Klingle Road Is Dead: The D.C. Council just voted 10-3 to keep language in the city budget that would close Klingle Road and replace it with a hiker/biker trail, perhaps, just maybe bringing a 17-year saga close to its end. LL’s tally of votes held up with one exception: At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania, who voted to open the road in 2003, voted today to close it, citing the federal government’s failure to approve funding for the reconstruction. In his comments on the matter, Catania adopted LL’s point of view: enough of this shit already. “I believe the majority of the citizens of the city wouldn’t be able to find Klingle Road if you put a gun to their head,” he said. “I hope that once and for all we can put this issue to rest.” —Mike DeBonis
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11:41 am
So if nobody knows where Klingle Road is, then what makes you think it will be used by bikers any more than it would be used by cars? I’ll be surprised if 10 people a day bike on the future Klingle Bike Path. I used to jog there, it’s so damn steep even that was brutal. I am guessing these “bikers” are the same people who bike on Beach Drive during rush hour instead of the far-less busy Ridge Road/Ross Drive which go basically to the same place, because Beach Drive is less hilly.
Catania’s argument is just stupid. Of course nobody knows where it is. It’s been closed for 17 years, remember? How many people fighting for a bike path were living in DC when it was last open? Hell, most people in DC don’t even know where Rock Creek Parkway is.
12:12 pm
Jamie, you just kind of made the point for keeping it closed too…no one’s been driving on it for 17 years either and I bet as many of those fighting to open it weren’t living in the city 17 years ago either….
I’m neither for nor against, just wish the debate would be over so money and time can be spent on things that matter.
1:01 pm
The world is upside down.
1:09 pm
Somewhere I hear a the sweet voice of a fat lady singing. The Council made the correct decision – they saw a potential money pit (20 million, 30 million?) for a drainage control and road consturction project that isn’t really needed. There is no shortage of routes across the park – no one is really suffering here. If built, the project would attempt to dump hundreds of commuters into an already overloaded intersection of 34th St. and Woodley Rd and a perpetually jammed up Reno Rd. Members Graham and Bowser (and before them Cropp and Fenty) were trying to cater to decades-old memories of well-heeled Crestwood gentry on a Sunday drive through the park to Georgetown. Sorry, but in 2008, as the District struggles witha budget shortfall, those memories are not worth the price tag or the significant cost to the environment of Klingle Valley and Rock Creek. Hurray for Mary Cheh, Kwame Brown, Vincent Gray and the others who voted with such a decisive margin for common sense and fiscal restraint.
1:42 pm
Nah, the world may be upside down, but the fat lady isn’t singing yet.
1:46 pm
@Adams Morgan – that was pretty much my point, the argument Catania uses in favor of closing it is neither here nor there. If it’s been closed for 17 years, of course it’s long forgotten – by everyone, not just drivers. That has absolutely no bearing on what the best use in the future might be, though. If we shut down Connecticut Avenue, what would happen? We’d adjust somehow, and in 20 years, we’d forget it ever existed. That doesn’t mean that things wouldn’t be better with it, though.
While I favor making it a road, but I’m not trying to argue that point here, just to say that Catania’s rationale is illogical.
1:58 pm
Just as it’s true for Northern Virginia, it’s true here in DC: you cannot build enough roads such that everybody can get everywhere they want at all times without traffic. The strongest argument for the reopening is the argument that there are not enough ways to get east-west in upper NW. That’s true, but another road isn’t the answer. The answer is to build a streetcar with right-of-way from Columbia Heights to Woodley Park (or something else along those lines). Better yet, build an inner-loop subway from Georgetown up underneath Wisconsin and over to Columbia heights. These are expensive cures, but it’s nothing compared with the cost of wasting another 10-20 years pursuing a automobile-centric agenda.
2:00 pm
Catania rational is logical if you consider that since so few in the city know or care about Kingle Rd., it is stupid to waste so much of the council’s time (and the city’s money) on it.
2:43 pm
YAY! The council absolutely made the right decision here. Most of the attendees at the recent public roundtable were opposed to the road. I second Reid’s comments. To waste millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on a road that would help nothing would be just plain bad government. I’m glad our elected officials realized that. Go streetcars!
