That Was Fast: Sidewalk Solved

It's a miracle:


One day after complaining that there was room for private parking spots but no sidewalk at a construction site at Wilson & Oakland, this morning I noticed the new sidewalk has suddenly opened for business. I have not heard a word from the county, but seems like a remarkable coincidence that the problem was solved less than 24 hours after the post went up (the "sidewalk closed" signs are even still hanging from the pushed-back fence).

Arlington County keeps such a close eye on the net, it's now actually faster to solve a problem by posting it to a blog than it is call in a complaint. And certainly light years faster than writing a letter ever was. Amazing.

As for the next generation of the interwebs, Arlington is slowly getting on Twitter, though updates seem to be sporadic. You can follow ArlingtonAlert, ArlingtonVAWeb, and CarFreeDiet (and of course, you can follow me.)

As I run for House of Delegates, I've been telling voters that far from being confusing and scary, new technologies like blogs and Twitter bring us closer together than ever and make problems easier to solve. Hopefully, stories like this will make convincing them a little easier.

Sidewalk Closed. Private Parking Now Available.

I've always been amazed that Arlington lets construction companies completely close off the sidewalk on one side of the street without providing temporary space for pedestrians to walk. It's not only unsafe, inevitably forcing pedestrians into the street or at least to cross the street outside of a crosswalk. It also flies in the face of the County's well-deserved pedestrian-friendly reputation.

One stretch of Wilson Blvd. in Virginia Square has been shut down for months now. I've just been walking around the fence, but I can imagine it must be troublesome for residents of the Brighton Senior Living Center next door, who are now shut off from Oakland Park. To walk down to the next crosswalk with a signal (Quincy & Wilson) then back to the Oakland & Wilson signaled crosswalk is a half-mile round-trip.

But the problem wasn't blog-worthy until the construction crew rolled out this ballsy move last week:


You see, there's no room for pedestrians here, but there is space for two private parking spots for the construction crew's vans. Those vans aren't there temporarily being loaded and unloaded -- they're parked there every day.

In fact, these might be the only two on-street, unmetered parking spots on Wilson Blvd. from Ballston all the way to Rosslyn. Pretty primo. Just don't try to walk past.

A Snap Back to Reality from Indian Summer

It's been so warm the last few days, it's felt like June. But even on a 78-degree day, a sudden change of colors can remind you it's still October:

Most of the trees are still green, but these two near the corner of Wilson and Piedmont decided to flip early.

Another Mordecai Sighting

I was walking down Wilson Boulevard in the Virginia Square area Sunday afternoon and made another Cooper's Hawk sighting, the bird that recently scared the hell out of the animals in my backyard. I pulled out my cell phone camera, but unfortunately the hawk was circling very high overhead and the camera quality is lousy, so all I got was this:
From an Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment friend who's a major birder:

This seems to be a good winter for Cooper's Hawks. In your neighborhood, keep an eye out for (endangered) Peregrines. We lived for a year in Randolph towers on the 20th floor and would often see one when we were out on the balcony. I suspect they nest on some high-rise there in Ballston.

Any cool hawk sightings to report?

Pedestrian, Motorists Team Up to Make Distracted Driver Feel Like Jackass

I Metro home from work to the Virginia Square station on the Orange Line, and have to cross Wilson Blvd. in one of its least pedestrian-friendly stretches. There's only one traffic light on Wilson Blvd. between Washington Blvd/10th St. and N. Quincy, creating a nearly mile-long, four-lane wide straightaway. It's only a 30mph zone, but it's easy for drivers to go a lot faster.

There's a crosswalk at Wilson & Oakland, but in a bizarre sequence of events, the county, drivers, and pedestrians all ignore it:

* The county hasn't fixed the broken flashing yellow pedestrian warning in at least a year, and rarely does any kind of pedestrian or traffic enforcement there

* Because of that, drivers may or may not stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk (usually not)

* Because of that, pedestrians rarely bother to use the crosswalk -- if you're just standing there waiting for all traffic to go by so you can run across, then the crosswalk is no safer than any other spot in the road

All that means I have two options for crossing Wilson Boulevard on the way home:

* Walk up to the corner of Wilson & N. Monroe, which has a traffic light but adds a minute or two to the walk

* Try to cross at the dreaded Wilson & Oakland crosswalk, where cars fly by at 30-40mph

You can see a Google Map of the options here. Coming home I'm walking southwest, across the park to the crosswalk.

Since it was still bright out last night and I was feeling frisky, I decided to press my luck at the crosswalk. Traffic was heavy, but the first guy stopped, and when one stops the others usually follow.

Then I looked up and there he was -- a douche in a sports car, stopped in the middle of the crosswalk waiting to make the left turn onto Oakland. Worse yet, he had his cell phone earpiece in and was jabbering away.

I got halfway across the street and started to walk around his car. He gave me a Towlie-esque look, like, "I have no idea what's goin' on." I noticed his sunroof was open, so I pointed to the ground and barked, "It's a crosswalk!"

All of the sudden I heard another car's horn honking, and I was ready to take on two cars at once. But when I looked up, the driver behind him was smiling and giving me a thumbs-up. Apparently I wasn't the only one who'd had enough of Cell Phone Douche.

I just laughed and finished crossing the street. Soon a couple of other cars joined in the honking, and Cell Phone Douche finally got the hint and completed the turn he'd started nearly a minute before.

The lesson -- if you're a driver, respect crosswalks and (rolling my eyes that I actually have to say this) pay attention. If you're a pedestrian, be safe first and foremost, but if someone's driving dangerously, don't be afraid to do something about it. While I doubt you'll get to tell the driver personally like I did, write down the license plate number, or call your local police department and board/council member and ask for more pedestrian enforcement.

Any other particularly dangerous spots for pedestrians in Arlington? Post them here!