swaths of the city have redeveloped and are filled with life. Fourteenth Street, NW has become a restaurant mecca with new and trendy places opening almost monthly, with new condo developments lining the side streets. Shaw, a former less-than-desirable 'hood has been gentrified and also contains tons of new trendy bars and restaurants. The U Street entertainment district now stretches to Georgia Ave. Capital Riverfront, a built-from-scratch 'hood around the baseball stadium is booming. The former SW urban renewal area is undergoing a complete transformation. 8th St. SE is also a restaurant row, including Rose's Luxury, recently named 'Best in the Nation'. H St, NE (home of the new streetcar line) is lined with trendy bars and restaurants. Neighborhoods that just a few years ago no one had heard of (Bloomingdale, Deanwood, Petworth, Brookland) are full of young people opening craft breweries, distillerys, and coffeehouses. Downtown has seen an influx of new residents and high-end retailing. The place has finally become the world capital the country deserves.
I'm currently considering heading to DC for the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture this fall. Seems like it has taken forever to get that thing built.
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My friend from high school rented a 3rd floor flat in the gray building on 12th St NW. The neighborhood was kind of rough (and affordable) back in those days.
I used to visit DC quite often in the mid-1990s. I had a good friend from high school who went to college in DC. She lived on 12th St NW between U and T Streets. Coming from Central Florida, that was basically my introduction to walkable big city life. Back in those days, the Green Line ended at U Street/Cardozo. We used to step over homeless people on U and half of the buildings were vacant and appeared to be prime "blight removal ready" if located in Jax. At the time, there was talk about revitalizing Columbia Heights. Today, I can't even recognize these places. It's been one of the quickest economic/gentrification turnarounds I've ever witnessed. Even Anacostia has dramatically changed.
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Columbia Heights in 2014
I want to attend the opening of that museum as well. I thought it was going to open in August in time for my September trip back out to DC but it appears that the opening isn't until 9/24 now.
Washington D.C. Is the Restaurant City of the Year
...there's an energy and excitement surrounding all the new places that is palpable. D.C. is bubbling with momentum. You go in to one place, and you hear about another exciting spot just down the street. The table next to you isn't only talking politics; they're discussing last night's cacio e pepe, too. Chefs like Andrés, Fabio Trabocchi, Cathal Armstrong, Peter Pastan, Jamie Leeds, Eric Ziebold, and others laid the foundation for this movement and are still doing bang-up jobs at their many restaurants. Now, they're joined by the likes of Johnny Monis (Komi and Little Serow), Aaron Silverman (Rose's Luxury, our no. 1 Best New Restaurant of 2014, and Pineapple and Pearls), and a bunch more folks whose names you might not recognize now, but you will soon.
http://www.bonappetit.com/story/washington-dc-restaurant-city-of-the-year