'Rail-Volution' Conference Eyes Anacostia, Arlington
Excerpt:
In Anacostia, transit's role in revitalization
Monday's mobile workshop took about 30 conference-goers to Anacostia's Historic District in Southeast D.C. D.C. city planner Stephen Rice helped lead the tour, explaining how streetcars, Metro, and the new 11th Street Bridge project play key roles in revitalizing a neighborhood that's long struggled with poverty, vacant storefronts, and high unemployment.
Greg Chaimov, a city council member from Milwaukee, Ore., a suburb of Portland, hadn't heard of Anacostia before this week, but he was taking notes. Milwaukee is getting its first light rail system in two years.
"We have some of the same challenges Anacostia has, in that we've got large underdeveloped areas," Chaimov says. "I'm trying to learn as much as I can about how to do it right."
Ira Hart sits on the board of the transit system in Grand Rapids, Mich., and though he liked what he saw during the mobile workshop in Anacostia, like any good planner, he's taking the long view.
"This is pretty unique, this is a work in progress here, so I'm interested to come back in the next couple years," he says. It's a good bet area residents are interested as well in what he'd find in Washington in the next couple of years.
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