What to do about Affordable Housing in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

well the VHC is going to be really interesting. Over 10 acres I think. The only other comparable tracts of undeveloped land like that are the Army-Navy Country Club and Washington Golf and Country Clubs. THe County probably doesn't have the stomach trying to eminent domain that. But with Country Clubs losing popularity, maybe one day 20+ years down the road Arlington can try buying some of the land off them. Wouldn't bet on it though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There has been a lot of accusations thrown around about the VHC parcel and it being targeted for AH.
How do we know this is happening?

More importantly, how do we stop it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has been a lot of accusations thrown around about the VHC parcel and it being targeted for AH.
How do we know this is happening?

More importantly, how do we stop it?

Don't vote for Gutshall, the preferred old guard candidate in the Democratic Primary. Libby Garvey has her faults, but she also doesn't owe anything to the establishment Arlington Democrats and will have some latitude to not cave to whatever the AH crowd wants.

[Anonymous]

The AH lobby is fantastic at throwing certain numbers around and certain studies. They've been doing this for a couple of decades in Arlington. You have a huge uphill battle on your hands if you try to go against them.
Look at what happened to CARD.
They managed to get somewhat mobilized leading up to the vote on the AHIP.
VOICE created a new sub group a week or so before the meeting. Came out in the press and basically called the people in CARD a bunch of racists ( understand, CARD is likely 95% democrat) and had quadruple the number of signatures asking the plan not have any changes.
CARD wasn't asking for a smaller percentage of AH. All they were working toward was having it spread out more evenly through out the county and to allow areas with already high concentrations a shot at maket rate development, before being inundated with AH.
The west end of Colimbia Pike is in trouble, and I'm not certain we will see a recovery in the next few decades. Businesses don't care about good intentions. They won't set up shop if the market won't support it.
It's a self licking ice cream cone for AH Developers. The area languishes and they can continue to scoop up property at a lower price. They claim they want to help, and I think many who support this policy do, but the people living in these buildings need good grocery stores. Employment opportunities, Mass transit, Good schools... You have to have a balance. Good intentions aren't enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has been a lot of accusations thrown around about the VHC parcel and it being targeted for AH.
How do we know this is happening?

More importantly, how do we stop it?

Don't vote for Gutshall, the preferred old guard candidate in the Democratic Primary. Libby Garvey has her faults, but she also doesn't owe anything to the establishment Arlington Democrats and will have some latitude to not cave to whatever the AH crowd wants.

Garvey and every other board member/candidate is for AH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I encountered two members of the Arlington County Council this morning in my upper end North Arlington neighborhood. One was campaigning for the other. I wasn't aware about the affordable housing issue until I read this thread yesterday. I asked them what they thought about it. I have never seen two people try to get away from me so quickly. She thrust her campaign material at me and he said "we have a lot of ground to cover today." and off they went. Doesn't sound like it is something council wants to discuss

Haha, of course not. The way affordable housing works in Arlington is like this: there is a small group that is HIGHLY supportive of it. Think professional service providers, AH developers, and community activists like VOICE (the group that advocated converting public parks into AH complexes). They are highly informed on the AH issue, and personally benefit from it.

There is a much larger group that is reflexively sympathetic but have less information on AH and how much the County spends on it. This is the bulk of the Arlington Democratic base, who are the bulk of Arlington voters.

All the AH crowd has to do is not do anything to piss off these lower information voters. That means minimal information, general platitudes in press releases, and repeated claims that AH is about keeping Arlington teachers/firefighters/cops living in Arlington. It's not true, but it sounds good and is enough to keep AH funded.

There MIGHT be enough for a turn around today. People still remember VOICE's ridiculous proposal to build affordable housing on County parks, and the inevitable fight over the Virginia Hospital Center Complex between building schools vs AH there will get this in front of the voters in a real way.

Garvey and Vihstadt. Profiles in courage

VOICE never advocated building on parkland. N.E.V.E.R.

As stated elsewhere, they called for using air rights to build on top of community centers, parking lots, and the like. NOT on parkland itself. To say otherwise is a Rousselot-style revisionist framing of the REAL proposals expressed under "public land for public use".

[Anonymous]

VOICE did not advocate building on parklands but individual chruches and members did. In case anyone doesn't know about VOICE, Arlington, it is a coaliton of left leaning churches who had to adapt a social message that would attract newer attendees or have their places of worship closed for lack of membership. Most of them would not be open now without their pre-schools and other social welfare programs who rent space from the churches.

Most individuals in VOICE are long time attendees who retired from the government as GS-10s to 15s and live in houses they bought years ago for $100,000. They have nothing to do during the day and can adopt a social conscience because it doesn't affect them personally.

The irony of this is that the lead charge is in a neighborhood where a concrete block wall divides the border street from the border street of a traditionally black neighborhood.

If you want to talk "revisionist framing," ask the members of VOICE who live in that neighborhood why they have never done anything about "the wall." Guilt and people who benefit financially from affordable housing have caused the fanaticism of VOICE.

Attend the voice meeting on June 23, and you will see the zealots and their masters

[Anonymous]

What wall are you talking about? I've heard about that before, but I don't know where people are referring. Is it a retaining wall? Is it meant to black the sound of the highway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VOICE did not advocate building on parklands but individual chruches and members did. In case anyone doesn't know about VOICE, Arlington, it is a coaliton of left leaning churches who had to adapt a social message that would attract newer attendees or have their places of worship closed for lack of membership. Most of them would not be open now without their pre-schools and other social welfare programs who rent space from the churches.

