Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Is Ward 4 dense enough to support Metro stations?

Looking back at this Greater Greater Washington post from '08, in which David Alpert presented one of GGW's famous "fantasy" Metro maps that included a variation of the Brown Line that Metro is now considering as part of its long-term development plan, I noticed this gem of a comment:

Brightwood and Kansas Ave might not have the density to support a station.

I've heard this sentiment expressed before by city planners when they talk about Ward 4. But it bothers me. I understand we're not the densest part of the city, but in my (biased) opinion that shouldn't justify denying the Ward easy Metro access. After all, other residential neighborhoods that have similar density are served by Metro (Deanwood, anyone? West Hyattsville, maybe? Congress Heights, hello?). And considering some of the plans for Georgia Avenue's future, specifically the development of the Curtis Chevrolet site and the redevelopment of Walter Reed, it's hard to argue that Metro wouldn't be valuable as a way of transporting customers to these destinations, in addition to spurring residential growth.

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