Today, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) made changes to the pedestrians signals at Dupont Circle that will help protect folks as they cross in and out of the circle. This is an enormous safety improvement for pedestrians that the Dupont ANC has been working on for almost 9 months! 

The new signals allow pedestrians to cross the entirety of the four lane intersection at once instead of being trapped in the median as the picture shows.

Last year, we held several public safety meetings and the idea came directly from a Dupont resident. My colleague, Kishan Putta and I contacted the city and asked for the changes to be made. To DDOT's credit, we were never turned away or told 'no'. They did say it would take a while to program new signals and make sure vehicular traffic could still flow relatively easily (maybe just not make it worse?). The signaling folks at DDOT did a fantastic job, though it took almost weekly calls from me to make sure the project remained on track. 

My full time job is in federal traffic safety policy and this type of work is exactly why I ran for ANC. I knew there was great work to be done to help keep our pedestrians and bicyclists safe on the roads.

Please let me know if the new signal timing is an improvement or if there are any small changes that need to be made. 

Thanks so much to DDOT, especially Bill McGuirk, for their diligent work on this and many other projects.

Since 1990, a limit has been in effect on the number of liquor licenses on 17th St NW between P and R streets. This includes liquor stores, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The East Dupont Liquor Moratorium is up for renewal this year and ANC2B will vote on Wednesday on whether to recommend its extension.

The ANC has hosted three listening sessions and published a draft resolution and report that outlines one option the ANC and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has to extend the moratorium with significant changes.

The draft resolution and report, as well as minutes from those sessions are available HERE.

Liquor licenses and moratoria are divisive issues in our neighborhood. We have heard passionate pleas from supporters of the limit as well as those who believe the moratorium should expire. The draft resolution attempts to find a compromise as it recommends that the moratorium continue on bars and clubs, but lifted on restaurants. This would likely result in the addition of new restaurants in the neighborhood, that could provide more competition to the existing ones on 17th St.

As I stated several times during the discussion on a moratorium at 14th and U, I am sympathetic to the concerns of neighbors negatively impacted by noise, but I do not think a moratorium is an appropriate solution. In this case, the limit has been in effect for over 20 years and its relative success or failure has been debated extensively without consensus.

Though I do not favor this type of market-distorting policy, I may be willing to vote to extend a moratorium only on bars and nightclubs, which folks at the listening sessions tended to support. I've also received emails from neighbors who think any moratorium will negatively impact the area. We must seriously consider the impact of a temporary solution that has been in place for almost a generation and that forces our neighborhood to rehash the same divisive discussion year after year. 

I would love to hear from any of you about how you think 17th St has benefited or been harmed by the moratorium and how you think I should vote on Wednesday. 

The meeting is Wednesday August 14th at 7:00 p.m. at the Brookings Institution. 

The Dupont Circle ANC has been closely following city action on parking options for residents and visitors. I've been working with neighbors on Caroline Street to test new resident-only parking restrictions and see what impacts, positive or negative, they may have.

Today, DDOT released information on a new city-wide visitor parking program coming this fall. I wanted to share it and let you know that we will be following up to make sure that the neighborhood is aware of any further changes or instructions for obtaining a visitor parking pass.

Visitor parking is one of several general parking concerns in the area and we intend to discuss our neighborhood-wide options in the fall.