Washingtonian article about Alexandria

[Anonymous]

* too far away

[Anonymous]

Alexandria City restaurant tax raised from 4 to 5% starting July 1st via 5-4 council vote today to raise $4.5 m for affordable housing (in addition to 0.6% tax already).

[Anonymous]

Nice try. But nothing(!) shows that restaurant proceeds will at least remain at the same level with the new tax increase when coupled with all of the other issues including increasing traffic congestion and parking problems. Alexandria is very good at saying they will do something and then, golly, gee whiz, how did that happen, just as it did with the Potomac Yard metro incident from earlier this week. Besides then we would have to trust them to keep their hands out of the pot while they are trying to figure out how to pay for their raises.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria City: a case study in "diminishing returns"?

A city taxed out now.

[Anonymous]

The Alexandria mayoral debate is a bit of a waste. Both candidates are entirely the same. Both represent only the east end of the city. Neither has any but the most patronizing, condescending interest in the west end, except to use it as a dump for undesirable facilities. Both of them rubber-stamp essentially everything that the city staff and the school board do, even though it's city staff and schools that (justifiably) have earned outrage and are the real campaign issues. Both of them share responsibility for the continuing Metro travesties and the recent Potomac Yards metro station mess.

THere's just zero difference there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potomac Yard Metrorail Implementation Work Group Meeting

http://alexandria.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=29&coa_clip_id=4035&coa_view_id=29

For those interested in viewing.

No thanks Justin, I don’t want to view this video. It’s politics as usual in Alexandria. So much talk, no action. It’s not as if the council didn’t have over a decade to get this done.

This might out me, but in the mid 2000s I was in a meeting with WMATA and their general counsel and the topic of a Potomac yard metro stop came up. He told me, well it will never happen, not in my (his) lifetime because: 1) Alexandria City has to pay for it, and 2) well Alexandria can never get their act together ever. Don’t count on it.

That was back when Euille was fighting to have our client/developer pay for the straightening of Monroe Avenue/ Rt 1 and build that bridge. And build Potomac Avenue. We paid, you don’t want to know the price tag.

Now 15+ years later, we still got nothing. What in the world is there left to talk about? Why are there still meetings? SMH

No one in Alexandria screws up like WMATA screws up though.

[Anonymous]

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Alexandria Chamber “outraged” at Potomac Yard Metro changes

https://alextimes.com/2018/05/potomacyardmetro/

Good. They should be outraged. The City seems to have known about this in advance and kept quiet due to some confidentiality agreement relating to the construction that isn’t happening. Well, if there’s an agreement to breach, that’s the one. This is a signal moment for Alexandria. Wilson and Silberberg look kinda the same today.

+1

OP here.
+2

+3. The way the city went about this completely behind closed doors FOR A YEAR is so messed up.

+4 and 5. It is the same old way of operating. I would not be surprised if there is cash changing hands. All of them need to be out: the Mayor, City Council and the whole City staff. We need to clean house. As if the sewage thing wasn't outrageous enough (and heading into summer we're about to be reminded about it on a daily basis with the stench) but now with the Potomac Yard Metro thing … no one could be that grossly incompetent. Could they? I think the Council members are so happy to have their Council jobs and their side businesses that feed off of their Council work that they have forgotten what they are supposed to do as Council members.

I could actually believe Wilson and Silberberg didn't know about too much in advance but I see the City dept that is dealing with it knowing. And I really have zero sympathy for those who might be upset. They have spent the last few months droning on and on on the affordable housing like they do every year. That's why it needs to go. Too much time and resources wasted on it. And it's annoying to hear people claim it's housing for "teachers, police officers, " - those people are all priced out of the affordable housing initiatives

The metro station isn't going to be that big of a deal as they anticipate anyway. It will be a pass through station - more people will pass through it on the train to their destination without ever getting off. the City's mistake here and at King St. is the failure to provide parking. Now if they built a huge parking structure, that would be a game changer. There are simply not enough residents who are ever going to live in walking distance to that station and there are not going to be enough bus riders or bike riders. Taking the bus and then the metro from Alexandria is silly because it can triple the time for your commute vs just driving in.

Precisely this. I live in the city and I don't ever take metro because I live to far away to easily and conveniently walk, and there is no place to park. If I want to take the metro, I drive to Huntington or Crystal City and park there. It is crazy! It makes me wonder under what rock some of these dunderheads live that they don't understand that some of us have obligations outside of the 20-block stretch of King Street.

There are metro stations elsewhere (Eisenhower and Van Dorn) an extensive network of Metrobus express buses to the Pentagon, and DASH buses to the Alexandria metro stations, and Metro Way buses between Braddock Rd and Crystal City.

If you MUST drive to King Street metro you can park in one of the private garages a few blocks away.

The notion of putting in a parking garage next to a metro station in an urban place like that makes no sense - better to put in office or residential buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: They have spent the last few months droning on and on on the affordable housing like they do every year. That's why it needs to go. Too much time and resources wasted on it.

Is there a single Council candidate who is calling for an end to subsidies to affordable housing? A single one? That should tell you how popular your position is with City voters.

[Anonymous]

I think it is reprehensible that Silverburg and Wilson and everyone else went along with Metro on the changes to the Potomac Yard station. All of them should be thrown out for not being transparent. And is absolutely vile what they did to the association serving people who are blind.

[Anonymous]

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I think one of the biggest problems about trying to have a "discussion" with you is that you don't have any ability to see that others have different needs than you. But, yes, if we need to use Metro then we MUST drive! But you live in your sheltered tunnel-vision world and do for you what you need to do while the rest of us do what we need to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is reprehensible that Silverburg and Wilson and everyone else went along with Metro on the changes to the Potomac Yard station. All of them should be thrown out for not being transparent. And is absolutely vile what they did to the association serving people who are blind.

This. Completely despicable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is reprehensible that Silverburg and Wilson and everyone else went along with Metro on the changes to the Potomac Yard station. All of them should be thrown out for not being transparent. And is absolutely vile what they did to the association serving people who are blind.

This. Completely despicable.

+ 100,000. It's now clear that they BOTH knew a year ago that they were defrauding everybody.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I’ve lived in Alexandria city for 14 yrs. I don’t understand what Wilson is talking about when he says we are going to go the way of Detroit. The federal government isn’t going to disappear (presumably), yet he talks like it is and we need to prepare. How does that make sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’ve lived in Alexandria city for 14 yrs. I don’t understand what Wilson is talking about when he says we are going to go the way of Detroit. The federal government isn’t going to disappear (presumably), yet he talks like it is and we need to prepare. How does that make sense?

If everything is an incredible emergency, then you have to vote for him, to fix it. Because, emergency. It’s like POTUS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’ve lived in Alexandria city for 14 yrs. I don’t understand what Wilson is talking about when he says we are going to go the way of Detroit. The federal government isn’t going to disappear (presumably), yet he talks like it is and we need to prepare. How does that make sense?

If everything is an incredible emergency, then you have to vote for him, to fix it. Because, emergency. It’s like POTUS.

The funny thing is that he is the last person in the world you want to rely on in an emergency. He reacts so poorly to his own emergencies, those in his personal life, that it would be ludicrous to even think of relying on him for an emergency for thousands of people. He would be paralyzed with fear and crying in the closet.