Christian Dorsey Wasted $2 Million, Killed On-Site Renewable Energy at Abingdon School

Hi Yupette,


I'm a nearby resident of Abingdon School (but I don't live in Fairlington) and am appalled by what's occurred during the so-called "planning" for Abingdon School's renovation and expansion. APS has out-and-out lied to us about how many more seats for students will be required at Abingdon and elsewhere, per the Civic Federation's Schools Committee report earlier this month.

Thanks to a few people who live close-by Abingdon School who are very concerned about the consequences of a vastly-expanded elementary school that would serve as another regional park, recreation, and activity center, like the South Fairlington Regional Center, we obtained documents from FOIA requests to the Arlington County Manager that indicate the intentions of both APS Staff and Arlington County Staff will be to focus on transportation, sports, recreation, and activities, rather than on education, at Abingdon.

To that end, Arlington Board of Education Chairman James Lander appointed Christian Dorsey to Abingdon's Building Level Advisory Committee. Mr. Dorsey is another SUV soccer parent who has, with APS Staff and County Staff, wasted at least $2 million facilitating state-of-the-art so-called "transportation planning" to benefit SUV soccer parents at the expense of educational and environmental infrastructure on the Abingdon campus.

Why did I laugh when I read the Washington Post report today which  mis-characterized Christian Dorsey and Katie Cristol as "fiscal conservatives'? Because that's flat-out untrue. Only fiscal conservatives on the ballot who want to put an end to wasteful spending by APS and County Government are Audrey Clement and Mike McMenamin.

Mary, 22206

Free Range Car Sharing to Compete With Free Range Bicycles

Hey, Yupette,

Thanks for the info about the free-range bicyclists. So guess what's on the County Board's Consent Agenda (#39 ) this Saturday? Free range electric automobiles! Yes, those lovable County Staffers who don't live in Arlington are at it again with another vibrant New Urbanist transportation scheme. The Zip cars zipping around and generating who knows how many vehicle trips per day and who knows how much demand for parking aren't enough. County Staff want to bring Car2Go to Arlington, starting with 200 'test' vehicles. Duh.

So what's Car2Go? A German company that takes Zip cars one step further --- like why bother with dedicated parking when you can pick up a car parked anywhere in Arlington and drive and park it anywhere in Arlington (federally-owned property is off-limits), including the County's parking garages, metered parking spaces, and residential permit parking spaces. So how many vehicle trips will those 200 vehicles generate every day? How many parking spaces will the 200 vehicles require every day? As usual, Transportation Staff didn't bother conducting a transportation impact analysis, a pilot program with 20 vehicles, or even bother telling residents in parked-out neighborhoods what to expect.

It gets worse. Can Bike2Go be far behind? So, in a year or two, when residents of an urbanized neighborhood try to find an on-street space to park at 6 PM in a permit parking zone they find Car2Go vehicles parked in front of their homes and a Bike2Go bicycle chained to a tree next to the vehicle. I have to agree that we are headed for multi-modal gridlock in 5 years.

Terri, 22204