Thursday, March 1, 2012

'Pike Transit' Meeting - All About Streetcars and Pike 'Clarendonization'

Hello,

We received e-mail from several persons who attended yesterday's 'Pike Transit Policy Committee' meeting at the Annandale Government Center on the Pike. The two elected officials who attended were Jay Fisette and Penny Gross (the Fairfax County Supervisor whose district includes the Pike within Fairfax County). Also transportation lobbyists, county staff, planners, corporate facilitators, developers, and their attorneys.

None of these people cared about what the alternative transportation analysis determined and none of them care about what the environmental analysis will determine. They want to massively lobby the Federal Transit Administration so they can get their streetcar system funded and the equivalent of Clarendon constructed on the Pike. They didn't talk about transportation, they talked about development. Much of what they talked about was a proposed streetcar station at Skyline which Vornado and Target are heavily involved in planning. None of the 'decision makers' at the meeting cared at all what Arlington and Fairfax County residents think...we're just nuisances to them.

Cindy

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jay Fisette and Penny Gross are so arrogant it's scarey.

Anonymous said...

They all pretend to listen at public meetings but they really don't.

Anonymous said...

Exactly what many parents are saying about the School Board.

TY said...

We've reached a state where the capital improvement process has been hijacked by elected officials and their pet projects, hobbies, and interests.

Anonymous said...

Why do a cost-benefit analysis if the minds of elected officials are already made up in Arlington and Fairfax County?

Anonymous said...

This joins chickens, dog exercise areas, swimming pools, bicycles, fine dining, and GLBT issues as another Jay Fisette priority. Ask him where your crummy street gets repaved and he ignores you.

Anonymous said...

Elected Officials? You mean Local Elitists, don't you?

fed up Dem said...

If a billionaire philanthropist offered to purchase a fleet of double deck buses for the Pike and pay all the operating costs for 10 years - no strings - Arlington County and Fairfax County would turn down the offer.

Anonymous said...

You forgot live theater and turning open space into synthetic surface playing fields.

Pike Rider said...

No, the worst of them is Penny Gross. Uses the Fairfax County Police Department (located next to her office in Annandale) to intimidate anyone who doesn't go along with the program - her program.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, if you want to talk to Penny Gross you have to be scrutinized by the Fairfax County Police first.

Anonymous said...

So Vornado and Target are in control of planning public infrastructure? Time for regime change.

Anonymous said...

People like Jay Fisette and Penny Gross are wasting everyone's time and lots of tax dollars with their stupid charades. They respect out-of-state REITs more than all the voters combined.

Karl said...

You Americans are so wasteful. You are either fighting wars or catering to the wants of Wall Street. You don't care about your own citizens or your own nation. You only care about the 1% who make all the decisions and control everything.

Anonymous said...

Americans worship celebrities and warfighters, don't you know?

Anonymous said...

American is controlled by Elitists from Harvard. Obama, Romney, and even the Green Party's nominee for President, Dr. Jill Stein.

Anonymous said...

What has changed in 50 years? Kennedy in 1962 or Obama today? Oh, the word 'communism' has been replaced by 'terrorism'.

Anonymous said...

JFK completely packed the government with his Harvard relatives and friends. Obama has only partially packed the government with his Harvard friends.

abc123 said...

JFK and his brothers all served in the military and at least came in contact with the middle class. Obama and the people he brought with him to Washington are spoiled brat Yuptards. Obama comes across today like a Navy Seal wannabe, when he's not engaged in being the nation's First Yuppie.

Anonymous said...

Down with the streetcar! It's an expensive boondoggle that's 5x the cost of enhanced bus service for the same transit capacity. The Pike is already gentrifying nicely; a $40M enhanced bus transit upgrade should do nicely.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Jill Stein is just another Harvard Elitist. They run everything, EVERYTHING. Nominated by the same people who nominated Cynthia McKinney in 2008.