Klingle Park Supporters
Dominate Public Meeting, Debunk Roadie Myths
Tuesday Jan 21st 2003 - Advocates of
Mayor Anthony Williams’ plan for tearing up the pavement in
Klingle Valley outnumbered the “roadies” by a margin of
about 4-to-1 in the crowd of approx. 200 at the public
roundtable held by Councilmember Phil Mendelson in
Cleveland Park. The Save Klingle Valley Campaign, the Sierra
Club, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, and other
DC environmental groups support the plan to turn the
crumbling roadbed into a bike and pedestrian trail open for
emergency vehicles. Over 50 park advocates also participated
in a pre-event march and rally, including two disguised as
trees.
| Mayor Williams was unable
to attend the hearing in person due to a scheduling
conflict, but his testimony was presented: “I remain
convinced that rebuilding Klingle Road for vehicular
traffic is a bad idea,” stated Mayor Williams in his
testimony. "The minimal benefit that would result
from such an expensive project cannot be justified,
especially during a time when the District government is
experiencing significant revenue shortfalls.”
|
Rock Creek Park's
Adrienne Coleman with DC DDOT Director Dan Tangherlini
at roundtable
|
“As the
Council considers this issue, I hope that it will do so
in the context of recognizing the transportation needs
of the entire city,” continued Mayor Williams. “The
millions of dollars that would be required to rebuild
and maintain this small road for use by a limited number
of cars would come at the expense of other
transportation projects in the city. Considering its
negligible to minimal transportation benefits and the
environmental harm it might cause, it is hard to see how
the costs of reopening Klingle could be justified.”
See Mayor WIlliams full Testimony here. |
|
The roundtable started with presentations by
Administration officials from the DC Dept. of
Transportation, the Dept. of Health, and the Fire and
Emergency Medical Services Department.
See DDOT Director Dan Tangherlini's slide show here.
Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini
detailed how rebuilding the road would do little to help
the traffic problems of the city and would cost much
more than the Mayor’s plan. This money could instead be
used to fix bridges, conduct traffic studies, and calm
traffic in residential neighborhoods. |
The Sierra Club's Jim
Dougherty (and Klingle Campaign leader) discussing
floodplain implications with the panel.
|
Deputy Fire Chief John Thurmann pointed out that a rebuilt
Klingle Road is not needed as an emergency route. Ms. Adrienne Coleman and
David Murphy of the National Park Service reiterated NPS’s opposition to
re-paving Klingle Valley because of the detrimental effects which both
road construction and vehicular traffic would have on the ecology of
Klingle Creek, the NPS parkland abutting the roadbed, and Rock Creek
downstream.
The road advocates were clearly feeling eroding support
for their claims of fact. All of the presentations by the officials were
balanced and included plenty of new data, but gave little acknowledgement
to the "truths" that the park opponents continued to lecture the
audience about. As the officials carefully and concisely
dispensed with the Roadie claims with hard studied facts and testimony,
Roadies were left with few factual underpinnings, other than saying "It
was a road once, it should be a road again."
| When Councilmember Mendelson opened the
forum for public comment, it became obvious that passions run high on
both side of the Klingle Valley debate.
"I live east of Rock Creek Park. I know my neighbors
in their SUV’s and BMWs drive their children to private schools
on the west side of Rock Creek. I find it outrageous that they want to
repair Klingle Road so that they have a private school alley through
Klingle Valley," said Mt. Pleasant resident Lisa Colson. "The majority
of us in Ward 1 don’t even have cars and are much more likely to enjoy
Klingle as a beautiful park and bikeway." |
Lisa Colson is tired of her SUV
driving neighbors
crying for a private school alley in Klingle Valley |
Takoma Park DC ANC Commissioner Faith Wheeler talked
about how unnecessary the road is, despite claims to the contrary by some
of her neighbors: “I drove my kids across the [Rock Creek] park twice a
day for years and never once considered taking Klingle Road—it is simply
unnecessary as a road and makes for a very beautiful park.”
|
Adams Morgan ANC(1C) Commissioner Josh Gibson explaining how Roadies
continue to falsely claim his ANC endorses the road. |
Several speakers criticized the
pro-road faction’s tactics and arguments. Adams Morgan ANC (1C)
Commissioner Josh Gibson talked about how the pro-road faction had
presented a one-sided story to his ANC more than two years ago and
convinced his predecessors to quickly pass a pro-road resolution
before learning all of the facts about the issue. He said that when
the commissioners later received additional information, ANC1C voted
to reverse its earlier position and support the mayor’s plan for the
trail. He complained that road supporters continue to misuse the ANC’s
name by listing it on the pro-road website, and added that many other
supposed “supporters” of the road actually “straw men” who have either
already reversed their position or are ready to fall into the pro-park
camp once given the chance to hear the very strong arguments for
preserving Klingle as a city park and bikeway. |
The Roadies took the microphone several
times, angrily denouncing the Mayor's plan and restating their
perceived entitlement to a motor vehicle road, despite the revised
financial data that showed reconstructing the road would cost over $5
million (if you include $800,000 for the Environmental Impact
Statement a road would require) more than the planned recreational
green space. DC Dept. of Transportation numbers show that trying to
accommodate both a recreational trail and a motor vehicle road would
cost around $6.25 million more than just a recreational greenspace
alternative, and that the hiker biker trail will add only about
$200,000 to construction costs.
| The Roadies displayed particularly poor
form in heckling a young boy who was speaking about how much he liked
Klingle Valley Park. He nervously tried to finish his comments, but
the attacks had clearly flustered him from speaking his piece. An
adult park supporter remarked afterward that "catcalls and heckling a
10 year old kid like that is just beneath contempt."
