4 ways to fix Capitol Hill

One of my favorite reads so far this summer has been the Atlantic Monthly's 15 Ways to Fix the World. Some of the ideas are audacious. Some are simple. They're all inspiring. The articles have me thinking about ideas -- audacious and simple -- to make life on Capitol Hill better.

Keith Harris is kind of like our own Atlantic Monthly. He is a lot of the energy behind the People's Parking Lot(s) group. And he's got his own list of things he's working on to help "fix" Capitol Hill:

1) Park(ing) Day: I sent the proposal to Murray Franklyn yesterday. We have requests out for help with cheap insurance and grants to pay for it.

2) Madison and Terry: We're hoping to transform the grassy swath along Madison into something, and utilize the Virginia Mason wall mockup for that something. Maybe it's a garden and a shed or maybe it's a bike sharing node? The owner is in NYC and I have yet to receive a response.

3) Empty Retail for Artists: I'm working on a google map that shows spaces for lease, while also speaking with agents at CBRE and Catalyst (hopefully soon; this week?) about getting some activity in their empty spaces. Check out the Google Map (work in progress) in the sidebar.

4) 11th and Pine: Everyone seems to have a soft spot for this poor vacant building. The owners, at least as far as I can tell from public records, are Pryde + Johnson. They develop "green" buildings but don't seem to be having much luck lately: Hjarta Condos are now apartments and Ashworth Cottages are largely empty. Not that this means they will or should allow us to use their space -- I was thinking some temporary gardens on the roof? -- but I figure that a progressive sort of developer might be open to the possibility. We'll see.

At the core of ideas like the Atlantic Monthly's and Keith's efforts is a desire to move beyond unsolvable big issues and a focus on fixes for specific pieces of the problem. What's on your list to fix Capitol Hill?