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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Doesn't the issue boil down to the fact that Arlington schools are out of room and we keep hearing over and over again that there is no land left to build on?  So why would you increase housing density anywhere in Arlington (north or south) until you have figured out how you are going to ensure enough school seats for the new families?  I don't oppose AH, but I do think the Board is putting the cart before the horse if they pass that plan before figuring out what they are going to do about the school situation.  [/quote]

I agree with you, but I think that it comes down to how you want to allocate scarce resources.  If you don't have school age kids, school issues just aren't at the forefront.

I serve on my little neighborhood association's board in north Arlington, and what I have heard from some older neighbors is that they favor affordable housing generally because they don't like how the character of Arlington has been changing.  In their view, it used to be a more collegial, accessible, middle class place, and now it's becoming snobby and out of touch.  They like their neighborhoods and they're sick of the ostentatious new builds.  They would rather see zoning rules relaxed to permit multifamily dwellings than a neighborhood full of mc mansions.  I can't even tell you how much I have heard about this.  Even when they're talking to me (I live in a small old house we bought for less than 800k, but I'm fairly new to the neighborhood), there's this undercurrent of animosity against new residents, and an assumption that we're all living in $1.6 million new homes.  They're older, they don't have kids in school, and they bought a long time ago, so they don't really mind if property values deflate a bit; they're still sitting pretty.  There's also a sense that a ton of money has been spent on gold plated schools to serve the small slice of affluent young families who don't need it.  They feel that school populations have peaked, and so it's stupid to keep building- they lived here in the 80's and early 00's when Arlington was closing schools.  Anyway, to them, affordable housing is a worthy expenditure, and all these rich new people can either afford higher taxes or private schools on the off chance school overcrowding gets out of control.

Obviously this attitude is troubling to me, but those are the views I have heard expressed.  For a lot of long time residents who have the time and inclination to get involved in Arlington planning and politics, schools are just not the number one priority.[/quote]

These people would honestly rather see their SFH neighborhoods broken up? They would rather see their areas destroyed, than taken over by yuppies. Huh.  So many frowning faces in VOICE t shirts. Wow that is incredibly bitter... For what? [/quote]

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