The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

One distinct difference between owning a single-family home and a garden-style townhouse, I’ve found, is the number of times people knock on my door politicking for something.

I lost count of the number of times someone tried to get me to vote for Obama. And three of the five candidates for the House of Delegates race for the 47th have made their appearance, though I was only home for one of them (Alan Howze). Andres Tobar has not made it, as far as I know, and Adam Parkhomenko told me after the ACDC debate that he skipped my house because he knew I was Patrick Hope’s friend, and he did not want to take time talking with someone he was sure wouldn’t vote for him anyway.

When I lived in the Arlington Oaks townhouse, Josh Ruebner the Green Party candidate running for County Board at the time, was the only candidate in 10 years to show up at my door, as far as I recall. I wasn't home, so he left a flier.

All that got me thinking a month ago, so I started sending out emails to people I know living in apartments, and those people have had largely the same experience that I had—no one came calling.

In a recent interview, Miles Grant, who is one of the five running for the House of Delegates' 47th seat, said that he did not get any serious contact from Obamites in the run-up to last year’s primary though, as a member of Arlington Young Democrats, he was a likely primary voter!

Miles lives in Historic Ballston Park (near the Eastern Carry-Out), and swung by my house about a month ago.

Alexandra Morrow, of Arlington Oaks, wrote me an email about a month ago:

“I have not had anyone and personally am thankful I have not. After a long day, I really don't want to contend with people buzzing and trying to gain access to the units. They may avoid us because you do have to gain access not only to the units but then to the doors, and no one wants to be that one person who let's them in!

“I never had anyone knock on my door for the presidential election either, nor did I see anyone around the neighborhood. My guess is they know their time is better spent on communities where they don't have to work as hard just to get to the front door.”

It’s interesting to me, given that it shows off two of the concerns the candidates expressed to me: they don’t want to appear pushy or as though they are somehow invading privacy, and they don’t want to spend time just trying to get through the main door only to find hostile people at the apartment door.

People at the Buckingham Outreach Center, on the Gates of Ballston property, said they had not heard of candidates canvassing there. Writer, HeraldTrib columnist, and Chatham resident Vic Socotra said no one had knocked on his door, ever.

The only person in a complex who said they did get activity was Tom Lauria, in Hyde Park Condominium. They are a rather politically active bunch (I went to a meeting with Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple there a couple years back). The way the meetings were described, however, was that someone invited the candidate in to the community room, and people came from apartments to meet that person.

That fits more with what the candidates say they do. They tell me they find friends in the different places and ask those friends to set-up meet-and-greets of different sorts, breakfasts, happy hours, and such.

For instance, Pat Hope had a “Latinos for Hope” rally at the Buckingham Community Center.

Miles Grant said he gives fliers to supporters in apartment complexes and asks that they distribute them to a list of likely voters who also live at that place. He said he has a volunteer who coordinates that activity.

If that doesn’t work, he joked, “What we’re doing is renting fire engines with ladders that will go up to about the 10th floor and [we’re] just sticking our fliers to the outside of people’s windows.”

The group experience has a different feel than that of someone knocking on your door.

When Alan Howze stopped by, I told him that I write this blog and that I’m a friend of Pat Hope’s and have every intention of voting for him. Alan looked at me with a kind of curious smile and said, “Let’s get coffee.” It was a face that said, “I can change your mind.” I was happy for the opportunity.

He and I have had coffee; in fact, coffee with him made me think of asking the other candidates the same. I have met with four of the five candidates (Adam Parkhomenko’s campaign said they didn’t have time in his schedule). Transcripts of those taped interviews will be out next week.

Nick Benton, the Editor/Publisher of the Falls Church News Press, gave $200 to Adam Parkhomenko’s campaign at some point during the first three months of this year. Just letting you know.
Along those lines, Pat Hope asked me if I’d put a lawn sign in my yard, and, citing my role here at the HeraldTrib, I said no. Pat asked if Cathy, my wife, would be willing to do it, and I said he would have to ask here.

We have a lawn sign.

I’m a journalist, but I don’t see why my wife must give up her right to free speech. (I know this will rub some of you the wrong way, but at least I’m up front about these matters.)

The naturalist and TV persona, David Mizejewski, (featured in a story, below) told me that the eastern tent caterpillar is not invasive, nor is it harmful to the environment and backyard (it leaves behind a few holey leaves).

What I didn’t write was that he and I (we’re about the same age) remember the late 1970s in the northeast when the gypsy moths came in and defoliated entire forests. Since the gypsy moth is also a tent-builder, many people (I’ll include myself here) believe all tent caterpillars are bad.

They’re not, and you can fairly easily tell them apart. Gypsy moth caterpillars have a series of blue and red spots along their bodies, whereas the eastern tent caterpillars have a golden squiggle, with blue stripes.

Here’s a couple images to help:

I was sick. It has been some combination of head cold and allergies that has been laying me low for about two weeks. (That is part of why the Police Notes, below, are so delayed.)

Anyway, if someone was at the meeting and can give a nice emailed round-up, I'd sure appreciate it. I know American Service Center detailed their redevelopment plans, and apparently someone else was coming, but I do not have details, though I'd love them!

And remember that Rolling Thunder will be rolling and thundering down Arlington Blvd this weekend, with campers no doubt already filling the Assembly of God field. Look for pictures next week. (The police traffic alert is here.)

Today's Headlines:

Headlines from Earlier in the Week:

Labels: 47th, campaign, election, environment, house of delegates, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 11:41 AM 0 comments

In a story about Alan Howze’s entry into the race for the 47th legislative district (he’s the fifth to enter), the Arlington Connection’s David Schultz also mentioned that Ashton Heights Civic Association President Ted Bilich was considering a run. I’ll admit this was news to me. Read David’s full story here.

Scott McCaffrey, editor of the “Big Dog” newspaper, Arlington's Sun Gazette, wondered on his blog if my rather snarky comment on the Jan. 25 HeraldTrib Today was in jest. I wrote:

“A Jan. 12 article in the Wall Street Journal reports that David Lereah, a chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, was asked to make his predictions rosier than they really were, especially just before the housing market hit crisis levels.

“The Journal wrote: ‘[Mr. Lereah] says he was pressured by executives to issue optimistic forecasts -- then was left to shoulder the blame when things went sour. ‘I was there for seven years doing everything they wanted me to,’ he said, looking out his window to his tree-filled yard in this Washington suburb.’

