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(2003-2004 Correspondence edited for conciseness; Listed Most Recent First)
Since NARPAC, Inc.'s inception, we have communicated with individuals in the Washington area who have the authority to make the District a better place. Each letter or fax has contained some suggestions consistent with the overall objectives of the organization.
Correspondence is also available on line for : The key ones from 2003-4 are listed below, starting with the most recent. 2004
2003
 111. Formal Letter to Secretary of Defense
re Closing of Surplus DC Military Facilities, 9/21/04
The District of Columbia and the Department of Defense both face financial problems that could well limit each one's capacity to properly represent this nation. DoD needs to reduce operational costs by eliminating surplus properties. Our nation's capital city needs to raise more revenues by increasing its acreage of unencumbered properties suitable for high-density development. We urge you and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to begin phasing down military properties within DC, either transferring them to private sector use, or increasing their revenue-generating capability as suggested in the Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital Region. For reference, only 13,000 of DC's 30,000 acres are 'taxable'. At best 800 commercial, and 3,200 residential acres generate more revenues than they consume in city services, due to the high fraction of the region's poor living in the city. DC has more than 1800 military-related acres which could, if fully developed at high density, double DC's local tax base (nom. $4 billion). A DC acre can yield annual revenues up to $4 million commercially, or $2 million residentially. Development now underway near the Navy Yard/Marine Barracks shows what federal/DC cooperation can do. We recommend six facilities be closed and their property privatized, including: Bolling Air Force Base, the Anacostia Naval Station, and the Naval Research Lab, totaling 1000 prime acres on the eastern shores of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers; the sprawling 40-acre Naval Security Station now occupied by the Homeland Security Agency in the middle of DC's richest residential area; the near-empty 320-acre US Soldiers and Airmen's Home near the Georgia Avenue/- Petworth metro station; and one of DC's most priceless sites, the outmoded 18-acre Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery facility between the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center. Three existing sites can surely take on more military-related functions, and probably offer some city revenue-generating capacity as well. These include the 110-acre Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the 100-acre Ft. McNair Defense University, and the 80-acre Naval Observatory Circle. The residual displaced functions can probably be performed within a few miles of the District on less than 500 acres. Such space must be available within the 22,500 total acres of Ft. Meade, Ft. Belvoir, and Andrews AFB (i.e., 3/4ths the size of DC!). To aid regional economic development, we urge as much growth as possible at Andrews AFB as a major "destination" in the area's least developed southeast quadrant. Our non-profit organization was incorporated to stimulate national interest in making America's capital city the world's best. We have devoted eight years to preparing analytical information for our extensive educational web site. Within DC's limited confines, crowded by the federal government on one side, and burdened by a large underprivileged population on the other, there are very few options for making the city both financially and sociologically stronger. These recommendations provide a rare win-win-win situation for the Defense Department, the national capital city, and all Americans who want their capital city to be the world's best. NARPAC would like to offer informal comments on your recent presentation on downtown developments east of the Convention Center. We have been trying to encourage DC to accept its role as the nation's (if not the world's) capital city for some years now, and is very frustrated by the small-town, parochial view taken by so many of its leaders and planners. Clearly, your role is different, so I offer you a few things to consider: 1. The city is involved in developing its new long-range Comprehensive Plan and has recently released its "Vision" document intended to guide the formulation of that plan. How in the world can that "vision" include nothing whatsoever on the development of 'downtown", which is part of the key to being a world-class city? NARPAC's dissatisfaction with that 'vision' is now up on our educational web site at www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ.HTM. 2. Our biggest gripe with your presentation, and with OP in general, is that in almost all of its major development plans, it considers transportation needs to be secondary rather than fundamental and, in fact, precursory. This seems at least in part due to a) breaking up urban planning into too-small pieces and b) deferring to DDOT, which appears to have no grand regional vision at all. This shows in the new Convention Center layout itself; in the (probably unwise) redevelopment of the Carnegie Library; and in your