Hey Yupette,
I have a friend who lives in a townhouse on Van Dorn Street, just south of Seminary Road. She and her neighbors are outraged at VDOT, and the Richmond pols who were paid off ten years ago, so HOT lanes could be constructed on I-395 and I-495. What was once a wooded buffer between the northbound lanes and Van Dorn Street has been bulldozed and an ugly sound wall has been constructed. Contruction for HOT Lanes in the area of her townhouse has been ongoing for 3 years, with no end in sight.
So this is what Arlington residents who live along 395 will have to look at in 3 years, because there's a done deal between the Arlington County Board and VDOT, brokered by Governor McAuliffe, so Arlington gets the transient tourist tax restored and more money for bicycle infrastructure in return for allowing VDOT and the foreign company who builds and operates HOT lanes to build and operate HOT lanes on I-395 in Arlington.
The usual group of Arlington Democratic Party and civic association 'community leaders' is being mobilized to 'facilitate' the deal. As usual, the 'facilitators' live nowhere near the I-395 corridor, with the exception of the Democratic ward heelers who live in the vicinity of I-395.
As you may remember, the Arlington County Board spent millions on legal fees a few years ago preventing VDOT from building HOT lanes through Arlington.
Thanks for your blog.
Mary Ellen - 22206
52 comments:
Deal was agreed to by the County Board last Fall during secret meetings with the foreign corporation, TransUrban, that will build and operate I-395 HOT lanes in Arlington.
When does my crumbling street get repaved?
Oh, I see they're spending $5 million to add a deck to the underused parking garage in the Trades Center.
Several of Arlington's "community leaders" in the neighborhoods near I-395 are being "comped" by the consortium that's pushing for HOT Lanes through Arlington. It's perfectly legal. Arlington County Civic Federation has no ethical guidelines for its members whatsoever.
Arlington Civic Federation has been around for 100 years. Reason it's never had ethical guidelines for its membership? Educated guess: CivFed members have been approving plans for first suburbanization and now urbanization of the County for 100 years.
Local Chamber of Commerce Boosters have been trashing suburban communities as long as there have been suburbs. Check out Sinclair Lewis's novels written 90 years ago from your soon-to-be-redeveloped Arlington neighborhood library.
I didn't grow up in Arlington, but my grandfather did. He was an Arlington CivFed VIP in the 1950's and when we visited him in Arlington from where we lived in Falls Church he would tell us the Arlington Civic Federation was "as close as we could get to being a Klavern without actually joining the KKK".
Civ-Fed is another big source of votes for the status quo.
Having listened to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, I gotta believe their 'vision' for America's 'future' is allowing unlimited immigration into America while allowing Americas Veterans to die homeless on the streets of America.
Doesn't Governor McAuliffe live in an upscale enclave in McLean when he's not in Richmond? What does he care? He has, what, two years left in office and can't run for re-election.
Top Secret Censored Information Media Won't Divulge: Obama Administration and Congress allowed 1 million immigrants per year into the USA between 2009 and 2013 and gave them immediate permanent legal residency.
During the same time the VA medical system was allowed to deteriorate to the point of dysfunction.
Reason why Arlington Police are totally reactive? Thousands of 'suspicious person' complaints by civic association neighborhood nannies every year.
Everyone: People who live along the I-395 Corridor in South Alexandria and communities like Lincolnia in Fairfax County are NOT going to pay TransUrban $5 to drive one-way to DC or the Pentagon. They are gonna cut through Arlington's residential streets when I-395 non-toll lanes are jammed.
The 'suspicious person' complaints are coming from White neighborhoods like Barcroft and Cherrydale. That's been going on as long as I've lived in Arlington, 28 years and my parents lived here 11 years during the 1960's and 1970's and it was the same then.
Arlington Police have learned not to put minorities on undercover details because minority undercover cops were constantly reported as 'suspicious persons' to 9-1-1 by the neighborhood nannies.
LOL. Walter Tejada was reported to the cops as a 'suspicious person' several times when he ventured into Westover Village, and he lives within walking distance of Westover Village.
These creeps would charge us $1 per mile to commute one-way inbound-outbound from the 14th Street Bridge to King Street.
