ANC June Meeting Focuses on Metro Buses
By • June 10, 2024 0 180
The June 3 Meeting of the Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E) had an unexpected freshness about it. The commissioners and attendees met in person in a new venue—the Georgetown Village Square at 1801 34th St. NW. All the furniture in the various reading, meeting, sitting, music, games and table areas of the Village Square are tastefully decorated in the fun orange and lime green colors of the senior village of Georgetown. Even the pencils and serving dishes in the active lounge referred to as the Village Square are decorated in orange and green.
The venue was a lively difference from the usual meeting site at Georgetown Visitation School meeting hall, just down the block. It perhaps sparked some of the conversation of the top agenda item: proposed and suggested changes to the Metro buses serving Georgetown.
There is a slew of information available about the various proposals for the new and proposed rescheduling of the buses in Georgetown. They are the only viable public transportation still in the town that has for decades resisted establishing a metro or streetcar line in the town. But the best summation of the proposals was written by Commissioner Topher Matthews and we quote him below:
“WMATA is in the process of completely restructuring the entire Metrobus network. Literally ever single bus line is being revamped, replanned and renamed. The end result, dubbed the “Better Bus Network”, will completely alter how people in our city and region get around by bus.”
Matthews continues: “WMATA has touted a “fast, frequent, reliable network” as a central goal of the Better Bus Network Redesign. funding for the Transitway (the Mayor sought $120 million in local funds only for the project in FY2024). On a similar note, this year the Circulator narrowly escaped half of its routes getting cut, partly thanks to a 25-cent surcharge being levied on ride hail trips. But the Better Bus Visionary Network was drafted with the assumption that Circulator would continue to operate indefinitely. A conversation may be needed with respect to how these services can best complement one another in future, when funding for both faces some risk.”
Most of the rest of the ANC meeting was mainly reports updating delays or new dates for more scheduled town meetings, studies and surveys with sticky notes being organized by D.C. agencies’ enthusiastic “outreach coordinators” to make sure everyone has a voice on the constantly changing and delayed projects in Georgetown. Such projects include the Georgetown Transportation and Traffic Study, the Volta Park, Jelleff and Duke Ellington Field Projects (including the new worry last week over the defunding then refunding of the Boys & Girls Club summer program).
Continual delays were also reported on the parking, streeteries and sidewalk expansion projects in Georgetown. and proposed studies on concerns regarding e-scooters , e-bikes, private bikes vs. public, and now motorbikes.
