Hey Yupette,
I watched several hours of the latest County Board meetings.
There's no doubt that the County Board (including incoming members) will adhere to to the New Urbanist Agenda - Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood Redevelopment - until the County is completely urbanized by 2040. Yes, New Urbanism is an ideology. They all belong to the same congregation. They don't even want to talk to anyone who has the slightest misgivings about New Urbanism.
Our communities will become canyons. If you want to see what Arlington will look like in 25 years just visit the neighborhood around Nationals Stadium in DC.
It's been the same old same old with the County Board for at least the past two decades. Neighborhoods are allowed to deteriorate while the New Urbanists -- non-resident property owners, non-resident County Staff, non-resident developers, non-resident architects, non-resident consultants, and so on -- make the "planning" decisions. Latest were Florida consultants Dover-Kohl facilitating the "vibrant" mixed-use redevelopment of Lee Highway.
Their non-resident New Urbanist Guru, Victor Hoskins, completely controls the New Urbanism 2.0 agenda -- total urbanization of everything via mixed-use redevelopment.. It's disconcerting to watch so many otherwise-sane community leaders (Planning Commission, Housing Commission, and so on) mindlessly mouthing the same old same old New Urbanist platitudes while they rubber stamp anything Arlington Economic Development sends them.
It was really appalling to watch the County Board bail out Ballston Common Mall's owner and operator -- Forest City. Forest City should have been treated like the Mall's shoplifters and banned from the Mall. Instead Forest City was given an open checkbook on the County's revenue.
County Government hasn't thought about what's going to happen during the next economic recession, when the Millennials decide to take themselves and their businesses to less expensive venues.
Person who posted that Arlington's going to become an "expensive mess" on AY is exactly right.
Tom from Barcroft
31 comments:
Did you notice that Libby Garvey's, Jay Fisette's and Mary Hynes's neighbors were ignored when they complained about the consequences of mixed-use redevelopment on their neighborhoods?
AED: "Recession? What's a Recession"?
Anyone know where Mary Hynes's County Board Business Brain Trust meeting will be held at 7:30 AM tomorrow?
Ballston Quarter will be recession proof, thanks to Arlington's Sheeple taxpayers.
Clerk of the County Board, Hope Halleck, just sort of forgot to provide the location for tomorrow morning's Business Breakfast for the Brain Challenged.
Someone close to the County Board just sort of forgot to turn on the microphones in the C.B. Room last Saturday before the C.B. meeting.
Brain Challenged? Love that Arlington Economic Development ringing struggling B-R Corridor restaurants with food trucks from Fairfax County.
Photo depicts vibrant Lee Highway in 2030.
Anyone know what promises the County Board made to the 'business community' on Friday?
Now we are seeing invitation-only County Board meetings? What next? Probably threatening anyone who doesn't support the status quo with arrest if she or he tries to attend.
What would have occurred if someone who wasn't invited had tried to attend last Friday's "invitation only" County Board meeting?
How many similar by invitation only meetings will the County Board hold next year?
Excellent question.
How is posting a notice of an upcoming County Board meeting in the lobby of 2100 Clarendon Blvd. sufficient public notice?
Where is the estimate of how much all the additional public infrastructure is going to cost Arlington residents over the next 25 years? I am 42 and expect to be living here until I retire at 68 in 2040.
They are all crazy. I am having to get out of the way of the biketards riding recklessly on the sidewalks in "vibrant" Clarendon. Next they will be telling me to ride a bicycle to work this Winter. Dump them all and elect independents to everything.
I never bought into this new urbanist BS when I moved here 27 years ago just out of graduate school. I think it sucks, big time, long term. I have to wonder what Sun Belt spa Mary Hynes will retire to and where's the rancho deluxe south of the border where Nada Tejada will retire.
How about the primary mission of the Business Improvement Districts - Where's the Party?
Business Development District? Tired out commercial district waiting to be redeveloped.
Where is J. Walter's Rancho Deluxe?
BIDs are another charade. Nothing is improved for years and decades until the area is in-fill redeveloped.
Where is Victor Hoskins's Rancho Deluxe?
Where is the New Urbanists' comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits of adding 66,000 people to the County's population over the next 25 years?
Primary mission of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce - Where's the Gala?
Simple solution -- for my family anyway --- we're moving out of Arlington to an area of Fairfax County that's still suburban. Kids already attend a private school in Fairfax County. With luck we'll have 10 years of suburban life and by that time my kids will be in college.
i only voted for the two independent candidates for county board and i'm not voting for any more republicans and democrats. too many expensive promises made to special interest groups in return for votes.
Yes, Forest City should have been banned from Ballston Common.
Second the Motion that New Urbanism sucks, big time.
"Expensive Mess" is right. Look at what the biketards are already allowed to get away with.
New Urbanism - Smart Growth is nothing but a redevelopment-for-the-sake-of-redevelopment charade, scam, rip off that benefits out-of-state developers and their local pol and local media flunkies.
I figure there's about 10 years of suburban living left in Fairfax County before the out-of-state REITs run out of Arlington neighborhoods to urbanize.
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