Pepco to start burying power lines on RIA
Today’s issue of the Washington Post brings Good Ward 5 News! On Monday, Mayor Gray signed legislation authorizing $1B to bury feeder lines over the course of five to seven years. Work could begin later this year, with the RIA corridor slated for the 2nd year of the project. The DC Public Service Commission must provide final approval on a surcharge that will be billed to Pepco customers. This is in response to the “Derecho” of 2012 that left many neighborhoods without power for days. The areas targeted in this large undergrounding initiative were hit the hardest by the Derecho. While grid reliability is the primary reason for burying the power lines, this project has also been supported by many in the RIA community for aesthetic reasons, so this is great news for us. The large trees that line RIA between the RIA metro station and Eastern Avenue have been aggressively trimmed by Pepco over the years in order to reduce damage to power lines during storm events. The beautiful green canopy of trees is left looking mangled and warped. A tour of highly successful revitalization zones in DC shows that underground power lines is a key component to a successful streetscape design. In fact, when FoRIA participated in the DC Vibrant Retail Streets program last year, one of the top recommendations that we received was to push for undergrounding of the power...
Read MoreDDOT/Great Streets: Streetscape Improvements Public Meeting Information
As we mentioned last week, DC Dept. of Transportation (DDOT) will be hosting the first public meeting (“open house” format) to solicit community input for streetscape improvements on RIA-NE on December 11th. The time and location for the meeting has now been set: 6:30 – 8:30 pm at Woodridge Library. Additionally, an information website has been set up: www.RIAnortheast.com Don’t miss this VERY important opportunity to be a part of the discussion! It is critical that the voices of members of the communities that surround RIA-NE be represented on this project. ...
Read MoreWMATA: Rhode Island Avenue Metrobus Ridership Survey
On Tuesday, July 16, WMATA will conduct a rider survey as part of the Rhode Island Avenue-Baltimore Avenue Corridor Study. The study is part of an effort to improve service on the bus lines serving Rhode Island Avenue and Baltimore Avenue. As we wrote earlier, there is no continuous bus line that runs the length of Rhode Island Avenue. Survey forms will be placed on buses at Eastern & Michigan Avenue (Route G8) and the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station (Routes 82, 83, 84, 86, T18) and staff will hand out surveys to riders at the following stops: College Park-U of MD Metro Station (Routes 83, 86), Brookland-CUA Metro Station (Route G8), New Carrollton Metro Station (Routes 84, T18), and at Rhode Island Avenue & 34th Street – Mt. Rainier (Routes 82, 83, 84 86, T18). An online survey is available on the WMATA web page for the study: www.metrobus-studies.com, and a rain date of Wednesday, July 17th has also been scheduled. This rider survey will be followed up by a series of public meetings designed to get your input on ways to improve bus transportation along the Baltimore and Rhode Island Avenue corridor. We’ll be publishing the meeting dates and locations as soon as we know about them. Here are some additional resources for news and updates about the study: Metrobus-Studies.com Twitter: @MetrobusStudies Twitter:...
Read MoreRhode Island Avenue Photo Contest!
We need photos of Rhode Island Avenue – and lots of them. So we’re having a contest!! Take pictures of anything on Rhode Island Avenue that grabs your attention, and send them to us. There’s even a chance to win a prize!* Here’s how it works: Snap photos of places and things on Rhode Island Avenue NE between 4th Street and Eastern Avenue – the good, the bad, the interesting! Photos must be in focus, and must be relevant to Rhode Island Avenue NE – no pictures of your thumb covering up the camera lens! Save each photo with the file name “RHODE-ISLAND-sample-address-number-image-topic”. For example, “RHODE-ISLAND-1515-vacant-building” Email your photos to us no later than 11:59 p.m. on June 16, 2013. Each photo counts as one contest entry. Contest winner will be chosen at random from all entries. The more photos you submit, the more chances you have to win! So that’s it! Get out that camera and get busy snapping photos! Here’s a few examples for inspiration: * I just made up this contest, so we’re still working on what exactly the prize will be… but it will be...
Read MoreWMATA to begin Rhode Island Avenue/Baltimore Avenue study
WMATA is scheduled to begin a Metrobus study soon, with an eye towards improving the bus lines on the Rhode Island Avenue/Baltimore Avenue corridor. Currently, there are no Rhode Island Avenue NE bus lines that travel between downtown DC and along Baltimore Avenue in Maryland. To get from a location such as the new apartments in Hyattsville to downtown DC, a commuter using public transportation cannot simply take a bus down what appears to be a very direct route to DC. Instead, they must take at least one bus trip and transfer to a metro station, or make multiple bus transfers to get to their destination downtown. What could be a simple 20-30 minute bus ride ends up taking up to an hour and a half, depending on the mode of commute. As development in Mt. Rainier, Hyattsville, and College Park increases, it is critical to have smart options available for commuters to reduce the number of cars being added to the roads. According to Douglas Stallworth of WMATA, they are hoping to begin the process in June. There will be public meetings to give everyone an opportunity to speak out on any proposed changes. We’ll keep you posted on any news or developments, and you can also follow the progress via a WMATA web page for the study: The Metrobus Rhode Island Avenue Line...
Read MoreWoodridge & Langdon Park join the Capital Bikeshare network
Welcome to the neighborhood, Capital Bikeshare! Early this morning, a crew from Capital Bikeshare installed a 4 dock, 15 bike station on 18th Street near Rhode Island Avenue NE. This is the first such station in the Woodridge and Langdon Park communities, and a tremendous leap in connecting these neighborhoods on the eastern end of Rhode Island Avenue NE with the bikeshare network already in operations in Brookland, Eckington/Edgewood, and Bloomingdale. Neighborhood blog (and occasional FoRIA guest writer) The Brookland Bridge tweeted that another station is being installed in Brookland today: @bikeshare has arrived to 12th and Irving in #brookland!! Hooray!! twitter.com/BrooklandBridg… — The Brookland Bridge (@BrooklandBridge) May 30, 2013...
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