Ward3Vision is an active group of residents working to ensure new development is positive and forward-thinking.
Joined June 2011
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Ward3Vision retweeted
"point access block" is a multifamily building organized around a single vertical access point: usually one stair, often paired with one elevator.
Instead of a long hallway serving dozens of apartments, each floor has a small landing with a few units accessed directly from that central core.
Nothing prevents PAB buildings from having a second egress off the back (like the spiral stair shown here) -- they often do.
Jun 10
The core, real question re: single stair buildings to rank and file firefighters should be this:
Which of these 2 buildings would you prefer in an active unit fire with risk of spread? Which requires more resources and is more likely to extend them to a point where you need to call in equipment from elsewhere, further delaying full response and increasing risk for anyone still inside?
The one with 12 units per floor, or the one with just 2?
Reality is the one on the left has a much greater fuel load, far more area to spread, higher risk of large scale collapse, and 6x more spaces and people to clear. And this double loaded corridor example is smaller than the norm. In practice the difference between the two is even greater.
Common single stair limits are a total floor area of just 4,000 sq ft. A double loaded corridor can be 46,000 sq ft - 11x the size and risk in a fire.
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Jun 10
Who will save Friendship Heights.
Unrelated I'm stopping at @dunkindonuts on the way home from the Metro.
Opponents of Friendship Heights development take their cause to the street
Residents say they are against plans for former GEICO headquarters on Western Avenue
ALT Geico
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Jun 10
Who will save the surface parking lots in Friendship Heights?
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Ward3Vision retweeted
To understand why housing people are talking about rent nonpayment you need to know that DC is the only jurisdiction where cash flow at low-income properties is negative.
The "I Hate Housing" position is watching affordable units go into mass foreclosure and doing nothing
isn’t it funny how the DC literati have all decided that the Tenant’s Rights position is actually an I Hate Housing position
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Ward3Vision retweeted
Great article in Urban Turf citing what advocates have been fighting for - more affordable units, and particularly workforce housing units - at the #CivicCore! This is a step in the right direction and we're glad the Mayor and DMPED are listening! More to come! dc.urbanturf.com/articles/bl… #SupporttheCore #AffordableHousing #FairShare! @CMFrumin @Janeese4DC
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Ward3Vision retweeted
Jun 3
I really think our housing politics would be much better if more people simply realized that many beloved buildings would literally be illegal to build today because of zoning restrictions
The triple decker might be the most Massachusetts thing there is. It's also illegal to build in almost every city and town.
Look around your block. Most of what you see couldn't be built today.
In Cambridge, 85% of our buildings were illegal until I helped fix it last year.
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Ward3Vision retweeted
You canceled protected bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue after a multi-year process with well attended public meetings that netted support from every impacted ANC and initially yourself-reverse this blunder before you leave office & you can claim bike infra as part of your legacy.
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Jun 3
Incredible that these communities think we should have 4 story buildings here.
One binding element notes the height limit of multifamily buildings along Willard Ave was set at 4 stories, & recent plans call for the buildings to be 6 to 7 stories tall, according to the complaint.
Friendship Heights, Brookdale community file lawsuit against developers seeking to redevelop former GEICO campus
Complaint argues new plans do not adhere to initial 1998 development requirements
ALT Geico
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 27
This is the apartment building where there used to be a Burger King with zero units of affordable housing.
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May 27
Paging @WIN_DC @AdasIraelDC - lots of large surface parking lots in Ward 3 that would be better used for housing
May 27
A jewish congregation in Edgewater is working on redeveloping their property into 600 apartments, and a temple. A couple weeks ago, a local NIMBY paper published an anti-semitic article decrying the proposal.
The community is now rightfully outraged about the anti-semitism
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 22
Great story by Pete Rodrigue in @ggwash about how DC's current single family zoning is in large part a legacy of racism. The guy who designed our original maps talked about how he designed St Louis' maps to prevent "colored people" from moving into "dinner residential districts"!
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 22
This is absurd from @kenyanmcduffie . Our historic preservation laws are insane. The bar for preservation is very low - you don't even need the permission of the property owner! I know this because someone in 1E almost had their home historically preserved by someone else. (1/3)
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 19
This is actually a perfect example of NIMBY delay leading to project failure. Lawsuits held this project up for years. These homes could have been built under the PUD agreements when they were financially viable, but instead we get nothing. Good job, NIMBYs!
May 18
BREAKING - Last week, at the developers' request, the Zoning Commission voted to extinguish the Brookland Manor PUD. Another victim, not of NIMBYs, but of DC's dismal real estate economy. The developer, Mid-City Financial hopes to sell the 20-acre property to a new owner. 1/3
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 8
“Are we kinda bein’ pricks?” a Massachusetts man asked at a town meeting, drawing attention to a housing plan that seemed to intentionally avoid adding much housing on.wsj.com/3PgmDmm
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Ward3Vision retweeted
It's either highways and sprawl, or housing and transit.
Real environmentalists shouldn't have trouble deciding which is better.
May 7
when did “fighting the most sustainable forms of housing” become environmentalism? blocking infill doesn’t stop growth it just promotes sprawl
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 6
if dc’s ward 3 / zoning commission were in charge of manhattan’s land use
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 7
“What would be better is if people built some fucking housing. People a lot smarter than me have been talking about it for years…
We should all be vocal. Otherwise we think we’ve reached a consensus that we haven’t. When we speak out, we give permission to others to speak out.”
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 6
“We are the luckiest bastards alive,” he says of living in Marblehead. “We can’t also be the most self-interested bastards alive. They can’t be the same thing.”
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 6
Incredible @ggwash article about Ward 3's history of racial exclusion, how zoning perpetuates it, and what we can do to fix it (build more homes).
The history here is particularly ugly. Not just keeping people off color out but forcibly evicting an entire black neighborhood.
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Ward3Vision retweeted
May 6
“Like, are we kinda being pricks?" is the new anti-NIMBY rallying cry
May 5
On its third attempt tonight, Marblehead Town Meeting approved an “MBTA Communities–compliant” district largely centered on the 125-year-old Tedesco Country Club, meeting 3A requirements on paper while all but assuring no new housing would be built.
This comment says it all.
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