Category: Take Action

The DC Comp Plan is back – let’s ensure it allows for a more inclusive city

The DC Comp Plan is back – let’s ensure it allows for a more inclusive city

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Together with you, we’ve pressed for over two years for an updated Comprehensive Plan that makes building more affordable housing a priority for the city. But for more than a year, the guiding first chapter or “Framework Element” has been bottled up in the DC Council. Finally, the second and crucial vote on the bill will be September 17.

While the Chairman’s revisions incorporate many of the amendments we supported, it falls short of establishing affordable housing as our top priority, and doesn’t ensure that enough housing can be built across the whole city.

Send a message to the DC Council today and let them know we want a city for all.

Tell the DC Council the Comprehensive Plan must:

  • Directly address the city’s need for more housing, especially near transit, so that people across the income spectrum can have more choices about where they can live;
  • Make affordable housing the highest priority throughout the document, and in the development review process;
  • Commit to preserving existing affordable housing and prevent residents from being displaced;
  • Enable new affordable housing to be built across the city, including in Upper Northwest, where for too long some of its residents have blocked significant numbers of new homes from being built;
  • Fix the broken development approval process (including Planned Unit Developments), ensuring that affordable housing is given top priority, and that the process is predictable for those who participate in good-faith.

Email the Council today!

In our meetings with Councilmembers over the past few months we’ve pressed the case and believe there is significant support.

 

Photo credit: Ted Eytan, https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/36800611944/in/album-72157687591856363/

8.7.19 Summer Email Updates

Posted on by Kara Young

CSG in action-District of Columbia

Parking Cashout – we need one more vote to make this happen!

If your employer offers you a parking benefit, we think you should have the option to cash it out and put the funds toward your biking, walking or bus/Metro commute. Unfortunately, our bill is stuck in the D.C. Council’s Transportation & Environment Committee. Contact Councilmembers Brandon Todd and Kenyan McDuffie and let them know you support B23-148, the Transportation Benefits Equity Act of 2019. Check out our factsheet here, and our webpage here.

The DC Comprehensive Plan – let’s ensure it supports a more inclusive city.

For two years, we’ve been pressing for an updated citywide Comprehensive Plan that ensures we’ll have enough homes and affordable homes as our city grows. On July 9th, the DC Council took a first crucial vote on the Plan. While it has some of the improvements we’ve fought for, it still falls short of building a truly inclusive and sustainable DC. We’ll need you to continue to weigh in. Here’s our call to action outlining priorities for the Plan. 

DC Bus Report Card — we can do better!

We recently teamed with MetroHero to issue the first-ever DC Metrobus Report Card. We graded 9 high-ridership bus corridors on speed, schedule adherence, and headway adherence. Find out how these routes scored (spoiler: expect more F’s than A’s) and check out the solutions we’re promoting to make our buses faster, more frequent and more reliable.

 

Continue reading “8.7.19 Summer Email Updates” →

Seminary Road Rescue

Posted on by Kara Young

Support a Safer Seminary Road

Your help is needed to make Seminary Road safer for all road users — people who walk, bike, ride the bus, or drive. While the city’s goals are to improve safety and connectivity, the city’s Traffic and Parking Board voted to make very few changes to the current road, meaning it would continue to see high speeds and unsafe conditions.

The City Council will vote on September 14. Together, we need to urge them to reject the traffic board’s proposal and choose a safer alternative. That’s why we are collecting petition signatures, which will be combined with those collected by other partner groups.

Please support a safer Seminary Road by signing the petition!

The better and safer street design option would be a “road diet,” converting the four lane road to three lanes with a center turn lane, providing buffered bike lanes, enhancing crosswalks and adding pedestrian refuge islands at transit stops.

This option would improve safety and access for all road users, and especially pedestrians, but is facing opposition over concerns about traffic. Yet, road diets have been proven to maintain a steady vehicle flow while providing significant safety improvements.

Not only will the three lane design for Seminary Road reduce dangerous speeding, the center dedicated left turn lane will help to keep traffic moving while reducing the rear end collisions so common on four lane roads that lack protected left-turn lanes.

A similar project on King Street in 2016 reduced speeding by 18% without adding congestion, decreased crashes by 50% and did not result in a jump in neighborhood cut-through traffic.

Please support safe streets now by signing the petition!

Thank you for your support,

Sonya Breehey
Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager
Coalition for Smarter Growth

Making DC’s Buses the Best: A forum on the first performance-based D.C. Bus Report Card and next steps for faster, more reliable bus service for all.

Posted on by Kate Jentoft-Herr

Join us for the release of the first D.C. Bus Report Card. A short presentation will be followed by an interactive discussion with leading decision-makers, transit experts, and advocates sharing ideas on how to make D.C.’s bus system the best way to travel on city streets.

WHEN: July 10, 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm

WHERE: Georgetown University’s Downtown Campus, 640 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C.

There is no charge to attend this event, but pre-registration is required.

