12/23/15

Rides 12/23: well done

It appears, based on the tweets of some folks and as a result of the effort of some more folks, the situation from yesterday on the 15th Street Cycletrack has been resolved and for that I'm grateful. I hope that it can be maintained open and accessible throughout construction.

Not too much else to say about today other than it rained. Rained a lot and I got a lot of rain on me. Tried to soak it all up to keep the rest of you dry, but rain doesn't work that way. Also, it's my last bike commute of 2015. Also, I stopped for tacos on the way home. Also, I saw Mike at the taqueria and it's nice that DC is a small place where you run into people. It's like living in a sitcom.

Foggy Bottom, though where I biked this afternoon, is a funny place. It's prime real estate and close to things, but it feels remarkably disconnected and this is likely in no small part to the terribleness of some overbuilt roads, like Virginia Avenue and E Street. Large federal and federal-ish buildings probably don't help either. The whole area between 23rd to 17th south of K and north of Constitution feels deader than it needs to be and it'd be nice if the powers of capitalism and central planning conspired to make it better. Sort of shocks me that cities aren't more aggressive about rolling back overbuilt roads [spoiler alert: the Feds aren't going to reopen E Street by the White House- it's time to move on] and trying once again maximize the productivity of those places, but I guess it costs money to make money and there's not money to afford to spend. Or maybe it's just that the status quo is too strong. I don't know. I don't know if it's different anywhere else, places where the forces of Federalia are less potent, and they're more capable of recapturing overbuilt places and for their sake I hope the are, but I suspect that we're all still in thrall to the primary narrative of the last 50 years- namely getting people in cars back to the suburbs where they live.

Like I alluded to before, I'm off work until the New Year. If I ride my bike anywhere interesting, maybe I'll write it up. Otherwise, TFTS is once again fallow. And since I'm going back to school for another semester, it'll likely remain fallow for a few months more after that. Lots of fallowness around here, barely any planting. But for now, peace out 2015. You were a year.

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