Metro’s Distant Future Map and Weekend map

Metro is working on expansion on their map in the future. It will be a long way to go… probably would finish them all before 2012. That is my guess, unless I am wrong. It is alot of stations on this futuristic Metro map. The Purple line has been longed in discussing the propoal plan in Montgomery County. The first time they brought up that idea in late 1970. But it was brought up again in late 1990. Ever since then, they are working on locations where stations would be . Looks like they are making a final proposal plan as you can see the image below. The new 20-mile Green line is seriously considered for a possibly expansion to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International) airport. The 23-mile Silver line will be expected to begin construction in early 2007. The price of the construction is 4 billion.

The Metro is growing… and get better. [the link]

Also, this weekend, they will adjust their Metro map for Martin Luther King day this weekend. You can view the map what will look like, beginning at 8 pm on Friday night until midnight on Monday night. [the link]

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January Art Exhibitions in DC

Let’s go out and appreciate the Art…. It is a nice change in 2007! Spare your free time to go to those exhibitions below. The last two exhibition all the way below will ends on January 7th. Make sure you grab the chance to see them.

>>Invitational Show 2007: It will be taken place at Studio Gallery in Dupont Circle. The show displays different artists’ work there, including Suzanne Quinlan. It starts today, Janurary 3 and ends on Jan 28th. The Studio Gallery is addressed at 2108 R Street, NW from Wednesdays to Sundays. There will be a reception on January 5th from 6 to 8 PM.

>>Sculpture Invitational: It will be at Gallery 10 from January 3rd to 31st at 1519 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in Dupont Circle.

>>There’s No Time for This: It will be shown at Shaw gallery, Project 4 at 903 U Street NW. This exhibition is the latest show of work by Tim and Pittman and Gregory McClellan. There will be an opening reception on Friday, January 5th from 6 to 8:30 p.m. It runs through Jan. 27.

>>Artful Evenings: There are several gallery talks, each show on every Thursday at The Philips Coillections. You can check it out here. You may have to request an interpreter ahead of the time.

>>Art, Books, and Creativity: It is a new exhibition at Arlington Arts Center, where the exhibit is on display (3350 Wilson Blvd.). This exhibition is prepared by The National Musuem of Women in the Arts and Arlington Public Schools to show artists’ books made by 4th graders. There will be a opening reception this Saturday, January 6th from 3 to 5 pm.

>>In the Beginning Bibles Before the year 1000: It is your last chance to see the exhbition that ends on January 7th at Freer Gallery of Art. It is located at Jefferson Drive at 12th Street, SW. It is free of charge. It opens from 10 am to 5:30 pm every day.

>>The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas:It is an exhibition of recent sculpture. It is located at the Hirshhorn; the location is Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW. It is at Smithsonian Insitution. Make sure you ask where is Hirshhorn Musem and they will help you

via [DCist]

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Metro Fare Hike Proposal

I just found out that during peak hours, the Metro fare may be go up to 2.10 dollars. Currently it is 1.35 to 3.60 dollars depending where you go. WIth a new proposal plan, it will go up to 4.75.

For riders who pay cash to get paper farecards, the fare will increase 65 cents. Smartrip users pay 45 cents more. (not sure which it applies to peak or non-peak hour)

The Bus fare will be increased by 65 cents for those people who pay cash. The fare will be remained the same for Smartrip users.

The 19 downtown stations where crowding is most severe would pay a 35-cent surcharge.

The bus riders will have to pay 75 cents more while Smartrip and weekly pass users will remain unchanged.

The proposal has not been finialized and I dont know when the changes will be made yet…

You can view the image that I got from the Washingtonpost.com below:

Further reading: Rush-Hour Metro Fares May Rise as Much as $2.10

via [Dcist]

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Good news for Green/Yellow Line Metro Riders

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (short name for WMATA) has extended the Metro yellow line to Fort Totten, formerly to Mount Vernon, starting on December 31st, 2006. Now Fort Totten has more choices where to go — it will have three lines (Red, Green, and newly Yellow extension).  That means I can transfer to the yellow line at Fort Totten from the on green line from from Greenbelt to go to Pentagon and the beyond. How Convenient!  Well I am glad to see the yellow line is being extended because Columbia Height area is growing, where there will be new developments in that area including a large shopping center and a Target store. The new shopping center and the Target store should be open in the late 2007.

