See this message from a Bloomingdale resident:
I think it is time we took up the fight to undo the damage of the suburban commuter freeway running through our neighborhoods - I submitted the below in response to Eric Fidler's article ``Historic fountains rot away in a local national park`` (http://leftforledroit.com/2011/09/historic-fountains-rot-away-in-a-local-national-park )...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Oh what a steep price so many American cities and urban dwellers have paid for the benefit of commuters and suburbia!
So many of our DC communities, and in particular Bloomingdale, Eckington and Truxton Circle, were sacrificed in the 1940`s and 1950`s so that suburbanites could enter and leave the city quickly and efficiently without regard to the impact on the local inhabitants, businesses and the neighborhood`s historic and aesthetic value.
By removing Truxton Circle and ultimately constructing the North Capitol Street ``Freeway``, our neighborhoods were separated by a highway chasm of loud, polluting, speeding cars and trucks. This infrastructure was never going to benefit the local residents and businesses, yet the city leaders at the time permitted this gross injustice on one of its own neighborhoods, likely using those very resident`s tax dollars to permanently scar their neighborhoods, destroying their value and facilitating their decline.
So much controversy has been made regarding the DC Streetcar overhead wires, which can hardly ever impede any vistas (witness any number of ancient and historic European cities). Yet the North Capitol Street ``Freeway``, with its overpasses/bridges, fences, walls and guardrails is still permitted to this day without even any thought, much less protest - even though the once glorious vistas of the Capitol Dome from any location on North Capitol Street in Bloomingdale and Eckington have been permanently obstructed and ruined!
It is time our neighborhoods, our communities rallied to push our leaders - Civic Associations, ANC members, city government officials - to undo this injustice and correct the wrongs that have been inflicted on the historic fabric of Bloomingdale, Eckington and Truxton Circle!
The North Capitol Street ``Freeway`` and other commuter entrances into the District should no longer be ``FREE``!
How about the city impose a toll on commuters entering the city and those funds be allocated to covering up the chasms with decks??? From the ``bridge`` intersection of North Capitol Street and Rhode Island Ave to the ``bridge`` intersection of North Capitol Street and New York Avenue - the heavy volume commuter and commercial traffic should be completely submerged and covered by a deck - perhaps with a green-way/community park on top?
The Bloomingdale, Eckington and Truxton Circle communities must lead the fight to restore what was once a grand boulevard and a charming circle!
Bloomingdale Resident.
No comments:
Post a Comment