Many seem to be worried about the future of downtown Washington. Today, only about 60 per cent of workers have returned to their offices after the pandemic. This means that office buildings are running way below capacity, that many restaurants (and especially those which specialize in lunchtime business) have closed, and that many retail establishments are no longer operating, or are operating at a shoe string. It also means that commercial office leases, when they expire, are being renewed with much less space being put under lease, and that some firms have moved to suburban locations which might be much more convenient to their employees. At the same time, as people familiar with DC know, there have been many new and large commercial developments around town, such as at The Wharf and in the Navy Yard neighborhood (near the ball park), which pose competition for the downtown office space. At the same time, attempts to convert office buildings to residential space have proceeded very slowly – the cost is prohibitive, and the building footprints are very hard to use for residential purposes (much too much internal space). There has also been (in parts of downtown, particularly around busy bus stops, I believe) an uptick, or a perceived uptick in crime, and – to top everything else off, of course – there is the prospect of the Wizards and Capitals departing from downtown DC for Alexandria, which means that the Monumental Arena will be repurposed or replaced with (still to be determined) buildings designed for alternative uses, while, at the same time, restaurants near the arena will be hard put to keep operating.

OK, so that is one thing. But I am thinking about this today for a very different reason. I live just off Connecticut Avenue, a very major thoroughfare in North West Washington, about 5 miles from Metro Center. When I was working, I took Connecticut Avenue downtown every day. Now, in my retirement, one of the non-profits I work with has its offices about 10 miles from our house, but in the other direction. About once every couple of weeks, I drive Connecticut Avenue out to the suburbs in the mornings (generally between 8 and 9:30 a.m.) against the flow of traffic heading into town.

You would think that, with the downtown area still operating at 40% below its pre-Covid numbers, that the drive into town would be relatively easy. No such thing. The traffic is basically stopped for large sections of Connecticut Avenue on the ten mile stretch from Veirs Mill Road to the District line. I don’t know how long the drive would take form Veirs Mill to downtown DC, but I wouldn’t want to try it.

To me that means that we have an additional problem. Not only do we have diminished activity downtown. We have a clogged transportation system. As you may know, the underground Metro system does not go beyond Van Ness on Connecticut Avenue. Van Ness is about three quarters of a mile closer to downtown than our house. The Metro goes out Wisconsin Avenue/Rockville Pike, and it goes out 7th Street/Georgia Avenue, but not out Connecticut. Bus service is not bad between parts of downtown and the Maryland line (that’s about a mile beyond our house), but is very sporadic (maybe once an hour and maybe only rush hours?) beyond the District line.

If downtown activity picks up……how will people get there on a reasonable basis? And if people can’t get downtown on a reasonable basis….why do we think that business downtown will pick up? Of course, you say, if people on the Connecticut Avenue corridor can’t get downtown and others can, people who live off Connecticut Avenue might choose to work elsewhere, but there would be a sufficient number of people to fill downtown’s office buildings. But, that’s not the case because of the nature of many of the people who live in areas like Chevy Chase and Kensington, or who would drive to Connecticut Avenue on the Beltway, are downtown types – lawyers, consultants and so forth and, of course, government officials.

It’s pie-in-the-sky, but what we need is a commitment to build a transit route (probably most of it underground) between the Van Ness Red Line station, and the soon to be opened Purple Line station at Connecticut Avenue near Manor Road (with parking at that station). What happens when you mix Red and Purple? You get magenta? I think so. The Magenta Line. Of course, it could go (probably above ground) from the Purple Line station all the way to Aspen Hill.

The problem with that, of course, is that Metro is currently struggling to operate even on its current schedule. And, of course, that a new subway line would probably take ten years (maybe) to move from Concept (that would be today) to Design to Acquisition to Procurement to Construction and through Construction.

I wonder if other large cities are facing the same problem(s).