It’s a good thing that the media bemoaning the Adams Morgan Streetscape Project on 18th Street weren’t around when Rome was built. That great city might never have risen under their relentless and misguided criticism. After more than six years of planning — including scores of meetings, hearings and compromises among countless business owners, residents, civic associations and government agencies — renovation work began this year on the central commercial strip of Adams Morgan.

You’ve probably noticed the activity and the construction workers in hard hats. It’s a massive undertaking both aboveground and below, where new utility lines are being installed.