Most individuals in VOICE are long time attendees who retired from the government as GS-10s to 15s and live in houses they bought years ago for $100,000. They have nothing to do during the day and can adopt a social conscience because it doesn't affect them personally.

The irony of this is that the lead charge is in a neighborhood where a concrete block wall divides the border street from the border street of a traditionally black neighborhood.

If you want to talk "revisionist framing," ask the members of VOICE who live in that neighborhood why they have never done anything about "the wall." Guilt and people who benefit financially from affordable housing have caused the fanaticism of VOICE.

Attend the voice meeting on June 23, and you will see the zealots and their masters

I think there should be a moratorium on AH in South Arlington until the level north of 50 reaches one for one parity. Then we will see the one Arlington we should all strive for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I encountered two members of the Arlington County Council this morning in my upper end North Arlington neighborhood. One was campaigning for the other. I wasn't aware about the affordable housing issue until I read this thread yesterday. I asked them what they thought about it. I have never seen two people try to get away from me so quickly. She thrust her campaign material at me and he said "we have a lot of ground to cover today." and off they went. Doesn't sound like it is something council wants to discuss

Haha, of course not. The way affordable housing works in Arlington is like this: there is a small group that is HIGHLY supportive of it. Think professional service providers, AH developers, and community activists like VOICE (the group that advocated converting public parks into AH complexes). They are highly informed on the AH issue, and personally benefit from it.

There is a much larger group that is reflexively sympathetic but have less information on AH and how much the County spends on it. This is the bulk of the Arlington Democratic base, who are the bulk of Arlington voters.

All the AH crowd has to do is not do anything to piss off these lower information voters. That means minimal information, general platitudes in press releases, and repeated claims that AH is about keeping Arlington teachers/firefighters/cops living in Arlington. It's not true, but it sounds good and is enough to keep AH funded.

There MIGHT be enough for a turn around today. People still remember VOICE's ridiculous proposal to build affordable housing on County parks, and the inevitable fight over the Virginia Hospital Center Complex between building schools vs AH there will get this in front of the voters in a real way.

Garvey and Vihstadt. Profiles in courage

VOICE never advocated building on parkland. N.E.V.E.R.

As stated elsewhere, they called for using air rights to build on top of community centers, parking lots, and the like. NOT on parkland itself. To say otherwise is a Rousselot-style revisionist framing of the REAL proposals expressed under "public land for public use".

Try calling it what it actually is...


" Public land for PRIVATE good"

Yes. We know where they wanted to put it. What you whack jobs don't understand is that it is unacceptable. We don't want housing built over our rec centers. We don't want the associated crime that accompanies subsidized housing inside our parks. We don't want the extra Stress on our facilities. We also don't want to give you crazies another inch. Today it's above the center, tomorrow you are suggesting another building beside it. No.
Even suggesting this was a huge error on the part of AH proponents. People are paying attention to your antics now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What wall are you talking about? I've heard about that before, but I don't know where people are referring. Is it a retaining wall? Is it meant to black the sound of the highway?

It is a concrete block wall that is along 17th Street from about Edison Street to Abingdon Street. It was built in the 1950s to divide the white neighborhood of Waycroft Woodlawn from the black neighborhood of Halls Hill. The only thing it was intended to "block" was one race from another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What wall are you talking about? I've heard about that before, but I don't know where people are referring. Is it a retaining wall? Is it meant to black the sound of the highway?

It is a concrete block wall that is along 17th Street from about Edison Street to Abingdon Street. It was built in the 1950s to divide the white neighborhood of Waycroft Woodlawn from the black neighborhood of Halls Hill. The only thing it was intended to "block" was one race from another.

I couldn't figure out where Hall's Hill was. I had never heard of it. It's now called high view park.

[Anonymous]

Highview Park is a neighborhood within Hall's Hill. Hall's Hill is a Freedmen's Village established by former slaves and was once filled with small cottages. When returning black GIs had no place live after the Second World War, they sometimes bought the old cottages and tore them down for the brick ramblers and cape cods you now see in Hall's Hill. They also built along the undeveloped land along Culpeper Street and some rental apartments were also built there in the 1940s-1960s. This part is call Highview Park.

Next time you are at Heidelberg Bakery, glance to your right and you will see the park and sculpture entry to the neighborhood. Drive or walk along Culpeper Street and look to your right at 17th Street. There you will see the concrete division wall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highview Park is a neighborhood within Hall's Hill. Hall's Hill is a Freedmen's Village established by former slaves and was once filled with small cottages. When returning black GIs had no place live after the Second World War, they sometimes bought the old cottages and tore them down for the brick ramblers and cape cods you now see in Hall's Hill. They also built along the undeveloped land along Culpeper Street and some rental apartments were also built there in the 1940s-1960s. This part is call Highview Park.

Next time you are at Heidelberg Bakery, glance to your right and you will see the park and sculpture entry to the neighborhood. Drive or walk along Culpeper Street and look to your right at 17th Street. There you will see the concrete division wall.

Why haven't they taken it down?

[Anonymous]

No public will to tackle the big problem it will generate: who is responsible for removing it, how do you clean up the yards where it was located, some people want to keep it.