current plans for NOMA et al. These will very markedly increase the residential and business density of the area with its inevitable increase in both moving and "static" (parked) vehicular traffic as well. We believe that DC can be a national embarrassment not just for its murder rate, school drop-outs and teen-moms, but also for ignoring its growing traffic problems both around and inside our "hub city". Let me offer four traffic-related suggestions intended to be creatively constructive and important to DC's future image: 2a. DC's real "signature transportation system" is its modern Metrorail system (not its bike trails or proposed traffic-choking street trolleys). In this regard, your planning seems to pay no attention to making the relevant stations more accessible from greater distances (i.e, say, from 6-8 blocks around rather than 3-4 blocks around. Creative use of "moving sidewalks" either above grade or below grade, for instance, could reduce street-level pedestrian flow and increase public transit use. They could also serve "destinations" like the MCI Center, the Convention Center, the DC Museum (should it survive!) and the new city library, Such an investment should not be forced onto Metro to pay for, but accepted by the "smart growth" city itself. 2b. Planners trying to turn major DC avenues into "boulevards" seem to remain doggedly blind to the major role of these arteries in the essential through-traffic demands of a major hub city. Both commercial, commuter, and residential traffic must necessarily increase, and now be complicated by evacuation planning as well. For instance, your two major avenues are both to be designated as "TR-1" truck routes for routine 24/7 use by trucks up to 40 tons. It's time to think of what a forward-looking 21st Century boulevard should look like, not a 19th Century one. 2c. We believe it is high time to stop planning urban space as a two-dimensional plane where everything is joyously mixed together at "grade-level". Why not get onboard the new thinking about "urban decks" and start elevating your people-friendly "plazas" above the whir of the traffic, while moving public transit and through-commercial traffic to a lower (below-grade) level?. This idea is actually included in the new Convention Center that lets L Street pass through it. It seems to us that this three-level vision has application throughout your new areas, and certainly to the neighboring rail yards as well: an open-air pedestrian/shopper/get-together level atop a local traffic level atop a through-traffic level. 2d. Lastly, and of particular interest to NARPAC, is the matter of what to do with "static traffic" that clogs street lanes built for moving traffic. The short-term parkers, for deliveries, service vehicles, etc., need controlled, indented curbside parking that charges them for using curbside space (using new "e-z-pass" technologies), and levies fines against violators (using red-light-runner technologies.). The longer term parkers should be obliged to use off-street parking, and we strongly support the new automated parking systems that increase parking volumetric density by 3x to 4x, and also permit selective fee structures based on the vehicle's "smart growth compatibility". It also allows the use of peculiar volumes above and below ground. Our rudimentary parking analyses are at www.narpac.org/METROPRK.HTM. In this last respect, since you are looking for temporary uses for the Old Convention Center site, you might well get two or three competing contractors for automated parking systems to put up temporary, perhaps highly visible, units. These prototypes could demonstrate their feasibility, gain user acceptance, and make the city appear forward-looking at the same time. Why shouldn't America's capital try to catch up with European and Asian capitals in this regard? We are sometimes long-winded, but always dedicated to making DC a better, and more forward-looking, capital city. We are frequently found trying to push the Office of Planning in that direction, and wish OP had an Urban Traffic Solutions office. Stop Kicking the Can Down the Schoolhouse Corridor NARPAC was surprised on Monday that no one picked up on the editor's earlier homily re the stupidity of hiring a lifelong Californian as DC's school superintendent for a single year, with the wan hope of transforming him (and his family) into East Coast transplants. For once, our views coincide! DC leadership is grasping at straws. The wistful rationales a) that a short-timer could break dishes that a long-timer wouldn't lift, b) that this short-timer could then be convinced to stay longer, or c) that a second hero would then pick up the mess, seem mutually inconsistent. Those advocating this option make four other naive assumptions: a) broken dishes will make better students; b) there are useful similarities between DC's and Long Beach's collections of students, staff, parents, and activists; c) DCPS's endemic problems originate or can be resolved inside the system; and d) a Big Name from Afar can outperform a Local Expert with Teeth. Let's get serious. Bite the bullet, DC! Get some high-powered pro-bono lawyers to convince Superior Court Presiding Judge Steffen Graae that DCPS should be put in receivership for four years, and then get him to appoint David Gilmore as Receiver. Together, they did a fine job with