Morning Notes

Columns

by ARLnow.com — May 18, 2011 at 10:26 am 2,399 70 Comments

Board Approves Energy Plan Framework — Last night the County Board approved an ambitious set of goals to dramatically reduce energy usage and cut carbon emissions in Arlington over the next 40 years. With the goals set, a new county panel will now set out to figure out how to implement them. Speakers at last night’s board meeting — including members of the local business community — were generally supportive of the energy plan, although a few individuals criticized the additional regulations it will likely impose. [Sun Gazette, Arlington County]

Local Green Group Criticized — Arlington-based Conservation International is being criticized by environmental activists for helping to “greenwash” large corporations in exchange for donations. [Huffington Post]

The Concrete ‘Jungle’ of Clarendon — Are the roads tricky and drivers impatient in the Clarendon/Courthouse area? One writer thinks so. [Patch]

Flickr pool photo by BriankMKA

GM

I shudder to think what would happen if that Patch writer actually tried to drive in DC proper, if she can’t handle Clarendon.
- JamesE
  
  those two main parallel roads with perpendicular side streets are pretty tricky!!
  - Aaron
    
    And how she can’t find a job when she lacks basic grammar and spelling.
    - Tabby
      
      +1.
  - CrystalMikey
    
    She went to a job interview in a jean skirt?
    - JamesE
      
      and she can drive stick shift, I am in love.
      - Aaron
        
        A previous article of hers contains the following gem. This is why the NOVA drivers simply suck:
        
        1. Parking is $3, which to me is actually pointless because I’d most likely be paying $3 plus a couple hundred to damage my car and someone else’s. (Is parking even on the drivers license test? Because I still can’t do it…kind of a problem.) So basically what I’m telling you is to take the metro. Save yourself the headache and paint scratches.
    - doodly
      
      Jean skirt, flip-flops – and she can’t figure out why she can’t find a job.
      
      Then again, maybe it’s illegal to enter Clarendon without flip-flops on.
      - PhilL
        
        I wish her all the best in her retail career.
  - Overgrown Bush
    
    She should try to navigate the burbs, I66, I95, and other roads in the area. Clarendon may get congested, but it is a piece of cake compared to some.
    - Bluemontsince1961
      
      Ain’t that the truth, OB!
- Clarendon
  
  It’s ironic, but not surprising that Americans are the absolute least skilled drivers in the world. Not surprising because it is what you get when you cater to the lowest common denominator and coddle drivers with ever wider lanes, ever bigger parking spaces, larger turn radii, etc. I’m mostly describing the newer suburbs which is most of America.
  - Westover
    
    Western Europe has tough standards for a drivers license, but American trained drivers are superior to the rest of the world. Obvioulsy you have never driven in the Middle East, Asia or Africa, no need to even discuss Central and South America.
    - Andretti
      
      Driven in Asia and Europe (East and West) and a bit in South America. You are simply wrong. Americans are more regulated, habituated rule followers that have easier facilities to negotiate but are less capable for that very reason. They frazzle easily when confronted with high speed, chaotic, complex situations and/or deft improvised maneuvers are required simply because they rarely confront those situations because of the American roadway and traffic control systems. Put an American driver in the streets of New Dehli and they don’t do too well.
JM

Patch is a waste of space on the internet. Nothing but vapid, content farmed crap on there.
ArlLiver4

To her credit, Arlington is making driving in Clarendon as difficult as possible.
- doodly
  
  But making it more worth going to in the first place.
  - Agent Michael Scarn
    
    +1
  - JamesE
    
    all those jagr bombs aren’t going to drink themselves.
    - KalashniKEV
      
      Not now, Chief… I’m in the Zone!!!!1!
      - JamesE
        
        that video perfectly describes 95% of the people at a Clarendon bar.
      - CrystalMikey
        
        +1
      - Maria
        
        Oh come on… 90%, tops.
NomNom

She is an 18-19 year old girl driving in a city. I would hate to see her navigate the GW parkway between Crystal City and Rossyln. Seeing her in the District would be a mess too.
Amy Moore

When you consider the history of Clarendon (the fact that the streets were designed for trolley cars), the layout actually makes perfect sense.
Bluemontsince1961

The Patch article reminded me again why I stopped reading Patch and switched to ARLNow. Clarendon/Courthouse are difficult to drive around?!??! All the construction is annoying and the endless backups on eastbound Clarendon Blvd. going into the Whole Foods parking lot is annoying, but Clarendon/Courthouse is not what I’d call tricky. At least not to me; maybe because I’ve lived in Arlington almost all of my life.

She should try driving in DC or Boston. Now those could be called confusing.
- Aaron
  
  The area of Boston around Logan Airport freaking nuts. No traffic rules followed at all, but it worked. Was crazy fun driving.
- Larchmont
  
  And she’s “back home” after a year away…where did she drive from 16 – 18?
  - CW
    
    A go-kart track.
Bluemontsince1961

I drove through the Boston area years ago with my dad when we went to see friends. The drivers were insane, and that was back in the early 70s. They have their own way of driving, that’s for sure!
- jenn
  
  they’re proud of it, too – they’ll describe themselves as “massholes,” and look pleased about it. i lived in boston for 2 years, and in all of my years in the dc area i have never seen so many news stories about pedestrians being struck by cars – ON THE SIDEWALK. not to mention the annual winter snowplow vs. pedestrian epidemic.
Josh S

I find it mind-boggling that ArlNow chose to link to that. Is she your girlfriend? Your girlfriend’s younger sister? I don’t get it. You might as well link to a blank page. About as edifying and interesting.
- KalashniKEV
  
  Be nice to her… she’s a 19 year old “aspiring to be one of those cool 20-something Arlingtonians with the sweet apartment and cool friends.”
  
