Hard Drive Failure

Dear Patient Readers:

It's going to take a week to replace and install the new hard drive and to get everything running right again. In the meantime, I won't be able to retrieve your messages to themail, to format today's or Wednesday's issues of themail, or to post issues to DCWatch.com. I hope everything will be back to normal by next Sunday. Sorry for the break.

In the meantime, there have been a number of comments on the proposal to remove the height limit on DC buildings. DC Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe wrote about "Tall Buildings in Nation's Capitol Built on Greed," http://tinyurl.com/795rrmp. On the other hand, Matthew Yglesias, who's almost always ill-informed about DC issues, and who wants DC (and all other cities) to fill up with skyscrapers and not waste any space on frivolous things that are bad for the ecology, like urban parks, wrote "Legalize Skyscrapers: Washington DC's Height Restrictions Are Bad for the Nation's Capital and Terrible for America," http://tinyurl.com/dy5pdna, and followed up with the argument that "America Needs Skyscrapers in the Capital," http://tinyurl.com/6roc7c2. And Josh Barro, in The Atlantic, wrote "Height of Folly: Why Housing in Washington, DC, Is So Awful," http://tinyurl.com/7lff37m.

Unlike Yglesias or Barro, who think good urban design should be based on the model of Manhattan, Crystal City, or Rosslyn, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton actually likes the city of Washington. At least she doesn't think it's so awful, and she enjoys living in it. She quickly, on April 20, issued a statement "clarifying" her position on the Height Act, http://tinyurl.com/7suz6o9:

Since this week's reports quoting Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on the Height Act, I have received a number of inquiries concerning my views. My support for the Height Act remains as strong as ever. The discipline embedded in the Height Act accounts for the distinctive look that sets the District of Columbia apart from any other city in the world. Both the livable scale of our city and the vistas that feature its unique historic monuments and sites depend upon maintaining the Height Act discipline that flows naturally from L'Enfant's original vision and the McMillan Plan. The common understanding that our identity as a city depends on the Height Act is so strong that no one has approached my office about changes in the heights of buildings permitted here.

However, Chairman Issa has raised with Mayor Gray and me the question of adjustments outside of the monumental core of the city. To his credit, Rep. Issa has not proposed that his committee proceed but has recognized the profound home rule implications of such a change. No idea is beyond examination but the implications range from technical to profound. As the Mayor, City Council, city planners, economic and other experts, and particularly residents consider this issue, I have confidence that they will understand best the delicacy of this matter of historic importance.

Norton's statement leaves open the possibility that the first step to weaken Height Limit restrictions will be a recommendation to build taller buildings outside the "monumental core." Okay, here's my proposal: let's define the monumental core as the city limits of the District of Columbia, and build the skyscrapers in Arlington County and Montgomery County.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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