A colleague asked about the “bioretention area” in the 380 Maple West proposal (Maple and Wade Hampton, 40 condos). I had to learn about this topic nearly ten years ago, for a construction project at the church I was attending. On this page, I’ll try to put that learning to use, and explain what that bioretention area is, what key role it plays here, and what the potential drawbacks are. Continue reading Bioretention, 3/7/2019
Category: Non-disposable
Posts that may have some sort of permanent value, or that I consider to be the best of what I have posted here.
Stumpies, 2/20/2019
The pro-MAC members of Town Council tell you we are going to get some beautiful urban architecture for Maple. Revitalize the downtown. And all that.
But the buildings we’re actually getting are “stumpies”. No doubt, the Town is going to assure us that our stumpies will look better than the neighbor’s stumpies. But the fact is, they are still stumpies.
This Bloomberg Business Week article, “Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same,” by Justin Fox, introduced me to the whys and wherefores of stumpies. Continue reading Stumpies, 2/20/2019
The traffic legacy of the W&OD railroad, 10/2/2018
Few people other than avid bicyclists know this, but to some degree, the awful traffic on Maple is a legacy of the W&OD railroad. That railroad cut Vienna in half about a century ago. And today, Vienna is still very nearly cut in half. For a roughly 4.5 mile stretch, the W&OD road bed prevented roads from crossing Fairfax County in an East/West direction. And now, for that entire 4.5 mile stretch, the only roads that cross the W&OD are a handful of streets in downtown Vienna. And of those, the only one that can handle any traffic is Maple. Continue reading The traffic legacy of the W&OD railroad, 10/2/2018