DCHA a while back, and Gilmore is already working the thankless task of DCPS Transportation Administrator. He won't hold the city up for $300-600K a year, and he surely knows the relationships between DC's kids, their neighborhoods, and their school bureaucracies. Stop wasting the kids' futures! And stop abusing the national capital city's image! Resolving DC's Real Long-term "Structural Imbalance" Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for including my organization's views in the Record. NARPAC was founded to address the embarrassing public image of our nation's capital city held by many Americans, and by other countries as well (murders, drug use, teen moms, et al). For eight years, we have analyzed DC's problems and offered solutions (largely unheeded) on our educational web site (see last page). We do not lobby and we do not promote unchallenged conventional wisdom. We agree that our capital city could benefit from additional revenues, federal, regional or local, for capital investment or debt relief, but not for DC's inefficiently delivered operating costs. Our rationale is simple: America's capital city should be the best possible symbol of what this country stands for, but not for what it doesn't stand for. We are adamant that our city should not lobby or beg for hand-outs based on faulty inputs (viz., Iraq!). We reject using mythical conspiracies and false financial threats to build a misleading case for making our capital city the world's best. Let me first highlight the faulty inputs and then offer remedies other than federal cash subsidies. For impact, I will be blunt and oversimplify the issues. Better explanations are provided on our web site. The GAO report, so widely endorsed by advocates of hand-outs, contains serious analytical flaws. It should have been subjected to a separate challenge. It applies a dubious methodology that seeks to identify average operating expenditures, based on average bureaucratic performance, adjusted for unique local conditions. It was developed to rationalize the distribution of federal grants. Did you note this same approach justifies equivalent (often much larger) hand-outs to 28 other states just to become "average", and that DC has one of the highest revenue-generating capacities? DC's $700M higher incremental "worst case" imbalance ($1.16B) stems primarily from what DC can "afford to pay" in taxes and, we believe, was miscalculated. Recalculation by NARPAC indicates a $480M arithmetic error based on GAO application of an unfamiliar methodology. If living and working within five miles of the nation's capitol dome can justify "box seat" taxes 10% higher than the national norm, the imbalance declines $500M more. The low estimate of $470M is far too high based on more substantive analytical errors in "should spend" estimates for city police and firefighters (while school spending is judged about right!). The imbalance can be shifted from -$470M to +$700M if: a) police force levels are assumed to be dictated by violent crime rates, not murder rates; b) wages are kept to the BLS average for cities rather than arbitrarily increased; and c) urban workload factors are used vice national factors. Unfunded capital investment needs are badly exaggerated by using unchallenged estimates of DCPS facility requirements based on poor enrollment projections, school and land utilization. Extrapolating current school enrollment, and applying national urban average school size can cut this 6-year backlog ($1.2B) by perhaps $300M: selling surplus properties yields over $500M more. On the other hand, capital investment in the city's transportation infrastructure, also unchallenged, (defined broadly to include parking, trash, RRoWs, etc.) is probably underestimated by $3-5B. Did you know there are no plans to extend Metrorail trackage inside DC in the next 10-20 yrs? DC's operating costs are abnormal because DC has perhaps 4 times it share of the region's poor. Does the federal government really want the nation's capital city to be its regional poorhouse? Finally, NARPAC has tried (harder than DC's CFO!) to quantify the net costs of the federal presence. We conclude they are trivial compared to the benefits of hosting the nation's capital. How can DC claim it is "denied (almost $200M in) property taxes" from federal parklands? NARPAC concludes DC should be making far greater capital investments in its infrastructure, from roads and rails, to sewers and sidewalks, while spending less on the perennial consequences of poverty. We also conclude that DC's "missing state" status is overblown, and can be offset by a "willing metro area". Congress, then, can best assure DC's financial future via policy changes to: Eliminate arbitrary constraints (fed or local) on DC's own revenue-producing potential by: 1. Removing any federal objections or statutes prohibiting the development of much taller, denser buildings near DC's boundaries with its neighboring "edge cities" (outside L'Enfant's Bowl); 2. Requiring DC to provide high-density zoning around all existing/future transportation nodes paid for all or in part by federal funds (defeat local NIMBYs); 3. Motivating DC to sell off its surplus school properties, by offering to also: 4. Cede to DC surplus federal properties for high-density development, using the ongoing BRAC Round to realign/close outmoded military bases (doubling DC's high-revenue commercial acreage); 5. Eliminating bans on inter-jurisdictional taxes rooted in Congressional conflicts of interest; Impose regional burdensharing by making only regional grants (equitably allocated) for: 1. first-class regional transportation infrastructure; 2. affordable/subsidized housing combined with employment, adult education/skill training; 3. unique (broadly defined) health and learning disability problems, etc. Thank you for your attention. Feel free to visit our web site at www.narpac.org Due to the length of this statement, it is included within the relevant chapter. Due to the length of this statement, it is included