Can someone tell me why owners of motor vehicles are taxed to pay for bicycle infrastructure, why there is no registration of bicycles, and why traffic ordinances related to bicycles are never enforced?
Because nobody ever votes against it.
"Car Free Diet" is the worst charade EVER! Last redevelopment that went to the County Board included parking spaces for 600 vehicles, next redevelopment will include spaces for 2,000 vehicles.
Because the County Board buys special interest votes with tax dollars and allows free-range behavior in return for more votes. Parents running stop signs and texting while driving their kids to school is another example. Free-range dogs. Repeated bailouts of the Signature Theater, etc., etc.
In ten years the worst of the idiotic Millennials will be running the County.
Next big I-395 HOT Lanes facilitation meeting aka brainwashing session will be on March 14th at the South Fairington Community Center (on Stafford Street).
County Government also buys the Media.
County Governmnt buys votes by allowing various forms of 'free range' behavior. Free range dogs, free range bicyclists, free range parents driving their kids to and from school speeding, texting, and running Stop signs, free range bar crawls, etc.
Does anyone actually think the low-income people who have been gentrified out of the County are going to pay $1 per-mile to drive on HOT lanes to make $11.50 per hour working in "Vibrant" Shirlington and Pentagon City? They're going to cut through residential streets.
Oh Oh...Shamrock Crawl is on March 19th in Vibrant Clarendon.
Anyone who will profit from this lives nowhere near I-395.
People who work in Arlington and live in Fairfax County between Springfield Interchange and Seminary Road are already cutting through Arlington's and Alexandira's streets.
All Terry McAuliffe cares about is $$$$ and making deals.
"cutting through Arlington's and Alexandira's streets"
As is their right.
Charade meeting at the South Fairlington Community Center last night....Civic Association shills will be facilitating the project. Goodbye trees, hellow ugly noise walls. This is what we get from "Smart Growth". Complete urbanization and a massive increase in vehicles traveling through and parked in the County.
Our suburban neighborhoods were not designed for cut-through traffic.
County Board is set to approve the McAuliffe-VDOT deal to widen and toll I-66 this evening.
Charades? Try the Democratic County Board Primary. I writing in Audrey Clement's name on the ballot. And voting for her in November.
Another deck on the Trades Center parking garage will cost $6.6 million. County employees who drive in from PW County are exempt from the "Car Free Diet".
Civic Federation has no ethical guidelines that prevent civic association leaders from being 'comped' by developers for facilitating projects.
HOT Lanes will be very profitable for Arlington County.
Never mind our residential neighborhoods will be completely trashed.
Done deal for I-395 HOT Lanes is the County gets the tourism tax restored plus same package of multi-modal incentives the County Board voted to accept on March 15th in return for HOT Lanes on I-66.
Several "community leaders" have already been bribed by Transurban to pitch hot lanes on 395.
I have no doubt that bribes are being paid to make HOT Lanes through Arlington happen. It's a commun practice in the highway construction industry.
Mary Hynes signed a yet-to-be-disclosed I-395 deal in early December that gives back the transient tourist tax plus multi-modal incentives like bus arrival time displays. Similar to what I-66 corridor is getting.
A few years ago some cigarette companies offered discounted clothing and other merchandise to smokers. A own a Marlboro denim jacket given to me by a college fraternity brother when he graduated. Isn't this the same thing? We get a few trinkets from TransUrban and VDOT for agreeing to a big increase in air pollution.
There is a VDOT meeting in Stafford County on March 24th about widening I-95 way to the south of here. Other end of the funnel.
Anyone else notice how many really big SUVs and pick up trucks are on I-395, and not just at rush hours?
The dumbass with the biggest pickup gets 10 bonus points in the Spotsylvania Redneck of the Year Competition.
Why doesn't the Arlington Civic Federation have any ethical guidelines for its member civic associations?
Because bribes paid by developers to "community leaders" in Arlington are like frequent flyer miles for airline passengers?
No write-ins allowed in primary elections, at least not in Arlington.
TransUrban was just welcomed into the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.
The list of people who have been bribed by TransUrban reads like "Who's Who in Virginia".
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