Arlington Yupette does not endorse any of the four bond referenda that will be on the ballot this year in Arlington.
A.Y. endorses a new Wakefield High School that puts education, not recreation, first and will include brick and mortar classrooms to accommodate at least 1900 students.
A.Y. does not endorse "transportation" bonds that allow Chris Zimmerman to make more cosmetic improvements to an obsolete 2-track Metrorail system and impose more traffic followed by more traffic calming on Arlington.
A.Y. does not endorse local infrastructure bonds that allow the County Board to strip pay-as-you-go funds to build vanity projects while streets are unpaved and badly lighted.
A.Y. does not endorse using more bond funds for the County Board's pet recreation and entertainment projects while millions in previously approved bond funds are unspent.
20 comments:
Agree. The 2010 bond referenda show that the County's priorities are inverted - Recreation and entertainment first.
We can't afford these bonds. Real estate market is getting soft and we may be faced with another big residential real estate tax hike next year.
I will vote NO for the school bond issue. Sally Baird's School Board has already admitted in a press release that it will play 'musical classrooms' with our children if the Rectreation-Education complex is constructed according to Baird's specifications and more than 1600 students attend Wakefield.
Yuppette, you are sadly so right.
As an example of the scope of the money grab, yuppified TJ Middle School rehab was slated to cost $100 plus million. When the project was downsized to meet educational needs the tab dropped to $7 million.
County Board has set up Arlington County Public Facilities Review Committee to suck $$$'s out of school budget for high-brow recreation projects. Zimmerman installed PFRC lackeys make it happen.
On infrastructure, streets are being put up for a vote so County can backdoor fund projects like Artisphere and Columbia Pike trolley without a plebicite.
Speaking of transportation, anyone else take a comprehensive look at what Chris Zimmerman has done to the area's transportation system over the past decade? He invariably voted to put many more vehicles on the streets, then spend public funds for traffic calming. He stripped Metro of essential safety funding to fund cosmetics. Last County Board meeting he pushed for $34 million to renovate a Metro station, but no matter what WMATA and localities spend for cosmetics it's still the same 2-track system designed over 40 years ago to serve low density suburbs and a medium density city.
Yeah, and we all know what happens when the real estate market goes soft - corporate welfare REITs descend on the assessment office looking for tax relief.
How about a thread about the HUGE recreation complex that is going to be imposed on EFC residential communities conicomitant with the 'Shirlingtonization' of the area around the Metro Station
Voters - Please vote NO on the Parks and Recreation bonds issue. Our parks, rec centers, community centers are being 'privatized' to benefit special interests.
Families with children who live in densely populated residential areas (e.g., Fairlington, Bluemont, Crystal City, East Falls Church) are seeing open space dedicated to new soccer fields that are / will be 'off limits' to anyone but soccer organizations.
The parks bond funds will be used to put even more open space 'off limits'.
The County Board have become elitist pigs who only care about the people and organizations that share their interests.
Our kids will have to to play in the streets while Tejada's soccer club amigos and Favola's private school boosters take over Arlington's infrastructure for themselves.
I think someone already stated that the community centers will be providing the cash from stiff user fees so the County Board can give away public infrastructure and provide gifts to upscale interests for their vanity performing arts projects.
Favola's employer, Marymount University, does not pay one dime in real estate taxes. Favola is a de facto lobbyist for Marymount and has spent countless hours in her County Board office at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. lobbying for Marymount, for which she is paid $50,0000 / year by Arlington taxpayers and who-knows-how-much in salary and 'comps' by Marymount.
So guess which local university is getting to take over open space around Arlington for team sports?
If Zimmerman and Baird are re-elected it will be illegal within 5 years for a parent to toss a frisbee or baseball back and forth to his or her kids on County-owned land.
Don't believe it? The public park across George Mason Drive from Arlington Traditional School is already totally off limits except for playing soccer. Zimmerman, Favola, Tejada, and Baird are trying to make the rest of Arlington's public park land off limits for anything but team sports for upscale organizations like Marymount University.
They are going to do the same thing with the new soccer field at the Fairlington "Community" Center.
Barbara Favola repeatedly lies during County Board meetings about the extent of her lobbying activities for Marymount University.
Arlington Yupette perpetuates the myth that the dollars and cents of investing in parks and protected natural areas mean that we simply cannot afford to save our green spaces. That argument has been thoroughly discredited by a recent study by the Trust for Public Land. TPL examined the economic benefits of parks and protected natural areas in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, New York. Together, both of these counties are roughly the same size and same population as Northern Virginia. And, also like Northern Virginia, they border a major City.
The TPL Study found that parks and protected natural areas ---
Raised Property Values of nearby lands by $5.18b;
Generated Tourism Revenue of $615m a year;
Lowered Storm Water Management Costs by $23.9m a year;
Saved Health Care Costs by $164m a year; and
Reduced Air Pollution Control Costs by $18.9m a year. www.tpl.org/longislandanalysis
The TPL Study concluded that in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, “parks and protected open space are a key economic driver that contributes at least $2.74 billion annually in economic benefits.”
All Arlingtonians should keep these numbers in mind when we go to the polls and vote on the Park Bond on November 2nd. Moreover, the time to acquire such land is now when property is cheap. Parks and protected natural areas are not just about birds and squirrels. As shown in the TPL Study, it is all about dollars and cents after all.
Mike NardoZimmy is Chris Zimmerman's Ward Heeler in Chief for East Falls Church Corporate Welfare Redevelopment by REITs. In fact, EFC parks will, in effect, be "privatized" and handed over to non-profit groups and will be "off limits" to the families who are currently using them. Several types of residential space that are currently low density (e.g., small single family homes) will be redeveloped into condo clusters and McMansions and the open space greatly reduced. Parkland that is now open will be paved over - with impervious surface playing fields.
EFC residents have discovered that the promises made to them by Zimmerman's County Board regarding EFC development are lies. Check out residents' complaints voiced at today's CB meeting (October 23rd).
Mike NardoZimmy is nothing but Zimmerman's flunky. Zimmerman is a flunky for the developers and redevelopers. NardoZimmy's organization is a charade, basically engaged in acquiring parcels of land that are unsuitable for development or redevelopment (e.g., storm water retention areas) and giving the developers and redevelopers big tax breaks for open space no one can use.
Open Space? You mean the park land that will be given to Tejada's amigos and Favola's employer, Marymount University, for synthetic surface playing fields?
Ask Zimmerman's flunky, Mike Nardolilly, how open space was acquired for the park across 16th Street from Virginia Hospital Center. By tearing down affordable homes.
When it comes to "open space" Mike Nardolilli sounds like he is smoking home-grown marijuana.
All these A-holes want to do is acquire open space by tearing down affordable housing. So they can give it to REITs in return for "gratuities" re-directed through off-shore banks.
Yupette, please no more Mike Nardozimmy propaganda. I saw and heard what EFC residents think about EFC redevelopment today at the CB Meeting - a County Government "dog and pony show".
Nardolilli should call his organization what it is - the Northern Virginia REIT Enrichment Trust.
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