I saw this in the comments and felt it worth reposting. The poster brings up some great points. I'll start with an overheard comment from the Argonaut.: "When I first started coming here a few years ago a few Black people came here, but now it's all White people. All White hipsters, that's just the way it goes." This came from a White woman with gray hair. Just because I like to count I counted three Black customers and one Black bartender (on a VERY EMPTY night) when she said that. I will say that the Argonaut has more White customers than it did Two years ago, but (having actually worked there), the clients are VERY MIXED in terms of race and class. It depends on the night, and the floor, and timing. But If you think the Argonaut is just a White place (let alone a White hipster place!)...you don't know the Argonaut. The Argo is a decent neighborhood family spot for anyone to grab a bite, or a drink. I've heard people talk about feeling uncomfortable in certain places, but I've yet to hear a single person say that about the Argo.
snirtanion has left a new comment on your post "Colbert King: DC Subsidizes H Street Partiers":
I expect that many of you have experience writing letters to the editor/op-ed's in your profession. Rather than just making snarky comments in critiquing Joe's response, why not make your voice heard with the editorial board at the Post?
Send your 200 words or less letter to letters@washpost.com including home address, e-mail address, and home and business telephone numbers. Although they likely won't publish them all, they read them and our letters can educate the editorial staff on the realities of our community.
Mine is below:
Mr. King’s attempt to shoehorn race into his discussion of the H Street shuttle (“District Subsidizes H Street Partiers”) was very disappointing to read. Although racial and class divisions remain important issues in the revitalization of the H street area, a careful analysis of the benefits of restoring funding should not be obscured by his shameful attempts at stoking emotions.
Mr. King’s sets up so strawmen, it is difficult to know where to begin. First, there are no income analyses or class barriers stopping anyone from taking the shuttle – black or white, rich or poor. In fact, the shuttle itself is free – hardly a classist pricing scheme. Thankfully, the patrons of the new H street businesses are also neither solely white nor well-to-do. As an H street homeowner, I am pleased to see our businesses filled with a cross-section of the city – including those from “different areas of the city and the surrounding regions."
The simple fact is that this area does not currently have adequate public transportation options. There is not yet an easily accessible metro station. And while the X2 and X8 are indeed options, they are regularly cited as some of the busiest and most in need of improvement bus lines in the city. If Mr. Colbert ever deigned to actually take the X2 - as I do ever day – he would find that the buses are often dirty, woefully overcrowded and traveling slow, poorly designed routes. Rather than a means of class segregation, the Shuttle simply serves as something of an express option, with less stops and a focus on expediting customers between a busy metro and our area’s main business center.
The city itself recognized this need in deciding to restore street cars. With the difficult business environment created by their construction, it is hardly surprising the city has chosen to do what it can to protect its investment. Otherwise, we could end up with the worst-case scenario: multiple transportation lines and nowhere to take them to. That would be the ultimate waste of the city’s resources. Even Mr. King should agree with that.
10 comments:
Ok, I emailed him, too: "Dear Mr. King,
I just wanted to respond to your recent op-ed about the H Street shuttle. You clearly have a problem with the city government subsidizing the businesses on the H Street corridor. This is a principled stand--after all, the government shouldn't be picking winners and losers. But given your views about government interference, it troubles me that you aren't berating DC for what amount to "takings" as it drives away the customers of these hardworking entrepreneurs, shakes their buildings, and cuts off their utilities.
And while we're examining the shuttle from an economic standpoint, another point I think you should have made is that this is really a good investment on the part of the city. We could probably estimate the additional sales tax paid by shuttle customers, but more difficult would be to estimate the effect on property values that the city's support will have. Even so, my feeling is that, if we could measure it, we'd find that the positive property tax effect of the city's show of support for H Street's businesses far exceeds the couple hundred thousands that the shuttle has cost. If even one business survives because of the shuttle it will have a huge impact--and even if the shuttle neither makes nor breaks any one particular business, it helps create the vibe that the street needs and that vibe will translate into higher property values, and thus taxes. So I feel it's better that we think of the shuttle as a wise investment by the city, which incidentally helps some entrepreneurs who have put it all on the line to add to the economic life of Washington, DC.
Sincerely,
Rob,
Trinidad"
Well said. Thanks for responding and for sharing with us.
how is the X2 a badly designed route? Sure the bus is overcrowded because so many people use it.
