Comments on: How to reinvent the JFX: Bend but don’t break it

By: geraldneily

geraldneily — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:25:59 +0000

The land we’re talking about is parking lots, Tim, or at least that is what I intended. The sketch supplied by Edison Properties to the City government shows a “development district” on the same land. I used Google Earth to try to show the relationship between the BGE facility, the prisons and the vacant land more clearly than Edison did, but it’s still understandably rough.

By: Tim Schneid

Tim Schneid — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:33:16 +0000

Gerald,
The ‘least desirable vacant land’ you describe for the new JFX terminus is the BGE Front Street facility. This plan would bisect (and all but take over) this multi-million dollar property, home to major elelctrical infrastructure and hundreds of employees. The cost implications of moving such major infrastructure would be ridiculously expensive.

By: Douglas Willinger

Douglas Willinger — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:50:13 +0000

What studies exist about a tunneled connection from the JFX to the northern end of MLK Boulevard?

By: geraldneily

geraldneily — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:21:07 +0000

Way to go, Greg. You’re the new Blue Sky comment leader! You raise a very important issue that I barely touched upon in my article, which was long and complex enough already. Everything that needs to be done to reduce the JFX’s traffic impact on Mount Vernon should be done now, or at least sooner, so that it becomes part of the “baseline” traffic patterns that planners must deal with when looking at future “Blue Sky” plans like knocking down the JFX. This includes the relocation and upgrade of the Maryland Avenue ramp that I discussed in my Oliver Street article: (see http://baltimorebrew.com/blog/?p=1868 ) as well as devising a plan that actually helps traffic in the vicinity of the city’s proposed Mount Royal/Cathedral Street roundabout, and most importantly, closure of the JFX off-ramp to St. Paul. The bottom line: Anything that deals with traffic west of the JFX needs to be solved west of the JFX. The traffic consultants to the property owners studying knocking down the JFX (see http://baltimorebrew.com/blog/?p=2530 ) insist that their plan would not harm Mount Vernon, and anything their plan can do, mine could do better, because overall it has more connections and fewer conflicts.

By: Greg Hinchliffe

Greg Hinchliffe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:15:57 +0000

While this plan would distribute JFX traffic to East Baltimore much better than the existing facility (which is not saying much), it seems to me that the bulk of southbound JFX traffic is headed for downtown and points south and west. Wouldn’t this plan just divert more of this traffic to the unwelcoming street grid of midtown and Mt Vernon? Perhaps an improvement to he JFX-MLK interface would help.