Photo by Jack McKay

Cut yourself some slack if you’ve never heard of Klingle Road. It was over 20 years ago that a heavy rainstorm washed a chunk of it away, after all, rendering it unusable.

But this being the District, some people just won’t let go.

Years and years of fighting seemed to have quieted down recently when it became apparent that the short stretch of road crossing the park between Mt. Pleasant and Woodley Park wouldn’t be rebuilt, but would rather become a hiker-biker trail. And after 20 years of not having a road that’s usable, you’d think that most motorists would get used to not using it, right?

Apparently not. The City Paper reports this afternoon that a lawsuit has been filed in federal court to stop the construction of the hiker-biker trail. The rationale? With Klingle Road closed, more cars are using nearby Porter Street, contributing to more pollution in the area:

The barricading of the right of way is adding to traffic congestion nearby, water pollution with attendant impacts on public health. The proposed action will permanently expose persons who live, attend school or work in areas adjacent to the new trail to unnecessary traffic congestion and airborne pollution, including particulate matter and other mobile source air toxics that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases that contribute to increased medical costs, lost work and school days, and early death.

The federal government has filed a motion to dismiss the suit; environmentalists are similarly arguing that if Klingle Road is reopened, the additional traffic will hurt them.

In 2008, Post columnist Marc Fisher nicely summarized how the fight over Klingle Road became a caricature of what civic civil wars can become:

For the entire run of my column, I have made great efforts to avoid writing about Klingle Road, mainly because I could not imagine playing any role in egging on the various factions that devoted absurd amounts of time to arguing the merits of a street that runs less than seven-tenths of a mile. I always saw value in both sides of the debate: Yes, the District needs more east-west routes, and yes, the park should be used less for commuting and more for recreation.

That was four years ago. With this new lawsuit, will more fighting ensue? Hopefully not. But if you hadn’t heard of Klingle Road before reading this post, please go back to pretending you have no idea it ever existed. You’d be better off.