Release: Friday, Nov. 18, 2021
Contact: Nick DelleDonne ,
delledonne.n@comcast.net, 703 929 6656
Merchants, Residents Get Mayor’s Ear on DDOT 17th St. Bike Plan after Year of Stonewalling
Stressing the utter loss of patron parking and the strangulation of daily deliveries under the new 17th St NW Bike Plan, installed in July by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), merchants and residents finally met with the Mayor’s office after months of stonewalling and refusal to respond to inquiries from the Mayor, DDOT and Councilmember Brooke Pinto on the reckless and dangerous Plan.
In a walking tour arranged by the Dupont East Civic Action Association (DECAA), the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services (MOCRS) met on site to see firsthand the many confounding problems of a broken traffic plan on what is the social and commercial nerve center that holds the community together.
MOCRS Joe Florio and DDOT community representative Donovan Boyd witnessed a delivery truck enter the forbidden no-mans-land between the curb and the bike lane. They saw the traffic signs that are intended to guide drivers to the lawful parking spaces, signs that could not be seen or understood. They heard accounts of $!50 tickets issued to unsuspecting patrons driving off in dismay, unable to park. Members of the touring party were unable to find a single parking space. “The DDOT Bike Plan is an existential threat to the livable walkable community we all find so desirable,” said DECAA President Nick DelleDonne. “If businesses fail, the community dies. Look at Connecticut Ave,” he said. “If the city wants a protected bike lane, pick another street without hardware, grocery, cleaners, drug stores and restaurants.” Florio and Boyd heard from TrueValue hardware, Georgetown Valet and Dupont Italian Kitchen.
You can watch the Walking Tour Live stream on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dccoalitiononddotbikelanes/ Here are recent photos illustrating DDOT’s reckless Plan. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B17JtdOXmJjF43
The event was marred only by uninvited team of provocateurs from the bike lobby led by Dan Adler, the president of the Ross School PTA and Ward representative of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA). Adler led the attack on DECAA’s rally ‘Dangerous by Design’ on Oct 1, when he wrestled DECAA;s DelleDonne for the mic in an effort to sabotage constitutionally protected rights of association, assembly and speech. Here attached is a photo of Adler in action.
DECAA is a partner and founder of the Coalition on DDOT Bike Plans, organized to call attention the chaotic and confusing changes to traffic patterns being installed throughout the city without community engagement. It is one of many that is causing neighborhoods around the city to push back. DECAA has collected 800 signatures on a petition calling for a comprehensive review of the reckless and dangerous Bike Plan.
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11/19/21, 07:06:18 AM |
