U r b a n T r e k k e r

Bees at Work

I was just looking to take pictures of the streets around where I live, when I heard the bees buzzing around these flowers. It's fascinating to see how they work. And these guys work really heard. 

Check this out. 

Streets of Arlington: Clarendon

When you have a camera and wandering around the neighborhood, this is what you get. Pictures of streets in Clarendon.

Urban (City) vs. Suburban Living (in Pictures)

Images speak louder than words. Here are some pictures I took recently in DC and Arlington East Falls Church neighborhood. You can see the striking difference between urban (city) living and living in the DC suburb like Arlington. I took the pictures of the streets in Arlington's East Falls Church and Dupont Circle at the same day. 

At EFC streets, you don't see that many people as on the streets of Northwest DC in downtown, Dupont Circle and George Washington University. Living in the city have its advantage: people, walkability to stores, easy access to public transportation, etc. In the suburb of DC like Arlington, unless you're really close to the center of - along orange line metro in Arlington - there's practically not much going on around your neighborhood. People seldom walk. Walk means exercise. Other than that, they drive. (I'm guilty of it, too). 

What do we have here in our hood? The closest stores we have around our neighborhood in North Arlington (a mile from EFC metro), is CVS, 7/11, a Chinese restaurant, a deli and a few other mom and pop stores.. that offer basic services.

That's the suburb for you.

A side note: the pictures you see below are mixed with some old pictures I've taken from around Rosslyn neighborhood in Arlington. I have taken like thousands of neighborhoods pictures in Northern Virginia and Washington DC, but just haven't had the chance to upload them. I'll add more sets when I have time. 

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Are We There Yet? DC's Transportation Blueprint

This show is part of PBS' Blueprint America series about U.S. infrastructure, where Kojo Nnamdi hosts a panel of transportation experts to talk about the metro Washington DC transportation blueprint and where's taking us. The first 5 minutes or so is the most important part of the whole discussions. It lays out all kinds of transportation projects each jurisdiction - District of Columbia, Maryland, Baltimore, and Virginia - are working on. (yours truly was among the audience.)

“Its not about getting people from point A to point B, but more about building better communities,” said Robert Thomson aka “Dr. Gridlock” of The Washington Post, one of three guests panelists along with Ron Kirby, Director of Transportation for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; and Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Greater Washington Research at the Brookings Institute. [via Blueprint America]

Building better communities, that's the challenges we have...

Are We There Yet? D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

Are We There Yet, D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint (2) from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

Green Bicycle Lanes in Copenhagen

I was at a meeting yesterday, when one of the presenters speak so highly about Copenhagen clean energy economy, this and that. So, it prompted me to explore more what else does the Danes have? Something that we can learn from them in addition to their clean energy economy. The answer is: their life style. For example, biking.

"Cycling, is like brushing your teeth," they say. Because they just don't think about it. It's part of their daily life. About 37% of its residents bike to work, school or university. What's good about the traffic system, is this.

Cyclists have priority over cars and pedestrians at many major junctions and traffic lights.

Maybe this is why Copenhagen is voted as the world's best bike city.

There's a Third Side to DC: Anthony Bourdain

That's Anthony Bourdain saying it on his "No Reservations" DC part 2. 

Buying a House Using Walkability Score

The other day I posted Getting to Walkability presentation from DC office of Planning. It got me thinking that the same method can also be used by buyers. DC is using the walkability for different things related to planning, for transportation and neighborhood livability. I know from my days in the trenches, few of my buyers were looking for the walkability factor.

Personally, for me, the ability to walk to everything comes to reality, when we had the snowoverkill last January. After two days of home stay, I walked to the nearest store 7/11.. and you know what, we had lines. As crazy as it sounds, people were actually find comfort to know that their neighborhood's store is open.

Washington DC is number 7 out of 2,508 walkable neighborhoods in the nation. You can find walkers paradise or neighborhoods that have high score of walkability in DC. Out of perfect 100 score, these are best 10 walkable neighborhoods in DC: Dupont Circle (99), Logan Circle (98), Downtown (97-all points), U Street Corridor (97), Foggy Bottom (95), Mount Vernon Square (95), Adams Morgan (93), Kalorama (92)    , Friendship Heights (90) and Georgetown (90). Low on the list is Catholic U (61), Petworth (60), Foxhall Village (58), Berkley (54), Deanwood (49), The Palisades (48), Anacostia (48) and Barnaby Woods (44).

The walkable neighborhoods mostly concentrated in the District. Across the river, depending on where you want to buy - Arlington County, City of Alexandria and Falls Church - these neighborhoods offer somewhat walkable. Along the orange line, that stretch from Rosslyn to East- West Falls Church, they have some neighborhoods that have higher walkable score.

There's an advantage to living in walkable neighborhoods. You're within walking distance to shopping, transportation, parks, library and other neighborhood amenities. However, good location has something to do with home prices. The price per square footage will be higher.

Let's say, you are looking for a single home somewhere in Falls Church near zip code 22043, which is outside the boundary of the City of Falls Church. Using Homes Database, I picked these four single homes below. These four homes are somewhat comparable #1 and 2, #3 and 4.

House #1: 2003 Miracle Lane, list price $680,000

House #2: 6727 Montour Drive, list price $670,000

House #3: 6503 Orland Street, list price $649,000

House #4: 2400 Claremont Drive, list price $649,000

First thing you do is to enter the address of each of the home you're looking at to get the walk score here. Once done, it'll populated with information that can help you decide, i.e. metro station, stores, library, school, etc. - anything that's close by.

Here's what the score tells you:

• House #1: is totally car dependent. Score is 20 out of 100. The nearest 7/11 (in case of snow) is about 0.92 mi. 
• House #2: car dependent. Score 28. However, you're about half a mile walk to Orange line .
• House #3: car dependent. Better score 30. It's close to Haycock Elementary school, about half a mile. 
• House #4: still car dependent. Score 45. This one has the best score so far. Subway, Starbucks within half a mile. But away from a metro station. 

So now you decide, which one that best fits your needs.

SELLERS: you can also do the same - find the score - to give that extra kick on the value of your home.

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Anthony Bourdain in DC

His tell the truth style on DC food scene.

Proposed Home Energy Rebates

President Obama supports home energy rebates for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. The existing home market is much bigger than new homes. So, there's lots of opportunities to be created here. Via White House.

...I'm calling on Congress to consider a new program to provide incentives for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy-efficient, which we know creates jobs, saves money for families, and reduces the pollution that threatens our environment.  And I'm proposing that we expand select Recovery Act initiatives to promote energy efficiency and clean energy jobs which have been proven to be particularly popular and effective.

The additional values of energy retrofit (besides all the good stuff mentioned above) is the potential for higher homes valuation. Improvements should be documented, sort like comparing the before and after, for potential buyers to see the 'values' in it.

For full transcript here, press releases here.

Charlie Brown: Thanksgiving

I love Charlie Brown.. up to this day.. 

Enjoy..