“Funny that Scott McCaffrey has not written about any of this in the Sun Gazette.”

A bit snarky, I’ll admit, but my point is this:

The Sun Gazette covers the real estate market more than any other news source in Arlington. If the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors says he was pressured to make his analysis of the numbers rosier, perhaps the Sun Gazette should give a call to the economist and others in the industry and find out for itself if the Sun Gazette has been misled.

The sort of reporting the WSJ ran makes me wonder if the Sun Gazette’s coverage is accurate. A note from the editor saying that he has looked at the issue and has made adjustments as needed would go a long way to making me trust the paper. If no adjustments are needed, then explain why not and write that.

Newspapers do this sort of thing whenever they find out a source has gone sour, even if it is just sour grapes.

Had Scott McCaffrey done this, he would have also found the correction and clarification the WSJ ran which says Mr. Lereah was not asked really to cook the books when projecting, but just to make the current numbers look nicer than they were. All of that is worth a phone call or two, I think.

Instead of running a story about this, however, the “Big Dog” talked about how far he can reach when he urinates (read the blog post here). That is both gross and off-topic.

Generally, when newspapers talk about being dogs, they talk about being watchdogs protecting their readership. When you’re a watchdog, nobody cares how far you piddle, just that you’re guarding the house.

As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).

Headlines Since the Last HeraldTrib Today:

Mosaic Park Upgrade Includes Water, Other Elements (Feb. 7)

Mosaic Park Public Meetings (There is still time to get your point made; see the story).

Additions and Basement Apartments for Buckingham Village 3 (Feb. 2).

BCCA to Meet with Developer (Jan. 26)

Police Notes Jan. 29 to Feb. 5 (None!)

Police Notes

Labels: politics, sun gazette

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:15 AM 0 comments

Saw your item on the election. Just imagine if the Virginia GOP had allowed [Republican Representative, 11th] Tom Davis to run for Senate against Mark Warner. Even with the economy tanking, they would have had a contender. Just one more example of the right wing killing the Republicans.

I'm for Obama through and through, but I'm hoping this will be the wakeup call the Republicans sorely need to get back to the middle where most Americans are.

Marcy Gessel
Arlington

Labels: campaign, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:05 AM 0 comments

You, (and everyone else), have missed the biggest story of this election cycle.

This season has brought out the worst in our countrymen. Voters in both parties have been willing to stand and support, (or oppose), candidates because of the candidates' Race, Religion, Age, and Gender.

The Democrats have an excuse.

In as much as the two leading Candidates are very close on the issues, choosing one over the other because you want someone who looks like you, is not so terribly bad. That said, Bill Richardson, (maybe the best of all the candidates), and John Edwards, were knocked out because neither of them had a block of voters who supported them because they were men.

(Richardson was Hispanic, I bet some folks voted against him for his National Origin.)

The Republicans have no excuse. Mitt Romney had the most impressive resume of anyone running.

Sadly, he lost not because of his beliefs, nor his experience. While almost all Mormons voted for him because he was a Mormon, many of the Christians voted against him purely out of their bigotry against Mormons.

McCain won not because he was well liked in the Republican party, but because he was neither a Mormon, nor a solid Christian. (Yes, non-believers quickly took the opportunity to vote against believers.)

Huckabee is winning states even though he has said some crazy things about Gay Marriage. This guy is a great speaker; however, he is not fit to win the Republican nomination.

The Republicans are about to nominate a guy they hate--because their religious bigotry did not allow them to vote for the guy who came most closely to supporting their views.

McCain has no chance to win in November. (That is, unless we can win the War, and get most of our troops back before November.)

If the economy goes as I expect it will, and if we are in deep economic trouble in October, (as I believe we will be), Romney's experience and superior, (to all the other candidates), business knowledge might have carried him over the top.

This is a time when we need a president who understands trade, and the economy.

Romney is the only candidate from either party who understands how the economy works.

Should he have been nominated? I do to know. Could he have won in November? Even if the economy was the major issue, it is very doubtful he could have won against either Democrat.

However, the fact that he lost because of religious bigotry, is disturbing--VERY DISTURBING!

Mick Pulliam

Labels: politics, president, primary

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 4:37 PM 2 comments

Therefore, I’m willing to put my money up front today, before tomorrow’s vote, as throwing my left-leaning attitudes behind the nominee in late October will be as useful as teats on a bull. --ST

I do not really see the difference between Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton in policy. I have read through much of both of their web sites. I have read other articles. Watched video.

So it really does come down to two things for me, as the national media says it has for many people around the country.

The first is leadership style, which plays into the second, the experience and background of the two.

Mr. Obama is the unification candidate this time around, the guy who will talk with and work with everyone until he gets the job done. Mr. Obama’s continual message of hope and change sounds nice, but can all the talk and discussion win the support to actually make it happen? A person with great ideas but an inability to garner the votes to see them through is nearly as bad as a person with lousy ideas.

Ms. Clinton is the combatant candidate this year. She will knock heads and take names, forcing people to vote with her. Ms. Clinton is so despised by the far right (and much of the near right) that I wonder if she has the ability to change people’s minds, find the consensus and shove the legislation through. A person with great ideas but an inability to garner the votes to see them through is nearly as bad as a person with lousy ideas.

Both styles can work. At times, the bully-pulpit stick puts a recalcitrant representative into line where the carrot does little good.

Still, I tend to be a carrot-styled negotiator myself, when I need to negotiate (though my children might say otherwise).

But then I think of inexperienced leadership and President Bush. His inexperience as a leader (even as a businessman he lost money) I thought less of when he first took office in 2001, but his lack of historical understanding, and his lack of a basic understanding of human nature has hurt this country in ways it will take years to repair.

But Mr. Bush’s lack of experience as a successful leader is not the real problem. The real problem is that he just does not think. What he lacks in deliberation over issues, he replaces with arrogance.

Although I do not believe Mr. Obama will be as stupid as Mr. Bush, I do wonder what pitfalls he will encounter if he were to take the reins of the country. This is the problem, too, with having Senators running for election. Although Ms. Clinton has been in politics at all levels for years, she has never been the sole person in charge. Neither has Mr. Obama. The Senate is committees, not executives, and the Presidency requires someone who can be an executive.

