Adams Morgan Streetscape Project: Will It Harm Businesses?
If you asked me where I thought a streetscape project would cause the most headaches in D.C., my first answer would unequivocally be 18th Street NW between U Street and Columbia Road. But it looks like such a project is finally materializing along the busy commercial corridor. Michael Neibauer has the details in the Washington Business Journal today.
The D.C. Department of Transportation is soliciting a contractor to perform the streetscape work along a nearly half-mile stretch of 18th Street, between Florida Avenue and Columbia Road. It is the heart of Adams Morgan, where some 150 businesses — mostly bars and restaurants — operate daily.DDOT will widen sidewalks, build left-turn lanes to side streets, eliminate diagonal on-street parking in favor of parallel parking, upgrade crosswalks, install bulbouts — extensions of sidewalks at intersections — and replace lighting and plant new street trees. The roadway will be replaced, and one northbound lane removed. There will be a new granite curb and brick gutter. And the existing streetcar tracks, long ago paved over, will be excavated and removed.
Obviously, there's little to argue with regarding the proposed work. After all, even the busiest of sections of the city need a facelift every now and then, and the left-hand turn lanes and streamlined parking upgrades will undoubtedly alleviate two of the biggest problems that cars and buses face as they drive up and down 18th Street. Plus, the more pedestian-friendliness, the better. This Greater Greater Washington post from 2009 provides some more wonkish detail on the plans.
But if I was a business owner along the 18th Street Corridor, you'd better believe I'd be watching this plan come to fruition with trepidation. The effect of P Street NW's recent revitalization on businesses, who lost a large amount of customers because the street was simply less accessible, is still fresh in many people's minds. And despite entrepeneur Joe Englert's assertion in Neibauer's report that “I don’t think people who go out at night care that much about how the street looks,” it'd be silly to say that H Street NE businesses haven't been somewhat affected by the extensive digging on that road. I'd argue that Engler's additional assertion that H Street bars are thriving during construction probably has more to do with the fact that the bars there are just generally newer and more appealing than the ones on 18th Street, and less proof that the construction work isn't pushing people away.
I guess we'll find out: preliminary utility work has already begun, and time estimates place it the project at 18-to-24 months.