4:11 pm
The next time a Ward 3 resident dies on the way to an emergency room, recall how quickly ambulances reached Washington Hospital Center when Klingle Road was open, and remember this vote.
Knowing the neighborhood, they’ll blame EMS and complain about the noise of the sirens instead.
5:44 pm
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/klingle/
6:22 pm
First of all i would like to say that the National Park Service gave DC the land that klingle road lies on for one purpose TO BUILD A ROAD. i’m not exactly sure what the wording of the agreement was but if DC decides to build a bike path over the road, i think that someone should bring up a case with the NPS to take the land back and build a road to benefit the city as a whole. the first comment illustrates the problem with a bike path. here are three reasons the road should be opened.
1. the number of vehicles which use porter st. on a daily basis is insane. it must be delt with soon or else another major east west artery will be jammed during rush hour (it sometimes already is)
2. The time we live in. We live in a time where people want to blow up our cities icons. people need to move around in the city in order to respond in a time of emergency. Not opening this road isnt gonna make anybody stop driving it will just make people drive further to go to the same destination.
3. the speed of emergency vehicles. someone above mentioned this issue. the state of healthcare in this city is abysmal. with klingle road open emergency vehicles would be able to move crosstown MUCH faster.
all in all this is total BS. I am a ward 3 resident and i am appalled at this decision. the decision to not open the road benefits maybe about 50 people where an open road benefits maybe 500 times that amount. Stupid people who live there just want their own private stub of a road so their kids can learn to drink tea while riding their tricycles.
6:51 pm
You think this is a closed case?
I guess you’ve never seen Adrian Fenty hop into a telephone booth only to emerge in red cape and undergarments.
Klingle Road will re-open. I will re-open if super-mayor has to turn back time to make it happen, and the only thing that can stop him is a bald white guy with a funny-looking semi-precious metal from outer space…
http://www.metroweekly.com/articles/attachments/2004-10-07_feature_story_1269_1944.jpg
7:55 pm
this is just the beginning.
the infrastructure on klingle is owned by nps. the retaining walls are historic and can’t be just moved. to build a bike path will cost at least another $2 million and take another 5 years. closed to cars, yes. but the debate about time and money will continue on.
7:55 pm
It would be a waste of money to rebuild this road. I used to job/bike on it all the time, up until they put the fences up.
While I am not a tree-hugging “save the valley” type, I think there has been enough discussion over this.
Be done with it and move on.
8:17 pm
Actually it HAS only just begun. But the infrasture underneath the road is DC WASA and PEPCO which require a road surface on top. So considering the necessary width to cover them, it will be a ROAD–so why not drive on it?
The purpose of the money in the budget that some of you seem to be so proud of eliminating was to remediate the raw sewage and current environmental hazard in and around the road. Gee, thanks a lot.
It is easy for one to say, “there has been enough discussion over this.” Yes, there was discussion–in 2003—and we had a public hearing and the DC Council voted to repair the road on the merits of the case.
The problem of today is that there was NO DISCUSSION. CM Cheh decided for all of us that the road wasn’t necessary. CH Cheh decided that there shouldn’t even be a hearing last week. She didn’t want the formal notice to go out.
That may seem fair to some of you, especially those who feel a victory in today’s vote, but for the rest of us majority who worked really hard and used the laws of our city to win this case, it isn’t fair at all. In fact, it sucks and CM Cheh is pretty cowardly because if she was so sure of herself and the outcome, why didn’t she move to have a road closing hearing?
Huh?
Because if she did call a road closing hearing, then the public would have been allowed to speak. Then the ANC’s, civic groups, associations, fire, police, EMS and other health and public safety agencies could have chimed in to say we need to keep it a road.
But she wasn’t willing to take that risk. And just because the DC Council (Cheh) is allowed to bypass our laws & can close Klingle Road, doesn’t mean she should.
