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Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Caps Thankful for Varly in 2-0 Win
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Oh, to have Bethesda's problems!
The Washington Post's Marc Fisher writes up Pam Browning and Ben Ross, two generals in the near-Maryland civic-minded civil war over the fate of the Capital Crescent Trail. Or rather, the fate of the Purple Line — depending on how you see the issue. As Fisher writes:
To many outsiders, the clash over the trail looks like a civil war within the left -- with hard-core greens pushing to save the quiet, the tree canopy and the carbon-neutral transportation model of the existing trail, and hard-core smart-growthers eager to pull commuters out of their cars and onto rail cars that zip past traffic lights and road congestion.From insiders' perspectives, this is a fight over racism and classism, with the very fate of high suburbanism hanging in the balance.A squabble over routes has escalated into angry accusations of elitism, racism and NIMBYism.
To be sure, both sides make compelling arguments for their vision of the good life. The Capital Crescent Trail is one of the city's most valuable park features. A ride along the Trail to the Black Salt Sea Market in Palisades, for example, is a fine way to spend a spring afternoon; factor in a kayak rental at Jack's Boathouse in Georgetown and you've got yourself a day. Yet a transit corridor located along the segment of the trail under discussion — which is at present still a rather bucolic stretch of path — would do much to alleviate automobile traffic and spur development and density at the transit hubs.
Are these things mutually exclusive? Note that the trail is already located alongside a trains track, albeit an inactive one. Could light-rail development transform the trail so greatly as to render the current rail trail unrecognizable? The people at Rails With Trails say no: "Both the Capital Crescent Trail and the Purple Line will benefit with a good trail/rail integrated design."
Of course, this will do little to settle the pressing issue of trail etiquette. Nor will it clear up the small matter of all the racist elitist fascists in Bethesda and Silver Spring.
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It isn't so much that the trail is alongside a train track, the trail actually is a train track, or rather the CCT runs on a rail right-of-way. With out the RRW there wouldn't be a trail at all.
That very well may have been the start of the trail, but that doesn't mean that there should be a train next to it now. I vehemently oppose the tracks being next to the trail as someone who uses it for recreation on a regular basis.
I work in Alexandria, and the people who live down here will not shut up about their love for the Mount Vernon Trail, despite the fact that it runs alongside a busy highway and, for a time, a busy airport. No one exclaims, "Man, I wish I could time-travel back to the 30s and un-build this highway. The MV trail would be soooo much better without it."
While the Crescent Trail's eradication would be a great loss, having a train run alongside it is not a tragedy. DC-area folks need to have a little more perspective when it comes to the amount of green space they enjoy in the metro area.
Doesn't this only disrupt a small portion of the Crescent trail, anyhow? I thought the Purple Line would be from Bethesda to Silver Spring; I thought the Crescent trail was mostly from Bethesda down to G'Town [only a small part running east of Bethesda].
Trail advocates should keep in mind, the right-of-way is wider than the present trail (property owners, most notably the country club have have built their fences well into county-owned land). If the rail/trail option were built the current trail would receive significant upgrades. There is room for both within the ROW.
I've got the perfect solution: the rail could be above ground from PG County to Silver Spring. From Silver Spring to Bethesda, in can go underground. BAM! Everyone's happy. Though, that type of project will likely double the cost. Oh well. Hopefully it's not too late to think about that.
ALSO -- kudos to DCist for upgrading your MovableType software! Me likey.
The existing plan already includes multiple options to both preserve the trail AND build the Purple Line. Only the "low-investment" option requires destroying the trail. The development plan also includes an extension from where the Georgetown Branch currently ends to downtown Silver Spring, so that more people can actually find and use the trail - very hard to do right now. This is why WABA has fully endorsed the Purple Line:
http://www.waba.org/takeaction/Purpleline.php
"Save the trail" is a red herring used by people who want to put a thin veneer of respectability on their blatant NIMBYism.
Yonas, it is self-evident that there isn't $150 million and 9 years to dig a tunnel from Silver Spring to Bethesda.
True....but considering the impressive amount of time for WMATA to construct the entire Green Line, you'd think a project like this could be expedited.
We're talking about a 2-mile section of the total 11-mile CCT. Most of the trail will be preserved in its current form, and the width of the right-of-way is sufficient to support both the rail and and the trail. I use this trail for recreational riding all the time, and I agree that running the Purple Line there is the way to go.
i get the feel that fisher is angling for a story here that barely exists. sure, there are some disagreements in small pockets of "the left," as he puts it, but there are so few people who are really really "arguing" here. just happens that the loudest complainers get heard...