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
