Earlier I wrote about opening up more of DC's blocked off areas to bicycles. The NIH has a done a good job of this in Bethesda building a small (if not formally for bikes) trail south of it's new perimeter fence, but that was because residents had gotten used to crossing the campus - it's different opening up a previously closed area.
With Walter Reed scheduled to close, the question has come up - what to do with the spacious campus? The answer came this week when the GSA asked for 34 acres for office space and the State Department requested the remainder for embassies.
The part that interested me is this:
"It is considerably more likely that Walter Reed will be spoken for,'' said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who was briefed by Army officials yesterday. She said she hopes to fight for a sliver of the base to be turned over to the city for retail development along Georgia Avenue NW.
I also hope she fights for an even smaller sliver of land along Aspen St. - the southern edge of Walter Reed - for a bike trail. The western edge of the 0.5 mile trail would connect to Sherrill Drive in Rock Creek Park (a street that is closed to vehicular traffic on weekends), and the eastern edge is only 0.6 miles from the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Maybe one of the embassies they open will be Dutch.
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