Fiction: Repairing Klingle Road would be funded primarily through federal highway funds, not DC money, and any costs involved with making Klingle a park will be DC funds.

Fact:  The simple answer is that the reverse is true: there will be no federal funds available for a road, and abundant federal funds available for a hiker/biker path.

There are a complex set of regulations regarding the federal funding of road projects that will impact federally owned land. These would essentially block funding for Klingle Road, meaning the road re-build would come out of DC funds.

If a road project borders federal parkland, as Klingle does, then compliance with US DOT section 4f must be evaluated to get federal funding. In order to pass this test,  the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) must find that there is not a "prudent and feasible alternative" to the impact and use of federal land, and that the project includes all possible planning to minimize harm.

The road also has to be safe by modern standards - AASHTO standards - American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. These can be very involved in a project like Klingle. They require barriers and curbs and those need deep concrete footings to hold them. Scores of trees will need to be felled to construct the road, and construction damage to even more tree's roots will spell slow death for many more trees. Many of the doomed trees are on federal parkland.

Since the National Park Service has already said it will not support any solution that will remove trees or tree roots on federal land, there must be no alternative for the construction of the road. In 1990, DC's emergency services thought that they would need Klingle. According to the recently released Klingle Road Feasibility Report commissioned by the DC DOT, Officials from the Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department have stated that they do not need Klingle Road.  In this case, there are abundant transportation alternatives to a paved road in Klingle.

Fiction: D.C. Council member Harold Brazil (D- At-Large) has endorsed reopening Klingle Road to motor vehicles.

Fact: Councilmember Brazil has announced in his electronic newsletter that he support's the Mayor's decision on Klingle Valley Park.

Fiction: The people who want Klingle Road permanently closed are mostly wealthy residents (falsely dubbed “racist plutocrats” by road advocates) who don’t want traffic on their streets.

Fact: Nearly 5,000 residents have signed petitions and postcards in support of saving Klingle Valley.  These supporters live in Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, and other city neighborhoods.  While these supporters differ in ethnicity and socioeconomic status, they are united in their desire to preserve the District’s natural and recreational resources; to make the city’s green space accessible to all residents; and to ensure that limited transportation funds are used to benefit the greatest number of people possible.  Today, there are few safe ways for bicyclists and pedestrians to enter Rock Creek Park free from motor vehicles.

These perspectives are particularly important to residents of Ward 1, which has the fewest number of cars per household of any ward in the city and where more people commute by bus than by car. What Ward 1 and other parts of the city need are walkable streets and improved public transportation options, not more roads.

Fiction: Emergency vehicles need Klingle Road.

Fact: Officials from the Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department have stated that they do not need Klingle Road.  According to the recently released Klingle Road Feasibility Report commissioned by the District Division of Transportation (p. 3-52), the ten-year closure of Klingle Road has not adversely affected the police department’s emergency response time or its ability to provide service to the areas surrounding Klingle Road. The report also cites fire department officials from both sides of Rock Creek Park who state that they can provide adequate service to the area without Klingle Road and that, even if the road were reopened to vehicular traffic, fire trucks would continue to use Porter Street, where it is far easier to maneuver large trucks (p. 3-52).

Fiction: The Sierra Club supports rebuilding Klingle Road.

Fact: Based on support from “Sierra Club members,” road advocates have placed misleading information on their Web site and in the press stating that Sierra Club backs rebuilding the road. To the contrary, the Sierra Club officially supports permanently closing and removing the disputed section of Klingle Road and replacing it with an environmentally friendly recreational trail. This position was established in 1994 in a unanimous vote by the member-elected executive committee of the Sierra Club’s Washington, D.C. chapter (which represents nearly 3,000 members throughout the city) and reaffirmed at meetings in September 2000 and March 2001. This action is in keeping with the policy of the national Sierra Club to rely on its chapters to take positions on local issues.

