#JustinsTrafficJam
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Anonymous
+ 1 |
Anonymous
PP, I'm sorry. If I regularly spent 90 minutes in the car just to get my kid to soccer practice, I'd be miserable too. You definitely have my sympathies about that. |
Anonymous
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Wow so Jim is trying to keep cut through traffic off Ft Williams Parkway. Trinity was backed up for nearly an hour last night. This is going to turn into the battle of the old rich people. Popcorn please. |
Anonymous
A SAHM with a cause. |
Anonymous
As if you have ever seen anyone actually use the bike lanes. |
Anonymous
| Justin won bc people treated the race like a popularity contest. As such, he will now do what a popular kid would do and reward his friends and follow his whims. |
Anonymous
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Peace Alexandrian's.
It will take a time for details to out traffic on Seminary as well as local streets including Quaker/Duke/King/Braddock admixing with Duke and local streets. Let's speak later. |
Anonymous
What? |
Anonymous
Posted at 15:47 - Martini time in Alexandria. |
Anonymous
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Opinion: Letter to the Editor: ‘We Cannot Do This Again’
Saturday, November 23, 2019 #Every now and then, a politician becomes forever known for one unfortunate statement. For George H.W. Bush, it was “Read my lips: No new taxes.” For Bill Clinton, it was “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” For Mayor Justin Wilson, it may end up being, “We cannot do this again.” #Wilson had the very last word in the debate before City Council’s fateful 4-3 Seminary Road vote on September 14th: “We cannot do this again. This kind of knock-down drag-out on each road in the City. We just cannot do this again.” For him, it was too long, too hard on Council and City staff. And it was all the citizens’ fault. #Yet, Wilson’s own machinations led to both the protracted length and the contentious nature of the process. It started with his blind commitment to narrowing arterial roads through a Complete Streets program. Then, leading up to the mid-2018 announcement of the Seminary Road project, he repeatedly dismissed valid citizen concerns about congestion. He just thought Central Alexandria residents were being parochial. #Subsequent delays in project rollout were mainly due to overwhelming community opposition, playing out prominently in three well-attended meetings between T&ES and residents of Seminary Hill and other Central/West End neighborhoods. Neither the mayor nor T&ES expected such push back. Instead of scrapping the project, they kept delaying it. #Not long before the Council vote, Wilson met with a number of civic association presidents. When asked whether it mattered that 13 civic associations opposed the road diet, he remarked, “If 99 percent of people wanted me to do something stupid, I wouldn’t do it.” The leaders left feeling impressed only by the mayor’s condescension and dismissiveness. Retaining four lanes certainly doesn’t look stupid now. #Throughout, the mayor was not transparent or straight with the community. His messaging was all over the place: It’s about 37 annual deaths (not factual). A missing sidewalk (not needed). Buffers for pedestrians (didn’t happen where needed). Safety for all users (seems worse). Now, Wilson is saying that it was really about creating impediments to non-resident cut-through commuters so they would keep to the interstates. Those same impediments are now hindering residents’ own mobility. #To many, it seems that the mayor was orchestrating the lengthy and contentious process all along. Case in point: At the final community meeting in May, T&ES Director Yon Lambert announced that the process would now include a City Council vote. This rendered the already delayed Traffic Board hearing meaningless and delayed the process again from June to September. Does anyone really believe that Yon Lambert made that decision without political intervention? We all now know what came next. #No, we cannot do this again. We cannot again elect leaders who think they are always right, ignore overwhelming community opposition, twist facts and spin public opinion, divide the community, and care more about burnishing their political credentials to outside parties than preserving the quality of life in our neighborhoods. #Bill Rossello http://www.alexandriagazette.com/news/2019/nov/23/opinion-letter-editor-we-cannot-do-again/ |
Anonymous
Everyone knew that if the Traffic and Parking Board decided for Option 3 the keep it 4 people would appeal, and that if they decided to keep it 4, the option 3 people would appeal. By setting up an automatic appeal it made the process simpler. It did not extend the time. Most of the process duration was caused by the need to wait for a VDOT study relative to their express lanes. When the Mayor said we can't do this again, I don't think he meant the duration of the process. I think he meant the massive vitriol against electeds, staff, and fellow citizens. Mr Rossello apparently thinks all the process problems could be avoided if the City had simply gone with his side from the beginning. I suppose that's true, but it omits the fact that his side's position was opposed by large numbers of Alexandrians, as well as going against city policies and plans. If Mr Rossello thinks the way to smooth a broken process is for the Council so subcontract policy decisions to a coalition of civic associations with at best problematic processes for gathering resident input and whose residents altogether represent a minority of all Alexandrians, he is not likely to succeed in that. |
Anonymous
How many is the “large number of Alexandrians.” |
Anonymous
| If this had been put to vote by the citizens of the city, there would not have been a snowball's chance in hell that it would have passed. Anyone saying otherwise is incredibly naive. |
Anonymous
That goes for most things, including things you support. But why would anybody want to do road design/engineering by public referendum anyway? |
Anonymous
There's an admission that the majority was ignored on this. |