However, it won’t run all day on this new expension. It will run only during non-peak hours. During peak hours, it will stop at Mt. Vernon. But I hope it will be opened to peak hours as well… because it will relieve overly crowds during rush hours.  We will see… 

Truly, Metro is growing and getting better and bigger.  They are still working on a Purple line.  The Montgomery County is heavily working on it. It will be from New Carrolloton to College park to Silver Spring to Bethesda. If it is approval, it may not be ready until 2010. Also, they are working on a possible proposal the Blue extension from Pentagon to Greenbelt.  Soon, Metro will be fully accesible to everyone.

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Should DC Expands The Mall?

The Third Century Mall organization is working on the expansion of the mall right now. I believe I have mentioned that once on my blog a long time ago. But I cannot find the permalink for that entry I mentioned. Maybe I did not. I don’t remember. It does not matter. I am mentioning it now.

Do you think DC should expand the Mall?

My answer is YES!

The City is growing. More tourists come to visit every year. We need the Mall to be “visitor-friendly.” Right now, it is not exactly ‘visitor-friendly.” The mall also needs more space for future memorials and monuments. You know it was not the first time that DC has made changes on the Mall. For last two centuries, they had expanded the Mall. The first Mall was designed by Pierre L’Enfant in 1791, including Washington Monument. The Second Mall expansion was in 1901 by Senator James McMillan. Now you see why it is called Third Century Mall now. You can read more about both plans by two men here. There is another good link on two plans here, too.

I will have W. Kent Cooper take the place telling you in his words why it is not “visitor-friendly,” but first let me tell who W. Kent Cooper is. He is an architect and corridnator of the future Mall Plan. Now he tells you three reasons why the expansion is needed:

1. Public use is discouraged by security fences,
construction and National Park Service policies that treat the Mall as
a “theme park, to be experienced by tour bus.” Cooper called for
“policies that enhance public use rather than restrict it.”

2. The Mall is not “visitor-friendly.” There are
too many barriers and fences, too few places to sit, too few places to
eat and it is too hard to get from place to place. “The Mall needs more
visitor amenities and things to do in the public open space,” Cooper
said.

3. It’s full. Despite Congress’ declaring the Mall
“substantially completed,” dozens of memorial projects are waiting for
sites on the Mall. “The Mall should expand to meet this need, as it did
a century ago,” Cooper said.

I found the earliest idea of the mall expansion in 2005 by two suggestions by three different people (one of them is W. Kent Cooper):

But it keeps changing… I believe it has not confirmed the plan for the future mall… However, I found one that has been suggested recently (you will need to enlarge it by clicking the image):

The image above may be difficult to read, but if you want a larger image, you can open the link into Adobe Reader. It is a PDF link. If you don’t have Adobe Reader, you will need to download here. You can read more about the Third Century Mall here.

There is another thing I want to mention too. It is not related to the mall. We know by now that we will have a new baseball stadium! Once the baseball stadium, it will attract more PEOPLE. It should be completed in 2008. Right now, it is in construction. That is the reason why I think there should be the expansion of the Mall for residents/visitors. Like I said earlier that the city is growing, the city needs renovation and improvment. It will make the city look good.  The Mall expansion, baseball stadium, and SW Waterfront renovation. That makes great connection.

Southwest Waterfront will over the 1960′s, Washington Post said. I think it is a good thing to move on and start renew with new changes in 2008 and beyond. PN Hoffman ands others are selected as developers for the future SW Waterfront. You can read what they plan to do in SW Waterfront. There is a short article in Washington Post mentioning PN Hoffman and their plan.

I have found a few artistic images of the stadium and the sorrounding area, ie: Federal Center, what it will possibly look like… it looks very nice. Maybe it is a bit crowd? I don’t know.

The Stadium area:

This was once shown on the newspaper not long ago…

Close up of above image:

This is Federal Center below:

This is Waterfront Mall below:

Wow! DC is really GROWING. I have been here for more than ten years… and it was slowing growing, but all sudden with new changes and new building over 5 years now. It is fast. I am looking forward to the new City next year. I will able to go to Southwest/Southeast. Fo the last ten years, I only went there to party at the Tracks then Velvet Nations. In daytime, it was basically nothing. It was busier in the night. However, I am very sad to see that those nightlife clubs had been swept away. But it is the best for the future. We still will always have the nightlife clubs somewhere else. With new changes in SE/SW, I wonder if we will have gay business or bars in that area. We already have gay bar(s) in Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, and one in NW (9th Street). I hope it will grow, and more options to go for a change.

