4th high school - building binge Langston Blvd and RB Corridor

[Anonymous]

is anyone from that FB group reading these messages? I honestly want their take on these (obvious) issues, and I prefer not to use facebook these days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sign on to the YIMBY Facebook page. Their goal is to have Langston Blvd lined with high rise apartments from Rosslyn to the East Falls Church. There motto is Arlington for all and the County planning staff is pursuing the same goal. They brush off concerns about overcrowded schools and lack of parks, parking, and green space. Everyone will use an electric bike and put their kids in carts attached to bikes.

Look at the intersection of Washington Blvd and Kirkwood
One 70 unit building was just finished. The huge Modera (seriously they kept that name) is about halfway up and the 250 unit building on the Red Top site is underway.

That’s the future of Langston Blvd, despite there being thousands of vacant units in Arlington, the County is continuing its push for communal living.

This is exactly right. "Density" is a word used with a religious fervor by these people. Activists and county staff are pushing through a zoning change for Langston that, despite the lack of access to Metro, will allow massive development in the area.

There is a plan for more schools but it requires building them in our increasingly overstressed parks. I have some great pictures of my son playing Little League on a park that is now the parking lot for Cardinal Elementary. Another example is Discovery, which was built on the once beautiful Williamsburg site. What remains of the park is now astroturf. It's what the urban planner types think of as heaven.

Regarding cardinal- the ball field is returning. It is not a parking lot for the school. It is parking for the ongoing construction of a stem water vault under the fields.

When that is done, the green space and fields will be opened again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is anyone from that FB group reading these messages? I honestly want their take on these (obvious) issues, and I prefer not to use facebook these days

DP than the FB page poster. Google “Making Room Arlnow.” ArlNow used to run a column on this topic but it is no longer running the column bc there was a thought that the folks who disagreed with the authors were posting unacceptable comments. It ran until Dec 2021 so you’ll find most of what you need in those articles and it very likely reflects the current YIMBY FB page views. One of the most extreme authors, Jane Feigen Green, also has a public Twitter account where you can see some of her views, but I would recommend the articles over going through Tweets which cover various topics and not just this issue. I’m confident you’ll find what you need there. Please participate in the public process to the extent that you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sign on to the YIMBY Facebook page. Their goal is to have Langston Blvd lined with high rise apartments from Rosslyn to the East Falls Church. There motto is Arlington for all and the County planning staff is pursuing the same goal. They brush off concerns about overcrowded schools and lack of parks, parking, and green space. Everyone will use an electric bike and put their kids in carts attached to bikes.

Look at the intersection of Washington Blvd and Kirkwood
One 70 unit building was just finished. The huge Modera (seriously they kept that name) is about halfway up and the 250 unit building on the Red Top site is underway.

That’s the future of Langston Blvd, despite there being thousands of vacant units in Arlington, the County is continuing its push for communal living.

This is exactly right. "Density" is a word used with a religious fervor by these people. Activists and county staff are pushing through a zoning change for Langston that, despite the lack of access to Metro, will allow massive development in the area.

There is a plan for more schools but it requires building them in our increasingly overstressed parks. I have some great pictures of my son playing Little League on a park that is now the parking lot for Cardinal Elementary. Another example is Discovery, which was built on the once beautiful Williamsburg site. What remains of the park is now astroturf. It's what the urban planner types think of as heaven.

This is accurate. Even if (and it’s a big if) the county can come up with money to build more schools, they would have to be built on county-owned land. Arlington can’t afford to buy a big parcel of land to build a school any more than most people can afford to buy land for a SFH. So they would be taking away parks and recreation space for the school or schools, which is the opposite of what you should be doing for high-density housing. High-density housing requires communal green space- you shouldn’t be building high-density housing and then taking the existing green space or recreation space away to build infrastructure. But these people think it’s more environmentally-friendly to pave over Arlington then let people move farther out (even if further out isn’t really that much further- think Annandale). It’s insane.

Then the county needs to return to these developers and receive more money from them until they can afford the land AND building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sign on to the YIMBY Facebook page. Their goal is to have Langston Blvd lined with high rise apartments from Rosslyn to the East Falls Church. There motto is Arlington for all and the County planning staff is pursuing the same goal. They brush off concerns about overcrowded schools and lack of parks, parking, and green space. Everyone will use an electric bike and put their kids in carts attached to bikes.

Look at the intersection of Washington Blvd and Kirkwood
One 70 unit building was just finished. The huge Modera (seriously they kept that name) is about halfway up and the 250 unit building on the Red Top site is underway.

That’s the future of Langston Blvd, despite there being thousands of vacant units in Arlington, the County is continuing its push for communal living.

This is exactly right. "Density" is a word used with a religious fervor by these people. Activists and county staff are pushing through a zoning change for Langston that, despite the lack of access to Metro, will allow massive development in the area.

There is a plan for more schools but it requires building them in our increasingly overstressed parks. I have some great pictures of my son playing Little League on a park that is now the parking lot for Cardinal Elementary. Another example is Discovery, which was built on the once beautiful Williamsburg site. What remains of the park is now astroturf. It's what the urban planner types think of as heaven.

Regarding cardinal- the ball field is returning. It is not a parking lot for the school. It is parking for the ongoing construction of a stem water vault under the fields.

