For quite some time, there has been talk of a Georgetown metro station to serve that are of the District of Columbia. However, after some years, talks have died and nothing has come of the situation in recent times. However, there are the rumors that residents of the exclusive neighborhood wrote letters to city leaders and metro expressing their concerns with the proposal (which never existed in the first place). Is this true?
The Great Society Subway by Zachary M. Scrag is a history of the Washington, DC area metro rail system, and it describes some of the background behind the situation, http://www.schrag.info/research/greatsocietysubway.html. It shows that some of what we heard in the past about why no station exists might not be true.
Vox Populi, proclaimed as Georgetown's blog of record since 1969, has a post on this very situation. The post points out that Georgetown residents had little if anything to do with the decision to not construct a metro-rail station there. In fact, due to Georgetown's awkward geography, (building across the Potomac) and lack of jobs in the area, http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2008/04/22/georgetown-metro-sooner-rather-than-later/ That is an interesting aspect and I never took it into full consideration.
Some aspects of the Georgetown metro-rail situation were true. Residents did protest the construction of the station for fear it would bring those from the inner city into their community (i.e. African Americans and Hispanics). Interestingly enough, at one time in Washington's history Georgetown was predominately African American. This problem was not only only present in DC, but in many other urban areas throughout the country. The Greater Greater Washington blog does a good job at highlighting this fact.
A metro-rail station in Georgetown will bring much more traffic to an already congested area. However, many people drive to that area for the simple fact that no metro-rail station exist. People who work, go to school, visit and just want to go to Georgetown should be able to without the use of a car. Then we might see a lessening in traffic, pollution and noise. In a metropolitan city like Washington, DC, no area of the city should be completely cut off from the rest of the city. It is time for DC politicians to dispel the rumors and get to seriously talking about integrating that area with the rest of the city.
What do you all think?
Comments
I think they avoided a lot of problems that Gallery-Place Chinatown now has with the influx of teenaged problems.
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