2011 Year in Review: District of Columbia
District of Columbia: 2011 Year in Review
With the overwhelming success of Capital Bikeshare, and continuation of many other initiatives by the District's planning and transportation staff, D.C. has much to be proud of. We focused our mission in the District on championing affordable housing preservation and production, supporting well-designed and inclusive development, and helping a growing network of smart growth civic activists. Despite the prolonged recession, the market demand to live in vibrant, urban communities fueled continued mixed-use development.
We evaluated major projects, including:
- The Southwest Waterfront project
- Ward 7 Parkside development at the Minnesota Avenue Metro station
- Hine School mixed-use development at the Eastern Market Metro station
Our most important task involved fighting for the policies and funding so essential for affordable housing preservation and production. A truly vibrant, inclusive, and successful city must use its emerging prosperity to assist its less affluent residents. With our housing partners, we worked the D.C. budget process, engaged councilmembers and administration officials, and fought to keep the housing needs of lower-income D.C. residents a priority for decision-makers. We succeeded in increasing funding for Metro to avoid service cuts on weekends, and we won back many of the proposed housing program cuts, but the budget commitments for housing fell short even as rents continued to rise.
The city is blessed with a strong civic culture and we have strived to serve as a resource on policy, strategy, and organizing. We are in the midst of helping the committed volunteer activists of Ward3Vision launch a reenergized campaign for the revitalization of the ward's commercial corridors as vibrant, walkable centers of the community. Our assistance with strategic planning, communications, and policy is helping this group to more effectively reach out to their neighbors and decision makers.