But a smart person, who admits mistakes (like drug-taking) will also be able to make compromises, I believe. If you do not always have to be right, then you can see how other people feel, how others understand the world. This is what the country needs, and I think Mr. Obama will best give that. Ms. Clinton strikes me more as the one to hold the truncheon, the type not to listen to political foes (although I have heard from friends in northern New York she is an excellent listener on the campaign trail).

I will be voting for Mr. Obama tomorrow.

On the Republican side, vote for McCain. He has the brains and experience, and has never once said our Constitution needs to be Evangelized.

Labels: campaign, endorsement, politics, president

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 1:45 PM 3 comments

The most famous names that make their way onto the list include Ted Leonsis. He wrote checks at $2,300 each from the Washington Capitals’ world headquarters atop the Ballston Common Mall parking garage (it, not his house, is in 22203). The AOL Executive and Capitals owner seems to have been a good prognosticator, as well, donating only to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Also on the list: Richard A. Clarke, a long-time government bureaucrat who apologized in front of the 9/11 Commission to the families of the dead and was castigated by the Bush Administration for his testimony. He gave $2,300 to Barack Obama.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor “Elly” Smeal made the list, donating $3,200 to Ms. Clinton. Others include: Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution ($350 to Mr. Obama); Michael R. Nelson (IBM Executive and Georgetown University professor) gave $3,650 to Ms. Clinton, Mr. Obama and Bill Richardson; Paul Hazen, president/CEO of the National Cooperative Business Assoc. gave $4,600 to Ms. Clinton.

Each icon/person on the map--displayed in no particular order--represents one candidate. Click each one to get more information.

View Larger Map

The numbers above represent donations to presidential candidates from the 22203 ZIP code (outlined on the map). Each icon of a person represents a candidate who received donations and filed Federal Election Committee returns during 2007.

The number of “total donations” is less any donations that were returned to the donor. “Avg. Donation” is simply the total donated amount divided by the total number of donations. Although the maximum donation a person can give to a candidate in one election is $2,300, some of the donations are larger than that. It could be that they were donating from their corporation/group, or that the campaign had not gotten around to giving back the excess.

To see the numbers yourself, click here. Once you get to the FEC's page, change "Donor Name" to "ZIP Code" in the drop-down menu, and you're off! If you would like my calculations or a nice pdf of all the info, email me: heraldtrib@gmail.com --ST

Labels: election, politics, president, primary

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 12:18 PM 0 comments

Mr. Ruebner’s take was not only very interesting for its unchanged number (was someone sick this year?), but also for the fact that he gained two percent in the process.

Mike McMenamin’s bid for the office moved in the opposite direction. His 215 votes this year was only about 22 percent of the total, where his 357 last year was about 26 percent in Buckingham. My endorsement obviously helped.

By way of comparison, in 2003, the last year the full legislature was up for re-election all-at-once, about 25 percent of all registered Buckingham voters cast ballots; only about 19 percent turned out this year.

The couple of people interviewed at the Buckingham polling station (the K.W. Barrett Elementary School gymnasium) said they did not have any burning desires, no issue or person who drew them strongly to the electronic ballot box.

A woman who only gave her first name as Amy said she just votes every time. Joe Griffith of Thomas Street said he has moved back to the area and is three months in Buckingham (liking the convenience of the neighborhood). He checked out the Washington Post coverage the night before the election and swung in to vote.

The other county board percentages in Buckingham:
Tejada (D): 41 percent.
Hynes (D): 37 percent
Warren (R): 11 percent

As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com--Steve Thurston).

Today's Headlines:

Headline's from Earlier in the Week:

Draft RFP for Village 3 Topic of Discussion

Labels: Buckingham, election, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:41 AM 1 comments

And this one is the space where the people walk to enter the K.W. Barrett Elementary School gymnasium to vote:

Finally, this one, slightly out of focus, is the gym. OK, it is the gym at about 1 p.m. But it was rather empty after business hours, too:

Only 18.84 percent of registered voters in Buckingham turned out tonight to help send Mary Hynes for her first term to the county board and Walter Tejada back for another four years.

Arlington Forest fared a little better at 29.52 percent.

At 5 p.m. just 500 people had voted at the Buckingham precinct, and only another 129 voted before the polls closed at 7 p.m. In all fairness, some people handed out materials at Buckingham, and Geoff Schwartzman, Mike McMenamin’s campaign manager, was still “optimistic” at the entrance to the Arlington Forest precinct. (In one of life’s little ironies, the Arlington Foresters vote at Culpepper Gardens, located in Buckingham, and Buckinghamsters vote at Barrett, in Arlington Forest.)

Buckingham Precinct Notes

County Board:
Walter Tejada(D): 392
Mary Hynes (D): 352
McMenamin (R): 215
Warren (R): 108
Ruebner (Green): 80

School Board
Raphael (D): 490
Unopposed.

Clerk of Court
Ferguson (D): 421
Kelly (R): 144

Commonwealth’s Attorney
Trodden (D): 493

Sheriff
Arthur: 479
Strasburg: 91

Commissioner of Revenue
Morroy (D): 493
Unopposed.

Treasurer
O’Leary (D): 472

Labels: election, politics, vote

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:26 PM 0 comments

It’s a bad day to be a witch, at least this witch in Arlington Forest!

Of course, it’s Halloween, and the kids at K.W. Barrett Elementary School had their annual walk through the neighborhood. I’ll have something up on that tomorrow—a lot of pictures to run through.

The bigger news: I posted endorsements for Walter Tejada and Mike McMenamin yesterday. Elections are Tuesday. Coverage: Tejada story; Tejada interview; Hynes story; Hynes Interview; McMenamin story; McMenamin Interview; Ruebner story; Ruebner Interview. (I was unable to reach Mr. Warren, the fifth candidate in the board race, for an interview.)

Still potentially bigger news: Buckingham Village 1, on the northwest corner of N. George Mason and N. Pershing drives, will see demolition in the near future. Read the full story below.

A number of people asked me what the shed-like structure attached to a Village 1 building is. It is attached to the back of the building at 418 N. George Mason Drive, but it’s the shed anyone can see from N. Henderson Road near Barrett. Turns out it’s an addition to the complex’s maintenance shed, Micheline Castan-Smith told me. Now you know.

