Photo by DG-rad.

Obviously, we’re fond of recently-passed indie icon Alex Chilton around these parts. Fitting then, that one of Chilton’s most well-known stanzas — “hangin’ out / down the street / the same old thing / we did last week” — so accurately describes some of the delays in H Street NE’s evolution into the city’s next corridor du jour.

On Friday, Voice of the Hill reviewed the holdup on development at the planned H Street Connection project: the city wants more parking to encourage people to patronize the building’s planned retail; the developer, Rappaport, has no idea where to put it; and existing residents are concerned that the extra cars will clog traffic. The PUD, which will replace the ugly strip mall that faces a two-block stretch of H Street between 8th and 10th Streets, is a gigantic mixed-use undertaking which will feature 400-plus apartment units and 50,000 square feet of retail space — as one ANC member put it last year, the project will “literally define how the corridor is perceived.” It seems silly that the placement of one hundred additional parking spots might hold up such an important piece to the rebranding of the thoroughfare. As it stands, construction on the project was not slated to begin until 2011 or 2012; forging a compromise on parking may see those dates pushed into the future.

Even if we ignore the fact that large parcels of free parking often sit underutilized in developing sections of town, this debate between the city, developers and residents over whether or not to build additional parking would be largely silenced if there was any kind of reliable way other than a personal vehicle or bicycle to get to H Street. You know, like a streetcar.