within the relevant chapter. My 7 year-old non-profit group is trying to make all Americans more aware of what it will take to make their nation's capital city world-class. We have built an ever-lengthening educational web site that analyzes problems and makes uninhibited suggestions for innovative solutions in this area-, height-, and NIMBY-limited "core city". Here are 12 notional suggestions, in no particular order, with click-on URLs to parts of our web site that address them at least superficially: 1. New technologies now make possible "robotic parking systems" which can triple the density of 3-D car parks. They can become important space-saving sources of city revenues, and of incentives for urban-friendly vehicles. Click here 2. The city is awash in surplus public schools with further enrollment reductions virtually guaranteed based on the past and continuing decline in teenage, single-mom births. We guess over 250-400 acres are going to waste. Click here 3. St. Elizabeth's Hospital represents one of DC's largest "surplus" tracts, but it is burdened with various historic and cultural constraints and taboos. The intersection between Martin Luther King and Alabama Aves provides an alternative high-density development opportunity while shifting low density obligations inside the campus. Click here 4. There are several large tracts that could be covered with urban decks that re-unite the city over its interstate highways. We had some UDC architectural school kids compete to design one to cover the I395 mess south of the Botanic Garden. Click here 5. One possible way to significantly increase DC's tourist and economic business would be to develop an "International Mall" to complement the National Mall (not shopping centers!). We propose permanent pavilions from various major countries (as might be left over from a World's Fair) combined with living accommodations (as might be left over from an Olympic Games) to provide temporary residences for foreign nationals visiting/studying in the US. We suggest the Park Service swap some parkland and let DC develop Ft. DuPont Park along Mass Ave SE, to match the embassies along Mass Ave NW. Click here 6. Contrary to the Committee of 100, we suggest that NCRC look very closely at fighting those antiquated building height limits at distances greater than 4 miles from the Washington Monument (ground zero!). Why on earth shouldn't development of DC's "edge cities" be symmetrical inside and outside its boundaries? Candidate areas include Friendship Heights, Silver Spring, Tacoma Park, and eventually Deanwood/Cheverly and Capital Heights. After all, most of Alexandria and Arlington are within that distance! Click here 7. One of the odd things about the development of Columbia Heights et al is that most arterial flow is north-south, and very little east-west. Big box stores planned west of Rock Creek are not going to be frequented by the big bucks east of Rock Creek. Absent better cross-town roads, it is easier to go to Virginia or Maryland. Click here 8. The enormous socioeconomic imbalance across the city leaves only two of DC's eight Wards producing more revenues than they consume in city services. Improving "productivity' suggests the need for more commercial development and less emphasis on middle-class (?) households with kids. Hopefully NCRC uses realistic analytical estimates of each new development project's net productivity. Click here 9. Eventually, the federal government and the over-extended military will have to give up their underutilized bases/facilities along the southwest bank of the Anacostia/Potomac (Bolling AFB, Naval Air Base, NRL, et al). Basic infrastructure development East of the Anacostia should fully support, not prematurely constrain, this growth. Click here 10. There is no practical way for DC with 8% of the metro area's wealth (and dropping) and 25% of the metro area's poverty (and steady), to compete with the suburban economic growth. We do not think the solution lies in taxing commuters or begging from the feds. It lies in sharing poverty, not re-distributing wealth. Recent studies on "structural imbalance" are very inaccurate and no substitute for developing strong regional ties. NCRC could help DC find regional solutions to problems like affordable housing, special ed, public health, adult ed, etc. Click here and Click here 11. City planners treat our world-class Metro system as a fixed, immutable system, even while predicting its imminent saturation downtown. They seek cheaper, second-class alternatives to compensate for its incompleteness. It is not viewed (as in Maryland and Virginia) as a precursor to first-class intelligent growth. We believe the city