Voters Send A Message Of
Dissatisfaction To Arlington Officials Over Spending
(By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post, 10 May 2014)
A
groundswell of electoral unrest seems to be rattling the Arlington County
establishment, a month after voters
elected a non-Democrat to the County Board for the first time in 15
years. Residents of the affluent suburb
seem increasingly fed up with spending on what some call “vanity projects” and
the perception that voters have little influence over them. And public
officials are taking notice. The
May newsletter from
the Arlington County Democratic Committee includes a scathing article by the
party leadership that blames Alan Howze’s April 8 loss to independent John
Vihstadt on the perceived “arrogance” of the board, particularly in regard to
spending decisions. In addition,
momentum seems to be building for a referendum on the county’s much-debated
Columbia Pike streetcar project. The idea
was proposed last week by Howze and Patrick Hope, a state delegate who
is one of 10 candidates for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 8th
Congressional District. This week, the county’s treasurer, Frank O’Leary, and
commissioner of revenue, Ingrid Morroy, said
they would push for a referendum, too.
“My sense from
talking with residents around the county is they want and expect elected
officials to listen to them,” said Howze,
who will compete again for the same county board seat in November.
“Large investments that will affect the future of the community, they expect
they will have a say in that.” To be
sure, most of the concerns reverberating in Arlington could be defined as
“first-world problems. Property
taxes are high, but so are property values. There are more
jobs than working-age residents. Schools are crowded, but well regarded.
Violent crime is low. The most recent county-sponsored survey of residents, in
2012, showed that 92 percent of
Arlingtonians were satisfied with their quality of life.
All of which
makes the anger voiced in the Arlington County Democratic Committee’s
newsletter article even more notable. The piece was based on anonymous
observations by members of a 20-person steering committee, said the
newsletter’s editor, Warren L. Nelson. One
member attributes Howze’s loss to “the current ruling coalition on the County
Board and their aloofness, hubris and tone-deaf attitude toward their
constituents.” Another cited “deep resentment within the
community. . . and the widely held belief that the Board refuses to consult
and be held accountable.” County Board
Chairman Jay Fisette (D), who supports the streetcar project, said he takes the
concerns seriously. “Part of my job is
to listen, learn and adjust,” he said. “The disruption, the discomfort and
uncertainty in the community in connection to the streetcar issues can’t go on
forever.”
In
interviews Friday, supporters and opponents of the streetcar said they thought
there should be a vote on the issue. “You
want a plebiscite, sure,” said Donald Flage, a Virginia Square resident who was
playing tennis at Bon Air Park in Bluemont. He said he opposes the construction
of the streetcar line because “it’s going back to the past.” Masha Sharma of Shirlington, leaving a bakery
with a cup of coffee, said she likes the idea of a streetcar along Columbia
Pike, but she also said residents should have a say on whether it goes forward.
“People who live in the area, their
daily routines could be disrupted,” she said.
Fisette and other board members who support the streetcar liken the
project to the construction of Metrorail, which brought prosperity to many
formerly neglected areas. They say voters got plenty of input during a
decade-long planning process, which included hundreds of community meetings.
Financing
for the streetcar project remains uncertain. County officials were
turned down for some federal funding last year because U.S.
transportation officials said the project probably would cost $60 million to
$150 million more than the $250 million the county was estimating at the time.
Next week, County Manager Barbara Donnellan plans to propose a new financing
plan as part of the long-range capital improvements budget. Tamon Honda, a middle-aged Federal Aviation
Administration employee who lives in Boulevard Manor, said he feels that the
county board has ruled “by fiat” in approving projects that are controversial
or do not enjoy widespread support. The
many community meetings about the streetcar, he said, “were carefully
controlled from the start. . . . I thought it was such a foolish idea
that it would be shot down at some point. But it never was.”
Honda, like
others, also said he was frustrated by the County Board’s decision to build a
$79.1 million aquatics
center at Long Bridge Park, a project now on hold because bids came in
significantly higher than expected. That issue was nominally approved by voters
in a 2012
bond referendum, but it was contained within a “parks and recreation”
ballot line and not explicitly spelled out. Critics also mention the $2.2 million
that county taxpayers spend every year to support the money-losing Artisphere.
Others decry the $1.5 million spent last summer to build a dog park. “Long-time Arlingtonians, myself included,
prided ourselves in ‘the Arlington Way.’ This meant all issues before the
county were resolved though discussions,” Honda wrote in an e-mail to The
Washington Post. “Sometimes the discussions were very
lengthy. . . . Still, at least everyone was satisfied that they were
heard.” Another flurry of online derision
came in response to the announcement Tuesday of a 40 percent reduction in
the cost
of new streetcar-bus stopsalong Columbia Pike — from $1 million per stop to
$469,000. “Why don’t they just build a
nice 4,000 square foot colonial with a two car garage and a pool at each bus
stop,” 30-year-old Takoma Park, Md., resident Devin Chesney wrote in response
to a Post article on the topic. “That would probably come in a little cheaper
and give bus riders a nice place to relax while they wait.”