When that is done, the green space and fields will be opened again.

There was always a parking lot on 18th St, but they had to expand it into the park to accommodate the school. It now covers at least part of the footprint of the old ball field. I hope you are right though that when they finish this other project that they will bring back the ball field.

[Anonymous]

A little off topic from the original post, but there was an article today in Arlnow about the massive project that the county appears to be about to rubber stamp near Costco. It seems that the next park on the chopping block to accommodate this development will be in Aurora Hills. Or maybe I should say one of the next.

Bigger picture though, if you look at a lot of these planning documents across the county, they are based on the notion that the people who live in these developments will have very few kids. A pretty big assumption and one sign that they are underestimating how many schools they will actually need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A little off topic from the original post, but there was an article today in Arlnow about the massive project that the county appears to be about to rubber stamp near Costco. It seems that the next park on the chopping block to accommodate this development will be in Aurora Hills. Or maybe I should say one of the next.

Bigger picture though, if you look at a lot of these planning documents across the county, they are based on the notion that the people who live in these developments will have very few kids. A pretty big assumption and one sign that they are underestimating how many schools they will actually need.

The county has maintained that all the kids come from SFH, even though the population has exploded and there are no green field SFH being built. They expect the apartment kids to move to Fairfax like they did a decade ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is anyone from that FB group reading these messages? I honestly want their take on these (obvious) issues, and I prefer not to use facebook these days

DP than the FB page poster. Google “Making Room Arlnow.” ArlNow used to run a column on this topic but it is no longer running the column bc there was a thought that the folks who disagreed with the authors were posting unacceptable comments. It ran until Dec 2021 so you’ll find most of what you need in those articles and it very likely reflects the current YIMBY FB page views. One of the most extreme authors, Jane Feigen Green, also has a public Twitter account where you can see some of her views, but I would recommend the articles over going through Tweets which cover various topics and not just this issue. I’m confident you’ll find what you need there. Please participate in the public process to the extent that you can.

Ironically, Jane Feigen Green now has a child in Oakridge ES and is pushing for a larger school at Oakridge -- to accommodate all the people she wants to welcome to Arlington. The person who runs the YIMBY Facebook page for Arlington and Alexandria is a total loon. Sadly, one of the active YIMBY members has just been made head of the planning commission for Arlington. That means that everything the YIMBYs want will be considered by the Arlington's planners -- who already want as much density as possible in the County -- and rubber stamped by the County Manager and the ACB because they need tax revenue to replace the taxes from hotels, restaurants, and commercial buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is anyone from that FB group reading these messages? I honestly want their take on these (obvious) issues, and I prefer not to use facebook these days

DP than the FB page poster. Google “Making Room Arlnow.” ArlNow used to run a column on this topic but it is no longer running the column bc there was a thought that the folks who disagreed with the authors were posting unacceptable comments. It ran until Dec 2021 so you’ll find most of what you need in those articles and it very likely reflects the current YIMBY FB page views. One of the most extreme authors, Jane Feigen Green, also has a public Twitter account where you can see some of her views, but I would recommend the articles over going through Tweets which cover various topics and not just this issue. I’m confident you’ll find what you need there. Please participate in the public process to the extent that you can.

Ironically, Jane Feigen Green now has a child in Oakridge ES and is pushing for a larger school at Oakridge -- to accommodate all the people she wants to welcome to Arlington. The person who runs the YIMBY Facebook page for Arlington and Alexandria is a total loon. Sadly, one of the active YIMBY members has just been made head of the planning commission for Arlington. That means that everything the YIMBYs want will be considered by the Arlington's planners -- who already want as much density as possible in the County -- and rubber stamped by the County Manager and the ACB because they need tax revenue to replace the taxes from hotels, restaurants, and commercial buildings.

I just looked up who the planning commission chair is. UGH. God help us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is anyone from that FB group reading these messages? I honestly want their take on these (obvious) issues, and I prefer not to use facebook these days

DP than the FB page poster. Google “Making Room Arlnow.” ArlNow used to run a column on this topic but it is no longer running the column bc there was a thought that the folks who disagreed with the authors were posting unacceptable comments. It ran until Dec 2021 so you’ll find most of what you need in those articles and it very likely reflects the current YIMBY FB page views. One of the most extreme authors, Jane Feigen Green, also has a public Twitter account where you can see some of her views, but I would recommend the articles over going through Tweets which cover various topics and not just this issue. I’m confident you’ll find what you need there. Please participate in the public process to the extent that you can.

Ironically, Jane Feigen Green now has a child in Oakridge ES and is pushing for a larger school at Oakridge -- to accommodate all the people she wants to welcome to Arlington. The person who runs the YIMBY Facebook page for Arlington and Alexandria is a total loon. Sadly, one of the active YIMBY members has just been made head of the planning commission for Arlington. That means that everything the YIMBYs want will be considered by the Arlington's planners -- who already want as much density as possible in the County -- and rubber stamped by the County Manager and the ACB because they need tax revenue to replace the taxes from hotels, restaurants, and commercial buildings.

I just looked up who the planning commission chair is. UGH. God help us all.

Same! That echo chamber just got a helluva lot scarier.