East Side of the Anacostia

This article about Poplar Point got me looking into all of the planning for the East side of the Anacostia. That includes Poplar Point and the Northern Ward 7 Waterfront. The WaPo article only mentions that bike paths are planned. OT just a little (let me do my best RPUS impression) this part caught my eye...

And area business leaders are interested in bringing in popular restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse or Ruby Tuesday, saying they don't want Poplar Point to be what they call "another Rock Creek park."

"What I think is happening is that they are trying to bring 'across-the-river' ideas over here," said James Bunn, a representative of the Ward 8 Business Council. "On this side of the river we want to see park land with a certain type of entertainment as well . . . That way we don't have to go across town, go to Georgetown so we feel like a part of the city."

If they're saying they'd like an area more dynamic than Rock Creek Park, I get that (though Rock Creek Park is one of the nicest things about DC). But what's so great about chain restaurants? Wouldn't it be better to open local places? Owned by people vested in the community? Even another Ben's Chili Bowl would be better than another Ruby Tuesday. The last paragraph is puzzling to me. How is Outback an 'Anacostia' idea?

Anywho...the presentation for the Poplar Point Site Development Plan is here. It's a power point presentation so it loses something without the actual presenter (many slides are just pictures without commentary). There is a Transportation Analysis slide with a map showing the bike routes in the area. These consist of a trail along the river - the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail (ART) - with connections  north along the river, across the new Frederick Douglas and south along the old rail line (which is shown as a bike trail - which DDOT may have finally gotten posession of). I was disappointed to not see a direct connection from the Anacostia METRO station to the riverwalk, but the ART does go right by a future light rail station.

That led me to the Northern Ward 7 Waterfront Plan. It has some good news in it for cyclists, and some less than perfect parts.

Under the latter, bicycles are left out of the transportation section and the trails that are provided often meander - in other words they're recreational trails.

On the good side it

1. Makes plans to connect the Marvin Gaye Park Trail to the restored Watt's Branch through an upgraded railroad/I-295 underpass - instead of creating a new way along Watt's Branch or through a separate tunnel/bridge.

2. Includes several connecting spine trails from the ART to connecting roads, the Neval Thomas School and the Deanwood Metro Station.

3. Includes three bike/ped bridges across the Anacostia. One to Langston golf course, one to the National Arboretum and one connecting those two elements. And another connection to the west side ART on the Benning Road Bridge.

Of course this is a plan, and as such is full of wildly ambitious things like a River Terrace METRO station on the Orange line, but the bike elements (with the exception of the three pedestrian bridges)are pretty reasonable and have a good chance of coming into being.

Comments

[Chris]

Your guess is as good as mine, of course, but I think the Rock Creek Park reference could be a reference to the symbolism of Rock Creek Park. It's a great place, the park, and something I make a lot of use of, but it has often been used in city politics as a divider. It's less obvious now, but it's still a little there - West of the park is white; east of the park, isn't. Viewed in this context, it could be that they don't want the parkland along the Anacostia to be the divider.

As for "what's so nice about chain restaurants?" again, I'd say it has to do with Anacostia's perception of itself with relation to the rest of the city - they are ignored, without amenities. A chain restaurant - other than a McDonald's - is hard to find. Ruby Tuesday's or Outback Steakhouse is family dining, and while they aren't what I consider to be fine dining, there is no doubt that the new Ruby Tuesday's in Columbia Heights appears to be quite popular. So, somebody must like it. This must be especially true in a neighborhood where they don't have such a thing.

I hope DC United does, in fact, get a stadium over there. I think this is a key to getting people from throughout the metro area over there. That, combined with the new baseball stadium on the other side of the river, makes loads of sense to me in terms of making the waterfront a place for recreation and entertainment.

All of this, I realize, is unrelated to cycling, but there it is....