should exercise rights of eminent domain to achieve high-density developments around existing stations, and begin the lengthy process of developing several in-fill stations and whole new lines and connectors where additional development is needed. Again Click here 12. There is now on average more than one historic site per acre of DC non-roadway land. The extensive use of such protections to avoid or compromise essential growth is beginning to strangle DC's long-range economic potential. NCRC would do well to resist pandering to these and other special interest groups with no financial accountability to the city. We wish you great success in your very important endeavors to make DC economically self-sufficient and part of a world-class national capital metro area.. Here are the views of my non-profit organization on your proposed Washington-Baltimore "Maglev" Line. We could not attend your December 15th Open House, but have scanned the DEIS on your web site. We invite you to visit our web site at www.narpac.org. Frankly, we consider the notion of spending $5 billion to hurtle people between Baltimore and Washington at 250 mph on a unique guideway to be a gross abuse of scarce transportation funds, regardless of source. It is a good example of a dubious and remarkably inflexible technological solution groping to find an equally dubious problem. This may be the only novel technology on the railroad horizon, but it seems totally unrelated to the unresolved policy issues that make American passenger rail transportation a laughing stock for the world. The US needs a Federal Railroad Agency that accepts responsibility for the nation's rail infrastructure in the same fashion that the FAA tends our airways, and the FHWA tends our highways. Let the Feds assure our major national rights of way, and let private industry compete to provide the best service over them. If this were applied to AMTRAK, it could become a valuable national asset. In addition, the deplorable state of disrepair of railroad rights of way, particularly within American metro areas, is a national disgrace. NARPAC suggests you apply about 0.2% of the proposed Maglev funding to redesigning and renovating the guano-, trash-, and rust-infested railroad ROWs (including bridges) that traverse our nation's capital city and suburbs. They present a stark reminder of the federal government's inability to cope with the obvious, while grasping for R&D gimmicks. For commuters who wonder why they should be taxed to help the nation's capital city pay its own (inflated) municipal bills, consider the following two current issues: a) the DC Council is on the verge of passing legislation to cap real estate tax increases, even though the majority of those taxes are paid by some of the metro area's wealthiest land owners; and b) DC's Office of Planning is recommending capping the height of buildings along Wisconsin Avenue between Friendship Heights and Tenleytown to less than half of that already bringing far higher revenues to Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Montgomery Counties. Instead of pressing for hand-outs from the suburbs, wouldn't it make more sense for DC residents to belly up to their own costs of living in the nation's capital, while those living in its suburbs belly up to paying the real costs of alleviating regional traffic gridlock? My small, non-profit organization exists in an attempt to remind city officials (not the Federal gov't), that the eyes of the country are upon them, and that the future of the city is a matter of national concern and interest. Our major product is our educational web site. I would like to offer three comments relevant to your own challenging new job: 1) the city government frequently complains that the Feds take up too much space, and don't pay the costs of their presence. This is patently absurd, since the city would look like Camden, NJ, were it not for the national capital presence. Nevertheless, residents are sensitive to this issue, and we would recommend wherever possible that a) you try not to encroach on scarce city land (even though DC doesn't use it very efficiently), and b) you try to use your existing lands as efficiently as national prestige will permit. The acres of ugly surface parking surrounding your properties, for instance, seem to squander scarce resources. My next two comments relate to this: 2) one new "technology" that deserves your consideration is automated, or "robotic" parking which allows a substantial increase in the volumetric density of those inevitable parking needs. Our web site discusses various aspects of this issue here and shows some existing designs. Interest from the Architect of the Capitol could help jump start this new (to the US) scheme. 3) another new "technology" is the concept of the "urban deck". We kibitzed on the proposed urban deck around the Kennedy Center here. Subsequently we held a (primitive) design competition among UDC architectural students to cover over the ugly and divisive interstate I395 just south of the Botanic Garden. This amateurish beginning was an attempt to draw attention to this vast wasteland between Ford and Longworth HOBs which could generate huge opportunities for underground parking and above ground government buildings, monuments, and parks. You can get a feel for this at here REALIZING THE POTENTIAL OF ST.
