Washington DC: Tourist Trap or Urbanist Powerhouse?

After visiting Chicago this spring, we continued on to Washington, DC—a fascinating city that surprisingly doesn’t receive as much attention in the online urbanist community as it deserves. We already made a video talking about the trade-offs and consequences of the height limit but there’s a lot more that’s interesting and unique about the urbanism of the US capital.

Keep Urbanity rolling:

References:

[sdsd]

The 15-second delay is fixed as of July 8!

[sammymarrco]

As a DC area native thanks for reviewing our city, it’s far from perfect but our metro system has shown great post pandemic success (around 60-70% recovery) under the new GM Randy Clarke. I’d also argue that the DC Metro has the least amount of “susness” compared to most other US cities. Lots of new housing is being constructed keeping housing prices from going to NYC or SF levels. DC isn’t very big, so bikability is slowly getting better with paths and lanes. Outside of downtown where all the government is DC is a like any other city with food, retail housing etc. I hope to be able to afford to live here as costs keep rising. Arlington and Alexandria are also really solid urban suburbs.

[mgp]

I'm Australian but I've always felt like DC was incredibly underrated after visiting. I adored the Metro and was impressed by all the bike lanes, parks and tree lined streets. the buildings were grand but with limited height it still felt grounded and people friendly. Very easy to get around as well.

[vjd]

DC is the prettiest and most underrated city in the country. Hands down

[transitcaptain]

I visited Washington DC in 2021. It was quite urbanist With a good metro system, lots of walkability and lively neighborhoods, it’s basically the sort of city that competes with the other major urbanist cities in the US

[philpaine]

Yet another excellent analysis from two eloquent and well-informed urbanists. What emerges from several of their videos is that most American and Canadian cities are in the process of improving themselves along urbanist principles. Each is making different levels and paces of progress, and each is solving its own problems by particularizing those principles. Urban planning and related professions are attracting many young people, and most of them have cut their teeth on the best urbanist YT channels. Progress is in the air.

[matthewconstantine]

I've lived in the area for 17 years and it's amazing to see the changes (almost all for the better) in DC and the surrounding area. The two biggest problems are that housing remains WAY too expensive & cars are still considered the default means of transportation for policy makers. The needle is moving, but it's a struggle every danged step of the way. And a lot of leadership *cough* Bowser *cough* do everything they can to undercut progress.

[reidr]

10:21 Alexandria implemented elimination of single family zoning and people are still upset and keeping up their signs for a long time now

[dylan]

Moving to alexandria va in a month. I'll be less than a 5 minute walk from the metro and I'm excited for my first experience living in an urban area. Finally out of the burbs.

[nwash]

DC was my home for 7 years, I moved to Austin for school and will be moving back when my partner is done with her degree. I miss it very much.

[williammckelvey]

I grew up near Philadelphia, but lived in DC for 14yrs (from 2006-2020). I was there for the Metro collision, for the decades of single-tracking for 'trackwork', for the fires, for the nonsense! But living now in Denver, I think I didn't appreciate Metro enough when I was there.

I don't know that I appreciated DC enough, in general. It's an expensive city, and I found that difficult since I worked in service 13 of my 14 years there. But it is a beautiful city. I lived mostly in Eckington (north of NoMa) in a group house. But I also lived in Adams Morgan for a time (I worked in Adams Morgan, as well, for 3 years). And in hindsight there is a lot about DC that is so great. It is deeply urban, walkable, transit-oriented, cultural, vibrant. I miss it.

[MrRaymage]

Thanks! I will be going to DC in November for a week and appreciate the good information about places to see.

[dudeonthasopha]

I moved to DC specifically to be in a walkable, transit oriented bigger city in the northeast corridor and it was a great decision. It's changing all the time and an interesting place to be as an urbanist.

[transitcaptain]

A lot of people talk about how DC needs another metro line through downtown, presumably on the north side between Georgetown and Union Station and then down to national Harbor.

[tonchrysoprase]

DC is pretty nice to live in. There are three things I’d love to see: a more deliberate approach to densification with complementary infrastructure investments. The use of S-Bahn style rapid commuter trains (overhead wiring for speed and large trains for efficiency) to get people people from/to burbs more quickly, especially since VA and MD are good with high density development on suburban metro stops. A better system and modern rolling stock to increase frequency during rush hour.

The blue loop (bloop) will hopefully fix some issues with thin connectivity and the bottleneck of the Roslyn tunnel. It’s also supposed to connect MD with VA across the Potomac, which would be great.

Georgetown is excellent because we need a place to keep our tourists and having them somewhere no sane person needs to go is a genius idea. What’s even better is that some other parts of the city are starting to develop a YMBY attitude with Chevy Chase push back against an initiative to convert it to a historic district.

All in all, I’m happy to call the place my home.

[marleysmith]

Happy to see you visit Alexandria and the Del Ray area!

The zoning fight in Alexandria (and Arlington) still isn't over, unfortunately. Both cities did manage to pass their respective reforms and also recently nominated mostly YIMBY candidates in the local Democrat primaries, but NIMBY residents in both cities have sued and are currently battling in court (even though I think they will lose).

What's hilarious to me is that some of the worst opposition to the zoning reforms is coming from the wealthy residents in areas like Old Town. Ironically, many of them live in historic denser rowhomes which wouldn't be allowed to be built under single family zoning.

[rowenaeureka]

I've lived in DC on and off my whole life and Metro is my happy place. Like you mentioned, the door delayed hasn't always been the case and it has frustrated me lately. I'm happy to hear it explained and happy to know that might be changing soon. Good to see DC getting noticed for being a great city, lately!

[midcenturymoldy]

“We actually didn't know that schools had formal racial segregation as far north as DC and even Maryland.”

Shoot! Schools in Boston didn’t desegregate until 1974 and it wasn’t a pretty scene when they did.

Also, Montreal’s city hall was opened 10 years before the Eisenhower Office Building.

[cebo]

Segregation existed way further north than just DC. The school district in my hometown in NY has its headquarters in what was previously the whites-only building of a segregated school which wasn't desegregated until 1943.

Its desegregation was fought in court by none other than Thurgood Marshall, a prolific civil-rights lawyer, NAACP chief council, was eventually a Supreme Court Justice, and most notably was the lawyer on 'Brown v Board of Education', the Supreme Court case which outlawed segregation nation-wide.

In general, following the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and the abolition of segregation in Brown v Board of Ed. the south actually ended up significantly more integrated than the north, which is still heavily segregated in many areas to this day; although segregated mostly by historical trends (e.g. white flight) and systemic classism and racism (e.g. redlining), and less so by laws.

[johnnotjonathan]

20th year here and it’s always changing. Fantastic for multi modal transit. Riding a bike to work in 2007 was an adventure! Now it’s a top 3 US large metro for bikes. Great food as well but that’s probably another channel.