County Board Set to Pass Pike Trolley Folly Funding

Arlington County Emperor of Transportation Chris Zimmerman is bringing his Columbia Pike trolley folly before the County Board for preliminary design funding at the March 14th County Board meeting. Agenda Item 27. This is your your opportunity to speak out against Guru of Gridlock Zimmerman's irrational use of scarce transportation dollars to install an inefficient and expensive light rail system on an existing right-of-way that is unsuitable for light rail.

Arlington County Board is "Environmentally Challenged"

From the Washington Post on February 25th:

Grants Available for Solar and Wind Power

The D.C. government announced yesterday that residents, businesses, nonprofit organizations and private schools can apply for grants of as much as $33,000 to install equipment for making energy from the sun or the wind.

The program will provide as much as $2 million citywide, drawn from taxes on the use of electricity and gas. It will be parceled out based on the capacity of the renewable-energy system installed: an installation of solar panels large enough to produce 3,000 watts would qualify for $9,000 in assistance, at $3 per watt. Systems that can produce 3,000 to 10,000 watts will qualify for $2 in assistance per watt, and those that produce 10,000 to 17,000 watts will qualify for $1 per watt.

The program applies only to those installing solar-or wind-powered systems. In the future, the D.C. Department of Environment said, it will offer grants for geothermal systems, those burning biomass and those relying on recovered methane.

For more information, and to download application materials, go to greenenergy.dc.gov.

Next Arlington County Board Budget / Planning Charade Occurs on February 21st

Check out the agenda for Saturday's County Board meeting at arlingtonva.us. The County Board will not take up Newseum Cultural Center funding, that's already been pre-approved and it's why citizens are being socked with hefty real estate and fee increases ( Agenda Item 22), to pay for the Rosslyn Billionaires' Culture Club. While you're at it, check out Item 23, a Christmas in February give-away to another wealthy out-of-state developer who will build another huge yupscale energy-inefficient mixed-use redevelopment in Pentagon City with affordable housing to be constructed 60 miles away.

Obama's Environmental Message: Pave Paradise

What is President Obama's environmental message? There isn't any. He visited spoke to laid-off RV industry workers. He spoke to laid-off construction equipment industry workers. The message was: Let's get back to paving paradise.

VDOT HOT Lanes Facilitation Charade aka Public Hearing - February 11th

VDOT will conduct a HOT Lanes Facilitation Charade, aka Public Meeting, on Wednesday, February 11th at 7:30 PM at Minnie Howard School, 3801 West Braddock Road in Alexandria (Minnie Howard School is behind Bradlee Shopping Plaza and across Braddock Road from Episcopal High School). Snow date is February 18th.

Virginia's local and state elected and appointed officials have already signed on to this disaster, which will bring between 50,000 and 100,000 more vehicles into Arlington every day and which will also urbanize the remaining rural counties between Fredericksburg and Richmond. Virginia's pols were paid over $170,000 in campaign contributions to approve HOT lanes.

HOT Lanes in Delaware - Environmental Devastation in Action

Guest thread by Lewes Grrl who lives in Arlington and grew up in Lewes, Delaware, where her parents still live.

VIP Helicopter Flights Continue Under Obama Over Residental Neighborhoods

A.Y.'s friends in the 22206 postal code are discouraged about the increase in helicopter flights over residential neighborhoods since January 20th. What's your opinion?