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WMATA: Safety Hazards and Security Risks
Last Sunday, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority hosted a safety exercise at the Stadium Armory metro stop. For three hours, firefighters and WMATA officials tested their communication and evacuation protocols. Shocking gaps were exposed and I left the event with little confidence in WMATA’s ability to fix them.
I’m the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for residents living next to the Stadium Armory stop and I was invited to participate in the exercise because of my ANC position. My participation that day was limited to standing around and taking pictures. I had asked WMATA to include neighbors in the exercise but my request was denied.
After WMATA denied my request, I reminded them of the sarin attack in Tokyo 20 years ago and the more recent attacks in London and Madrid. In a real world attack happens at Stadium Armory, how is WMATA going to communicate with neighbors? No response.
Instead, WMATA hosted a controlled safety exercise and this exercise demonstrated how WMATA staff fail even in a controlled environment. One of the participants in the Sunday exercise was in a wheel chair. Her wheel chair was too large to fit through the doors that are located between each car. WMATA’s solution was to put her in a smaller wheel chair. Slight problem. The lady couldn’t fit in the smaller wheel chair. WMATA’s solution was to put the lady and her large wheelchair in the front car. That made it easier for the firefighters to reach her and carry her out. Read More
Last month we talked about this sign “Ugly Pop-Ups: Destroying Family Housing on Lanier Place.”. Following is an attempt to explain from a neighbor, Gary Tischler.
A while back, I had a talk with a neighborhood friend about popups and their implications to the Lanier Heights neighborhood, standing right across the street from one of those popups next to the day care center. He offered up the idea that maybe people should get used to the idea of change, and the popups and the targeting of the neighborhood by developers was one of those change things that might be inevitable.
That may be so, but something’s getting lost in that discussion. I saw it in the cavalier notice given by the developer reps that they had indeed targeted our neighborhood and were indeed seeking to get people to sell their houses in order to convert them to condos, and in the comments on the net that followed Paul’s signs next door to his new neighbors. In most of the comments—most of them from people who don’t live here—the attitude was one of surprise or anger that neighborhood residents—be they homeowners or renters—would object to the presence of the popups, or openly oppose the idea.
Many folks—mostly homeowners—are upset about this wholesale attempt to basically alter our neighborhood. That’s what’s getting lost in the discussions—the consequences to the neighborhood if the developers succeed.
What will happen to put it very simply is that the nature of the neighborhood will be dramatically changed to the point where we will lose most of the things, the characteristics of the neighborhood that we love.
I’m not trying to speak for other people—I’m a renter, and we’ve lived here for well over 15 years now. I found the neighborhood early on to be deceptive—I mean it looks on the surface to be kind of a bucolic place, quiet, a kind of residential, one-family housing island close to but also separate from the street scene on Columbia Road, the traffic on Calvert and the night and day bustle of 18th Street and all that entails, all of which by the way add the special urban flavor that everyone loves.
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1300 block of 13th Street, Northwest
“Dear PoPville,
Many owners at The Iowa Condominium are not happy about Holladay Corporation’s plans for new condos on the 13th Street lots currently occupied by Mr. Wash and Jerry Chan’s Carry Out (see Dupont Current 11/13/13 article – p. 12). Holladay’s plans will negatively impact the quality of life for Iowa residents as they include constructing a 60-foot high wall that’s 23 feet away from the back of Iowa Condo townhouses. This 60-foot high wall will block direct sunlight from the units on the south side of the Iowa as well as a large portion of the unique Iowa Condo courtyard / fountain area. When an Iowa condo owner spoke with a representative at Holladay about the wall height/closeness, loss of sunlight and privacy concerns, the response included “that’s part of living in the city”. Finally, the proposed 67 condo units will bring more cars and fewer parking options to a neighborhood where parking is already at a premium.
Many Iowa Condo owners would like a lower building height with more of a Blagden Alley/Naylor Court feel to better fit in with this uniquely configured block. There is also strong interest in replacing the existing alley between the Iowa and proposed new condos with a “green alley” (with no vehicle traffic) per the following link: http://greengaragedetroit.com/
It appears that Holladay is not interested in Logan Circle community feedback based on their lack of contact with the LCCA, the ANC and Jack Evans’ office to date. We hope by getting info about Holladay’s current condo plans out to community, we might be able to incent them to work with residents to create a neighborhood asset.”
