At last night's County Board meeting the County Board voted to spend $4.5 million for 'Preliminary Engineering and Design for Columbia Pike Streetcar Project' starting July 1, 2012. The State of Virginia will provide a grant of $1,755,000 and Arlington taxpayers are already providing $2,745,000.
The County Board, including Libby Garvey, were asked to defer spending for Pike streetcar system engineering and design until the Civic Federation, Transportation Commission, and other groups can discuss and debate Peter Rousselot's recent paper "A Modern Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System is Far Superior to Streetcars in the Columbia Pike Corridor".
The County Board refused to even discuss deferring spending for Pike streetcar system design and engineering and voted unanimously to go forward with the project.
Whatever Libby Garvey may have told the Washington Post earlier this month, when confronted with the choices of living with a modern bus rapid transit system on the Pike or dying for Zimmerman's streetcar, she chose - die for Zimmerman's streetcar.
It's obvious that Libby Garvey's present and future service on the County Board is and will be based on blatant political posturing. Whatever she may say, she's going to vote to support the status quo, as defined by Chris Zimmerman. Moreover, the promises she made when running for County Board last Spring were forgotten once she was elected. Libby has become like the rest of the County Board, prevaricating pols who have held office in Arlington way too long.
Cindy
