JD says: (1/20/14 10:39 AM)
It's also a good time for me to remind folks that I don't allow multiple comment accounts for the same user, so don't get all sneaky trying to create a sock puppet. You may also find your original account suspended too.

Andrew in DC says: (1/21/14 2:57 AM)
Oldenburg's rant is so biased and misinformed as to border on propaganda.

In speaking of the Rosedale derailment, she mentions 24 persons were evacuated. She conveniently omits that those 24 persons were evacuated from a 20 city-block RADIUS of the site. Such a radius, overlaid with any point along the VAT, would stretch past H St. NE and would require the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents and transient workers (simultaneously - so imagine rush hour times about a thousand).

In speaking of hazardous materials, she recognizes that more travels (nationally, per mile) by truck than by rail. She ignores that DC's 695 has relatively low truck traffic thanks to the BW parkway - so most of our exposure is by rail. In addition, that exposure is orders-of-magnitude greater because of the quantities hauled by a freight train vs. a single truck. When analyzing risk, analyzing the possibility of how often something goes catastrophically wrong is only half the answer - the other half is being able to assess the impact if it does.

In speaking of the timeline, she omits the all important caveat that these are estimates and ignores the fact that once CSX has its temporary track it has less than zero incentive to actually complete the project. If Baltimore's ports aren't ready, if the modeled Panama Canal traffic doesn't pan out or, frankly, if CSX just doesn't feel like completing the project, does anyone really think that CSX won't mind paying some nominal fee to DDOT vs. shelling out tens millions to finish the Big Dig? For a project they've already delayed over a decade in starting? Did we legalize recreational marijuana in DC and I wasn't looking?

Finally her framing of the DCSafeRail organization is simply name-calling. We all know Ms. Oldenburg has supported this project from the outset with no questions asked, with neither regard for permanently gifting DC land to CSX nor concern for people who aren't her constituents (or even those who are). But for her to arrogantly and simplistically cast the opposition to the project as "NIMBY-ism" ought to be beneath her. But she, too, has a right to conduct a 'politicized' campaign.

.. I'll stop there because we know how JD hates when people get on their soap box on her page... :)

InformedConsent says: (1/21/14 4:46 PM)
JD- I've valued your blog for the last several years but I must say I was surprised to see you so prominently and thoroughly feature one person's views on such a crucial issue for the neighborhood. The DC Safe Rail people have done yeoman's work in research but you didn't give them 6 or 7 paragraphs before turning toward THEIR opposition.

Do the critics Oldenburg complains are "outside of the formal study" (NEPA) process not have the right to do research, consult experts and agencies? Shall the community not organize itself to be heard and even to be answered? For years the community has quietly and patiently waited for answers. When FHWA's Michael Hicks told neighbors that the 6th street exit would be "closed for the duration" - his words and no one else's - and not he nor CSX or DDOT nor even you, for that matter - noted his grievous error for 3 days (leading us all to believe there had been a huge, unannounced shift from the DEIS), why should this community sit back and blindly trust this process or the people leading it? This isn't some fringe shamefully "whipping" people up, as Oldenburg put it; this is a community banding together to get answers and accountability, and unfortunately, Oldenburg is outside of her own community. (Yes, opposition extends well north of the freeway!)

Oldenburg's note is a calculated attempt to lull people who aren't so immediately impacted by this project into believing that nothing can go wrong, CSX and regulators will all do just what they should and in no time at all. We should all just look away for the duration. That, or, if you live in the Arthur Capper Center, just close your windows.

Gamble Rogers says: (1/22/14 10:29 PM)
C'mon, folks, let's keep this civil.

Instead of focusing on a single blog post from a single ANC commissioner -- in which a single commissioner is entitled to her opinion, just other ANC commissioners are entitled to share theirs -- please read the letter ANC6B submitted to the Federal Highway Administration and the District's Department of Transportation in September. This letter lays out ANC6B's concerns with the draft EIS in a thoughtful, serious way:

link

In the interest of full disclosure, my family lives along "Lower Eighth Street" and would be impacted since any tunnel construction would cut a swath through Virginia Avenue Park. Kirsten represents us on ANC6B and we've found her to be fair, serious, and judicious. She reached out to us privately several times to gauge our opinions on the draft EIS. In our view, the demolition and construction of the Eleventh Street Bridge has caused more disruption than the Virginia Avenue Tunnel likely would. And we've tried for years to clean heroin users and prostitutes from using Virginia Avenue Park as their personal playground. The bridge construction -- combined with help and pressure from the BID, our ANC and Ward reps, and a (reluctant) MPD -- helped run all but the hardiest users off. Know what would eventually make the park and Lower Eighth friendlier for pedestrians, gardeners, dog lovers, and kids? A period of construction followed by a complete renovation of Virginia Avenue and Virginia Avenue Park. That could be one tangible, positive result of serious mitigation and negotiations with city leaders and CSX.

Think about it.