Another writer/blogger/columnist lives in Buckingham. He is Vic Socotra and lives in The Chatham, or, as he calls it, “The Big Pink” or even “The Island of Misfit Toys.” He’s been writing a number of pieces on the Buckingham redevelopment. If you email him, he’ll put you on his list, no doubt.

For the past two weeks I had been meaning to write that it was about time for Paradigm Development Corp., which owns the large dirtsward at the intersection of N. Thomas Street and N. Henderson Road, to cut down the brush that had grown up over the summer. Then, voila, I saw they mowed and planted grass. Excellent! Now, let’s just get rid of that large pipe/trough, and get the street lights working again, and I’ll be happy as a clam.

As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com--Steve Thurston).

Today's Headlines:

Headline's from Earlier in the Week:

Labels: BV1, Crime, halloween, mcmenamin, politics, tejada

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 11:09 AM 1 comments

That said, I had to pick two, and I was surprised when I read that my two are the same as the Washington Post’s picks. I’ll even admit that I like Mr. McMenamin for many of the same reasons that Scott McCaffrey mentioned when he endorsed Mr. McMenamin in his paper earlier this week.

But here are my reasons, and I’ll start with Walter Tejada, Democrat, first.

Mr. Tejada was instrumental in the Buckingham Villages redevelopment, helping to save at least some of the community’s open space and the community of people. It is clear that he knows the neighborhood and its people very well. He knows what groups meet here, and what a good number of the issues of the neighborhood are.

I am a sucker for politicians who show up. Although I feel a little burned with Chris Zimmerman, who I endorsed last year, I do not fear that as much with Mr. Tejada who has too strong an interest affordable housing and issues of justice and diversity to disappear from this neighborhood for too long.

This endorsement is not without its reservations. I have heard from people in the party and in the county government about the county’s budget problems. Mr. Tejada’s reputation is one that leans toward saying yes to a project and then thinking of the money. Frankly, I was not thrilled with his answer to the budget question I put to him during our interview on Friday. As well, I am hoping that we will see him at some of the other Buckingham events, such meetings of the Buckingham Community Civic Association, too.

Still, he, like the rest of the candidates, is approachable and knowledgeable, and I think we should send him back for another four years.

Mike McMenamin, Republican, is working on his second run for the county board, and his campaign last year and this year focused on tighter fiscal management of the county’s budget, and closer attention to neighborhood concerns. Tighter fiscal management has become a plank on all the campaign platforms this year, and I think that may partly be thanks to Mr. McMenamin’s push last year.

Mr. McMenamin is very knowledgeable about the county’s workings, its budget and organization. As the outsider, he will be in a stronger position to question board actions. I am a big fan of vigorous debate, and, with his background, Mr. McMenamin is in a place to provide it.

This, too, comes with its problems. During his “Meet-n-Greet” he focused quite a bit on the need to look at the schools’ budget. He mentioned other budget cutting ideas, but if he focuses too much attention on the schools, he and we may be disappointed.

I want to say one piece about the other two candidates who I have gotten to know. The Green Party candidate Josh Ruebner is a smart, nice man who has a long life ahead of him in county politics if he wants it. He needs to get more involved in the county processes, joining commissions and attending more meeting for my taste. Still, I agree with his take on the Columbia Pike street car mess, but less so with the idea of a Housing Authority. I may come around on the Housing Authority as I hear details over the coming year.

If I lived in a different neighborhood, I might just have picked Mary Hynes over Mr. Tejada. She is smart, and loved by the county; it is very hard to find bad news about her in the local papers. My choices leaned to Mr. Tejada because of his attachment to this neighborhood, and to Mr. McMenamin because I think we need a truly alternative voice on the board. I did not choose Ms. Hynes mainly because there are only two slots to fill.

Labels: election, mcmenamin, politics, tejada

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:32 AM 3 comments

He apologized for missing my emails regarding a “Meet-n-Greet,” and I apologized for not pursuing him more fully. We each ordered a #1 off the lighted sign over the grill—eggs over, fried plantains, refried beans, and a baked corn tortilla of some sort, crispy. I had to admit to not being a huge fan of Guatemalan food, although I love a good fried plantain. I was surprised by the beans, very good. Haven’t been in years, but I plan to go back.

We had a nice conversation, for about an hour. His responses appear in the story below. As always, the questions are edited to get to the point (I’m known to ramble), and the responses are all quotes, with “ums” and “ahs,” unnecessary asides or repetitions removed.

Labels: affordable housing, election, politics, tejada

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:07 AM 0 comments

HeraldTrib: Looking back over the four years, what are you happiest about, what are you most proud about?
Walter Tejada: Probably the variety of people that now are more familiar, who understand more how to engage in civic life in the county….There are different ways for volunteering in a your local neighborhood like the Buckingham community, you know, the Buckingham Volunteers for example, helping them, and plugging them in different things. Working with the Buckingham Youth Brigade, the Latin-American Student Association from Washington Lee [High School], Latinos in Accion at Wakefield [High School], and working with the…community redevelopment center to see what resources we can identify for them. Then, of course the Community Role Models…what started out…with a handful of people is now over 1,000 strong today…. What we’ve found is what people wanted is like sort of a hit-and-run. They want to have a choice where you come some place and if you didn’t like it you leave, and you never ever have to come back. Fine. But what’s happened is a lot people have come to events, like a fundraiser for a non-profit,… and they end up being regular volunteers….That’s exactly what we wanted to do. You sort of get people’s feet wet so that they can then on their own make a choice of whether they’d like to be involved…I have some who’ve already asked me, “What do you need to do to be on a [county-wide] commission?”…
Looking back, you’re not going to see a headline on the things I’m most proud of, you’re not going to see it in the newspaper….A county board member needs to have more, responsibility, more self-responsibility is how I would put it, to strengthen the community infrastructure.

HT: The Buckingham reconstruction was expensive, and from what I understand the money has made it very difficult to do this sort of thing in the near future. I know you were very involved in the negotiations. But given the expense and that kind of thing, I was curious if you would still do it again or in the same way?
WT: Well, I would always be open to try something different if it will meet the criteria I set out in this order, particular to me. One, preserve the community, the people. Two, preserve affordable housing because it might not be one with the other sometimes. Three, preserve historical designation. And fourth, affordable home ownership. Those are the four components that I set out to do….I had gotten involved even more deeper in this community as a result of something called Arna Valley where literally thousands of Arlingtonians were kicked out from south Arlington near [Interstate] 395. I was one of the rabble-rousers at the time, trying to keep that from happening….I vowed then that someday I would do something about it. So I was fighting then from the outside, now I’m fighting from the inside, but I’m still fighting….

