WEDNESDAY | 02.25.2015 | EXPRESS | 3
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D.C. is going Dutch The official line is that Washington will not turn into Amsterdam — but we already have
Amsterdam’s tram carries passengers, above. D.C is working on it, we think.
Bikes
Trams/Streetcars
Canals
Amsterdam boasts more bicycles than people, and 57 percent of its residents ride every day. To accommodate the jam of parked bikes, the city is planning to build a partially underwater, 7,000-space bicycle garage. D.C. is nowhere near those stats, but the trend is upward (whether Post columnist Courtland Milloy likes it or not). The number of people in D.C. who commute by bike has more than doubled in the past five years, according to Census data.
Amsterdam has an extensive, reliable tram system with 15 lines. And a tram is just a synonym for a streetcar. Washingtonians can only stare wistfully as our empty streetcars glide up and down H Street — but, hey, it is a start.
Sure, D.C. is never going to catch up to Amsterdam’s famous canal system, but the city is finally paying more attention to the C&O Canal. The Georgetown Business Improvement District plans to build a public boat dock that could be in place as early as this summer. The group has also proposed a better walking-biking trail along the towpath and a revival of the mule-drawn barge rides offered between 1940 and 2011. RACHEL SADON (EXPRESS)
GETTY IMAGES
TRENDS Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, marijuana will be legal in the District. Amid a raft of caveats and restrictions that city officials released on Tuesday (for more, see page 6) was a resolute note that D.C. will “not become like Amsterdam.” But they may be too late: D.C. is becoming more like Amsterdam every day — and it’s not just the impending haze of pot. Squint a little bit and you’ll see it.
“We are not going to hurt you. We respect you. It’s just that the economy sucks.” ONE OF TWO ASSAILANTS IN A
THE WASHINGTON POST
HOME INVASION, while stealing
Red Light District Amsterdam has its famous Red Light District. D.C. has Red Light, a cocktail and dessert bar that pays homage to 14th Street’s former life.
from a retired couple in Bethesda. The intruders ordered the victims — one 84, the other 81 — to sit on a sofa with their hands up while they went looking for loot, police say. Two men have been charged in the crime.
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WINTER WOES
The mercury reading at Washington Dulles International Airport on Tuesday morning — obliterating the previous record of 14 degrees set for the date in 1967. It is the third record low set at Dulles this month. (THE WASHINGTON POST)
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS (AP)
verbatim
Hey, kid, you can’t do that. There’s no fun sledding allowed anywhere around the Capitol. WINTER FUN
Holmes Norton attempts to bring joy to the Hill Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is intervening to get kids their rights to sled down the hill where the Capitol building sits. She sent a letter Tuesday to Frank Larkin, chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police Board, asking him to overturn the prohibition on sledding down “America’s front lawn.” Norton wrote that D.C. receives so little snow and that there are so few hills to sled on in the city that people should be allowed to sled down “the Hill.” She called it a “Scrooge-like ban.” Larkin said he has reached out to Norton “to meet with her to discuss her concerns.” (TWP)