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Mailbag: Grateful for the Chevy Chase sharrows

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I was out on the bike the other day like I am every day and was pleasantly greeted with new sharrows — street markings that indicate shared vehicle and bike lanes — on Chevy Chase between Wilson Avenue and Adams Street.

Though I appreciate all the sharrows showing up on newly repaved city streets, these I am particularly grateful for, as Chevy Chase is a relatively busy, main road. Every few yards drivers are clearly reminded there are bikes on the road with them.

I am grateful to the City Council, the Glendale Safe and Healthy Streets program and other participating departments that continue to keep cyclists’ safety in action, and not just in mind.

Jen Heaslip

Glendale

Window repair is better than replacement

The city of Glendale was correct in denying approval of Terry Shain’s front replacement windows in order to protect one of Glendale’s most architecturally distinct neighborhoods (“Sure wish I could pick my own windows,” Aug. 11).

“Modernizing” a 1930s-period revival home with inappropriate replacement windows would not only ruin the architectural integrity and value of Shain’s home, it would negatively affect the value of surrounding properties as well.

It appears that Shain, like many other Glendale homeowners, has been sold a bill of goods. Window replacement is in fact a bad investment; it decreases the desirability and value of character homes and neighborhoods. And replacement windows do not significantly improve a home’s energy-efficiency.

Statistical studies have shown that it takes at least 40 years for the average window replacement project to pay for itself in energy savings, but the typical replacement window needs replacing after only about 20 years. The energy consumed in manufacturing, transporting and installing replacement windows is actually several times more than the windows could possibly conserve in their very short lifespan.

The fact is that repairing, weather-stripping and properly maintaining old wood windows is significantly less expensive than replacement and can provide as much energy-efficiency as new windows.

We strongly encourage all homeowners in Glendale’s older neighborhoods to educate themselves on this very important subject by reading the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s excellent Weatherization Guide for Older & Historic Buildings at https://www.preservationnation.org/issues/weatherization/.

John LoCascio

Glendale

Editor’s note: LoCascio is president of the Glendale Historical Society.

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