Neighborhood Notes - Foxhall: 20 June 2001

Although it looks like Foxhall might lose Ward 2 Parking stickers, we still have a keen interest in what happens to redevelopment of M Street in Georgetown, as a principal route to parts of the city as well as one destination for dining, entertainment, shopping and local businesses. There appears to be confusion over the option of widening both sidewalks by five feet. Police and Fire Service are implacably opposed, fearing a loss of any driving lanes, while local citizens appear concerned over further intrusion on residential parking.

The options do not need to be considered in isolation. Given that rush-hour parking only affects one side of the street right now, the reduction from six lanes to five lanes would result in no loss if parking were banned on M Street. Rush-hour reversible lanes could be used, as already done on upper Connecticut Avenue. Serious planning would also look at options for new city-owned parking garage(s), under the stewardship of the BID, that could replace lost spaces along M St. Do all of us a favor by publishing on BID's website the drawings of the options being considered!

In addition, the new Georgetown Metro Connection shuttle that begins later this year will enable customers and visitors to get to Georgetown from the Rosslyn, Foggy Bottom and DuPont Circle Metro stations, reducing total parking demand. Georgetown  GBPA could help by putting large-scale diagrams in a member’s store-front window, and publicizing hours of their members’ commercial parking garages on their website as well as their hand-out maps.

Similarly, details of PEPCO’s plans for our area need the same web & storefront publicity – not everyone can easily get to public meetings, and impact over the next 3-4 years is too important to only have the information available at a single meeting.

© Bob Andrew, Foxhall