Metro is not the only form of transportation
Re: “Metro to shut airport station over weekend,” Sept. 2 Oh, come on, people. Griping and complaining because Metro is using one of the slowest weekends of the year to do needed track repair at rail lines in Northern Virginia? What would you propose? That the work not be done and a tragedy such as the one in June occur in the National Airport area? Get a life. There are wonderful alternative forms of getting to the airport called taxi cabs. They’re available throughout Washington, D.C. and can be called on the telephone. Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly continues to prove that he is, indeed, a true ass!
Dennis A. Dinkel
Washington Thanks for the laughs from parallel universe Re: “Memo to suburbanites: Government doesn’t want you to live there any more,” Aug. 30 Thank you for printing Mark Tapscott’s hilarious satire on conservative beliefs. He lampooned so many things that make conservatives unfit for governing: paranoia about the government, blindness toward any concept of the public good, and the most amusing thing about conservatives: their complete hostility toward conservation. Mr. Tapscott should hire an agent, hone his comic skills, and take his act on the road. He can call it “Mr. Conservative Brings Greetings from a Parallel Universe.”
Daniel Rosen
Baltimore ‘Smart growth’ ruined my city neighborhood Re: “Memo to suburbanites: Government doesn’t want you to live there any more,” Aug. 30 Thank you for putting “smart growth” in quotes because it may prove every bit as disastrous as an earlier development fad known as “urban renewal.” But to successfully resist it, advocates for building more roads have to overcome two challenges: (1) Induced demand, which creates the same gridlock the public investment in new roadways was supposed to cure; and (2) Revenue from reduced congestion is not enough to cover the additional public cost of increasing road capacity. I’ve lived most of my adult life within walking distance of the Brookland Metro station in a nice, low-density, urban backwater. Then at the behest of “smart growth” advocates, and over the objections of neighborhood organizations, the city decided to impose grotesque “transit-oriented” development around the station, which had existed in harmony with the surrounding neighborhood since the day it opened. I had to move to Old Town, Alexandria where a historic district protects the low-density neighborhood from severe overdevelopment. “Smart growth” may make sense some places, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution for long-established neighborhoods whose character it would drastically alter. Advocates for increased road capacity need to make an alliance with neighborhood preservationists to stop “smart growth” from being crammed down their throats.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria
