Metro Action Throws Wrench into the Salemtown Streetscape Project

MDHA notified Salemtown leaders that staff members of the Metro Action Commission, which occupies the old Fehr School Building in Salemtown, asked them not to install traffic-calming elements that were recommended by the neighborhood's elected advisory committee after three years of study and approved by all of the Metro departments that had to approve them. I served on the committee for the duration and not once did I witness MAC staffers attending open block grant meetings. Nor am I aware of any attempt on MAC's part to contact the committee and express their feedback during the process.

And yet, MDHA has stopped installing curb bump-outs because it has a past history of "deferring" to the wishes of Metro departments. The fact that MAC can undermine the construction process at the 11th hour outside of the civic process to which every other Salemtown stockholder submitted says to me that they believe that they can operate outside of the rules and without consideration of their neighbors. MAC is doing absolutely nothing to build good will in this community, and we need to watchdog them very closely.