  That’s cute!
  - JamesE
    
    my friends are jerks
  - Bluemontsince1961
    
    As a friend of mine used to say…gag me with a spoon! 🙂
    - KalashniKEV
      
      I’d gag that.
  - jenn
    
    i fail to understand why anybody would think it was funny or impressive to be a poor (read: unsafe) driver. please don’t kill anybody.
    
    xoxo.
- ARLnow.com
  
  We needed a third article to link to and it seemed like a good conversation starter.
  - Thes
    
    !
  - Josh S
    
    fair enough!!!
  - CrystalMikey
    
    And that it is…
LyonParker

You guys are just as bad as cnn commenters.
- Tre
  
  *immediately jumps through/out of office window*
CW

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/2888/articleid/309414/newspaperid/2966/The_Great_Wicket_BakeOff.aspx

If Clarendon gives her trouble, then how on earth did this girl get to Georgetown Prep and back for any duration of time??!! Also, how did she live in this area for this long and not ever apparently come into contact with Clarendon until now? It’s not like Arlington County is the size of Texas.
- KalashniKEV
  
  Be nice, 9 months in Colonial Williamsburg does not breed city saavy skills nor does it improve already iffy parking problems. What can I say, she’s a work in progress!
  - Bluemontsince1961
    
    And those “90 degree hills” around Clarendon/Courthouse! Granted, there are some steep hills in parts of Arlington, but having lived in Arlington since I was a kid in 1957, I’ve never come across any “90 degree hills”…maybe a 45 degree at the absolute most, but 90 degrees…..this child that wrote the item in Patch is a bit of a piece of work.
    - doodly
      
      Hyperbole?
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        Maybe, but her article left an impression that she might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
      - CW
        
        She’s 19 years old, an Arlington “native” and Georgetown Prep alum and probably navigating the terrifying streets of Clarendon in a new X5 that was written off as a business expense for daddy’s law firm…what causes you to make those sorts of character judgments without proper data? 😛
      - JamesE
        
        she does state she drives a manual 1997 Ford Pickup so she can’t be all that bad.
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        “the terrifying streets of Clarendon”
        
        Don’t get her out on I-66, I-395, or I-495 between 6-10 a.m. or 3-8 p.m.M-F or anytime after 10 a.m. on weekends! She’s 19, and Arlington “native” and she’s freaking out about Clarendon?!?!? Oy. I’m 55, lived in Arlington since early 1956, learned to drive in Arlington in 1972. She should have stayed in Williamsburg (which is a nice place, BTW).
      - doodly
        
        Maybe she’s so smart that it’s all above your head. 😉
- Westover
  
  CW, Georgetown Visitation, and Georgetown Prep only have the Catholic Church and huge tuition rates in common, Visitation is in Georgetown, Prep is in Rockville. No girls at Prep either, and no boys at Visitation. 😉
Eponymous Coward

I hate to pile on with all the snark here, but I laughed out loud at this unintentionally ambiguous sentence:

“To my credit, it’s been awhile since I’ve been among the living here.”

Among “the living”. Because apparently the author is a vampire.

I’m sure Arlington Adult Ed. has a class for Remedial Zombie Navigation Skills. (But it should only be available to zombies who can prove they were unborn in the United States. No more anchor undead!)
- KalashniKEV
  
  Ha… I skipped over that thinking Williamsburg was as quiet as the grave. Maybe she is one of those teenage Vampires? I’d get along good with her then, b/c I need Braiiiiiin…
  - CrystalMikey
    
    Wow…I see what you did there. hahaha
    - KalashniKEV
      
      I must be a Zombie.
Tabby

Pulling pigtails much, old fellers? I wonder how many of you have written to her offering to take her out for “coffee” or “a drink”…you know, just to help her with my resume.
- Tabby
  
  dang…her resume, not mine. Grrr.
  - doodly
    
    Yeah, everyone’s bashing the kid, sometimes while making their own mistakes. Irony.
  - KalashniKEV
    
    How did you know!!!
    
    Are you her mom or something?
    - Tabby
      
      Dad.
      - KalashniKEV
        
        Haha… “WHO IS YOUR DADDY, AND WHAT DOES HE DO??”
        
        Sorry, OT….
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        LOL!
Abe Froman

Good lord, if she was as important as she thinks she, she’d at least be the Governor or something.

Honestly driving in Clarendon isn’t that hard. Stay in your lane, singal when changing, stop at the lights, don’t turn right onto Washington from anyplace besides the turn lane and your pretty much good to go. And for advanced driving technique, pull away from the light in front of St Charles Church onto Fairfax Dr, into the correct lane.
- JamesE
  
  I never know if I am correct at that light, there are two lanes going straight at the light and two lanes on fairfax so I assume both lanes go to both lanes of fairfax, but always and I mean always everyone in the left lane going straight goes into the right lane of fairfax.
  - AbeFroman
    
    Actually there are only 3 lanes there. the 2 right hand lanes go onto Fairfax Dr towrd VA Sq and the left lane is for turning onto 10th or Jackson.
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  Very true, Abe Froman!
Evil

I hope she isn’t majoring in English and/or Journalism.
Yikes!
Amy Moore

Not even sure if anybody is still checking this comment thread, but I’d like to vent for a moment. Every time I see a comment on the Patch article, it’s gone when I refresh my screen later. Why are they deleting reader comments? Annoying.

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