ELIZABETH'S: NARPAC, or 'Ward 10' if you prefer, is a non-profit organization working to improve DC's regional, national, and worldwide image as a city, not just as the seat of the US Government. When DC looks bad, we know it hurts national pride, and damages our worldwide national image. The city's often negative image primarily results from its deplorable statistics on crime, education, health, drugs, etc., which we believe result mainly from the poverty caused by inadequate education. But we see no reason why Washington should rank below most US cities. Many of these unfavorable statistics originate East of the Anacostia as residents there are well aware. Our analyses indicate DC already spends over half its tax proceeds on programs for the poor. We estimate Ward 8 alone costs the city $485 million more in services than it contributes annually in revenues. Increasing revenues will be require better land use. We calculate that a fully developed commercial acre produces far more 'net revenues' than a typical residential acre. DC has only 13,000 taxable acres of any kind, and little unused land to produce the additional revenues it needs. St. Elizabeth's 300-odd acres present a rare opportunity to improve conditions for Ward 8, the entire city, and, yes, Ward 10. Besides reinforcing other new projects such as Camp Simms and Henson Ridge, we see three key goals for St. E's: providing major additional net revenues for DC from within and outside the site; benefitting local residents through jobs, recreation, better housing, and amenities; and creating opportunities to redress the educational deficits that perpetuate the 'cycle of poverty'. Much of St. E's land is constrained by difficult terrain and historic preservation constraints. Half of the prime land that's left has been set aside for DC's new smaller mental hospital and Command Center. Neither will generate significant new revenues. To compensate, innovative and lucrative uses for the 100-odd acres of steep bluffs and ravines should be pursued. If not, we suggest they be traded to the Park Service for equal acres of "develop-able" land elsewhere. We also favor "up-zoning" some parcels outside St. E's to high-density, mixed use to enable retaining a residential flavor inside. NARPAC envisions a major new memorial traffic circle just southeast of the site as the focal point for such high-revenue development. St. E's rebirth should be inspired by several far-reaching, community demands: 1) base redevelopment on a solid new transportation network East of the Anacostia, i.e., major roads, parking facilities, and substantial extensions of DC's world-class Metrorail system; 2) resist excessive application of 'historic preservation', saving only the original northeast facade of the "Center Building" and a few of the repetitive, inefficient newer buildings; 3) use this opportunity to address Ward 8's many vacant/abandoned homes and surplus/underutilized school properties to see what can be "bundled" into this ward-wide renovation; and perhaps most important, 4) gradually but permanently reduce the number of Ward 8's welfare recipients, possibly by converting some of St. E's more modern buildings to continuing education centers for needy teen-age moms. DC's future ultimately lies in developing the 'provinces' East of the Anacostia until they are as prosperous and inviting as those anywhere in our nation's capital. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is at hand. Ward 10 hopes that Ward 8 residents will get positively involved and make it happen. . NARPAC congratulates you for sponsoring the South Capitol Street Gateway and Improvement Study. We are contributing, after our fashion, to the public meetings now underway. We formed NARPAC in 1996 in the hopes of developing greater national interest in restor-ing pride in our nation's capital city and the metro area of which it is an essential, though often neglected, part. The major output of our all-volunteer, non-profit organization is an extensive educational web site on which we explore analytically all the underpinnings of DC's tenuous socioeconomic conditions. Please visit us at our web site. The major conclusion of our work is that, like many other "inner cities", DC has way more than its share of the metro area's poor, and way too little of the region's resources. This has become a form of "jurisdictional discrimination" which can only be resolved by fostering greater metro area cooperation at the highest levels of government. We are also convinced that DC cannot become economically sound until its properties East of the Anacostia River