If there was another way to reach that where we preserve the community, bring it to the table, let me look at it, fine, we’ll evaluate it.…The one thing to remember here is these things are not easy…you bring people together, and you look at options, and you form them, and you hammer out what’s really within our reach and see if there’s something that we all can win and come out of it….I brought the developer [Paradigm Development Co.] to the table, and Chris Zimmerman also worked very hard along side….Regrettably, we’re in a position where we have to be able to find incentives for the developer to work with us in order to protect the community, and I don’t like it. It’s a fact of Virginia law….

I said, if we’re going to lose something where those luxury townhouses are going to go up, and if we’re preserving the community, and we’re keeping Buckingham Village 3 and we’re keeping most of Buckingham Village 1, and this development will take awhile before that happens, and the community will be there, you know, that’s not a bad deal.

Now, is it cheap? Of course not. It’s going to cost, and anytime that we wait for more time to go by, I don’t see anything that’s going down in price, do you?

HT: No, but what I was curious about though, let’s say next week we get news that there’s another developer who’s saying I’m going to go and redevelop another low- or moderate-income housing project, the county’s not really in a position to take that on, is it?
WT: We have limited options, but we have options….We don’t have public housing in Arlington. It has been discussed before. There’s talk about a possible housing authority. I’m open to the conversation.

HT: You’re probably the most open to that idea of a housing authority on the board.
WT: Steve, if there’s a silver bullet for the affordable housing crisis, I want to find it. There isn’t such a thing so far….I’m not a fan of public housing, having lived in Brooklyn and seeing what the projects were like….I actually like non-profit management when it’s done effectively. We have some successes. Virginia Gardens is one. AHC does a terrific job in that project. I’m not sure they’re doing quite as well in other projects.

Like the Gates [of Ballston]?
Correct….I will point out where things need to be done better, and I’ll give credit where it’s due.

HT: Let me take you off the affordable housing track for a second. At the corner of N. Glebe and Pershing, men wait to get jobs, and some get drunk, vomit, urinate and defecate outside. The question always comes back to me, do we need more day-laborer sites in Arlington? We have the SEEC (Shirlington Employment and Education Center) on Four-Mile-Run. Do we need something more “up county”?
WT: Right now, I’m not convinced of that. I’m the one that led the way for the Shirlington Employment Education Center, before I came to the board. I was a founding chairman of SEEC….Since I’ve been on the board, we’ve put the pavilion there to give it more resources and keep it within that area as well. I think that’s the place where everyone should be going….First of all, we’re going to do a lot of things here [referring to the reconstruction of the corner at N. Glebe Road and N. Pershing Drive]. With that will come some adjustments in outreach to encourage folks to go.

HT: Will there? Is there county money for this?

WT: Some of these things can be done informally….I have encouraged always the Buckingham Volunteers [based in the Buckingham Outreach Center on N. 4th Street] to help with this kind of thing. This is the kind of thing that they can be…empowered to help their own community by tackling this kind of situation.

So should they [the men waiting for the jobs] be doing all this terrible allegations of quality of life thing? No they should not.

HT: It’s probably 40 guys who get jobs from that corner. What are the chances that even during reconstruction of the corner they’re suddenly going to say, “We should be going to the SEEC center.”?
WT: Well, I’m one that doesn’t believe in giving up….I think that now that we’re going to do the renovations is a great opportunity to tell them that this [SEEC] is where you ought to be….There’s a whole range of stuff that goes on at SEEC….There needs to be more education on that. If they’re just standing on the corner here, whereas over there they might get job leads and self-empowering skills, people need to understand that.

HT: Change of subject again, over to the Lubber Center. It’s not ADA compliant. It has senior citizens programs housed on the second floor of a building with no elevator, yet it never makes it up to the top of the CIP to get funding. Does something need to be done there?
WT: Of course. The answer’s yes. Having been there multiple times, I’m very familiar with Lubber Run Community Center. And I’m aware of all the ADA issues; I’m aware of no elevator….At Lubber Run, we need to redo it, the whole thing needs to be redone.…[T]here isn’t any proposal on the table, so don’t get scared that somehow the county’s concocting something, there’s nothing, and that’s part of the regrettable part of it….I would like to at some point, put it in the CIP track, but to be honest, I don’t know when that would be....There’s a big discussion about Wakefield High School, the Career Center, Thomas Jefferson which is not far from here, and of course we’ve got a multitude of roads projects and neighborhood conservation issues, water management….We’re doing a whole lot already….$565 million to renovate our water pollution control plant, for example, that’s not chump change, that’s seriously investing.

HT: That was part of a court order, though, right?
WT: Well, we’re under a court decree, yeah, right.

HT: It’s semantics there.
WT: For all intents and purposes, indeed it is a court order. We’d much rather do this than have it forced upon us, and the possibility of 23,000 households in the Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church area affected, adversely affected. So we need to do it now. So Lubber Run, it will be something that we will continue to see if it will be done. I think the people who are interested in making that happen will need to speak up in the future. In particular, prior to the CIP productions.

Labels: election, politics, tejada

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 7:45 AM 0 comments

“The rise of 400 percent in just one cycle of the event really amazes me,” said Steve Thurston, the HeraldTrib editor. “I couldn’t be happier.” (My homage to Scott McCaffrey.)

The event, Monday Oct. 22, was a casual get-together in a circle of chairs over coffee, cake and cookies. Ms. Hynes opened with some remarks and took questions for about 90 minutes.

If you get a few Buckinghamsters in a room, too, the questions get right to the difficulties facing our neighborhood—increased traffic, affordable housing, what to do with the proposed miniature golf site and day labor issues.

A pared-down version of the questions and answers appears a couple stories below (scroll down, or click this link). Much of the discussion was a conversation, often with the attendees speaking as much as, and over, Ms. Hynes, so the questions and responses required some editing.

