I live and work near Columbia Pike in a one-bedroom market rate apartment that is fast becoming unaffordable. I took a look at the so-called 'affordable' apartments at County-owned Arlington Mill. You have to earn $30,000 annually to qualify to rent a 626 square foot apartment for $926...the least expensive apartment available and there are only a few of them at that rent, according to the leasing agent I spoke with. What kind of 'affordable housing' is that?
If that's the best Arlington Government can do on a site the taxpayers own (including taxpayers who don't earn a living wage and work in restrurants and retail up and down the Pike), it's time for a change. Consequently I'm voting Yes on the Housing Authority referendum. You should too.
P.S. As for the County Board, it's time for "Gentrification Jay" to retire. So I'm voting to retire him.
Thanks for your blog.
Pike Rider 22204
32 comments:
Check out what Mary Hynes had to say at the last CB meeting (afternoon session)about the difficulty she had accessing information about affordable housing for rent in the County.
So if you work full time at the McDonalds across the street from Arlington Mill and earn $8.25 per hour that amounts to $1320 per month, before taxes.
Pike Rider, in the event you wondered why "Gentrification Jay" is never criticized for antics like Arlington Mill by the local media one reason is that local media editorial writers and endorsers are mostly closeted LGBT.
If you are a manager at one of the Pike's stores and restaurants and earn the living wage, $13.13 per hour, you will earn $27,310 per year assuming you work full time.
Totally embarrassing for "County Staff" to admit to Hynes and the County Board that there are 35 affordable housing providers in Arlington County and no single source of timely and accurate information about where to find and apply to rent affordable housing. Yes, time for a Housing Authority.
Speaking of endorsements -- when will Jeff Bezos make substantive changes to the Post? Like having experienced political journalists who actually live in Northern Virginia, not summer interns, decide which local candidates the Post will endorse.
Can you say "Economic Bubble About to Burst"?
Whatever you may say about voting or not voting for Audrey Clement, there is no excuse for not voting for a Housing Authority to clean up Arlington's housing mess. Democrats had 30+ years and housing is more a mess every year.
Meanwhile on the ArlNow Blog: County 'Planning' and 'Economic Development' Staff continue to spar with ordinary citizens about Lee Highway Corridor 'Revitalization'.
So the Economists at GMU think Arlington's "future" involves creating more low-wage jobs?
So WHY are Zimmy, Fisette, Tejada, and their corporate and non-profit cronies creating more high-wage housing?
Arlington Mill "Community Center" is already an expensive mess, BTW.
"Smart Growth" is a corrupt planning ideology that serves the purposes of the corrupt pols who control inside-the-beltway regimes.
If you don't see the connection between "Smart Growth" and people having to choose between paying rent and buying food you're divorced from reality of life for the middle class in Arlington County.
Ward Heelers from all three parties (Democratic, Repiblican, and Green) are involved in handing out food assistance to victims of Smart Growth.
What will undo Obama's affordable health care legislation is healthy young Americans between 18 and 30 are increasingly members of an economic underclass and can't afford to buy insurance of any kind.
Yeah, I see upscale Dem ward heelers handing out food to low wage workers all up and down the Pike.
Do County Board members really think that single people who make $50,000 / year before taxes want to pay $1500 a month, $18,000 per year, for a small one-bedroom apartment?
We are paying a fortune in taxes so County Government can destroy the quality of life in residential neighborhoods....neighborhood by neighborhood.
"Smart Growth" --- what an oxymoron.
We can't afford four more years of Jay Fi$$$$ette.
I read the ArlNow blog every day. Does anyone realize how many County employees from Planning and Economic Development post on that blog promoting their crazy "Smart Growth" ideology? And trashing residents of neighborhoods that are being destroyed by "Smart Growth"?
Speaking of "affordable", how did Arlington Mill get approved with 250+ parking spaces if it's supposed to be "affordable housing"?
Arlington Democrats have had more than 30 years to build a County that bears some resemblance to the Democratic Party's national platform. They have utterly failed.
What we have in Arlington is de facto Rockefeller Republicanism. Main difference is today the buildings constructed via 'urban renewal' aka 'smart growth' are boxes with brick facades rather than bare concrete boxes.
Speaking of ArlNow, somebody in a neighborhood that's scheduled for 'revitalization' like the Lee Hwy corridor should file a FOIA request with the County Manager's office asking for the number of times County employees have accessed ArlNow's Web address so far this year.
Want to know what non-resident County employees in the "Planning" Division think of residents who don't want our neighborhoods "revitalized"? We're "neighborhood nuisances" and worse.
How about - organizing a 5K walk - run (dogs welcome) in Jay and Rob's yupscale Ashton Heights neighborhood starting at 7 AM Sunday morning?
I would like to know if Dennis Leach, Robert Duffy, Robert Brosnan, and other VIP planners at 2100 encourage their employees to visit blogs and trash neighborhood residents who don't go along with 'neighborhood revitalization'.
After two years employed in my first job after college and living with two roommates in Virginia Square I am ready to say goodbye to Arlington. Life after college should not revolve around more drinking and partying, drinking and partying. I can move back to Austin and do that if I want to and have more fun and it will cost a lot less. What's to like about expensive apartment buildings next to used car lots? Arlington is a mess if you haven't noticed.
After Lee Hwy and Courthouse the next 'revitalization' will be Glebe Road between I-66 and I-395.
Anon., you can always see a revival of 'Sweeney Todd' at $ignature Theater before drinking yourself into a stupor in $hirlington Village and then riding home on your bicycle.
Speaking of $$$$, I wonder why $cott McCaffrey didn't endorse Jay Fi$ette in the $un Fi$ette newspaper and blog?
Voting Yes for the Housing Authority. Has to be a better way than the mess of non-profits that build unaffordable affordable housing.
You must have missed it:
http://www.sungazette.net/arlington/commentary/endorsement-jay-fisette-for-county-board/article_42acc146-3003-11e3-8018-001a4bcf887a.html
Most of the media who have anything to do with endorsing local candidates in Arlington and adjacent jurisdictions are 'LGBT friendly' to to extent that's their primary criterion for endorsement. Just a fact of life in local 'journalism'.
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