South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

[Anonymous]

Somebody mentioned there are TWO candidates up for school board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, this is crazy. The whole affordable housing master plan is doing the near opposite of what they are saying it is supposed to do!
You cannot make this #%€£ up, when you look at the website explaining the rationale for AH....

" middle class families must have a chance to get help to live in Arlington!"
Reality: middle class families will be driven out with this plan. Living here is too expensive. Taxes are rising due to ever higher (unrealistic) assessments.
Middle class does not qualify for their "help"
"We must ensure people who work in arlington can live in arlington."
Reality: the majority of people who are in AH work outside of arlington, work illegally, or do not work at all.
"Seniors must be able to age in place"
Reality: the seniors who are homeowners are financially better off than anyone else. They have everything paid off and are sitting on half a million to several millions worth... Many paid far less than 10% of the current value... Something that will not happen again in real estate.
The renters that are local and elderly AND in AH are a small percentage of all AH.
"Our public servants must be able to live affordable."
Reality: again, only a very small percentage of firefighters, policemen, teachers etc. live in AH.

I think there were a few more "reasons we need AH" on , but at that point my tears were making it impossible to read on....

This is why it's OK to vote against AH. It's not helping Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, this is crazy. The whole affordable housing master plan is doing the near opposite of what they are saying it is supposed to do!
You cannot make this #%€£ up, when you look at the website explaining the rationale for AH....

" middle class families must have a chance to get help to live in Arlington!"
Reality: middle class families will be driven out with this plan. Living here is too expensive. Taxes are rising due to ever higher (unrealistic) assessments.
Middle class does not qualify for their "help"
"We must ensure people who work in arlington can live in arlington."
Reality: the majority of people who are in AH work outside of arlington, work illegally, or do not work at all.
"Seniors must be able to age in place"
Reality: the seniors who are homeowners are financially better off than anyone else. They have everything paid off and are sitting on half a million to several millions worth... Many paid far less than 10% of the current value... Something that will not happen again in real estate.
The renters that are local and elderly AND in AH are a small percentage of all AH.
"Our public servants must be able to live affordable."
Reality: again, only a very small percentage of firefighters, policemen, teachers etc. live in AH.

I think there were a few more "reasons we need AH" on , but at that point my tears were making it impossible to read on....

This is why it's OK to vote against AH. It's not helping Arlington.

+1 I'm doing a bullet vote for MM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somebody mentioned there are TWO candidates up for school board?

1 seat- 2 candidates.

[Anonymous]

Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The overwhelming majority of people who live in affordable housing are immigrants. Even the senior citizen housing. There may be a token teacher aid or two, but generally no. I work in one of them they are all immigrants. I have friends who qualify who are single moms and they cannot get off the wáitlist.

The earlier question about the arguments for the continued plan to build on the pike. Simple, no pushback from the community. Any push back is labeled racist, look at Mi Voz Cuenta. The argument that land is cheaper is false, if you look at costs of land it is not cheaper than other areas of arlington for the most part. There is available land, because there are so many dilapidated areas to knock down. So, build as much as you can. Affordable housing builders make more money, liberals can say how altruistic they are.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, the economy along then pike is tanking. More and more empty store fronts. Places going out of business. The new building at glebe and the pike, mostly empty commercial space. Arlington mill and shell, empty. The mixed use condo project at Buchanan, shelved, bc not enough money to be made. You all wonder why we have not head anything more about food star?????? The problem isn't the street car. It is that the majority of people who live along the pike lack enough discretionary income to support the local businesses.

The whole pike plan needs to be revisited because the vision has been and will continue to be an epic fail. Either gentrify the pike, for real, or stop pretending there will ever be any economic vitality.

John Vistadt was the only board member willing to mention this at the meeting. On the 22204 listserv someone was suggesting businesses that should go into The ground floor retail space at Arlington Mill. The county wants a healthy option, since there is nothing but junk around there. This particular poster ( who I believe has been vocally in support of VOICE and AH in general) suggested that SWEETGREEN would be a great eatery to place there.
That's how fucking out of touch and divorced from reality some of the people we are dealing with are.
No, Sweetgreen isn't coming to the west end of the Pike anytime soon. The people living right around there can't spend 13.50 on a salad.
The homeowners that are sort of close, wouldn't be able to find a parking space...
And business don't open if they don't have customers, and can't turn a profit. It's math. Math doesn't care that your heart is in the right place.
Please for the love of god people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

Reid Goldstein - reidgoldstein.com
He seems to be a pretty good listener. Seemed smart and reasonable. I like him. He's from south Arlington I believe.


