Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[jack]

I think many residents agree that Mount Pleasant Street could be better, could be made a more attractive place for residents to spend time. One concept to this end is to convert it to a "pedestrian encounter zone", where pedestrians would have the right-of-way over cars everywhere, not just at crosswalks. Traffic would be allowed, as now, but would be limited to low speed, and drivers would have to yield to pedestrians and bicycles everywhere. This approach has been used to considerable success in Europe.

This comes to mind today because of this report in Greater Greater Washington:

A closed street can be a living street: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/14244/a-closed-street-can-be-a-living-street/

Here's the GGW report on our proposal, in 2009:

Residents want ped and bike Mount Pleasant Street: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4367/residents-want-ped-and-bike-mount-pleasant-street/

Our notion won enthusiastic support at DDOT, but certain people here, thinking that this was going to turn Mount Pleasant Street into a pedestrian mall, excluding cars, objected, on the grounds that prohibiting cars would harm business. But the proposal never included any ban on cars. Still, that misunderstanding killed the idea dead.

-- Jack

[jsfreed]

We have two little kids and walk/bike/crawl/scooter/run around Mt Pleasant every day. We are pretty anti-car. Despite all that, it's hard enough to get around Mt Pleasant in cars as it is with double parking, busses, etc. The last thing we need is to purposefully encourage more pedestrian-car encounters in the street. In my 12+ years in Mt Pleasant and conversations with countless prospective and current business owners, it seems like the biggest impediments to a better main street are lack of live music, extortionate rents, and landlords who aren't willing to provide basic improvements and services to their properties. Why don't we tackle those things first and, if they don't work, we can start thinking about things like opening the street to pedestrians?

[dsachdev]

I think one of the ideas here is that sometimes big changes can be the spark that allows for change. Such as Street cars on H street brings in new investors, an new blood that may be willing to buy some retail space, and change their mindset on working with renters.

[jack]

[jack]

[bdweller]

How are the businesses on Mt.P St. supposed to receive deliveries if no trucks are allowed through? What about the constituents you are ignoring that have/need/depend on cars?

How about attracting pedestrian friendly businesses v. yet another dry cleaners or laundromat?

[micmac]

The saturday Farmer's market draws people to sit and socialize - the rest of the week, rest of the year there is little reason to visit Mt. P Street unless to pick up something quick from a convenience store or the hardware store. Wider sidewalks won't change that.
When F St downtown was turned to pedestrians only, it became a haven for homeless people and no one wanted to walk down that street.

[RckCrk]

[jack]

[micmac]

"It amounts to making the street into one large crosswalk."
But why would the chicken even want to cross the road - when there is nothing interesting on the other side?

[Cory]

Echoing RckCrk and Micmac, I don't see the use in creating a new traffic pattern on Mt Pleasant street to encourage pedestrian use of the street when there isn't a sufficient variety of businesses to cater to the needs of many of the people in the neighborhood. Although there are several businesses I patron often, I do most of my shopping outside of the neighborhood. I would much prefer to shop local but there are so many redundancies along the street without much range in product or quality.

Thinking more generally about what could encourage economic redevelopment - streetscape improvements have been successful in other neighborhoods (H Street, 17th Street, 14th Street, P Street). So maybe we should be discussing a broader set of improvements such as more greenery and better lighting, instead of focusing on a pet project that was already discussed several years ago. I'm not necessarily against a "pedestrian encounter zone" but I don't see a need to focus on this so singularly now.

[jack]

[jack]

BTW, the suggestion of "more greenery and better lighting" brings to mind the $240K "transportation enhancement" grant won by Mount Pleasant Main Street, intending to accomplish exactly that. That was in 2009, and the work was done in 2010. Well, has anybody noticed the improvement? Has this work brought more residents to Mount Pleasant Street?

-- Jack

[RckCrk]

The idea that an "encounter zone" would encourage people to go to Mt. Pleasant St. instead of Columbia Heights or Cleveland Park is patently absurd. So is the assertion that it would make Mt. Pleasant St. an exciting place to be. It would just be the same old stuff with an overlay of horn blowing and confusion.

[Cory]

Actually, on the Main Street grant, nothing has been done yet. I have been discussing this with Tarek Bolden in the Office of Planning and Gabriela Vega. The proposal was sent to DDOT for planning purposes but has since stalled. As Tarek tells it, DDOT was scared off from completing certain planned projects when the community responded so negatively to their attempt to widen treeboxes to preserve the existing canopy. Admittedly, that project was poorly communicated but Main Street got an unfair share of the blame because it was not associated with their proposal for streetscape improvements.

There are lots of studies available, and results within our own city showing how streetscape improvements encourage investment and development. The fact is, though, that I am not going to spend more time on the Mount Pleasant Street just because I don't have to cross at a crosswalk. There needs to be some meaningful change to the retail mix on the street. At least if Mt. Pleasant didn't have so much trash, had better lighting, better greenery, I would be more inclined to go for a stroll and linger on the street. I imagine others would be drawn out as well and that would have a meaningful impact on both existing and potential new business.