The responses Ms. Hynes gave are verbatim in the text below, with portions removed to save space. I wanted all three of the attendees to have about the same amount of space on the blog. The questions generally are edited from the remarks a few people made at once, followed by Ms. Hynes’ response.

HeraldTrib: Tell us why you’re running.
Mary Hynes: ….There are three things that I think we’re going to have to work on, regardless…The first one is how are we dealing with our aging infrastructure, our sewers, our water, our streets, our sidewalks….The second thing is affordable housing….I do want us to keep having places that work well for the folks that have been living in garden apartments and are of lesser means. But I also see this huge hole in our housing stock of garden apartments that people rent, and then when you want to buy there’s really nothing in that starter category anymore….The third thing that I think we have to keep our eye on is what’s happening in human services.….We partner with a lot of non-profits. Some of those non-profits deliver essential services to folks. Some of them are not as economically healthy as I would like to see; they’re not able to offer their employees benefits sometimes, and yet they’re providing essential services.

Community Member: How do we maintain housing “mixed” by ethnicity and socio-economic class?
MH: …It is the greatest challenge that we have. And the tools that we have, I think, as a county are pretty limited. There’s no way, for instance, when you’re talking with folks to say, as other places do, you know if you redevelop in this way, so that we have a mixture of affordabilities and a mixture of sizes, we can give you a tax break up front. There’s no way for us to do that right now in Virginia, and yet that’s a tool that works in a lot of other places to hold housing in a mixed environment. Some of this we’re going to have to keep working very closely with the legislature and the governor on.

CM: I am a little curious as to where you stood with the Paradigm development. Was it something you’re in favor of, or, perhaps, may have had a different opinion? [The speaker was referring to the redevelopment of Buckingham Villages 1 and 3. –ST.]
MH: I don’t know all the ins-and-outs of that deal at all. I certainly supported holding onto as many affordable units as we could figure out to do, and I do support finding ways to do affordable home ownership. How that’s all going to fit together there, I don’t know as much about it as I, perhaps, ought to….It’s an expensive precedent, we cannot afford, I don’t think, to do that in every place that an owner is willing to not go to the maximum density.

CM: How do you feel about affordable housing as it is spread throughout Arlington right now?
MH: I think we’re going to have to get smarter about spreading it out. Finding the right strategies to do that is going to be the sort of forward thinking that we need to do, whether it is allowing things, commercial areas on these other roads to get a little higher so that we can have some housing. Another idea that I’m interested in…they call them accessory dwelling units, really basement apartments or garages in single family neighborhoods that become a small apartment…. We’re not going to solve it only on the corridors.

CM: With all of this increased density throughout the county, what will the impact on the infrastructure be, and who’s going to monitor that? You’re talking about putting more people into garages and basement apartments, it’s a hidden kind of thing.
MH: …We’re under a court order to upgrade our sewer treatment plant and deal with that…and it’s a capacity issue as well as an upgrading of the technology that manages the sewer. We have major storm water maintenance issues in this community, and the county board has begun to address that, but it’s going to continue to be an issue.…We need to get a really strong matrix in place that says as we do this development, these are the ancillary things that we need to pay attention to.

HT: You live in Lyon Village, and I believe you were on the first group of people to fight against “The View at Clarendon” the mixed-use redevelopment of the First Baptist Church.
MH: I would characterize it slightly differently. The Baptist church was kind of moving along, it was supposed to get to the county board, and the county board decided that they would have the manager convene a working group of neighbors, housing advocates and church people to work through the issue. I was one of the two neighborhood representatives to that round table….We tried to come to a consensus position….Lots of people have different perceptions of what happened. In the end where I came down was that I believe that 10 storeys was too tall for that location. I was very grateful that the manager preserved the three-storey portion of the building that’s the day care center….But the 10 storey portion is across from a number of single-family homes. And the zoning change that was necessary to allow that 10 storey building changed a 30-year agreement…that the neighborhood had come to rely on.…In the end, no compromise was reached, and so the board voted for it, and then the neighbors sued. I have not had a role to play since the roundtable really ended.

HT: So you weren’t part of the suit?
MH: No. No.

HT: My big question with affordable housing, with density is that nobody wants encroachment in their neighborhoods, but don’t we all have to suck it up a little?
MH: In any community process, Steve, I think that’s true, you cannot satisfy everybody….One of the ways that I’d like to see us proceed moving forward is to help neighborhoods envision what might come….In the system we have now, you might hear about [developers’ ideas] long after the developers have gone to talk to the county, and there might be one or two things on the table. What I think would be much more useful is a process that’s kind of like what they did on Columbia Pike, where the neighbors sat down and said, “Gosh, if this is going to redevelop, and if it revitalizes, we might get some more services, and we might get some housing, or some business incubators,”….So let us think about what the economics would be of encouraging a developer to build the kind of thing we’d like, and then what more are we willing to give to help afford those things that we might like. And do it long before the developer comes in so that the community is kind of coalesced around the notion of these shapes and these kinds of services would be important to us.

HT: What sort of pressure would you put on communities to say, “You’ve got to do your part too?”
MH: I think that it does have to be said. And I think we also have to listen carefully to what neighbors say. You know, change is hard, and people say “no” in the beginning….But somebody else owns this [property] and we can’t say “no.”….The more information I gave people [at school board functions] and the more they had the opportunity to understand sort of the landscape, the more willing they were to participate. It’s when they feel like you’re holding information back or the deal’s already done that you get the cynicism, people really dig their heels in.

CM: A mini-golf course has been proposed for the space at the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Randolph Street. This is a time when county staff has come to the community and said “A mini-golf course is what is needed.” The county board often just rubber stamps what is given to them from staff. Could you comment on that?
MH: I think what I was known for, Bernie, on the school side was asking a lot of questions. And saying to the staff “How did you reach this conclusion?” “What goals are you trying to accomplish?” “How does this fit into what else is going on?” And I plan to do that if I’m elected to the county board.

