AMEND TRANSPORTATION ACT

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1967

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE No. 4

OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 o'clock a.m., in Room 1310, Longworth House Office Building, Honorable Basil L. Whitener (Chairman of the Subcommittee), presiding.

Present: Representatives Whitener (presiding), Nelsen, Broyhill, Gude, Fuqua, and Adams.

Also present: James T. Clark, Clerk; Hayden S. Garber, Counsel; Sara Watson, Assistant Counsel; Donald Tubridy, Minority Clerk; and Leonard O. Hilder, Investigator.

Mr. WHITENER. The Subcommittee will come to order.

At this time we will insert in the record, unless there is objection, a statement by the Honorable Joel Broyhill, a member of the Committee. (The statement of Mr. Broyhill follows.)

STATEMENT OF HON. JOEL T. BROYHILL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESSS FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA

Mr. BROYHILL. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to have the opportunity to enthusiastically endorse H.R. 11395, which modifies the authorized transit system approved by the Congress in 1965 for the Washington Metropolitan Area.

This bill provides a most realistic approach to one of the major transportation problems which have developed in the District. The problem has been brought about by the extensive building program in Southwest Washington-a program that includes both Government buildings and private development which will include office buildings, stores, and a new hotel.

In the Government center alone employment is expected to approach a population figure nearly as great as in all of downtown Baltimore. The new Forrestal Building, which will be a sort of downtown Pentagon; the huge new headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the extensive population explosion brought about by the establishment of the Department of Transportation whose employees spill over into a half dozen new office buildings in Southwest; NASA, HEW, USIA-these are the major Government establishments in the area, but in point of numbers they represent just a few of the Government agencies which will eventually be housed in this new exploding population center.

Most of the employees in this complex will come from Maryland and Virginia-well over two-thirds of them. The balance will, of course, be residents of the District of Columbia. The parking facilities in these agencies will be at a minimum. During the peak hours, bus transfer from the Federal Triangle to Southwest will involve between 70 and 100 bus loads.

I could go on and describe the almost frightening development of congestion in downtown Washington that we face if we do not authorize the new transit line as provided in H.R. 11395, to run down D Street through the Southwest area and connect with other lines of the transit system in such a way as to provide residents of the entire region with quick, economical, and comfortable travel from home to office and return.

It is my understanding that the net additional cost of this Southwest area line will be in the nature of $41 million more. However, I also understand that the increased number of riders of this line will provide sufficient revenue to obtain the amount necessary for debt amortization so that an equivalent amount of additional bonds can be sold to cover this extra cost.

Mr. WHITENER. At this time we will be happy to hear from the President of the Capitol Heights Business Men's Association, Mr. A. R. Copstead Scott.

Is Mr. Scott here?

Mr. SCOTT. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITENER. Now, is there anyone with you whom you would like to have join you, Mr. Scott, or are you alone?

Mr. Scort. Yes. Well, I have some moral support in the background.

Mr. WHITENER. Fine.

STATEMENT OF REED SCOTT, PRESIDENT, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION

Mr. Scort. Mr. Chairman: I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this distinguished panel today, in order to air the views of the businessmen and residents of the Columbia Heights community in opposition to H.R. 11395.

I believe that it is appropriate at this time to point out that the National Capital Transportation Agency has done, generally, a fine job in trying to achieve a rail transit system for the National Metropolitan Area.

They have been most helpful to us in supplying us with up-to-date information and explaining the development of the transit program. Unfortunately, we did not become involved in the development of the system until the threat arose of our losing the Columbia Heights Line. This has given us a definite reason for looking over the entire system as set forth in the National Capital Transportation Act of 1965 and the proposed 1967 amendments.

It is clear in my mind that the rapid rail transit system has been designed to alleviate congestion on the downtown streets and on the crowded arteries leading into the city from the suburbs. However, it tends to ignore the people of the District!

The highest density population in the entire Metropolitan Area is located in the north-central and central sections of our city. As in most high density urban areas, there are many, many low-income families without automobiles, who must rely on public transportation to get to and from their places of employment. Most of these people are unskilled or semiskilled workers who must spend a great portion of their day riding or transferring from bus to bus. Other factors that cannot be overlooked are those of gross unemployment and the rising incidence of crime. Although no panacea, a subway line running up the 14th Street corridor would offer the residents a greater opportunity to get off the streets, off the welfare rolls and into some of the job vacancies located in the suburbs for skilled and unskilled workers.

The present program is asking us to create a large Watts Area in the center of our Capital City by encircling it with an ultramodern rapid rail system and, in effect, deny the use of that system to the very people who need it most.

Now, it is my understanding that NCTA has a 14th Street Line down on paper and that it will someday become a reality. This is fine, but from a realistic and economic viewpoint, I believe that construction should begin on the 14th Street line before construction is begun on the Connecticut Avenue line. Please understand, I am not asking that the Connecticut Avenue line be dropped. As I pointed out earlier, the transit program is generally well designed. However, I am asking that you rephase the Connecticut Avenue line until after construction has begun on the 14th Street line. This line could eventually tie up across the 14th Street Bridge to the south and to Prince Georges County to the north.

I believe that this would give the rapid rail transit system its greatest boost. Economically speaking, the people who need it will support it. In a recent article on Japan's new monorail system, it was termed a multi-million-dollar flop, because it had been run along routes of low-density population, where there were people who have the option to take the car, a taxicab, bus or the transit system. Gentlemen, that particular system is not paying for itself, nor will this system unless provisions are made for the people of the District of Columbia who will have no other choice but to utilize it!