B.A. Brooklyn Kinlay- I think she's green party and I know very little about her.

http://vote-va.org/intro.aspx?state=va&id=vakinlayba

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The overwhelming majority of people who live in affordable housing are immigrants. Even the senior citizen housing. There may be a token teacher aid or two, but generally no. I work in one of them they are all immigrants. I have friends who qualify who are single moms and they cannot get off the wáitlist.

The earlier question about the arguments for the continued plan to build on the pike. Simple, no pushback from the community. Any push back is labeled racist, look at Mi Voz Cuenta. The argument that land is cheaper is false, if you look at costs of land it is not cheaper than other areas of arlington for the most part. There is available land, because there are so many dilapidated areas to knock down. So, build as much as you can. Affordable housing builders make more money, liberals can say how altruistic they are.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, the economy along then pike is tanking. More and more empty store fronts. Places going out of business. The new building at glebe and the pike, mostly empty commercial space. Arlington mill and shell, empty. The mixed use condo project at Buchanan, shelved, bc not enough money to be made. You all wonder why we have not head anything more about food star?????? The problem isn't the street car. It is that the majority of people who live along the pike lack enough discretionary income to support the local businesses.

The whole pike plan needs to be revisited because the vision has been and will continue to be an epic fail. Either gentrify the pike, for real, or stop pretending there will ever be any economic vitality.

John Vistadt was the only board member willing to mention this at the meeting. On the 22204 listserv someone was suggesting businesses that should go into The ground floor retail space at Arlington Mill. The county wants a healthy option, since there is nothing but junk around there. This particular poster ( who I believe has been vocally in support of VOICE and AH in general) suggested that SWEETGREEN would be a great eatery to place there.
That's how fucking out of touch and divorced from reality some of the people we are dealing with are.
No, Sweetgreen isn't coming to the west end of the Pike anytime soon. The people living right around there can't spend 13.50 on a salad.
The homeowners that are sort of close, wouldn't be able to find a parking space...
And business don't open if they don't have customers, and can't turn a profit. It's math. Math doesn't care that your heart is in the right place.
Please for the love of god people.

What?!? You're joking. The county couldn't sweeten the deal enough to find someone to open a cafe there and someone thinks Sweetgreen is going to open up a location? Right, okay. My husband would also like it if a unicorn would nibble our grass so that he wouldn't have to cut it every week, but that ain't gonna happen either.

[Anonymous]

^^^ I can't stop laughing at this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

Reid Goldstein - reidgoldstein.com
He seems to be a pretty good listener. Seemed smart and reasonable. I like him. He's from south Arlington I believe.


B.A. Brooklyn Kinlay- I think she's green party and I know very little about her.

http://vote-va.org/intro.aspx?state=va&id=vakinlayba

I just realized the above link has zero info!

Try this one for Kinlay

http://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/race-detail.do?id=13658459#c13674089

[Anonymous]

You gotta put the poors somewhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You gotta put the poors somewhere

That's not helpful.

We need to help those that work in Arlington live in Arlington, but it's insane that we want to keep increasing housing for those that aren't giving back to our community. I'm a life-long Dem and these politicians have made me change my vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You gotta put the poors somewhere

That's not helpful.

We need to help those that work in Arlington live in Arlington, but it's insane that we want to keep increasing housing for those that aren't giving back to our community. I'm a life-long Dem and these politicians have made me change my vote.

You do not have to put them on some of the most expense real estate in the metro area.
There is some thought that it would be a better use of tax dollars to build up housing elsewhere than Arlington and using our tax dollars specifically for better transit to and through our county.
Not sure about that, and it certainly means we aren't getting any say about the level of education these kids receive. I truly believe we all benefit from them having access to the best education possible.
The reality is the pot is only so big. Fairfax is struggling with this right now. You can't take out more than you put in.
It seems we are trying to solve a regional problem locally.
Very frustrating.

[Anonymous]

But it IS clear to me that we can't keep cramming FARMs kids into South Arlington where the percentage of FARMs kids is already, like, 60%. Those schools need a chance to flourish, but they won't if we keep sending them the students that need the most resources. We need to slow our roll in putting in AH on the Pike to give the kids in those schools a real chance and not transform the south into some sort of ghetto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But it IS clear to me that we can't keep cramming FARMs kids into South Arlington where the percentage of FARMs kids is already, like, 60%. Those schools need a chance to flourish, but they won't if we keep sending them the students that need the most resources. We need to slow our roll in putting in AH on the Pike to give the kids in those schools a real chance and not transform the south into some sort of ghetto.

This is why we need to stop with the increase in AH all together. We can't figure out how to fit the kids we have NOW into the schools.