Plans

Posted by on . 6 comments.

The Overhead Wire directs us to a list of Ready-to-Go infrastructure projects from the US Conference of Mayors. It’s kind of fun to click through, but I’m hoping it’s not exhaustive. As far as I can tell, Washington hasn’t asked for a thing, as haven’t Arlington, Bethesda, or a host of other jurisdictions in the region, with the exception of the city of Alexandria. Even if its just a city thing (such that you have to have a mayor to participate), we should be in there. Though I guess New York isn’t either. What gives?

Comments

  1. richard says:
    December 12, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    i live in falls church which i do believe has a mayor and it was not there. Now falls church is tiny but it abuts arlington and fairfax and you would think they could leverage one of their neighbors to do some of their bidding or vice versa. I am guessing that falls church doesn’t have a federal affairs person but Arlington does. Falls church could have invited them along to navigate the process in exchange for putting some of their initiatives on the table. Stupid. And this is also another reason why you should always be drawing up plans not just on the basis of what is politically feasible in the moment but what is optimal because there will be moments where the impossible becomes possible. Such as now!

  2. BeyondDC says:
    December 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    The NoVa jurisdictions working through the NVTA, which just met last night (Dec 11) to approve the regional list of ready-to-go projects.

    The list is available HERE.

    Overall NoVa is collectively asking for $540 million in road projects and $1.7 billion in transit/multi-modal projects. BUT that $1.7b includes a line item for the $900 million federal match for the Silver Line* and one year worth of the $1.5b WMATA funding bill that’s been floating in Congress for at least a year ($150 million). Not including those two items, the transit/multi-modal request is $634 million.

    * I suspect, but have absolutely no proof, that the FTA gave up its objections on the Silver Line because they figured it would be included in the stimulus anyway.

  3. BeyondDC says:
    December 12, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    BTW, I’ve been planning to post this to BDC… once I get confirmation that NVTA approved the list.

  4. D.Schleicher says:
    December 12, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Ryan —

    Almost completely off-topic, but does anyone know how much it would cost for Metro to move those electric signs for how long until a train comes to outside the train station. Virtually nothing, right? And what a quality of life increase it would be! After slowly descending the escalator today while emailing and just missing the none-too-frequent orange line, I thought to myself — why again can’t I know how long until a train comes until I’m in the station?

  5. BeyondDC says:
    December 12, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    Here you go.

    Package was approved. One note: the number I posted in my earlier reply are a little off – I missed the last page of the list.

  6. rg says:
    December 15, 2008 at 10:27 am

    The Conference of Mayors survey on “ready-to-go” projects was just that — a survey. It was not an official application or submission of projects. Rather, it’s a lobbying document meant to illustrate that cities (as opposed to the states) have projects that are “ready-to-go” and will spend money from a a stimulus bill and put people to work quickly. So, just because the District did not respond to the survey does not mean that the District will not receive any stimulus funding. Indeed, whether money from a stimulus bill goes to the states or to cities, DC will get funding.