Norton to Hold Hearing to Examine Future Development at Union Station & More (7/22/09)
Norton to Hold Hearing to Examine Future Development at Union Station and an Inter-City Bus Terminal Coming Soon
July 22, 2009
Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, today will hold a follow-up hearing on Union Station, where a large scale Mall make-over is underway, and an inter-city bus terminal is soon to come because of Norton's hearing last session. Major intermodal renovations also are planned. The hearing today, "The Congressional Vision for a 21st Century Union Station: New Modal Uses and a New Union Station Livable Community," will be held at 2 p.m., room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses include David Ball, president, Union Station Redevelopment Corporation, David Leach, president and chief executive officer, Greyhound Lines, Inc., David Lustig, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, Gabe Klein, director, D.C. Department of Transportation, and Chip Akridge, president, Akridge Corporation.
Norton's hearing last session was the first hearing on Union Station since major renovations in the 1980s. It revealed many problems that the Subcommittee insisted be eliminated, among them: attempts to keep tourists and residents from taking photos of the public facility, poorly trained guards, issues of homelessness, and the lack of bus service despite a Congressional mandate. In addition, poor management and similar issues accumulated due to insufficient oversight. Norton intends to establish oversight annually to ensure intermodal improvements and to prepare for the mixed-use development coming to nearby Union Station, created from air rights Congress sold in a competition with Akridge Corporation.