Priorities

My number one priority is pushing DDOT (District Department of Transportation) to make serious and meaningful improvements to traffic safety in our neighborhood. South Dakota Avenue in particular is in need of serious improvements. I’ve already asked DDOT to launch traffic safety investigations (TSIs) into several locations in our area.

Here's a summary of what I've asked DDOT to do in 5A09. You can follow these in detail on my TSI tracker page.

Gallatin Street: Traffic safety features including speed humps, stop sign cameras, rumble strips and/or speed cameras on Gallatin Street. Literally every single person I’ve spoken to who lives on this street has complained about speeding vehicles from industrial sites on the western end of the street.

Intersection of Galloway Street and South Dakota Ave: Putting in place bollards on the center line to prevent cars from going around cars in front of them waiting at the red light to turn right. People do this surprisingly often at this intersection and it’s super dangerous for pedestrians

Galloway Street: Asking DDOT to consider making the crosswalk on Galloway Street a raised crosswalk, and to put in place rumble-strips in both directions leading up to it. Installing a speed camera in both directions along the strip of Galloway Street east of the metro. Cars regularly fly down this road, particularly when going downhill toward SD Ave. Galloway is a major pedestrian route toward Fort Totten metro and has quickly become a busy bike route with the completion of the newest section of the MBT nearby (and Galloway is part of the most direct route between the MBT and the Anacostia River Tributary Trail System – probably the two busiest bike trails in the DC area).

South Dakota Ave: The big one: I have asked DDOT to consider multiple different safety features here, including adding red light cameras, speed cameras, additional red lights at cross streets that don’t currently have them, and to strongly consider a road diet as well as installing protected bike lanes (as identified in the 2015 Move DC plan) and potentially bus lanes. SD Ave is a highway going through residential areas and is extremely unsafe to walk or bike on. This road in particular will be a top priority for me. An older woman died crossing it in a crosswalk within sight of my apartment in the past year. My goal is to make sure that never happens again. With a major metro stop a five minute walk away and the next phase of the Modern complex coming online in the next year or so, this area will have a large amount of pedestrians and having an unsafe highway barreling through the middle of that is not sustainable.

Another big priority is pressuring the National Park Service to quit neglecting parks in our neighborhood, and in particular to finish the abandoned, half-completed trail connecting North Michigan Park to the Fort Totten metro. It’s been nearly three years since NPS started and then abandoned the trail, it’s about time they got around to finishing the work. I will also be requesting additional details from NPS on the surveys they conducted that determined there were no additional unexploded ordnances, and pushing for more regular basic maintenance like mowing, trash removal and other services for our parks.

Longer-term, I will pressure NPS to build a sidewalk along the south side of Galloway Street to provide better access to the metro, and vocally support any and all efforts to build a bike trail along the length of the park between the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the Anacostia River Tributary Trail System, which would fill a vital link in our region’s bike network.

Finally, I am a strong proponent of adding housing density in our transit-rich area. There is no reason to have giant under-utilized surface parking lots right next to one of the busiest and potentially most important metro stops in the DC area. These would be better utilized as dense housing, helping to alleviate the housing affordability crisis in the DC region and contributing to our sustainability goals by allowing large numbers of people to live car-free or car-light lifestyles. Additionally, I would push any housing projects that come my way as ANC to include meaningful levels of affordable units for lower-income residents.