I wanted to know why Arlington's housing is such a mess and who's to blame. So went back 20 years and the answer is --- Arlington Democrats and the Arlington Democratic Party. As soon as Jay Fisette, Chris Zimmerman, Paul Ferguson, and Barbara Favola come onto the County Board they embraced New Urbanism / Smart Growth, which meant gentrifying the poor, working poor, and middle class out and replacing then with an upscale elite. That meant no more affordable housing that was / is actually affordable. So they didn't allow any to be constructed in Potomac Yards. Or anywhere else where there were large parcels of land to be developed.
So, having gentrified the middle class out of Arlington the gentrifiers, like Jay Fisette and Erik Gutshall, complain about the "missing middle" and their "solution" is to re-purpose older residential neighborhoods for "Accessory Dwellings", a code word for re-purposing single-family homes and town homes into 2, 3, 4, or more apartments. Coming to your quiet neighborhood soon.
Of course it's all a big joke, sham, charade to Erik and Jay. Erik is going to make millions when his construction company, Clarendon Home Services, converts single-family homes and town homes into apartments. Jay will be retiring to his estate on Florida's Trump Coast, until recently referred to as the Treasure Coast. And Jay's kept Smart Growth out of his Ashton Heights neighborhood for two decades.
Jay, Erik, and the others are nothing like Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt who promoted the construction of middle-class housing in Arlington eight decades ago. Arlington Democrats like Jay and Erik are Bill and Hill wannabes.
No way will I vote for any Arlington Democrat on the ballot in November.
Thanks for your blog.
Tom, Westover
30 comments:
Coming to your quiet residential neighborhood in 2018 if you are foolish enough to put Erik Gutshall on the County Board ---- Rolling Thunder
Arlington Democrats are worse than the Rockefeller-Scranton-Romney Republicans who trashed what is now referred to as the Frost Belt with "Urban Renewal" fifty years ago.
How did we get to where all the County's 'affordable housing' is constructed by VIP Democrat run non-profits like APAH for people who earn between $50,000 and $80,000 per year?
"Missing Middle" is a huge charade perpetrated by Democrats who gentrified the middle class out of Arlington the past quarter-century.
Erik Gutshall and his home gentrification company have been making small middle class homes unaffordable to the middle class for the past 14 years.
Barbara Favola, Paul Ferguson, and Jay Fisette repeatedly voted not to construct affordable housing in Potomac Yards after repeatedly promising to construct affordable housing in Potomac Yards.
Clarendon Home Services is expanding...check out the Web site.
"Missing Middle" is one of Bryna the Brainwasher's propaganda brainstorms.
Don't forget their pet plutocrat housing non-profits, that can't build or rehab apartments for less than $200,000 per apartment and won't rent apartments to anyone who makes less than $40,000 / year.
Erik Gutshall is a Developer who re-purposes single family detached homes. He would have massive conflicts-of-interest vis a vis ADs if he were on the County Board.
The County Board will come to its senses about "accessory dwellings" when several participants in Rolling Thunder spend a week with their motocycles at a B and B next door to a County Board member's home.
As I read the Clarendon Home Services Web page, Erik Gutshall has been renovating homes for years. Wonder how many he repuroposed into illegal bed and breakfasts?
I'm not inclined to see Arlington's housing woes as self-inflicted. We are in a regional market, and have very little ability to make conditions here differ in any major way from conditions in our neighbor jurisdictions. The one big thing I think is driving Arlington prices skyward relative to others is difficulty commuting from further out - so if we want to make our market less hot (and I think that would be a swell thing to do) we should improve Blue Line access from the Rte 1 corridor south of Alexandria and to Rosslyn, and replace the ill-starred Zimmerman Trolley with an elevated railway running out Columbia Pike into Annandale from the Pentagon. Dave Schutz
LOL. Typical Yellow Dog Dem. Earth to Dave -- Get on Glebe Road and drive to Chain Bridge. Take a left up Chain Bridge Road just before the bridge. Drive a up Chain Bridge towards McLean. You will see a horse farm on your right about a mile outside Arlington. That's where the fat cat Democrats who live in McLean and Great Falls, work from their offices in Tysons, and inflict their Smart Growth on Arlington board their horses.
NO more Smart Growth in Arlington NO
I wonder how many illegal basement apartments Erik Gutshall's "home improvement" company built over the past 14 years?
Are there any other kinds of Democrats except fat cat Elitists who are Bill and Hill clones and Bill and Hill wannabes?
Combined wealth of Don Beyer, Tim Kaine, Mark Warmer, and Terry McAuliffe approximately equals President Trump's.
Same Dave who wants to spend $90 million building a gondola that would make at least 30% of the passengers motion sick.
Why not petition the General Assembly to change our name to City of Arlington? That's what we are, thanks to the Smart growth skanks.
Next post on AY should be about the racist and elitist Civic Federation which is pushing for accessory dwellings, but not in CivFed delegates' back yards.
Dave, take a drive toward Annandale on the Pike. Take a right on Sleepy Hollow Road, 3 miles west of Arlington. Drive about 1 1/2 miles. Check out the big new Equestrian Center at Congressional School. This is the neighborhood where many Smart Growth planners on County Staff live.
The fat cat Democrat Smart Growth lawyers who want to trash my neighborhood on Lee Highway live closer to Arlington than that, on Lake Barcroft.
Is there anyone responsible for planning and approving plans on County Staff who does NOT live either in an exclusive enclave in Arlington or outside Arlington?
Now, it's just not true that I want to see $90 million spent on a gondola. I have consistently described the system advocated in the consultant's report as overpriced and I think that we build one more like that just opened in Brest, France, which cost 19 million euros: http://gondolaproject.com/2016/11/21/brest-cable-car-telepherique-opens-for-service/
It's hard for me to see how anyone could get motion sickness during a two to four minute gondola ride, so I'm not convinced that that's a problem. Dave Schutz
Why don't you save your ignorant comments for the Smart Growth skank ArlNow blog? LOTS of people get vertigo and motion sickness from the type of gondolas that were another done deal -- until the Yellow Dog Elite that micro-manage everything got queasy over the cost and the lies perpetrated by the gondola's promoters.
Other major league lies by gondola promoters - that the gondolas would be invisible and they would pose no danger to aircraft.
If Smart Growth is so great why don't Smart Growth Boosters Scott Brodbeck and Scott McCaffrey live on Fairfax Drive near the Ballston Metro station?
We could have a great bus-van circulator system in place today across the county if the Dems hadn't spent so much time and money on streetcars and gondolas.
Another lie - the proposed gondolas would be stable. Actually they would sway considerably in a strong breeze.
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