Oh, I forgot to mention about the parking lots for the stadium, they found 9,000 parking spaces in the area… you can see the image here. But Washington Post just wrote about it, saying that the stadium garages prosopal is rejected. With a new stadium, we need more parking spaces… otherwise it will be crowded! The parking garage is a big key for our future stadium and the city. We don’t want to be stressed and stuck with no parking avaiable like Dupont Circle. In Dupont Circle, to find parking can take you up to two hours. It is no FUN! Oftentimes when I am in someone’s car and looking for parking, I am already sickened in my stomach by driving in the circles trying find a good parking! It got me really dizzy! I hope they will resolve the situation!

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Farewall, Velvet Nations…

I have had been going to Velvet Nations from time to time. At first, I had been a regular there, dancing and getting high there. It was fun at beginning. Of course, a couple of years later, it was tiresome doing the same thing. So I stopped going there, but I did go there once in a while, usually on big event, like Foam Party, Black or White Party, or 4th of July. The last time I went there was last 3 summers. It was ok…

Last Saturday was Velvet Nations’ last event. It was a closing event called Last Dance. I heard it went well. Kudos to them. Unfortunately I did not go. I spent money on new clothes that have been raving around that they were having BIG summer sales. I took the opporunity to buy a few good bargains on clothes. I ended up broke. Well, the admission to the Last Dance was $30.00 at the door. In advance, it was $20.00. Usually the admission cost between $8.00 to $12.00.

I decided to check Velvet’s site out to see if they have any plans for the nightlife club in the future. It apparently did not. Right now, the biggest nightclub for gays is at Apex. I like Apex all right, but not like Velvet. Apex is ratherly small, and will be crowded all the time now.

Anyway, I saw something that is really cool… I copied and pasted the image here:

You can click the image to enlarge for better viewing.

It is cool, huh? You will be sorely missed. Thanks for the all fun!

Update: Photos I got from metroweekly.com, unfortunately they cannot be enlarged.

Sure they had a lot of FUN! I wish I was there!

You can view more photos here.

Beltway and Greenbelt Station Projects

Note: You can click each image, and it will take you to a new window to view an larger image.

Today’s Washinton Examiner says exactly: Beltway projects to cause delays through next summer. They said they work on 5-mile stretch of Outer Loop in Prince George’s County begins next week. You can read the article here. You know, Greenbelt Station metro is right by the outer loop of 495. They are also working on Greenbelt Station project, as I excerpt all the way below from the site, http://www.greenbeltstation.com:

I wonder if this is why the Beltway projects are causing delays because of this? Well. in that case, I think this project for Greenbelt Station is great idea, because right now it is nothing but a vast parking lot! Most metro stations are surrounded by offices, stores, apartments and condos, and some houses. I think Greenbelt Station needs that, too. There is a small mall called Beltway Plaza is 1.2 miles away from the metro. You can take the bus from there to the plaza, or you can walk as well. But I don’t recommend on dog days.

Anyway, I am sure drivers will be frustrated during the Beltway projects. It will be bad traffic for some times. Ouch… I mean, the project is a long time, through the year until next summer. Not so fun!

*************the excerpt from http://www.greenbeltstation.com*************

Greenbelt Station is a 240 acre development that offers new and exciting entertainment, retail, office, and residential uses with a combined Metro and MARC Rail Station at the heart of the upscale, mixed-use, multi-model, transit oriented community.

This long anticipated gateway project within Prince George’s County will consist of 2,200 residential units, 1.2 Million square feet of office, 1.1 Million square feet of retail and entertainment, 300 hotel rooms, and a 115,000 square foot neighborhood retail center that includes recreational uses and open spaces.

Greenbelt Station will include a variety of residential homes, including town homes, apartments and condominiums; all with innovative designs and architectural features.