Representatives from the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Metro Hero will present the results of the first ever performance-based report card for D.C. buses and a panel of local experts will discuss how this assessment ties in with other studies being done to improve the bus. The panel will include Councilmember Mary Cheh, DDOT Director Jeff Marootian,   and representatives from WMATA,  TransitCenter, and the Greater Washington Partnership.  Uwe Brandes, of the Georgetown Urban & Regional Planning Program will moderate.

Join us on July 10 to learn about new ideas and next steps to improve bus service in the District and hear updates on current projects at DC Department of Transportation and Metro!  Through this discussion, we hope to inspire public involvement and support for the best possible bus service in the District of Columbia and the National Capital Region.

Co-hosted by: Coalition for Smarter Growth, MetroHero and Georgetown SCS Urban & Regional Planning Program

photo credit: Cheryl Cort

Tell Councilmember Todd you support flexible commute options!

Posted on by Cheryl Cort
 We’ve got to convince Councilmember Todd to vote for flexible commuter benefits

For several years, we’ve been working on a bill at the D.C. Council for flexible commuter benefits. The bill would let anyone who gets a parking benefit from their employer to put the equivalent value towards their biking, bus, Metro, or walking commute. It’s a change that would give D.C. workers more flexibility and take cars off the road – at no additional cost to employers.

We are now at a political crossroads. To advance the bill out of the Council committee, we need one more vote – either Councilmember McDuffie or Todd (we’ve already got Councilmembers Cheh and Allen). Please help us encourage these Councilmembers to support the bill. Show your Councilmember that his constituents are paying attention and want flexible commuter benefits!

Click here to let Councilmember Todd know that you support this important bill.

What’s in the bill?

The Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act 2019 Bill 23-148 builds on the existing pre-tax transit benefit employers offer to employees at no cost. This bill requires that if an employee turns down a parking space offered by their employer, they would be provided the equivalent value for an alternative commute benefit – like riding transit, walking or bicycling.

B23-148 is largely the same as last year’s bill, applying to employers with 20 or more employees that choose to subsidize employee car parking. One change in the reintroduced bill exempts employers that own their parking spaces. While the Coalition for Smarter Growth is disappointed in this provision, overall, B23-148 is an important bill to reduce traffic and pollution, encourage more sustainable commuting, and give employees better transportation choices.

Email your councilmember today.

To win this groundbreaking commuter benefits bill, we need you! As a constituent of Ward 4 Councilmember Todd, let him know that you to support this bill.

Want to do more? Call Councilmember Todd‘s office 202-724-8052 and politely tell their staff (or leave a voicemail) that you support the commuter benefits bill (Bill 23-148).

Have questions on the policy, the details, or what else we have to say on flexible commuter benefits? Check out our factsheet here, and our issue page here, or reply to this email with your question!

 

Photo/credit Womanonbike_KevinKovaleskiDDOT_wordpress

Stop Gov. Hogan’s Toll Lanes at the MD Board of Public Works

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Protect MD taxpayers by putting the brakes on a rushed Beltway/I-270 P3 deal

Governor Hogan and MDOT Secretary Rahn are bulldozing ahead with their proposal for massive toll lane expansion on the Capital Beltway and I-270 – four new lanes on each highway at an estimated cost of $9 billion to $11 billion dollars. There are so many things wrong with this deal we won’t be able to tell you all of them.

A crucial vote will take place Wednesday, June 5, 2019, at the Maryland Board of Public Works: whether to authorize this for a Public-Private Partnership (P3) deal. This powerful body can say yes, no, or pull it off the agenda to allow for further review. Only the Governor, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, and State Comptroller Peter Franchot sit on the Board, and Peter Franchot is the swing vote.

Take Action: Email Comptroller Franchot today and urge him to join Treasurer Kopp in putting the brakes on this project.

As Comptroller, Franchot has a responsibility to Maryland taxpayers and Franchot should vote to delay the vote pending more in-depth and independent review. The Pre-Solicitation Report includes clauses that put taxpayers at risk:

  1. If the toll road developer defaults on its commitments, and Maryland wishes to terminate – the state will still have to pay partial compensation to the developer’s lenders.
  2. If a court issues a ruling that blocks the project (such as for environmental impacts) the toll road developer must be compensated.
  3. Lawyers working for the state have hatched a complex scheme called the “MDTA notes” to get around legal obstacles that could impede the financing of the toll lanes. Not enough has been disclosed about this scheme for outsiders to judge whether it will work, whether it will put state taxpayers at risk, or whether it is even legal.

This proposed deal bears all the hallmarks of Virginia’s early disastrous P-3 deals, which included paying $300 million for a highway never built, and a tunnel deal with exorbitant tolls that required state payments to reduce the tolls. The main argument for doing a P3 per P3 supporters is to shift the risk to the private sector. That’s not happening here. See this critical report on the Virginia issues.

Take Action: Email Comptroller Franchot today and urge him to join Treasurer Kopp in putting the brakes on this project.

