What effect do you think the Purple Line will have on College Park housing in general?



One main concern that College Park residents may have to worry about is the possibility of rapid gentrification in the area. There is already an effort to revitalize downtown College Park and develop East Campus - could this extend to other neighborhoods in College Park

In Donovan Rypkema's article "The Oversimplification of Gentrification", he defines gentrification as reinvestment, increased home ownership, increased commercial activity, higher taxes, and higher rents. There are some potentially negative effects unrelated to economics; gentrification can change the character of a neighborhood.

The creation of a new metro line would make commuting easier from a lot of neighborhoods, especially Langley Park and Riverdale, areas immediately surrounding College Park without metro stops. Having a metro close-by is extremely desirable for those who work in the Washington D.C. metro area. The creation of the purple line combined with other revitalization efforts could definitely result in gentrification, which would mean more middle-class and upper-middle-class residents moving in and possibly the displacement of working class families who will no longer be able to afford to live in College Park.

Basically, considering the presence of redevelopment, revitalization, and the construction of the Purple Line, do you think College Park and its surrounding areas will gentrify? Do you think this would be good for College Park?

What kind of effect do you think the Purple Line will have on UMD housing?



This is a picture of University Club, one of the many off-campus apartment complexes open to students. Will the creation of the purple line make it easier for students to move off campus and still be able to get to campus easily?

Currently, the UMD shuttle system provides transportation from most all-student apartments, like University Club, the View, the Towers, and Courtyards. Yet lately there have been quite a few complaints about the crowdedness and infrequency of these shuttle buses.

Obviously, the purple line will not necessarily have stops near every single unit of off-campus student housing, but there are quite a large number of proposed stops.


This could potentially lead to the development of more off-campus housing near designated purple line stops. The purple line would hopefully be more reliable and timely than the UMD shuttle buses, yet it would cost more.

What are some of the negative effects that the purple line could have on UMD housing?
What are the positives?

What kind of effect will the purple line have on campus traffic?



As most UMD students know, Campus Drive is the main road on campus. The construction of the purple line on Campus Drive will force Campus Drive traffic onto alternate routes, which could potentially be disastrous. Also, campus drive serves as a main hub for both the UMD shuttle buses and the Metrobus - where will these stops be relocated to if a light-rail is built, and will this further inconvenience students?

Some people subscribe to the logic that the purple line will decrease campus traffic because off-campus students can simply take the purple line straight to Campus Drive and would therefore be less likely to drive. However, I don't believe that the purple line will have any positive effect on campus traffic. Students will most likely still prefer to drive directly onto campus than walk or drive to the nearest metro station, wait for the purple metro, and pay metro fees daily. What would you rather do? As Andrew Ortuzar pointed out in my interview with him, "People love to drive."

What are some of your qualms about the current public transit situation in Prince George’s and Montgomery County?

I took this picture of a metro bus that leaves from campus and brings passengers to Silver Spring. There are a few other bus routes that bring students to destinations outside of College Park, but these buses only run on weekdays. However, there is a slew of Metrobuses that run through campus. Most students were satisfied with public transportation, although some had issues with security and metro noise.

The other day I was taking a bike ride around Lake Artemesia and noticed that the metro basically ran right next to the lake - quite ugly. Was this the best place to put a metro line? I see a lot of empty, unused space around where the metro is located, and I wonder why it couldn't have been placed elsewhere. I wonder if the noise and vibrations bother any of the animals that live by the lake.

College Park in general seems to employ Nietzchean uses of space; catered to the individual rather than the community. The individual will benefit from a rail line without necessarily caring where it is placed. The area near Lake Artemesia is a confusing mix of public and private space with unclear boundaries. How could we improve this area to better serve the community?

There are a few proposed routes for the Purple Line that would run through campus, although the SGA officially endorses the Campus Drive route. Which route do you think would be most beneficial and why; Campus Drive, Stadium Drive, or another route?



Although the University officially endorses the Campus Drive route, there was still some disagreement among the people that I interviewed. There are many issues to consider when deciding where to put a rail line, which will be addressed in later posts. I, however, found it interesting that the people I interviewed were pretty much split between the Campus Drive alignment and the Stadium Drive alignment. If I were a UMD student during a time period in which the purple line would be operating, I'm not sure how I'd feel about the purple line running through Campus Drive. It would certainly have a large impact on the look and feel of the UMD campus if a rail line were to be placed in such a populated central area. Where would you like to see the Purple Line placed, ideally - Campus Drive, Stadium Drive, another route?

What do you know about the proposed purple line that runs through the UMD campus?

It seems that most College Park residents and UMD students that I interviewed had a good idea of what the Purple Line was about. Town residents made remarks about how "they" have been talking about building the purple line and how it'll take "them" years to actually build it. Who are "they" and what interests do "they" represent? Who really has the ultimate authority concerning where the purple line will be built?