Freshman on The Hill

Photo by María Helena Carey

In the heart of our livable, walkable village there is a gaping inconsistency.  It’s like a game of “One of these things is not like the others.”

Capitol Hill’s mostly quiet grid opens up at C Street, NE, starting around 15th Street, like a large gash on its way to RFK stadium and dumps a high volume of daily commuters onto the Whitney Young bridge.  In the mornings, it’s the other way: thousands of cars come in from Maryland and use Capitol Hill’s surface streets to avoid congestion on the major thoroughfares such as Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Bladensburg Road NE and H Street NE.

Cars speed dangerously right next to sleepy streets and right past Eliot-Hine Middle School.  Accidents and citations for speeding are a near-daily occurrence, especially as C Street –traveling westbound– dumps into Constitution Ave NE.

Local resident Ken Granata, who’d spent a considerable amount of time renovating his house on C Street, NE, decided he’d had enough.  With the help of his neighbors,  he has worked steadily to see C Street slowly –perhaps too slowly– morph from the artery that the DOT considers it to be, to a quieter street where people can walk without fear of getting hit by a car whizzing past.  Ken explained simply how he became involved: “Back then, the 2005 Capitol Hill Transportation Study (CHTS) was in its final stages and I went to every open house and talked regularly with the then DDOT Ward 6 Transportation Planner.  I was shocked to discover the CHTS focus area stopped at 19^th St, NE, considering the majority of the traffic flowing into the Hill, via C Street, was […] coming from across the Anacostia River (over 80% are non-District registered vehicles).  I was also disappointed in the lack of macro-vision towards the traffic problems on the Hill.”

Ken was and is still frustrated by the DC government’s lack of understanding of what is the true root of the problem, not just according to him, but according to the Office of Planning’s 2006 Revised Comprehensive plan for the city: non-District residents using Capitol Hill as a shortcut to the major highways (I-295/Kenilworth Ave. and unsigned I-695/Southeast-Southwest Freeway) or from downtown to their Maryland home and back.

So how does the idea of Capitol Hill as a “walkable, livable community” reconcile itself with the fact that we share our space on a daily basis with people who are not only not part of the community, but who bring particulate and noise pollution as well as the element of recklessness and danger to our streets? Councilmember Tommy Wells, when he talked to THIH back in late October, seemed to be confident that the neighborhood’s transportation problems can be solved in a way that serves not just the locals but the commuters as well.  He focused on the concept of complete streets— streets that integrate bike lanes, sidewalks, dedicated bus and transit stops, frequent crossing areas and green medians. And as a matter of fact, after years of trying to get the government to see things their way, the C Street neighbors have achieved a victory as the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), through Toole Design, is currently carrying out a study from 17th to 21st Streets.  This will culminate in four proposed designs for the street, which will be discussed in at least two meetings to draw from the public’s opinions.

It is the dawn of an exciting, cleaner, and less dangerous day for our community.  If you would like to get involved, attend the meetings, or learn more about the C Street, NE, project; go to their site http://cstreetne.blogspot.com/ or email CStreetNEProject [at] gmail.com.