Meanwhile, Franchot shouldn’t take the Washington Post’s portrayal of its poll as indicating widespread support for the toll lanes. While 61% support the toll road at first, when people are next asked about their concerns, those concerns are overwhelming and very real:

  • 73% of people are very or somewhat concerned about the loss of homes
  • 69% of people very or somewhat concerned that the road will be too expensive to use
  • 68% of people very or somewhat concerned that the road will not reduce congestion

The Post never asked the important follow-up question – something like: “Upon reflection, if these issues are indeed the case, do you support or oppose the toll lanes?”

Secretary Rahn’s is playing on the real frustration with congestion. But new and expanded highways in metropolitan areas fill up in as little as five years. The general-purpose lanes will fill up again. In fact, the toll road operator depends on general-purpose lanes staying congested, and increasing capacity on the Beltway and I-270 will also lead to more congestion on connecting roads.

It’s never a good idea to start with your conclusion and then bias the whole process. But that’s what’s happening here and happened with Virginia’s early P3 deals. The Governor and Secretary have:

  1. Refused to study a smart growth alternative
  2. Rejected all transit alternatives
  3. Refused to complete the environmental and community impact analysis before they plan to solicit bids from toll road companies
  4. Failed to be transparent to our legislators and the public, blocking legislation that would protect the public and the environment

The most effective long-term response to traffic is smart growth – creating more walkable, transit-oriented communities (building out our Metro stations in Prince George’s and Montgomery), combined with more transit (Purple Line, MARC, Metro, Bus Rapid Transit), and demand management incentives like expanded transit benefits. This is the only way to handle our population growth without more traffic. The Council of Government’s Long-Range Transportation Plan study (see Phase II Executive Summary Table E3) showed that Balanced Land Use, Demand Management, Bus Rapid Transit networks, and Metro all performed better than toll lanes as regional solutions.

It’s time to stop the headlong rush into a bad decision and a bad deal.

Email Comptroller Franchot today!

Thank you,

Stewart Schwartz

Executive Director

Together, we saved the D.C. Affordable Housing Preservation Fund

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

D.C. Council restores money to the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund!

On May 28, 2019, the D.C. Council voted to allocate $11.5 million for the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund  – one of D.C.’s critical tools to preserve affordable housing and prevent displacement. When we contacted you on Friday asking you to take action, it was because the D.C. Council had amended the Mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget and reduced the funding for the Preservation Fund from $15 million to zero.

Nearly 100 of CSG activists rose to the challenge, and thanks to your letters and comments, by the time the Council reconvened on Tuesday, they had restored $7.5 million to the Preservation Fund! In a final switch, the D.C. Council voted to take $4 million out of the Housing Production Trust Fund and put it into the Preservation Fund, resulting in a final allocation of $11.5 million. Restoring funding was a huge lift and we could not have done it without you!

While CSG is disappointed that this additional funding came from the Housing Production Trust Fund, which helps to fund the production and rehabilitation of affordable units, the Preservation Fund provides the money for the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and District Opportunity to Purchase Act (DOPA). Giving tenants an opportunity to purchase their homes is a critical tool to prevent displacement, and we are confident this money will be put to good use. Last year, the Preservation Fund saved nearly 900 affordable homes across the entire city.

We are so grateful to everyone for taking action in the run up to a long weekend to ensure that this critical fund continues to support tenants and the District as they seek to buy buildings and preserve them as affordable housing.

Tell the D.C. Council to restore the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund – it’s our leading tool to combat displacement

Tell the D.C. Council to restore the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund – it’s our leading tool to combat displacement

Posted on by Cheryl Cort

Two reports recently deemed D.C. the most gentrifying city in America. Yet, D.C. Council’s draft FY2020 budget proposes to eliminate one of our most effective tools that prevents displacement. This tool, the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, provides quick financing to tenant associations and the District to buy apartment buildings when they go up for sale. But now, the D.C. Council’s draft FY2020 budget would eliminate funding for this crucial preservation tool.

Act today and tell the DC Council to restore funding to the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund. It’s on the front line of fighting displacement and preserving affordability.

D.C. is an expensive city and increasingly unaffordable to many residents. But we can make a difference in the policies and investments that we make. One of our most effective tools to prevent displacement is the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.

This vital tool leverages private dollars to provide timely financing to low-income tenants who are determined to remain in D.C. In just two years, the fund is already preserving nearly 900 homes all over the city. Building on this success, the Mayor’s FY2020 budget proposed $15 million for the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, up from last year’s $10 million.

Map of Preservation Fund-assisted buildings provided by LISC, www.liscdc.org

But the D.C. Council’s proposed budget would zero out this essential loan fund. The loss of this money will leave many tenant association and District deals that could preserve affordable housing and prevent the displacement of long-time residents unfunded.

Before the Council votes next Tuesday, May 28, let Chairman Mendelson and the D.C. Council know that you support the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund and want to ensure it continues to help D.C. residents stay in their homes and preserve affordable housing.

Want more information? See: DC is on track to cut this affordable housing preservation tool.

UPDATE: Due to all of our strong advocacy, on Friday, May 24, the D.C. Council budget added $7.5 million to the Preservation Fund. While this is an enormous improvement, we are still seeking funding at least on par with last year’s budget of $10 million, if not the Mayor’s proposed increase to $15 million. Click here to take action.