Even so, not having a Metro station immediately in your neighborhood does not make transit necessarily bad.
Again, the X2 is one of the routes in the city with the most bus service, for 22 hours per day. Few areas in the city have as good access.
Yes it could be marketed better, yes it could be a better experience.
That in and of itself doesn't necessarily justify the creation of a separate service.
Instead, those resources should be expended making the basic service better.
Most of the responses to the King piece don't come off in a very measured way.
Richard I agree with you. On paper, Trinidad's cup runneth over. We have a lot of bus options, heading towards a variety of metro stations.
I agree that the place to focus would be improving the X2 service. Because it's such a bad experience so often (overcrowding by far being my largest complaint), I've written it off as an option.
I think the X bus travels an ideal route. One way up and one way down a very busy section of NW and NE. It is bette rthan when it use to go through Minn. Ave to another destination in MD somewhere and then back down to NW.
I really don't understand th elogic used in picking the types of buses used on the X2 line. It used to be filled with accordian buses that could crowded but as long as it was more or less on time you had space to breath. I cannot understand why they have switched to mainly using the much smaller buses on this line withoutincreasing the frequency. I assume the plan is to start sending more of the newer red buses down the line so that you don't have folks standing in the cold as two or more buses pass them by unable to accomodate them. Have you heard any news about an upgrade for the buses and service on this line?
Race is a central theme in every aspect of life in DC. Refer to the 'You Don't Bring a Gun to a Snowball Fight' story, for instance.
Fight it, deny it, do whatever your heart tells you to do about it; but it isn't going away. There are too many racists in and around DC; white AND black.
I think the reason the accordion buses went away was due to the construction. I remember reading it somewhere like Greater, Greater Washington or Richard Layman's blog (or somewhere else??) that the rough streets and potholes don't work so well with the longer buses and that they also are hesitant to roll out the new buses (with the new livery paint scheme) on the X2 as well until the construction is over.
Additionally, my biggest issue with the X2 really is bus bunching which means I usually wait 30 mins for 2 (or a couple of times 3!!) buses to come all at once back to back. Sure, they may speed up and slow down due to variable conditions such as traffic, passenger loading times, stoplights, lane changes, turns, etc. But at some point there should be some field supervisor that says to hold a bus to get the spacing back to a more reasonable pace, offload the bus with fewer passengers onto the other bus and let it continue while it reshuffles the newly empty bus back into circulation on a better schedule, or decide to have a bus skip the next few stops to get back onto schedule and offload the passengers for those stops that the current stop to the other bus that'll labor on with every stop.
Without some more regularity that is predictable, I find it very hard to plan my schedule to rely on it and instead end up driving over the NY Ave Metro and parking in the neighborhood there and taking Metrorail since I know that my commute every day, door-to-door is 20 mins or less unless an incident on rail occurs. With the X2, I tried for three weeks and the variability of my commute went from 25 mins to 50 mins with no logical incidents (such as bus break downs, sick passengers, etc.). It was all based upon bus bunching and missing its designated spacing between buses. (Although I'm gonna try again in January with Next Bus to see if this helps.)
One other thing that I think would help would be spacing stops further apart than one every block or so would really help I think. (Or maybe an express X2 that has skip-stop service doing something like H/14 NE, H/8 NE, H/3 NE, H/NCap, H/4 NW, H/7 NW, etc. during rush hours?)
The heck with streetcars as they will be worse than buses. I second the need for an express bus route. I would gladly walk to 14th or 8th street if I knew the bus would not stop on every block and get me downtown faster. I would even pay double. This is the correct answer to the transportation problem.
I took the X2 bus recently and it took 30 minutes to get to Atlas from Chinatown. One of the reasons is that the passengers are just too slow. They don't move quickly, argue with other passengers, I saw a woman with one foot in the bus and chatting with a pedestrian while holding the bus!! Sorry I would rather take the free shuttle which has limited stops or streetcar which operates from Union station onward so avoids the Chinatown crowd.
Look, the X2 is fine. They just need more of them and they could run more frequently. You've never been on a crowded Metro car? Driving is a hassle. I used to ride the X2 back and forth all the time when I worked in McPherson Square and rarely had trouble. I've ridden with a group of guys who sang barbershop harmony. I've ridden with sketchy folks trying to sell me razor blades (I assume they were stolen). I've never felt threatened or endangered. Maybe if you take it more often, you'll get more comfortable with it and with the people who ride it.
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