The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

To the uninitiated, that might only have sounded like a politician glad-handing those in attendance, but it’s more than that.

The Glebe Market building will be torn down soon enough if the plans-in-progress go as scheduled. It will be replaced by a four-storey building with retail on the ground floor and market-rate apartments above. Georgetown Strategic Capital, the potential developers, have room in their plans for a small grocery store, but the question remains what type of store will replace the Glebe Market. This has led to debate within the community, and Mr. Tejada was publically throwing his support to one side. I think we now know what the county will be bargaining for as the development process progresses.

Although both sides of the argument are supported by all sorts of people, the main fault line corresponds largely to people’s backgrounds: the Spanish-speaking Latinos in the area want to see a store similar to the Glebe Market, while English-speaking people tend to prefer something more like a Trader Joe’s grocery or Yes! Organic Market.

(Sam Chon, the Glebe Market owner, is retiring and the store itself will not be reopened.)

I’ll admit here that I am with Mr. Tejada on this. I don’t want a Trader Joe’s (and a county staffer or two has told me TJ’s would not move in here anyway). I am afraid that we’ll lose the flavor of our neighborhood if we get another national chain. I am afraid that economic pressure will nudge our retail spaces toward the likes of Clarendon once the hundreds of new apartments and townhouses in the neighborhood are built. As one place goes belly-up it will be replaced by something a little higher up the economic ladder, I think.

(FYI: Buckingham will see about 1,000 new housing units once all the construction throughout the neighborhood is completed over the next five, years, or so.)

So, I'd like to see a store that has a similar content to the Glebe Market, and that has ownership close-at-hand so that it will be responsible to the neighborhood.

At the same time, I want any new store to look new. The Glebe Market does not look nice inside anymore. And I do want the county to think about what they are going to do with the men who congregate, sometimes drink or get unruly, outside the Glebe Market now. I don't want them simply rousted, but fairly dealt with.

And I'd like to know that any market we get serves the entire community, taking all backgrounds and income levels into account.

Mr. Tejada’s remarks can be heard here:

As usual in Buckingham events, the crowd at the ribbon cutting for the newly-spruced up N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive intersection was made up mainly of county staffers with a few Buckinghamster and Ashton Heightites attending.

Although county board members Jay Fisette and Barbara Favola are seen in a couple photos, I forgot to mention that they were there and Mr. Fisette spoke. He praised the finished project and talked about how much he liked the Buckingham Center, the food and stores.

Ms. Favola, who is up for reelection this November, stood on and held the ceremonial ribbon.

I have to admit that I love what has been done to the streetscape. The sidewalks are nicer, the "skyline" without the wires is great. I only, still, regret that the art component was relegated to the bus shelters.

Buckinghamster Bernie Berne said that he thought the changes did little. He speaks up at many events and is known for wanting to get rid of affordable housing in the neighborhood and not liking the men who congregate outside the Glebe Market and CVS. He said the changes to the intersection do nothing to help that.

Bernie, I couldn't disagree more. I think what has (finally!) been done is great, and I'm very happy it finally happened. We can deal with other issues later.

Scroll down for the link to the story.

According to the county web site, “the project includes replacing the metal decking and fencing, improvements to the railings, painting of the bridge and railings and installing lighting and a roof over the bridge.” Traffic will be affected during non-rush hours, the press release says.

To read the press release click here.

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:

Catholic Parade Through Buckingham for Pentecost

No Clear Nominee For Beaver's Name! So the voting continues...

Police Notes for Buckingham, May 28, 2008

Headlines from Earlier in the Week:

Thunder Rumbles Through Church

With a Snip, Eight Years is History

Labels: buckingham center, favola, fissette, pedestrian, renovation, tejada

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 11:02 AM 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