It is envisioned that Greenbelt Station will be a premier destination point within Prince George’s County, while, at the same time, being a self-contained community where one can live, work, shop and play.

The development will have a very positive fiscal impact on the County /State/ City of Greenbelt with approximately 7,054 new permanent jobs, 9,526 temporary construction jobs and $2.75 Billion in direct revenues.

The image of the project plan for Greenbelt Station:

Live News!

It just happened not long ago. I was at Chipotle with my friend. Then I came out and saw the falling tree on the sidewalk, just right by PotBelly on Connecticut Avenue and R Street NW. I am not sure what happened to it. I don't see a car that could hit the tree. The firefigthers and police officers were there to tape the yellow line around… and everyone is looking at it, as if they are bewildered at what happened. I will find out what happens later. Maybe you will know when it is on News tongiht or in the newspaper tomorrow.

I was very lucky, I could be hit by the tree if I was there. Because that is where I head to work from Chiptole…

UPDATE: My friend who also left from Chipotle a few minute later. We did not come out together. She has a male friend. Her friend spoke to the officer what happened to it. He told her that it was a car hitting the tree. She did nto see a car. So either did I. Maybe it was like a 'hit and run'? I don't know. But it was a strong fall. I hope no one is injured…

When does the next train come?

Last Call was mentioned in DCist.com a while ago. I meant to write an entry about it. What is Last Call? It will tell you what time the next train (Metro Subway) comes if you are going to the metro right now. All you need a cell phone and a text messaging service. You call 202-299-7949. All you have to type this number in your cell phone or Sidekick. Then type, let's say, Metro Dupont Circle, and then send.

It will text you when you receive it, look like this below:

Shady Grove 7:50 PM
Glemont 7:55 PM

If you want a specific time that you want to catch the train, just say: Metro Dupont Circle 8:30 PM

Shady Grove 8:37 PM
Glemont 8:41 PM

It is nice. I use it once in a while when I am going out to bars. I will know what time it will come, so I don't have to wait for the train.

Not only Last Call service you can use, but you also can use TrainCheck. I have used it a few times, too. It is similiar to Last Call, but not a phone number. It is an email address. You can send to DC@traincheck.com, and send a message. I will show you how to say it in an email in a bit, but first you need to know your metro location. They have abbreviations (three letters). You can check the abbreviation list at traincheck.com/dc.

Now my common metro location is Dupont Circle and Greenbelt, which are dup and gre. You can use the sidekick or any cell phone with email access. You know the routine: fill in "To" field : dc@traincheck.com (you can use SMS (short message, but it has to have a "TO" field to make it work).

Then, type in the message field (not the subject field):

dup r

I bet you are puzzled, why r? It is a red line. You have to identify a color line, starting with first letter. It will reply you back like this:

r » gle 8:05 8:17 8:29
r » shg 8:08 8:14 8:25

r represents Red line; gle is glemont and shg is shade grove; the times are the next three train schedules.

Cool ? Nice… Train Check also has San Francisco, for San Franciscans. It is traincheck.com/sf.

Bike to Work Day

I just found out that today is Bike to Work Day! That means they can ride on bikes to work, on the street, sidewalk, and all over the DC metro that go to DC today. They have many different ways to get to work by bicycling. You can go to its site.

I would not mind riding on the bike to DC, if I ever had one. Well, I live in Greenbelt, I don't know if I could do that. But hell, it will be a challenge.

The truth is that I have not ridden a bike since I was about 13 years old. Mm, it is a long time. I am sure I will be a bit rusty and awkward. I would love to have one, so I can ride the bike in my area. My area is perfect, because of nature itself. It is woodsy. I love it. It reminds me of my hometown, only the woodsy trees. I live in a mountainous place. Greenbelt is not mountainous. Anyway, I see there are a several area where it has bike trail on the road, like ones we have in Dupont Circle. I hope to buy one this summer, if I can. I know bikes can be very expensive.

Anyway, back to Bike to Work Day, I think it is a great idea to have such a day like this. It is showing that we are saving the environment, and it is definitely C₂O-free. And it is a nice day of doing it. It is a perfect day, actually because lately, it has been raining for some time this week. They will be bicycling in the evening when they are done working. I hope it will be cool at least to ride back home. I know sometimes, it can get colder in the evening if there is light sun, or cloudy.

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