Greater Greater Washington
@ggwash.org
The Washington, DC, region is great, and it can be greater. Transportation, housing, land use. Inquiries: info@ggwash.org
Health equity starts with existing networks of care that don't always fit into how DC government (and others) approach the problems they're trying to solve. DC's next leaders need to bridge that gap by thinking about neighbors, housing, and travel times, not just medics and clinics.
DC's care networks are an urban feature. Governance needs to catch up
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BREAKFAST LINKS 8/5/26: Vienna getting first Capital Bikeshare stations. Farragut Square office sells for $30 million. Data center plan ditched at Southern Maryland nuclear power site.
Breakfast links: Capital Bikeshare docks to land in Vienna
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Existing buildings are responsible for nearly 70% of DC’s greenhouse emissions. Cutting their energy use often isn't easy.
For energy-hogging DC buildings, it’s upgrade or pay
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BREAKFAST LINKS 8/4/26: Amazon plans four data centers on Ashburn campus. Montgomery County Planning Board approves new plans for GEICO campus. HUD building won't be redeveloped into homeless services facility.
Breakfast links: Amazon pushes for more Ashburn data centers
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“It’s okay to admit that a football stadium can’t support a lively urban district, because if it could, another city would have figured it out by now.”
GGWash staff takes on the RFK master plan
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Try this guided bike ride alternative to the Red Line station closures. Learn how to become an EcoAmbassador in Arlington. Ride to an old grist mill and have some ice cream.
Events: Bridge the gap on the Red Line with a WABA-led group bike ride
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BREAKFAST LINKS 8/3/26: Planning commission approves phase of Lakeforest Mall redevelopment. "Mother Church of Northern Virginia" wants to build single-family housing. Streets near Purple Line station still lack sidewalks.
Breakfast links: After Lakeforest Mall demolition, redevelopment plans progress
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It's easy to find the watery beauty in these favorites from the Greater and Lesser Washington Flickr pool.
Photo Friday: Water Week!
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/31/26: Underground pumping station, tunnel open in Alexandria. Office redevelopment moves forward in Silver Spring. Parking deck redevelopment to be studied in Mount Vernon Triangle.
Breakfast links: Sewage project in Alexandria to protect local waterways
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The Rock Creek Park Tennis Center is in need of repairs, with broken lights, uneven court surfaces and no major updates since it opened in 1989. The DC Council has budgeted millions for fixes, but the center remains under National Park Service jurisdiction.
DC's tennis tournament wraps this weekend. What's next for the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center?
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Capital Bikeshare riders were out and about across the region in June.
Bikeshare Beat: Biking to Pride and the pool
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Play GGWash Junctions, Water Week edition.
Play GGWash Junctions Water Week word puzzle (#55)
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/30/26: Noah Kahan concert drives big day at Navy Yard station. Falls Church lot hits the market as developer gives up mixed-use plan. Prince George's County Planning Board gets new chair.
Breakfast links: How many people rode Metrorail to a sold-out concert?
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This week on Do Something: how to run for a vacant ANC seat; four more years for Montgomery County's James Hedrick; and a job opening for a big transit advocate.
Do Something #129: Human resources
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Before it reaches DC taps, water flows through small villages, slows over dams, cools under forested state and national parks, picks up the remnants of abandoned industrial sites, and is shaped by the communities that line its shores.
How governments, advocates, and eels affect the Washington region’s water
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/29/26: Wayfinding signs added to I-66 trail. Tax increment financing passes for Montgomery County project. Some skaters struggle to access renovated Fort Dupont Ice Arena.
Breakfast links: Trail parallel to I-66 improves wayfinding
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Of DC’s approximately 1,931 outdoor pools, 1,730 are in single-family detached, semi-detached, and rowhouse zones.
Approximately every outdoor pool in DC, mapped
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/28/26: Maryland pilot to replace gas with geothermal stalls. Arlington County plans to increase prices for EV charging. Mixed-use development delayed near Takoma Metro.
Breakfast links: Maryland geothermal pilot needs to lower costs
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What are your priorities for the District’s waterways? How can we improve public access? What concepts should we import from other cities? Share your ideas with the DC Waterways Advisory Commission.
How DC is reclaiming its waterfront identity
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This week on the blog, we're thinking about water.
GGWater Week returns to provide a riverine refresher
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/27/26: Streetcar trolley bridge in Georgetown gets closer to demolition. Report calls for stricter Virginia water rules. Year-over-year rents hold steady in Washington region.
Breakfast links: DC's last streetcar bridge close to disappearing
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NATIONAL LINKS: -USDOT stops recommending time-tested safety measures -Dallas faces an inflection point -How to replace single-use architecture with circularity
National links: US Department of Transportation continues to undermine road safety
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/24/26: Lack of bus lanes limits Metrobus. Prince George’s County targets vacant properties. Tenants report poor conditions at Congress Park Plaza.
Breakfast links: Lack of bus lanes limits Metrobus
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When governments promote third spaces, as Arlington County has, people get direct experience with neighborhoods that helps them suggest improvements.
Why local governments should support third spaces
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This week on Do Something: what if you ran for ANC; Office of Planning office hours; and looking for info about the driver who killed a pedestrian in Silver Spring.
Do Something #128: What if you ran for ANC?
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You can play Junctions, even if you don't know the local pronunciation of "Bowie."
Play GGWash Junctions weekly word puzzle #54
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This style of road design is ubiquitous, unsafe, and inefficient — and it continues to fail drivers and non-drivers alike.
Route 29 in Montgomery County is bad for everyoone
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BREAKFAST LINKS 7/23/26: Arlington road to get safety updates before school year. Montgomery County may back 18-month data center moratorium. Broken pipe floods Red Line control room, causing delays.
Breakfast links: Road near Arlington schools to see safety changes
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"OP’s proposed FLUM is so half-hearted that it would be illegal elsewhere"
Greater Greater Washington@ggwash.org · 2w agoIf it were the 1970s, this proposal from the DC Office of Planning would be cutting edge. Instead, it stands to seriously hold back housing in the District.
Multiple analysts estimate that DC needs to build much more: 15,300 new homes just to adequately accommodate existing residents; 34,000 new homes to house people who want to move here today but can't; or *170,000* to get house prices down to a nationally reasonable level.
Greater Greater Washington@ggwash.org · 2w agoDC has been building far too little, for far too long, and the shortfall runs into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of homes.