Despite the overwhelming numbers of park supporters,
the roadie speakers were never heckled, although laughter did erupt
during some of the more outlandish contentions made by the park
opponents. |
A young park supporter being
heckled by roadie park opponents. |
The line for speakers was very long, and after an hour
of speakers, Councilmember Mendleson
asked that the last person in line be the last speaker. However,
several Roadies insisted on speaking even after the last person in
line had spoke. Roadie Paul McKenzie was the last of the line crashers, informing
the panel that he knew that "KLINGLE WILL BE A ROAD AGAIN."
Paving Leader Laurie Collins visibly
distraught with the panel report. |
The road advocates are getting some bad
press for their trademark lack of perspective. On WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi
Show, the
City Paper's Elissa Silverman said she is angry about the Roadies'
tactics, characterizing the Roadies as obsessed. She says she lives in
Mt. Pleasant and goes to Cleveland Park all the time, and Klingle Road
"has not affected my quality of life one bit.... it is an alley, a
little street." This could not have helped with the sinking public support the
Roadies are experiencing.
Hear 01/17/03 Kojo Nnamdi Show time 41:30-45:50
DC DDOT sought to address the confusion created by
some data listed in the appendix of the Berger Report Study. The data
from the appendix created a misunderstanding about delay times at key
intersections; above a certain volume threshold, traffic engineering
software does not properly handle the calculation of delay times.
|
DDOT released actual delay times for the
Porter/Connecticut intersection, finally settling the validity of
intersection data the Roadies had used when they paid a traffic consultant
to show the alleged negative effects of having no motor vehicles on
Klingle Road.
| To attempt to clear up this misunderstanding, DDOT staff
recently collected travel times through the intersection: (1) 15 trips
eastbound on Porter during the PM peak averaged about 1 minute 45 seconds
compared to the 8 minute 11 second delay figure from the appendix. (2) 14
of these trips during the AM peak averaged 2 minutes, compared to 9
minutes 27 seconds. (3) 14 trips westbound on Porter making a left on
Connecticut during the AM peak averaged about 3 minutes 35 seconds,
compared to 9 minutes 38 seconds in the appendix. This data completely
undercuts the partisan study commissioned by the Roadies, even though the
data used had been discredited before the study was released.
|
Roadie and Macomb street resident
Pat Armbruster communicating her
position to the panel. |
In addition, DDOT has committed to a
full Connecticut Avenue Transportation Study to increase safety,
enhance communities along the corridor and address east-west traffic
issues, including those at this intersection.
The roundtable appears to be a dress rehearsal for
the upcoming City Council hearings on the whole Klingle issue.
The Mayor's plan has strong support from six council members: Kevin
Chavous - Ward 7, Kathy Patterson - Ward 3, Jack Evans - Ward 2,
Sharon Ambrose - Ward 6, Phil Mendelson - At-Large, and Harold Brazil
- At-Large.
|
Roadie Leader Gale Black
complaining
about money being "wasted" on studies. |
Council Chairperson Linda Cropp has taken the roadie
lead by introducing a road bill, and managed to get five other
Councilmembers as co-signers (not co-sponsors, which is telling) despite
an aggressive campaign by Cropp. With the solid facts behind the Mayor's
position, and with many Councilmembers less than fully informed on the
issues, it is questionable whether the pro-road coalition will hold
together, let alone convince the lone swing vote, Sandy Allen, or any of
the current park supporters, to join it. |
The Mayor remains staunchly committed to a non-motorized
solution in Klingle Valley. In the unlikely event of a council vote
to rebuild the road, the Mayor has stated unequivocally that he would veto
it. If the roundtable is any indication, the Mayor's plan seems to
be the likely winner of this much debated issue.
|
 |
The Mayor's Bill On
December 19th 2002, Mayor Williams introduced a bill that
would comprehensively deal with the Klingle Valley issue.
The bill would allow DC to begin to resolve some of the
related to the damaged areas in the Valley. It proposes
studying the stormwater runoff, east-west traffic, and
environmental impact of implementing DDOT's prefered
alternative - keeping Klingle a park.
View the PDF
file. Opponents also introduced
a bill that seeks to repave Klingle Valley.
View the PDF file. |
Roadie commissioned study found flawed.
In Sept 02, the pro-road group had MCV associates
try to punch holes in the exhaustive analysis done by Berger
Associates. A flawed computer model produced a phantom issue,
which was seized upon by Roadies desperate to prove that keeping
Klingle a park was somehow harmful to the environment.
See More.
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