Summer Streets on Kansas Avenue?

Richard Layman writes about ANC4's negative response to the idea of closing part of Kansas Avenue NW on a Sunday in August for a Summer Streets-like experience.

Darren Laing of the D.C. Department of Transportation presented the concept at the June 9 meeting of the Petworth advisory neighborhood commission: His department had hoped to close roughly 12 blocks of Kansas Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 22, to make way for a “DC Summer Streets” initiative.
The event, which would feature activities like fitness training and children’s bike rides, aimed to tout the District as “the “premier pro-pedestrian/ bicycle city in the U.S.”
The agency was working with the National Park Service and Washington Area Bicyclist Association on the idea, Laing said.
The proposal called for the closure of Kansas between Georgia and Missouri avenues for six hours, blocking cars from parking on the strip. At the meeting, Laing said the street would remain accessible to emergency vehicles.
The Petworth commission did not vote on the proposal but pointed out the potential inconvenience to residents.
In a later interview with The Current, Laing reported that his agency opted to cancel the event. He referred to concerns about parking for elderly and disabled residents

Richard is worried about such a program in DC

not because I don't believe in feet first programming, but because for these programs to really work, you have to have a lot of participation, and population density. The fact is that this area isn't that dense and is somewhat spread out. It's not the ideal place to launch such a project, if you want to ensure a successful launch.

I'm not sure if he means "around Kansas Avenue" or "DC", but from later comments it seems he means DC. It's true that a summer streets program in DC would probably have less participation than one in NYC, but, we do already have a summer street (and winter, and fall and spring) in the form of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park and it is a roaring success.

Still I share his concern that the people of Petworth feel they can't close 12 blocks of Kansas for 6 hours for a program like this.

Update: Richard Layman wrote about this again, this time about DuPont Circle, which he does think would work - so maybe he didn't mean all of DC.

Comments

[Richard Layman]

I meant that stretch of Kansas Avenue, and Ward 4 more or less.

To launch a program like this it needs to be in an area where people already walk, and where the built environment is more dense and street-oriented.

It happens that I now live a few blocks away from Kansas Ave. and in fact, to go downtown and other points (i.e. Georgetown) it is my primary route to either Georgia Ave. or 13th Street or Columbia Road. So I know it well.

W4 is an automobility community. On our street (face blocks) there are probably 24 houses. Only the vacant houses and us don't have a car. (Most have one, some have two, at least two houses have three cars.)

2 blocks away is a one block commercial district with a dry cleaners, barber, Af-Am food co-op, a great Caribbean restaurant, and two boutiques oriented to older women. The boutiques do a great job "dressing" their windows, changing them weekly. But hardly anyone in the neighborhood walks. (We walk to the Takoma Metro station--until the last week--Mon. - Friday.) So it's wasted.

It's this info. that makes me suggest that W4 is not the place to launch a program like this.

[Washcycle]

OK. I'll agree. The temptation is going to be to close down a quiet street (so as not to disturb drivers and bus routes) but the place to do it and have success is on a busy street. I guess I hadn't thought of that until your post.

[Richard Layman]

I'll have to remember to invite you and Allison over so you can see the intra-DC suburb that I live in...