Reply to Giving up on North Arligton... Is South Arlington going to improve?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live in S Arl (near the Pike) and love it.

Our income is in the mid 400's and we could afford most of N Arl but chose to live here for the diversity and for our elementary school that gives preference to S Arl families.

That said, the school's all over the county are a mess with all the overcrowding, the focus on testing etc (in my opinion) and so we are headed to private school in the fall. North Arlington schools are not an option either in my opinion as the overcrowding and emphasis on test scores is the same there.

I'm a supporter of affordable housing. The kids who live in well-run, committed affordable housing communities do better in school as the families are in more stable/supported environments. It's the kids who are constantly moving or that are in market rate affordable housing units that struggle more.

We [/quote]

I thought the move was away from putting up projects except in Alexandria[/quote]

Alexandria is not putting up "more projects" It is replacing the old units that were in the section of upper Old Town, and distributing them throughout the city. When new developers come in, Alexandria encourages them to set aside a percentage of units for affordable, but that ends up being a rather small amount.

Alexandria is similar in many ways to South Arlington. As PPs have noted, its not really about the officially designated units of affordable housing, its the "market rate affordable housing". This is housing that is affordable not because it's mandated by any regulation, but because the landlords are choosing to maintain cheap housing.

As in South Arlington, the economic forces are shifting (perhaps more slowly than some would like, but shifting.) The owners of the old garden-style apartments that line Beauregard Ave in Alexandria have decided that is makes more economic sense for them to tear down those units and replace with more expensive housing. Yes, they agreed to set aside a small number of units and make them designated affordable housing, but the rest will be a market rate, and that market rate with be significantly higher, and therefore most of the families that are currently living there will have to move.

This is a huge project that will take years to fully roll out, but it should have a significant impact on the west end of Alexandria.
We bought in Alexandria 10 years ago on the west end of town. We are one of the brave souls that is regularly abused and ridiculed on DCUM because we send our kids to Alexandria City Public Schools (the same kind of vitriol I often hear about South Arlington schools.) I'm content with our current situation, and do not need to anxiously hold my breath for some huge rapid change, but do I think Alexandria (and South Arlington) is going to improve? Yes. These market rate affordable units are under no government regulation to stay "affordable." The market forces will continue to encourage landlords of cheaper apartments to upscale.

The progressive in me will be sad to lose some of the diversity that currently surrounds me. The taxpayer in me recognizes that it will be easier if this higher need population is dispersed more widely throughout the DC Metro region, and not so highly concentrated in pockets such as Alexandria and South Arlington.[/quote]

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