So, we now are at the legal issues which could be susbstantial. The Committee voted to recommend that DDOT use “any available Federal monies” for Klingle for the purpose of a hike/bike path. Question is, …are there any “available monies” for Klingle *and* even if there are funds, can we repurpose them this way?
LC
Stay tuned.
6:25 am
Laurie,
To what majority are you referring?
Clearly the council voted overwhelmingly against using the right of way as a vehicular road.
If I recall correctly, Cheh said she was in favor of closing the road when she ran for election to the council in 2006. She had some ongodly number of opponents in the primary and still won close to 50% of the vote. Surely if there was some majority in Ward 3 in favor of the road being opened, this would have been more of an issue.
Please, by all means, keep drumming up support for this and create a huge “majority”. Maybe that will allow live music to once again be prevalent in Mt. Pleasant.
6:28 am
the cost of letting it sit thre as a natural walking trail is zero… am I missing something?
6:42 am
Sitting there as it is now is a human health hazard because raw sewage continues to spill out as well as the leaching from the asphalt into the creek. For humans it’s bad–for the rest of the environment, it’s worse.
As to the majority, this is a PUBLIC ROAD, owned by everyone–not to only Ward 3 residents as you so narrowly imply, nor is it CM Cheh’s decision to decide for the rest of us, although while she can skirt the law, doesn’t mean she should.
Also, if you recall, when the public was allowed to testify before the DC Council, and there was a fair and democratic process followed, it was the majority who supported the opening–in people and in CM’s. See http://www.repairklingleroad.org/groupsupport.htm.
6:57 am
Right, but you chastise Cheh as if she is some sort of evil villan. You chastise and vilify those who think the road should be closed.
Do you think your antics encourage any support from those of us who do not have a dog in the fight?
Really, your arguments center on saving three minutes of commute time and some DC safety measures by avoiding other cross-town routes to the hospitals versus restoration of green space.
In an era of rising fuel prices, shouldn’t we be looking at ways of mitigating single occupancy vehicular traffic and encouraging alternative modes of transportation, such as walking and biking?
7:43 am
I don’t take things personally like you do to me. If you want me to stoop down to your level and make it personal, YES I think that Cheh is an evil villian and if it were you bypassing the law, I would think you evil as well. But not because you are you or Cheh Cheh. I “chastise” her avoiding due process giving to us good citizens of the District of Columbia.
As to my antics as you call it, for someone who doesn’t have a dog in this fight, why are you fighting with me and giving us your opinion of what you think it’s all about?
I never argued saving 3 minutes–I never argued that bikes couldn’t use the road as well. That’s hardly the case.
I guess the question I have for you is, do you support the remediation of raw sewage and environmental hazards currently on the road? If your answer is YES, then you should have supported the original intent of the budget.
The budget was intended to give money to agencies to do their jobs–not to sneak in road closing legislation without due process.
Laurie
9:44 am
Anyone who thinks that Klingle Rd. is a park either a) hasn’t been there, b) has a twisted view of what a park is, c) is on crack, or d) some or all of the above.
Klingle is a sunless, overgrown warren. I dare you to tell me that one, ONE, person has ever picniced or hucked a frisbee there.
If the people who want it closed were honest and told us they didn’t want traffic and/or us folks from East of the Park driving through their neighborhood, that would at least be honest. But don’t give us this BS about the thing being a naturalist’s dream.
As it is, keeping the bloody thing closed just clogs up the few routes to get from East to West and vice versa, so we better not hear any crap about all you Cleveland Parkers complaining about noise and traffic on Reno Road, Tilden, etc.
10:23 am
Mike, sign our petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/klingle/
10:46 pm
Mike O, the road is a wonderful park ad has been for years, where have you been?, I suppose you thing the AT is a frisbee-less wasteland to? :) and LC I see what you are saying about the sewage but by your logic “the leaching from the asphalt into the creek. ” all roads are toxic. At least this one is not covered with oil and exhaust.
It was a road (that few people used), it was destroyed almost every winter, now its closed, if you aren’t afraid of trees you would notice it’s a very nice place to walk. my advice is to get over it.
10:46 pm
sorry for the typos