CM: The county staff is suggesting a General Land Use Plan change for the Bob Peck site to allow a taller building and more density. The staff has been pushing this all along. Once you start changing the GLUP, it opens the door to too much revision.
MH: One of the things that I’ve learned, Bernie, living where I’ve lived for so long is that the real history is in the neighborhood people….The county will say, “We’re going to do this,” when in fact there’s a lawsuit that says “No, you really can’t do that.” I’ve learned to ask the people in the neighborhood…

The battles that we’ll have to face in the future is that some change is going to have to come….Bob Peck is a great example….There’s a death [in the Peck family] and all of a sudden people are saying, “Well how does this now fit in the fabric that’s built up around it?”…I am not of the mind that things have to be as high as we possibly can think about it, nor as dense as we possibly can. I want to make sure that we’re thoughtful and careful about where our transitions are. I think what we’re seeing now is a willingness by many on the county board to undue those arrangements for a variety of reasons, some of which I don’t understand….I think that site [the Bob Peck site at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard] is going to be a huge challenge….

I think affordable housing makes it harder to have a rational conversation because it brings a whole set of people in who, they really don’t care what happens, if in fact we get some more affordable housing because they feel it is such an important crisis, and we should be willing to do just about anything to solve it….I can promise you that I will ask the question everytime: “Who’s at the table? Is everybody who ought to be there involved and participating? Are we sending the notices even if people aren’t showing up?” I learned that on the school side.

CM: If the Glebe Market goes away in a year or so, and day laborers congregate there, where are they going to go? (If the space currently planned for the mini-golf course becomes a park only with trees and benches, how do we stop people from going there?) There’s a need to look at what’s going on with that piece of property now within close proximity to the actions a few block away. Where are you on day laborer sites?
MH: I was really supportive of the opening of SEEC [the day laborer site in South Arlington]….I thought it met a whole lot of needs, and it dealt with what was getting to be a pretty unruly situation….I guess I didn’t know that people were gathering up here….Well maybe we do need to look for another location….

There is [a domino effect]. The people who live in the neighborhoods are often more aware of these kinds of issues that anyone of us can be on the county board.

Labels: BV1, BV3, debate, politics, schools

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:54 PM 0 comments

The candidates will make brief statements, followed by responses to questions from the audience. School board candidate Abby Raphael will also make a statement and respond to questions.

Want to read up on the candidates' positions? Candidates' responses to questions from FOSA are posted on the FOSA blog.

Sponsors include: Friends of South Arlington, Claremont Citizens Association, Douglas Park Civic Association, Barcroft Schools and Civic League, Alcova Heights Civic Association and Columbia Heights Civic Association.

Labels: candidate, debate, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 9:12 AM 0 comments

I did not realize either that Scott McCaffrey on his blog at the Sun Gazette wrote about my getting Skunked! at the Josh Ruebner Meet-n-Greet, and he said it was that I’m realizing the limits of the blogosphere.

I’m not sure that’s true. I knew that getting people to come would be tough, and I was surprised and chagrined now with two bad turnouts (Mary Hynes is next Monday—Let’s do this people!), but I’m not sure if it’s totally an uncaring readership, or a readership that doesn’t move at the blog editor’s whim.

I am not expecting people to ask “How high?” when I say “Jump.” I knew this would be a tough sell, at least partly because the nature of the blogosphere is one where, as Howard Dean’s team learned, they read and get excited but do not DO.

But I have received a handful of apologies from people who did not go to Mr. Ruebner’s event, and one person even wrote in advance to apologize that she could not make yesterday’s! I know, too, that many of the people who read this blog cannot make it—kids, school, working out-of-town, etc.

Mr. McMenamin and I were talking and he said he was not feeling the pressure this year that he did last year when he first ran for office. The sense of urgency among the voters just does not seem to be there.

Yesterday, we fought a nice day, the Redskins-Packers game, and perhaps some voter ennui. Eh, what are you going to do?

By the way, if we hit even two people next time with Mary Hynes (Monday Oct. 22, 7:00 p.m., Arlington Oaks Community Center), that would be a 100 percent increase in just one cycle of the event. We’d be “The Fastest Growing Political Event in Arlington.” I love statistics.

Labels: election, mcmenamin, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 9:10 PM 1 comments

HeraldTrib: Why are you running?
McMenamin: The fact that they [county board and staff] came out and they did that walking tour three years ago and they saw that for 15 years we needed that four-way stop sign in my neighborhood, yet it fell on deaf ears. A couple times they’ve referred to it, and nothing’s ever been done about it.….

And we had a condominium building episode that was just out of the world of craziness. The actual builder came to our neighborhood, showed us the plans before he did anything, got buy-off from the neighborhood. He was going to overpark the building. He wasn’t going to put the entrance or exit on Monroe Street, which is the side-street….The county wouldn’t let him complete the project that way. They threw up more barriers then you could ever imagine. They wouldn’t put the entrance or exit on Lee Highway because they said it would be dangerous. They wouldn’t synchronize lights for us. They wouldn’t do anything inside the community in terms of putting up signs that say “no right hand turn.” We got nothing out of it. The builder was going to do everything in the world….Those are the two impetuses for why

I’m running, because I don’t think they’re listening to us anymore.
You can see that what happened with the First Baptist Church…where they changed the entire county zoning law for that church in a one month period after the [Virginia] Supreme Court case came down, and that was just plain wrong.
There’s no real outside opinion or thought coming into the process and saying, “Oh, wait a second.”…

HT: If you were to win, you would be one Republican of five board members. You were just saying a lot of the decisions now from the board are 5 to 0 or 4 to 1. So now they might be 3 to 2; that’s still not a win for your side. Where would you see that ability to change that 3-2 against your side to a 3-2 for your side?
MM: To tell you the truth we’re seeing it this year. What I ran on last year and what Josh [Ruebner, Green Party] ran on last year are the issues that they’re [Democrats are] running on this year. I ran on infrastructure improvements such as paving roads and fixing storm water drainage system problems, and putting the money back to where it needs to be put…lo-and-behold take a look at Walter and Mary’s literature [Walter Tejada and Mary Hynes are democrats running for county board] that’s what it is this year.

The other issue was affordable housing that Josh ran on. Guess what Walter and Mary’s issues are? They’re affordable housing and infrastructure updating….Having run, we’re having an effect on what the county is doing, at least what its saying….

There used to be something called “green rods” in the budget. Back five, six years ago the county manager used to have to come forward with a budget, and he had pages marked inside the budget where he thought programs could be looked at that might need to be cut. That all stopped. Well, if we could go back to that system…maybe we could put the idea into people’s heads that, “Hey, maybe we should look at this stuff.” If people…realize that maybe we could do better at this, and this, and this, I think you’re going to get the votes to follow with you.

