By: Mary Margaret Whipple
Arlington has been making many “best of” lists lately: The Best City to Live in America, the second Best City for Millennials, fourth Best City Parks in the country. We can be proud of these notable achievements.
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Opinion
In last week’s column, I outlined some of Arlington’s self-imposed limitations in utilizing “community benefits” as conditions for approving developer site plan requests for additional density. See also my Sept. 22 column recommending preparation of integrated, project-specific fiscal impact statements.
Critical Reforms
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“Some cities are taking another look at LED lighting after AMA warning.”
That was the headline from a Washington Post article last Sunday, discussing the pushback against modern Light Emitting Diode streetlights in local communities. While the new streetlights are more energy efficient, last longer and save money compared to older sodium lights, some say they are too bright or cast to harsh of a light.
The idea of a “Blue Ribbon Panel” charged with bringing independent thinking to Arlington’s strategic planning process left me cautiously optimistic. A temporary group empowered to break out of a status quo mindset and provide truly independent analysis could have been a good source of insight for Arlington’s leaders.
After initially moving the independent panel forward with the support of all but one of her colleagues, Garvey blinked in the face of pressure from a relatively small group of powerful insiders. And this week, the County Board officially surrendered to those who are afraid of what an independent group might recommend. Instead, the Board charged the County Manager with forming a staff team to review county priorities.
This is the first of two columns.
Today, I’ll discuss some of Arlington County’s self-imposed limitations on site plan conditions for “community benefits.” These are benefits that Arlington receives in exchange for granting developers additional density and other zoning changes.
Promise to ban homework: through middle school or at least at the elementary school level.
Nothing causes more stress on an ongoing basis in our house then ensuring homework is completed during the school year. Turns out academic studies continue to show it may just be a lot of stress for no (or virtually no) academic benefit in return, particularly in elementary school and quite possibly all the way through high school.
By: Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz
As previously expressed in this column, my wife and I are proud to call ourselves Arlingtonians. One reason for this pride is that we believe our community recognizes the importance of creating opportunities for all to succeed. Ours is a community that gets involved proactively and effects positive change.
The Community Facilities Study Group’s (CFSG) Final Report contained this recommendation:
Add an economic and fiscal impact section to private development (special exception/site plan and Form Based Code) project staff reports to provide information on the costs (e.g. the projected service demands and other costs to the community) and benefits (e.g. the taxes and other economic benefits) likely to be generated by a proposed project.
With high temps in the 80s and 90s, one does not exactly get the twigs and acorns crunching pleasurably beneath one’s boots feeling that traditionally prompts a craving for fall-related items — you know, the ever-popular pumpkin spice latte or a malty Oktoberfest beer.
Starbucks has been offering the “PSL” since the end of August (McDonald’s now has a version, too) and Oktoberfests and pumpkin beers started hitting local store shelves even earlier than that.
Recently, Arlington Democrats unanimously backed $316 million in new borrowing proposals. I was not at the meeting, but I would venture a guess that no one asked how much of this money should be paid for out of the regular budget, including road paving, park maintenance, facilities maintenance, landscaping, and street lights?
It is not to say that all of the spending in the bond proposals is without merit. And, the Board deserves credit for publishing a more detailed explanation of the bonds. However, the ongoing practice of pushing what should be annual budget items into bonds should come to an end.
Arlington can, and sometimes does, play an outsized role in the politics and governance of our Commonwealth and nation – given the number of people in high levels of government and politics who live here. Yet many in our state and around the country live far different lives than we do. And the despair and anger they feel cannot and should not be ignored.
In that regard, J.D Vance, a former Marine and graduate of Yale Law School, has written an essential book on America’s political culture in 2016. “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and a Culture in Crisis” is an autobiographical account of growing up in the Rust Belt. The book has spent the last six weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. It has garnered acclaim across the political spectrum: Fareed Zakaria of CNN and The Washington Post, David Brooks of The New York Times and PBS, and American Conservative‘s Rod Dreher have all praised Vance’s writing and perspective on this moment in our history.
As my fellow columnist Mark Kelly and I both have previously advocated, it’s time to overhaul the seriously-flawed process Arlington County government has been using to allocate any surplus funds left over at the close of the County’s fiscal year.
Discussion