If you look at what's occurring elsewhere in the U.S.A., in cities like Charlotte, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, you will see that the streetcar / trolley systems proposed for those urban areas have nothing to do with transportation and everything to do with redevelopment and gentrification, aka money. Like Arlington, the elected officials and 'community leaders' of these cities are committed to spending huge amounts on streetcar / trolley systems that will actually make traffic worse and impose significant social costs on the population from streetcar-related injuries, in-fill redevelopment, and gentrification / lack of affordable housing. As we've seen in Arlington, the only sure things any urban area can expect from mixed use redevelopment are budget deficits and tax increases every year. Thanks for your blog.
Pike Rider, 22204
67 comments:
Agree. Mixed-use gentrification aka 'Smart Growth' imposes huge social costs on urban areas, mostly in the form of wealth transfer from taxpayers to so-called non-profits and to corporations.
About 20 years ago an economist (forget his name) who worked for Montgomery County published a study which concluded that development and redevelopment impose too many costs - to the extent that a jurisdiction cannot escape continual budget deficits.
The entire Federal Transit Administration Small Starts / New Starts Program is a fraud and a taxpayer rip-off which should be investigated by the USDOT Inspector General and Congress.
It gets worse, General Assembly raises taxes to pay for transportation improvements, including what? Zimmerman's extravagances?
What would they do if they got the "creative class" they want i.e, people who want more than sports, recreation, and r-rated live theater entertainment?
Creative Class: "Our kids don't want no stinkin' soccer. They need two world class symphony orchestras and hundreds of string quartets to engage their young creative minds."
Classical music? My kid is going to be a soccer star, not a yoyo. Our kids NEED synthetic playing surfaces on all the school playing fields.
Arlington County can't handle a Creative Class. Arlington needs more highly paid federal employees with top secret security clearances fighting the never-ending war on terrorism and attending live theater performances after afternoon soccer practice.
The Yuptardism only gets worse....anyone been to PetSmart on Route 50 in FC on Saturday?
You mean the PetSmart where there are twice as many dogs as humans?
Yeah, Al Quida is everywhere....just like the Commies 50 years ago.
Why did the General Assembly raise our taxes to pay for "transportation" when the "transportation" our taxes are paying for is inefficient, dangerous, and expensive?
Streetcars are just another expensive service the Yups demand, next Yuppie demand will be parking for 'cargo bicycles'.
Anonymous wrote: "Streetcars are just another expensive service the Yups demand, next Yuppie demand will be parking for 'cargo bicycles'."
LOL! Ain't it the truth!
Rampant Yuptardism? How about cargo bicycles to carry Rover and Wags to PetSmart?
We're not "Neverland on the Potomac". We're "Portland on the Potomac".
So, Jay Fi$$ete will convene a Task Force on Cargo Bicycles. County will eventually spend $20 million developing a parking plan and designated parking spaces. Meanwhile, my street needed repaving 5 years ago.
Anonymous wrote: "So, Jay Fi$$ete will convene a Task Force on Cargo Bicycles. County will eventually spend $20 million developing a parking plan and designated parking spaces. Meanwhile, my street needed repaving 5 years ago."
Exactly! They want everything for themselves and their fellow elitist yups and to hell with us "peasants"!
Cargo bicycles? You mean ELECTRIC cargo bicycles don't you? How else are the Yups going to get a 60 lb bicycle carrying 60 lbs of gourmet food up Arlington's hills?
Then there's the proliferation of the Yuptards' motor scooters, which produce 3 times the hydrocarbon pollution of a SUV.
Oh, now a cargo bicycle cult? What next?
Cargo Bicycle Task Force? Something Fi$ette will really go for since the electric variety retail for $2500 and up.
Yups can carry their backyard chickens to the farmer's market.
Time for Arlington's Yups to move to Portland, PLEASE. The infrastructure is already in place there. How much is a new Yuptard Task Force every other year going to cost the rest of us over the next decade?
The electric bicycles would be charged by electricity derived from nuclear reactors and burning fossil fuel, much of it mountaintop coal. Why no rooftop solar in Arlington? Because Jay Fisette's domestic partner makes megabucks providing consulting services to the fossil fuel users and providers.
So $ara$ota $cott McCaffrey got called "corrupt" to his face? About time.
Elitists? When is a local blog going to do an expose' of the so-called Green Party, whose leaders live within 1/2 miles of each other in Whites Only Westover?
Whites Only Westover? No fooling. Latino Chairman of the County Board won't go there and he lives in Dominion Hills, within walking distance.
Elitist? Westover? How about the Green Party's Ivy League educated County Board candidate who lives in market rate affordable housing and calls her working class white neighbors "rednecks"?
Greens seem to be just another group of Limo Liberals.
Cargo bikes definitely deserve a Task Force. Why don't you tzlk yo Jay about that at the U.S.S Arlington commissioning?