Mr. Chairman, we realize that a 14th Street line would be more beneficial to our community as a whole, but if we can't get the 14th Street line in now, we would like to see the Columbia Heights line stay in, because, as the man said, "Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all."

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our views, and we hope that you will support them.

Mr. WHITENER. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Scott. We are delighted to have you with us.

Mr. Scort. Thank you.

Mr. WHITENER. Now we will hear from the Federation of Citizens Associations, Kalorama Citizens Association, 18th and Columbia Road Business Association, Mr. George Frain.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE FRAIN, ADMINISTRATIVE SECRETARY, EIGHTEENTH AND COLUMBIA ROAD BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

Mr. FRAIN. Mr. Chairman, I am George Frain. I am Administrative Secretary of the Eighteenth and Columbia Road Business Association. I am appearing here today on behalf of John Jarboe, President, and the other members of our business association. Our position was summarized this way, in letters signed by John Jarboe and Donald D. Gartenhaus, immediate past president, jointly, which were published in the Washington Daily News of August 14, and the Washington Post of August 19, under the title "Subway for the Rich?" Mr. WHITENER. Mr. Frain, let me interrupt you.

I note on this agenda that was handed me the names of Federation of Citizens Associations Associations and Kalorama Citizens Association. Are you speaking for them?

Mr. FRAIN. I have a statement from John Immer, president of the Federation of Citizens Associations, which I will read

Mr. WHITENER. What I am asking, though, is are you speaking for the Federation of Citizens Associations and the Kalorama Citizens Association?

Mr. FRAIN. Yes, sir. I am bringing in a statement for them.

Mr. WHITENER. I ask again, is your statement the statement of the Eighteenth and Columbia Road Business Association, or is it a statement for that Association plus the Federation of Citizens Associations and the Kalorama Citizens Association?

Mr. FRAIN. Well, it is all three. It is the position of the three of them. However, the Eighteenth and Columbia Road business men and the Kalorama association represents that particular area. The Federation, of course, is city-wide, and in talking with Mr. Immer about this, he said, well, you go in and make the statement because you are the people in the area.

Our position was summarized this way in letters signed by John Jarboe and Donald D. Gartenhaus, immediate past president, jointly, which were published in the Washington Daily News of August 14, and the Washington Post of August 19 under the title "Subway for the Rich ?":

"We share the concern and view of Mrs. Ruth R. Webster, president of CHANGE, Inc. (Cardozo Heights Association for Neighborhood, Growth, and Enrichment), and her colleagues and associates in the neighborhood centers, that the deletion of the Columbia Heights Subway would be a catastrophe.

"This line would serve the approximate 500,000 people who live in north central Washington, and the one million to two million who may live there by the year 2,000 if increased density is provided, and its deletion would deprive them of access to jobs throughout the city and in the suburbs. It would reinforce the ghettos in this important area, and would mean the destruction of the Comprehensive Plan for 1985 which calls for (a) new high density apartment development adjacent to rapid transit stations, and (b) employment centers at 14th Street and Park Road for 20,000 (including about 5,000 Federal employees), 18th Street and Columbia Road; and at Cedar Street and Blair Road. "We see nothing that makes sense in subsidizing a subway for the affluent suburbs, and denying such a system to the low-income areas

of north central Washington. The Columbia Heights Subway would serve north central Washington 24 hours a day with its four new stops and would cost $56 million. The Independence Avenue line would serve a fraction of the expected 80,000 employees (most of whom have cars, while the Cardozo area is a poverty area with the fewest number of cars of any section in the city), and would be in demand only in getting them into work from the suburbs in the morning, and back in the afternoon.

"The lack of good transportation has been a major cause of violence in the Watts area and other places. We urge the defeat of H.R. 11395 which Rep. Basil L. Whitener introduced at the request of the NCTA Administrator, Walter J. McCarter."

Last week Congressman Broyhill cited an Alexandria Chamber of Commerce survey showing "well-paying jobs going begging" in the city, that is, in the City of Alexandria, as evidence that no increase is necessary in Federal unemployment programs. He said in a report in the Post of August 15th, that:

"If Alexandria is any example of the situation throughout Washington, the time is at hand for poverty program administrators to start demanding a little more effort on the part of the jobless before they allow them to line up for another Government subsidy."

The Post article went on to say that:

"United Planning Organization officials argue that, while jobs are available in the suburbs, inadequate public transportation makes it difficult for unemployed persons in the District, where joblessness in some areas is as high as 14 percent, to take advantage of the vacancies." Now, anywhere where the joblessness is 14 percent is a disaster area. We think that there is a great deal of merit in the position of Congressman Broyhill as well as in the position of the UPO officials. The suburbs need city workers, and city workers need jobs.

There are indeed thousands of jobs in the suburbs, and it is difficult, time-consuming and expensive for people, especially low-income people, to reach them. A headline in the Star of August 5 said that the Beltway would cost the District about 10,000 new jobs, and that there would be 10,000 fewer jobs in the District than would have been created if the Capital Beltway had not been built.

Now, we are not making this point to say that we are opposed to the Beltway. We are simply recognizing the fact that if you go out the highways and superhighways leading to the District, you will find thousands of jobs that are now-and scores of firms that were in the District that have moved into the suburbs, and they need help. You look at a Giant store or Safeway, or any of these stores in the District. and they always have "Help Wanted" signs.

Businesses will naturally locate along the Beltway instead of in the District where the unemployed are.

Senator Percy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and now President Johnson have called for tax incentives and other means to induce private industry to locate in the inner city areas of this nation to provide jobs where the people are in order to cure the problems of the ghettos. The question is being asked, who ever heard of a man throwing a rock through his own window, when cures to the violence and destruction which has destroyed our cities is sought.