are properly developed. But DC's area EOA cannot be fully productive unless the "Southeast Quadrant" of the metro area (your District!) develops apace. We therefore urge you to stimulate more joint development planning between Southern Maryland and DC. Their futures are intimately connected, and depend on evolving land uses, transportation networks, federal property swaps, etc. Extending Metro to Annapolis is one relevant case in point, the future of Andrews AFB another. We would like to work with you or a member of your staff to develop suggestions for further areas in which you could stimulate the Congress to assist in assuring that our nation's capital metro area is a source of abiding American pride. Please call on us at any time. Please refer to Testimony at DC Council Roundtable Welcome to the unenviable task of chairing the DC Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee! We would very much appreciate the opportunity to pay you a courtesy call and offer you the services of our organization in delving into DC's seemingly endless problems. We formed NARPAC in 1996 in the hopes of developing greater national interest in restoring pride in our nation's capital city, and the metro area of which it is an essential, though often neglected, part. The major output of our all-volunteer, non-profit organization is an extensive educational web site on which we explore analytically all the underpinnings of DC's tenuous socioeconomic conditions. Please visit us at our web site. The major conclusion of our work is that, like many other "inner cities", DC has way more than its share of the metro area's poor, and way too little of the region's resources. This has become a form of "jurisdictional discrimination" which can only be resolved by fostering greater metro area cooperation at the highest levels of government. As you will note from the attached correspondence after last Fall's elections, we believe that the Congress should retain a substantial interest in DC's future, and in assuring a level socioeconomic playing field for all American metro areas. We strongly urge you to elevate your oversight, and reconsider the very nature of the committee structure needed to address the set of national problems which DC shares. NARPAC would be delighted to participate in any hearings you might hold on this basic American domestic issue. We wish you well in your new assignment, but hope that you will keep in mind that, as practiced in recent years, it does not address the core issues at stake here and elsewhere. Please feel free to call on us at any time. Attached: NARPAC Itr to the Vice President, 11/18/02 We would like to commend you on your position on the new Purple Line segment. Like yourself, we believe that the region should continue to extend its first-class heavy rail Metro system, and not settle for rinky-dink trolley systems on the cheap. We hope you will continue to stress your preference, and seek the concurrence other regional jurisdictions. There will probably be situations where a less permanent public transit route is needed. In these cases, we recommend that you come down on the side of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) rather than Light Rail Transit (LRT) for five reasons: 1) BRT does not necessarily involve the permanent dedication of any surface-level rights of way; 2) there are no costs for track and power sources; 3) BRT routes can easily be changed as demand or circum-stances dictate; 4) accidents involving, or break-downs of, BRT equipment can easily be cleared from the right of way; and 5) there are no slick rails to cause auto accidents. If you want to learn more about the relative merits of these systems, and have the time (or insomnia), please log onto our web site. Introduction NARPAC is glad to be here with you. Many of you young people represent the future of DC, good or bad! We may be different than other panelists here. We look for solutions to the problems that the media uncovers. Our background is different too: we view the world through the mindset of senior engineers and analysts. We think looking for practical solutions to challenging problems has four distinct elements: o correctly defining the root problem: (skeptical
analysis of available data both direct and by comparison to relevant
set) Our Perspective of Current Issues in DC: The driving problems are that: o the Inner City has been unable to break "cycle
of poverty" just like other inner cities; Earlier correspondence is also available online: This page was updated on Aug 5, 2005
    
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