Reply to South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "South Arlington and North Arlington Schools"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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]

I've also heard concerns from older residents about affordability of Arlington for their own kids.  They want their kids to be able to live here.  Unfortunately, AH policies don't actually help their middle class kids.  We have a few friends who grew up in our Ashton Heights neighborhood and now are raising their families here, but they are all in their 40s and benefitted by buying property before the prices took off.[/quote]

I've heard this too. Maybe their precious millenial offspring should  consider SOUTH ARLINGTON!!!! Oh, that's right... The schools aren't great. Maybe we should fix that!
[/quote]

Maybe their lazy ass kids should have worked harder. I grew up in Woodbridge. My husband and I studied hard, worked hard and bought a $1.4 million home in N. Arlington. I'm supposed to feel bad because some guy in Ashton Heights has his kids living in his basement because they can't afford to buy a home in Clarendon? Give me a fucking break.

The East Village used to be full of starving artists---try to buy there now. Neighborhoods change. They should be glad it's going thus direction and not into a ghetto (though they are trying to turn it that way with all of this affordable housing bullshit).[/quote]

Wow...the mean streets of Woodbridge.[/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