The following is a guest post by friend-of-the-blog and Columbia Pike advocate John Snyder. Some folks seem to think that the way to preserve affordable housing on the Pike is to make it an undesirable place to live, so rents stay low. They worry that building the planned streetcar route on Columbia Pike will cause the loss of affordable housing. But their solution—to undermine the quality of life on the Pike—won’t preserve affordable housing. On the contrary, the streetcar system will be necessary to preserve affordable housing on the Pike. Availability of high quality transit is not the only...

Recently the Washington Boulevard Trail project has come under criticism from the Urban Forestry Commission and the Penrose Neighborhood Association due to the number of trees that would be impacted by it's construction.  While the potential loss of trees is unfortunate, the myriad environmental, health and mobility benefits of the trail seem to have been lost in the shuffle. Project Overview The Washington Boulevard trail project would construct a new bike and pedestrian trail along the west side of Washington Boulevard between Route 50 and South Rolfe Street just shy of Columbia Pike by way of Towers Park. Phase I of the...