Cargo bicycles deserve to be a topic on this blog.
Arlington Green Party is a sacred cow (Arlington Chamber of Commerce is another) that the media won't touch.
Yes, Audrey Clement despises the working class family that lives next door to her in a market-rate affordable building in Westover. The Virginia Green Party goes out of its way to hold meetings in out-of-the-way places where minorities can't attend. Yes, they all live in Whites Only Westover.
W.O.W., also refers to Mary Hynes's neighborhood pub, Whites Only Whitlows.
So-called "Pay-to-Play" activities by the elitist big business Arlington Chamber of Commerce deserve a topic on this blog. They make big development deals in my restaurant all the time but don't do nothing for me.
No matter what you think about the Elitist Greens (and the Green Party is a party of the Elite), Arlington needs LOTS of $650 and $800 / month quality 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments.
It gets worse with the Greens - statewide Green Party leadership is either employed by or serves as facilitators for DOD contractors, CIA, Homeland Security, U.S. Navy, IMF, World Bank.
Arlington Chamber of Commerce is a bunch of elitist con artists. They take money from minority-owned small businesses and do about zero for minority-owned small businesses.
Don't U.S. corporations like Vornado already receive enough corporate welfare via the U.S. Tax Code?
"Employed by or serves as facilitators for..." You wouldn't be referring to Audrey Clement, presently employed by Homeland Security, previously employed by Lockheed-Martin, would you?
FYI - Mayor of Westover is Theo Stamos.
That would explain why Nada J. Tejada and his amigos stay away from Westover.
How about the Green Party of Canada? Major political party in Canada but you don't see them holding massive demonstrations against Canada exporting tar sands crude oil to the U.S., or against the harvesting and export of cut-up polar bears to Asia.
One Arlington political party? GreenPubliCrats?
Several of the younger Virginia Greens are CIA contractors.
Speaking of Yuptards, anyone else read about the mayhem caused by drunk and disorderly Yuptatds around Arlington over the weekend?
Yes...and coming to YOUR formerly-residential neighborhood soon...thanks to Gentrification J. Fisette and Reitsfuhrer Zimmerman.
Anonymous said: "and coming to YOUR formerly-residential neighborhood soon...thanks to Gentrification J. Fisette and Reitsfuhrer Zimmerman."
That's the truth! The past 15-20 years have seen a portion of Arlington turn more and more into a playground for condescending, elitist yuppies who think they are so much better than us "locals" and who know what is "best" for us. Bunch of from aways that don't know jack. Back when, "regular people" could find a good and decent place to live in Arlington and raise their children. Every one of my teachers from Kindergarten through 12th grade lived in Arlington. The yuptards and the "board" and "county manager" are pricing Arlington out of existence for everyone but the rich elites and the crumbs they throw to the very poor to have one of their feel good moments to ease their so-called "white liberal guilt" consciences.
Cindy, nice to meet you today when you visited the County Board offices about Fairlington.
Cindy, you almost walked into the County Board's "staff meeting".
Anon., Arlington Elitists are in a near crisis because so many of the working class don't earn enough to pay for food after paying the rent. Do the math...how many hours do you have to work at $10 an hour to pay for a $1,000 a month apartment?
Arlington Democrat Ward Heelers are out feeding Arlington's hungry working class so Arlington's hungry working class doesn't become a total embarrassment to the Regime.
Cindy, thanks for visiting Planning today. We aren't all scum bags who are being paid off by the REITS, like Bob & Bob.
'Affordable Housing' in Arlington is an oxymoron. Almost all is actually entry-level upscale housing.
So, how long can the GreenPubliCrat Regime keep on using emergency measures to feed an ever-increasing population of hungry people?
So-called 'Smart Growth' is driving the middle class out of urban areas everywhere (not just from inside the Beltway) into the rural areas. So long farms, forests, wetlands.
Arlington Chamber of Commerce VIPs are a bunch of out-and-out racists, except they are interacting with their household servants and slave-wage employees.
What do you think Form Based Gentrification is all about? Drive out what remains of the working class so all the anti-hunger programs are unnecessary.
Cindy, yesterday you almost walked into the County Board's dress rehearsal meeting for Saturday's meeting.
When does my Fairlington street get repaved? Ask Libby.
Check out who's on the Alliance for Housing Solutions. Same VIPs responsible for massive gentrification.
All the VIPs care about right now are the U.S.S. Arlington pay-to-pay events on April 6th.
How many more VIP 'consultants' employed / elected in Arlington Government will be billing 'clients' who do business with the County after the U.S.S Arlington commissioning extravaganza?
Dozens, if not hundreds ;~}
FY 14 Budget, what a charade----
Never mind the Budget, Anchors Aweigh for the U.S.S. Arlington Commissioning Extravaganza
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