The Sierra Club has been trying for several months, without success, to persuade Repair and Reopen Klingle Road advocates to stop misrepresenting the Club’s position.  Similar requests have been made by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1C (Adams Morgan), whose positions on Klingle Road have been misrepresented by pro-road advocates.

Fiction: Former Mayor Walter Washington endorses reopening Klingle Road to motor vehicles.

Fact: On the D.C. Politics Hour (July 20, 2001), WAMU’s commentator Mark Plotkin asked Walter Washington about reports that he had come out in favor of reopening Klingle Road. Mayor Washington replied: “…I got a call and the statement was ‘Do you favor having  streets available to citizens?’ It was on that basis that I answered ‘All citizens should have a right to safety and the use of the streets that they live on, they pay taxes for.’”  Mayor Washington did not state that he specifically supports re-opening Klingle Road. (Listen to his statements at http://www.wamu.org/ram/2001/p1010720.ram, time: 38:47-39:45)

Fiction: Every affected Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) supports reopening Klingle Road to automobiles.

Fact: ANC 3C (Woodley Park/Cleveland Park), in which the closed section of Klingle Road is located, has not taken a position on the issue, although it has recognized the importance of both traffic and environmental concerns.  ANC 1C (Adams Morgan) has passed a resolution conditionally supporting reopening Klingle Road, but only if such a project would include a bicycle lane and not widen the road beyond its current configuration. ANCs 3B, 4A, and 4C took positions without ever hearing from park supporters.

Fiction: The Klingle Road Right of Way (ROW) is 90 feet wide, and could easily accommodate a two lane road and a bike path.   

Fact: The pro-road group has made claims regarding the width of the road right of way, but the right-of-way dimensions have been well established by both DC and Federal agencies. See a map of the Right-of-way from the Berger Report here.  

The National Park Service controls nearly all the land surrounding the right of way. They have stated unequivocally that they would not grant any expansion of the right of way. Adrienne Coleman, the Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, has objected to rebuilding a paved road in Klingle Valley as “environmentally destructive” to trees and soil on NPS land. "Use of park land for road or storm water purposes either in the form of direct or indirect use would be environmentally destructive, and therefore, cannot be permitted by the National Park Service."

Fiction: Without a road Klingle Valley will become a haven for illegal dumping, drug use, gang activity, and the homeless.

Fact: Illegal dumping is a problem throughout the entire Rock Creek Park system.  Dumping usually occurs along roadsides where trucks can pull up and quickly dump garbage and yard waste. There is evidence of dumping between Porter Street and the closed section of Klingle Road; reopening the road to automobiles would potentially facilitate dumping in other parts of the Valley. There is no evidence that drug use, gang activity, and homelessness are problems in Klingle Valley.

Fiction: If Klingle is made into a park, the City will have to pay legal costs of reversion to the Klingle heirs.

Fact: The Mayor decision was not to close Klingle Road, but to "reopen the 0.7 mile section of Klingle Road NW, between Porter Street and Cortland Place, for pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-motorized vehicles". This may seem like a semantic argument, but the fact is that closing usually refers to a complete closure to public access, and Klingle Park will be available to all DC's Citizens, whether on foot, on a bike, or wheelchair. It will also be open for the many utility vehicles that will need access to the Park, and presumably to public safety patrols.

The law regarding revision of title for closed alleys and streets (Title 9, Chap 2) gives no definition of what closing a street means, although more contemporary laws in the DC Code (Title 50 MOTOR AND NON-MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC) are enlightening:

§ 50-2201.02. Definitions. 

(7) The term "public highway" means any street, road, or public thoroughfare.

(9) The term "vehicle" shall apply to any appliance moved over a highway on wheels or traction tread, including street cars, draft animals, and beasts of burden.

(10) Traffic shall be deemed to include not only motor vehicles but also all vehicles, pedestrians, and animals, of every description.

Under these definitions, Klingle would not really be closed to traffic or vehicles. In addition, since the Mayor has not foreclosed the possibility of re-opening the road to passenger cars in the future, a title revision would be in-appropriate.

Road advocates have made a