Repairing
Klingle Would Benefit City
December
11, 2002
Dear NW
Current Editor,
The city's decade-long neglect of Klingle
Parkway has damaged more than just the valley. Restoring Klingle
Parkway to public use will go a long way to restoring faith in our
government, and in each other.
Fixing the road will allow residents
to turn their energies to more important concerns. The tiny
Klingle tributary again will support one of the more
ecologically balanced and
natural aquatic faunal communities in the District.
(EPA, 1988) Klingle
finally will have its first storm water sewer system, like the one DPW
designed in 1991, with
detailed, 80-page plans that
had full federal funding and approval to go forward, including approval by
the Department of the Interior and the Federal Highway Administration. Citizens will have
the choice to travel under Connecticut Avenue and go around,
not through, Cleveland Park,
without diverting far to
the north or south through Van
Ness or Woodley Park.
Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., the
architect of Rock Creek Park, called the location of Klingle an
"obvious" place for a parkway. Once Olmsted's parkway
is restored,
this historic and
scenic route once
more will serve as cross-town access for all.
Traffic overall will flow more freely, benefiting city travelers including
ambulances and other emergency first responders. We can't repair all
of the damage, but with Klingle restored, perhaps we can avoid
situations like the recent choking death on Connecticut Avenue,
when an ambulance carrying DC Fire paramedic Ken Lyons was trapped
in traffic on Porter at Connecticut, unable to respond.
"All truth passes through three
stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) With Klingle
Parkway restored, we
can mend our fences, thankful in the knowledge that the city works for
all of its citizens. We can plant trees, and see
them grow.
Peter
McGee
Mt.
Pleasant
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