At approximately 2 a.m. on May 26, D.C. Councilmembers received a startling surprise in the draft budget submitted to them by then-Chairman Vincent Gray. Despite assurances Gray had made the previous night that the long-awaited streetcar project would be included in the city’s budget, it had mysteriously disappeared.
“It will essentially kill the program,” an irate District Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein told the Washington Post on May 26. “If they kill it, basically, it goes on ice.
Gray’s move nearly delayed the streetcars, which were to run from H Street to Benning Road. Fortunately, in May, the Council restored streetcar funding at the last minute after their phones and inboxes were flooded with messages from angry constituents.
In light of this incident, many D.C. residents who want to see a more livable, accessible city were skeptical of Vincent Gray’s candidacy for mayor. Current Mayor Adrian Fenty—whom Gray defeated in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary—created the popular Circulator bus system, dramatically expanded bike lanes in the city, promoted walkable urban development, and strongly supported the streetcar program. But many District residents are now wondering whether Gray’s impending victory in the November mayoral election will threaten the “new urbanism” renaissance that has gained momentum in D.C. under Fenty.
In addition to the streetcar fiasco, Gray said that the bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue—where many bikers, like me, commute to jobs downtown—are “really ludicrous.” Center for American Progress blogger Matt Yglesias has noted that Gray has expressed concerns about the high cost of parking in D.C., implying potential support for parking or parking lot subsidies. This would be a terrible waste of money and space, especially in downtown D.C.
But, fortunately, there are also signs that Gray has sympathies for the urbanist vision of walkable and bike-friendly streets, public transportation, and smart growth. He expressed support for devoting more resources to buses and expanding bike lanes during the campaign. He also garnered the support of influential blogger and activist David Alpert, after Alpert conducted interviews with both candidates in the days leading up to the primary.
“[It is my] strong belief that Gray is a supporter of a livable, walkable city,” Alpert, the founder of the popular urban planning blog Greater Greater Washington, told the Voice.
He added that Gray had demonstrated a thoughtful approach to decision making while serving as the D.C. Council Chair, which would lead to better development. When D.C.’s leaders make choices after considering community input and the ramifications of a given project, he said, the results are superior. In Alpert’s view, the Fenty administration didn’t approach projects with as much deliberation as Gray. That approach is crucial, as new construction shapes the urban landscape for decades to come.
Gray’s contradictions and disconcerting comments over sustainable smart growth should not be taken lightly, and D.C. residents must hold him accountable to his campaign promises and commitment to maintaining Fenty’s urbanist vision.
At the same time, during the election, it was easy to paint Fenty as pro-smart growth and Gray as strictly against it. In reality, though, Gray sent out the right signals during the campaign, and his ability to carefully consider alternative points of view—likely his greatest strength as Council Chairman—may help him implement it even better than our outgoing mayor. Urbanism fans have good reason to hope Gray will move D.C. forward on the path toward smart and sustainable development.
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It appears that four months later, every “urbanist” is still convinced that Vincent Gray’s oft-cited budget gaffe is conclusive evidence that he’s the fourth horseman of the apocalypse.
While Gray never, ever said he wanted to kill the project – what he actually said was, given that we’re in the middle of a budget crisis, and there are many unanswered questions such as how the streetcar will be powered, and how it would connect to union station, that perhaps it would be responsible to answer, before we keep building things that we haven’t figured out yet.
In the ultimate irony, of course, construction has stopped anyway, having nothing to do with gray, but having everything to do with the bad planning that has been his concern all along: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=108815&provider=top
Two corrections: First, the Circulator started under Williams, not Fenty. Also, to the guy above, that article you link to is about the Anacostia line. The whole budget kerfuffle was over the H St. line, construction of which continues unabated.