Tracy Hadden Loh
Grtr Grtr Washington
Washington, DC, United States
Contact Tracy
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Tracy:
Please welcome Chelsea Allinger, GGWash’s new executive director
GGWash chose not to endorse Chelsea Allinger when she ran for ANC 1D05 in 2018. We’ve taken a second look, and today we are thrilled to announce that she will become our new executive director. → Read More
The real estate industry is divesting from Donald Trump—but divesting from white supremacy requires more
The real estate industry has been complicit in white supremacy and racial discrimination long before Trump took office. Will the repudiation of Trump lead to a wider reckoning? → Read More
Next week’s Beltway/I-270 toll lane widening vote has been rescheduled
Next week's Board of Public Works (BPW) vote on Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's proposal to add four privately-financed on I-495 and I-270 has been delayed. Residents have raised a variety of concerns about the proposal, which would likely encourage more driving, contribute to global warming emissions, and require some homes and businesses to be razed. → Read More
Build more housing in Montgomery County using this one weird trick
My recent look at zoning in the DC region revealed that 82% of land in Montgomery County (not including Rockville and Gaithersburg, which both have local zoning control) is either protected open space (35%) or restricted to detached single family zones (48%). These are staggering numbers. → Read More
Where the Washington region is zoned for single-family homes: an update
Yesterday I wrote a post about single-family zoning in the Washington region. I got a lot of constructive feedback on the post, some of which was incorporated into revisions. Readers also wanted to know why I hadn't disaggregated undevelopable land, such as agricultural reserve, preserved open space, and federal lands from single-family zoning. Well… → Read More
Ellicott City flooded again. Was this a man-made or natural disaster?
All eyes are on stormwater management in Howard County following Memorial Day weekend's stunning images of floods rampaging through historic Ellicott City in Maryland. Why are these floods happening, and can anything be done about it? → Read More
Low ridership, not low fares, is responsible for TheBus’s meager revenue
Prince George’s County is looking at ways to improve “TheBus,” its local bus service. Of all the local transit systems inside the Beltway, TheBus has by far the smallest fraction of its operating costs covered by fares, so there is a strong financial incentive increase ridership. But first we have to ask: why doesn’t TheBus make more money? → Read More
TheBus needs weekend and evening service, but there are no plans to introduce it soon
Prince George’s TheBus is currently the only bus system inside the Beltway with no weekend or evening service. Expansion of service beyond weekday daytime is the most common improvement requested by county residents, but there are no plans to implement it in the short-term. → Read More
Electric scooters join the dockless bikeshare experiment. Is it now a revolution?
The pilot period for dockless bikeshare in the District of Columbia hasn’t concluded yet, but it’s already been disrupted by the next innovation – sharable electric scooters — and disrupted again with Uber’s purchase of JUMP last week. GGWash contributors flagged these developments as a particularly significant evolution for the personal mobility space. → Read More
TheBetterBus: Prince George’s County is working on a plan to improve “TheBus” service
Prince George’s County’s TheBus service provides transportation for thousands of residents every weekday. By several measurements, however, its ridership and cost-effectiveness are among the lowest in the region. TheBus can be better, and we’ll be exploring how in a series of posts. → Read More
Prince George’s will replace most of its county elected officials this year. Will they set a good path?
This is a year where everything is on the table, and showing up to the polls will tremendously influence the next eight years of Prince George's future. → Read More
Bipartisan legislators aim to prevent a football stadium bidding war
An unlikely bipartisan team of legislators from Maryland, Virginia, and DC want to prevent a bidding war over the Washington football team stadium. → Read More
Is Amazon’s second headquarters worth the price to cities?
Amazon's hunt for a second headquarters has sparked a debate about the value of competing for corporate locations. Do jurisdictions and cities gain more than they pay in incentives? → Read More
Is scapegoating “Maryland drivers” racist?
“Maryland drivers are the worst!” I admit, I've said it many times. It's a common joke heard around DC and on Twitter. At first scan, this joke might seem like the same regional scapegoating that happens everywhere (”Massachusetts drivers are the worst!,” ”California drivers are the worst!,” and so on). But when WAMU reporter Martin Austermuhle repeated this old saw recently, a listener reached… → Read More
DC is on the verge of ditching a harmful traffic law
Right now, DC has a law that keeps drivers from being held responsible for damages when they harm vulnerable road users. After years of organizing and effort, the DC Council is about to vote on a proposal to change this. You have a chance to speak up. → Read More
A bus line from downtown to Mount Rainier is one step closer to reality
Neighborhoods around Rhode Island Avenue NE were built to depend on transit. A new bus, the G9, is one step closer to running along the corridor, from downtown to Mount Rainier. → Read More
A new bus line would give Rhode Island Avenue the transit it was meant to have
The G9, a new bus line that would run along Rhode Island Avenue from Mount Rainier into downtown, will become a reality if the DC Council decides to fund it this week. The G9 would give residents in the corridor a much-needed way to get downtown by transit, which their neighborhoods were built around in the first place. → Read More
Going Dutch: Planners from the Netherlands make suggestions for bike lanes in DC
In late April, Dutch cycling experts met with DC area planners, engineers, and feds to look at cycling conditions in the West End neighborhood. They all teamed up to draft a plan that would build connections to trails and add new segments of on-street bikeways, all with the goal of creating a safe, easy-to-use cycling network. → Read More
Metro's new bus prediction system is pretty accurate, but leave yourself some extra time
Metro recently swapped out its seven-year-old bus predictions system for a new one called BusETA. Last week, fourteen Greater Greater Washington contributors and staff audited BusETA for accuracy. Overall, the system performed well enough, but buses sometimes came earlier than predicted, and "ghost buses" are still real. → Read More
When Metro closed, commuters took to the trails
When Metro closed on Wednesday, its 700,000 daily riders had to find a different way to get around. I compared data from Wednesday to the previous week to see how trail use changed. → Read More