Just how conceptual do you want your sidewalks to be? That was the question asked of residents last night at the Reeves Center during a public meeting to discuss DDOT’s planned 14th Street streetscape project. Mike Houh and Allen Yang of Precision Systems, Inc. (PSI), which has been contracted to design the new streetscape, presented a 25-page outline of the original and an alternative design plan.

Several residents were not particularly impressed. Oh, not with the expanded sidewalk space, the emphasis on access for bikes and buses or the plans to install quite a few more trees along the corridor. No, most of the head-scratching revolved around the alternative design — which features sidewalk designs which are based on some abstract ideas, like paying tribute to the fact that the corridor was the city’s “auto district” by using a wheel design at the P Street focus area.

That’s right, a project with an emphasis on walking features a design which pays tribute to cars.