Arlington
transportation officials say the new transit stations are seven times the size
of a typical bus shelter and offer more durability and amenities. Vihstadt, who campaigned on voter unhappiness
over spending, is one of two board members who oppose the streetcar. The other
is Libby Garvey (D), who stepped down from a party leadership post last week
under pressure because she had endorsed Vihstadt over Howze. “Many people have already stated that my
election . . . was referendum enough on the wisdom of Arlington
streetcars,” Vihstadt said. He said the county should suspend all
streetcar-related expenditures until voters can make their will known.
Arlington Can’t Forget What Made It
What It Is
(By David Alpert, Washington Post, 16 May 2014)
It’s a
truism in politics that if you repeat a statement often enough, people will
believe it, regardless of whether it’s true. In Arlington, a cohort of
commentators and activists has been chanting that the County Board is full of
profligate spenders. Now that claim has started
to have currency in county politics , even though it’s grounded in
little at all. Fifty years ago,
Arlington was an aging suburb that progress had passed by on the way to greener
pastures in Fairfax County. Outdated retail strips, struggling businesses and a
declining population portended a bleak future. State and federal planners saw
Arlington mostly as space to be traversed between home and work, and they
proposed cutting up its neighborhoods for commuter roads.
County
residents and leaders did not respond to this challenge by spending as little
as possible in the vain hope that doing so would attract people and economic
growth. Instead, they campaigned to build an expensive Metrorail subway and put
it under Wilson Boulevard, with the goal of transforming it from a tired
suburban strip into a new downtown. They planned walkable centers with more
housing, jobs and retail, plus new streets and sidewalks, while protecting the
character of older neighborhoods. It
paid off. Now Arlington is a desirable place to live. It also saved money. Half
of the county’s property tax assessment value comes from only 11 percent of its
land, along the Metro corridors. As a result, Arlington typically enjoys the
lowest property tax rate in Northern Virginia.
Still, as
real estate booms, house prices rise and assessments go up. This year,
Arlington cut its residential tax rate by a penny per $100 of value, but rising
assessments meant that most people paid more. It’s not unfair for residents to
dislike this or to demand a more thorough discussion of overall spending
priorities. But it would be a big mistake to simply point at anything new and
declare it wasteful. The Columbia Pike
streetcar is a great example. County leaders believe it will bring many of the
benefits that Metro brought to places such as Clarendon. According
to a projection released this week, 37,100 people will ride daily
on the combined Columbia Pike and Crystal City lines. That’s more people than
now ride the MARC system (34,100), Baltimore light rail (26,800) or the whole
Fairfax Connector bus system (36,300).
The Columbia Pike line is estimated to cost $358 million, including a 20 percent contingency; the Crystal City segment will bring the total to $585 million, including the contingency. By comparison, the District is spending $663 million to replace the Frederick Douglass Bridge, which carries 77,000 vehicles per day; that’s more than the streetcar’s cost just to replace one short piece of the road system. Phase 1 of the Silver Line has cost more than eight times as much as the Columbia Pike streetcar to move just 2.3 times as many people – and that very worthwhile investment is setting up parts of Fairfax and Loudoun counties for the future. In comparison with other projects, a streetcar on Columbia Pike is a thrifty proposition. But that hadn’t stopped it from being a political punching bag for some who simply attack the price tag without context. News coverage that reports only the cost without discussing benefits does not help, either.
Streetcar
opponents constantly hold up phantom alternative bus proposals with less
capacity to move people and bring far fewer benefits, though
indeed for lower cost. They point
to high-quality bus rapid transit projects in other
cities while opposing the price tag of every element, such as larger and fancier stations, that
made those cities’ lines more
than just ordinary bus routes. They seem to say Arlington’s only goal
should be to spend as little as possible. Instead, the right goal is to make
all parts of the county great places to live, in a cost-effective way. Sadly, this chorus of negativity sounds a lot
like, “I’ve got mine, so I don’t want to chip in for anybody else.” That attitude didn’t prevail in 1971, when
there was talk about deleting the Virginia Square station during planning for
Metrorail, or when the Orange Line could have gone in the median of Interstate
66 for much less expense than under Wilson Boulevard. They didn’t act this way
when Clarendon, Ballston and Pentagon City needed new infrastructure to
accommodate growth. Arlington’s success
today builds on yesterday’s investments. The next generation needs a similar
investment, and now is the time. The county’s current plans, including the
streetcar, will position it to succeed in the decades to come as Metrorail has
helped it succeed today — as long as residents see through divisive and miserly
rhetoric and are willing to get excited about the future.
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