Reply to APS middle school boundary process

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "APS middle school boundary process"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Was there a meeting last night? 
Someone mentioned it on the real estate thread, and implying David Cristeal was there showing that AHMP up on screen. That didn’t happen did it?
[/quote]

It wasn't Cristeal. It was someone else (didn't take note of his name). He was at the poster boards with APS staff, actually he may even have been someone from APS staff but I thought he said he worked in housing. He did not give a presentation on stage. He responded with the AHMP when the McKinley parents asked why there isn't more affordable housing in the upper upper north. He simply said that there is a "plan," specifically for Lee Hwy for the "missing middle," but it hasn't come to fruition yet. 
[/quote]

Missing middle is not the same as AH. Missing middle means people making $80K-$150K who complain that they can't afford to buy a starter home in Arlington anymore because prices start at $800K+. Just to be clear, if there is a plan to build "missing middle" housing along Lee Highway, they are not talking about FARMS families.

Westover *has* AH. In fact, APAH is in the process of converting a building there right now. This is also why Westover can't understand why any plan to "diversify" APS has to be *only* on the back of our walk zone. If this is truly a community priority, then let's just go full on with that demographics map that busted up Williamsburg too. We're not doing that because diversity is not really a community priority for most of Arlington-- we're not as liberal as we like to think. If we were, APAH and all the banks and developers who fund them would not be concentrating all of the AH construction into West Columbia Pike where it is most profitable, which is the root of the high FARMS rate at Kenmore and fights about Wakefield. Nina Janopaul pulls down her $200K/year salary running APAH and frankly doesn't care what her organization's decisions mean to APS diversity. This should not be Westover's problem to fix. The problem is the County's overall housing plan. [/quote]

They're calling it "missing middle" to make it more palatable to that area. They told the Pike the same thing. Lo and behold, middle income people don't choose to live in subsidized housing. They'd rather drive in from West Virginia. It doesn't matter, it will never be built.

As to Westover "having" AH, we know. But let's not pretend 60 units of mostly 1 bedrooms is a fair share of the Arlington pie. It is what it is.

South Arlington isn't expecting to be the same as North Arlington. We know it's not possible, and we don't want that anyway. We like our schools to be diverse, because that's where the best learning is taking place. Look at the performance of the [i]truly[/i] diverse schools in Arlington. They're doing better, for just about every subgroup, than their less diverse counterparts. That's why this matters. And you think we should just keep twiddling our thumbs as the economic divide grows, one percentage point here, six percentage points there, and then ten the next time, and so on and so forth. Then what? What are we doing? Why even maintain the false premise that we're one school system at that point? Come up with a plan that maintains diversity where it exists and promotes it where it does not, but that doesn't involve buses. Can you do that?

Also, we obviously travel in different circles. Because I can assure you that VERY many people I know are sincere about caring about diversity. I am aware that many do not. That's why they must strike a balance. 
[/quote]

South Arlington doesn't really value diversity either, or you guys would be lobbying for the "illustrative" map that would create diversity in every middle school. You guys in South Arlington don't want to be riding the bus to Williamsburg or Stratford any more than we want to be riding the bus south-- it is a PITA for most families. The Williamsburg "island" to create diversity at Williamsburg & Yorktown-- and now the plan to split the Swanson walk zone to bring Kenmore FARMS down by a marginal percentage are not doing *anything* to fundamentally alter housing patterns in the County- these are symbolic moves only but they make everybody in county feel like we can pat our backs and say that we believe in diversity. As long as it is not your kid on the bus, who cares?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics