[Mintwood-place] DDOT - follow-up on follow-through

Wed Apr 26 10:28:36 PDT 2006

Dear Michelle Pourciau, Congratulation on becoming Acting Director of DDOT.  Dan Tangherlini used this e-mail list to pick-up on good suggestions as well as make sure his team was following-up on what they said they would do.  I attended Dan's farewell speech at the Reeves Center,  he summed up his motto (paraphrased by me) - all that criticism and complaining turned out to be the most useful suggestions.   
  So welcome to the Mintwood List.  

  Harold Smith from your department agreed to remove a couple of 15-minute only signs that was taking up a few desperately needed residential parking spaces.
  See http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mintwood-place/2006-April/000772.html
  He also volunteered to resurvey the street and better yet, most of the neighborhood with the intent to free up more residential parking spaces – see Angela Huff’s suggestions way below..  

  Now the underlying cause:
  The problems created, in the last 20 years, by a popular commercial corridor crashing into a residential neighborhood was supposed to be addressed in part by the Adams Morgan/18th Street Livability and Transportation study.

  That study went through various drafts.  For a while, most of them were posted on the contractor’s website (HNTB) – but all have since been removed.  Callistus Nwadike of your staff has promised to post them on the DDOT web site.  That would be terrific.  There were plenty of good suggestions, some undoable now – but more realistic over time.  It would be great to be able to refer to already suggested solutions overtime without having to reinvent them.

  Therefore, if you could just get Harold Smith and Callistus Nwadike back in touch with the Mintwood list to let us know how they are doing on what they said they would do and if you could follow-up with follow-through – that would be terrific.  

  Thanks in advance,  Eddie Becker

  -------------------------------------------------------

"Smith, Harold J. (DDOT)" <Harold.Smith at dc.gov> wrote: 
  From: "Smith, Harold J. (DDOT)" <Harold.Smith at dc.gov>
To: 'Eddie Becker' <eddie_becker at yahoo.com>
CC: ahuff at worldbank.org
Subject: RE: Repositioning Parking Signs in & Around Mintwood
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 14:38:50 -0400 
  I will resurvey the block

---------------------------------

  From: Eddie Becker [mailto:eddie_becker at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 2:33 PM
To: Smith, Harold J. (DDOT)
Cc: ahuff at worldbank.org
Subject: Repositioning Parking Signs in & Around Mintwood

  Dear Harold Smith, One way to come out on top of this and win community accolades for you and your Department, is to carve out as many new residential parking spaces as legally possible.  There are no doubt misallocated legacy poles that can be repositioned to create a few more feet of parking - taken together it would add up to more parking spaces.

  You can get people on the Mintwood List to help if you tell us how many feet the law requires from stop signs, alleys, hydrants, corners, driveways, etc.  - then ask them to identify which poles that should be repositioned to maximize space.  

  Below is the first such suggestion from Angela.
  Eddie

ahuff at worldbank.org wrote:
  Subject: Re: Repositioning Parking Signs
To: Eddie Becker <eddie_becker at yahoo.com>
From: ahuff at worldbank.org
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:05:25 -0500

The first example that comes to mind is the one on the odd side of the street,
between the alley and the fire hydrant. There used to be room for two cars, but
now that the new sign is there, people park farther away from the alley and
closer to the hydrant, so usually only one car parks there. Then a car with MD
or VA tags is brave enough to park in front of they hydrant. I have never seen
the after hours squad of ticket writers issue tickets for parking in front of
the hydrant, even though, if there was, god forbid, a fire, my house would burn
down while they were inside.

I have often been confused by parking at the mouth of Mintwood at Columbia Road.
Why can cars park closer to the intersection on the even side of the street,
than they can on the odd side of the street? Mintwood is a one way street. It
makes no sense for the sake of visibility.

At the end of Mintwood, where it meets 19th, it is uneven in parking spaces too.
And it doesn't make sense. There is a hydrant on the odd side of the street,
but that doesn't stop anyone from parking there and then they enforce parking
all the way to the corner. Having Mintwood free of parked cars at the end does
not make it easier to turn onto 19th. And 19th is a two way street! There is
no visibility on 19th and people drive fast on that street, particularly from
Columbia to Biltmore.

. 
Very kind regard, Angela

----------------------------------------
  From: "Nwadike, Callistus (DDOT)" <Callistus.Nwadike at dc.gov>
To: 'Eddie Becker' <eddie_becker at yahoo.com>
CC: 'Alan Brick-Turin' <ATurin at HNTB.com>
Subject: RE: [Mintwood-place] 18th Street Adams Morgan Transport and Livab
ility Study
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 15:47:39 -0400 
  We are (DDOT) moving on with scoping 18th Street from Florida Avenue to Columbia Road for design phase of this study.  We are also waiting to hear from ANC 1C.  HNTB was hosting the study website during the study phase.  DDOT is waiting for the website files and will post same under DDOT website soon after receipt.  Thanks.

  Callistus

---------------------------------

  From: mintwood-place-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org [mailto:mintwood-place-bounces at lists.mutualaid.org] On Behalf Of Eddie Becker
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 3:13 PM
To: ATurin at HNTB.com; Mintwood List
Subject: [Mintwood-place] 18th Street Adams Morgan Transport and Livability Study

  Dear Alan Turin,  What became of the 18th Street Transportation and Livability study? 
  http://www.18amstudy.com    
  All that work your team at HNTB put-in is no longer on-line.    I know it was quite difficult to get community consensus on much of it.  I thought it was really very forward thinking.  
  It would be great to keep it up somewhere - if even on the DC Department of Transportation site.  And implement some of it - over time - as conditions necessitate?
  Thanks.  
  Eddie Becker

  Cc Mintwood list

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