HT: [Editor's note: this question was corrected after it was first posted to show "Lyon Village" NOT "Lyon Park" as first written.] I am wondering if there wasn’t some “NYMBYism” (not-in-my-backyard) going on there. That is, were the people of Lyon Village saying they liked the idea of affordable housing, but using the zoning changes as a way to keep it away from their neighborhood? It sounds like you don’t see it that way.
MM: My issue with it is the fact that it can be done almost anywhere in the county now from what I understand. If there’s a church that’s in a community somewhere that wants to build a condominium,…they can do it.

PH: The Lubber Run building is not ADA accessible. It’s the second most visited park in Arlington County, and it’s the only community center accessible by metro. What would you do to bring Lubber Run up, at a minimum to ADA compliant, and at a maximum (what I’d like to see) a state-of-the-art facility?
MM: Because I sit on Fiscal Affairs, I know about the ADA non-compliance….And I think it’s going to cost the county…$1 million a year for the next seven years to get these buildings into compliance….I think we really need to get that building up to compliance, and the rest of the buildings up to compliance so people can enjoy the benefits of what we have out there.

We have a problem with the bonding situation that we’ve got ourselves into in the county because we’re at the threshold of bonding and building right now. We’ve got to get some things done. Westover library…they’re supposed to build the Cherrydale Fire Station. North Tract? I’ve never understood the allure….There are a lot of things that need to be done in this county.

PH and HT: You could raise taxes to fund projects. I know that’s the third rail. What do you think of raising taxes given that we’re stretched on our bonds as it is and the state does not have a stream of revenue for us?
MM: This is where I come from: the truth of the matter is that we’re running a lot of people out of the county right now because of the taxes that they’re having to pay on their homes. We have to tax at 100 percent of assessed value of homes there’s no home owner’s exemption yet in place, and that will be two years before that happens….[The board] has raised spending by over a quarter of a billion dollars in the last four years. The budget is over a billion dollars, right now….

I have kids that go to the schools in this county. We have great schools….Forty-eight percent of the budget every year goes straight to the schools because the county board decided they didn’t want to be in charge of setting that budget anymore….[The school board is] doing their own thing with the money….That’s where we have to start taking a look. Because if you’ve got a budget over a billion and some dollars, they’re strapped to the gills because the schools are taking such a big chunk of it and you’re squeezed so tight.

Now last year, you remember when the human services problem happened, they were having to lay off employees and doing all kinds of stuff, that’s how close to the margins this county’s budget is. And you figure look at all the money we’re paying in taxes, something’s got to give here soon. Somebody’s got to start making the decisions, and doing the right thing….We’ve got to put the money where it’s needed for the schools, and make sure the kids are taken care of and we keep our high test scores and things of that nature, but we also have to make sure that we do the priorities in the county such as fixing HVAC systems at H.B. Woodlawn….

Let’s baseline this stuff. Let’s get the capital projects done. Let’s take another look at the way the schools are getting the money. Let’s try and look at it across the board, and let’s see where we are at the end of the day, and then let’s move forward and trying to get the needs of the county met. We’ll do the basic needs first, such as getting our roads paved and making sure our kids are educated adequately, get the storm water sewage problem taken care of, get our infrastructure needs taken care of, and then we should move along and take a look at issues you were talking about like Lubber Run and places like that.

Labels: election, mcmenamin, meet-n-greet, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:54 PM 1 comments

The forum will be held at the Arlington Oaks Community Center, 4490 N. Pershing Dr. (at the corner of N. Pershing and N. 2nd Street, across N. Pershing from Culpepper Gardens). Parking is limited to on-street, so walk if you can.

Mr. McMenamin plans to bring a Spanish-language interpreter with him, so Spanish speakers are encouraged to attend.

Food and beverages will be served.

Mr. McMenamin won about 19,000 votes last year in his first run for the county board, losing to incumbent Democrat Chris Zimmerman, who won the three-way board race with over 43,000 votes. Last year was Mr. McMenamin’s first run for board over what he saw as a county government out of touch with the neighborhoods. His jump into politics started with his and his neighbor’s inability to get a stop sign erected in their neighborhood.

A member of the county’s Fiscal Affairs Advisory Committee with two children in public schools, Mr. McMenamin calls himself a “details man” on his web site. His platform is focused on working with neighborhoods, having responsible, what he calls independent, leadership, and responsible spending. He particularly concerned with construction delays and budget overruns, his web site says.

The general election is Tuesday Nov. 6, with 13 seats from school board to Virginia Senate up for grabs, including two places on the county board. Five candidates are vying for those two seats.

DON’T FOGET THIS SUNDAY: The HeraldTrib’s first “Meet-n-Greet” with Josh Ruebner, (Green Party) at 2p.m. at the Arlington Oaks Community Center. He’ll talk, take questions, and mingle. He is bringing a Spanish-language interpreter. Light food and beverages will be served. (Click the link for more information.)

Other Meet-n-Greets with county board candidates:

The HeraldTrib is unaffiliated with any political party, but offers these as a public service. More on the other two candidates will be posted as we near those events. --ST

The purchase and renovation of Buckingham Village 3 was the topic du jour at the Buckingham Village 3 Working Group on Monday, Sept. 24. The group, largely responsible for what happens to Village 3, discussed who should sit on a panel to review developer proposals and what that request for proposals should look like.

In the negotiations between county staff, citizens and Paradigm Development Cos. regarding the future of Buckingham Villages, Village 3 fell under the protection of the county’s Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board and is the village that will remain closest to what it is today.

In the negotiations, the county agreed to buy Village 3 for about $32 million, through a developer, from Paradigm Development Co, which owns the property. No money has yet been spent on the purchase. The working group will help woo and choose the developer with the idea that some, or all, of Village 3 would change from rental to co-operative, condominium or a mixture of the two.

Village 3 sits on Pershing Drive between N. George Mason Drive and N. Thomas Street. More on this when the request is closer to completion.

My column at the Arlington Connection has resumed. (It's about Arlington Freecycle).

For more stories that you might have missed, feel free to scroll down from this page, or click these links.

Today's Headlines:

Troubles clicking through these links? Just scroll down, the stories are all there. --ST

Labels: buckingham villages, BV3, county board, meet-n-greet, politics

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:24 AM 0 comments