Reply to AEM post/discussion re racism and choice schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a minority of middle eastern origin I find it extremely offensive that schools such as Carlin Springs is considered more diverse than ATS, where my kids go. The only way Carlin Springs is more diverse than ATS is if you lump all non-white students together. It is extremely racist to believe that all non-white students are the same and that the only diversity that matters is white vs. non-white. Ethnically speaking, a white person is just as different from a person of Middle Eastern origin than a hispanic person is. Carlin Springs isn't diverse. It is 73% hispanic. This means that three quarters of the school is from one race/ethnicity. How on earth is that diverse? Arlington Traditional School is more equally divided between different races and 9% of the school is from multiple races. The Black population, 20%, is diverse in and of itself. We have Ethiopians, African Americans, Eritrians, and Nigerians, just to name a few. Same with the 27% of Asian students who come from all over the vast continent of Asia. We have students with origins from Azerbeijan, Mongolia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhestan. I mean the list goes on. 24 different languages are spoken at ATS. How many different languages are spoken in Carlin Springs? I am really sick and tired of this narrow definition of diversity. It is a racist definition given to us by white people who think that we are all the same. Disgusting.[/quote]

Everything this person said. Plus 1000.

I also think there are white people in positions of power who claim this is "diversity" so that they can maintain the racist status quo.  [/quote]

This whole convo is racist, the people driving it are white people who couldn't afford N Arlington so their kids are in S Arlington schools with (gasp!) majority black/brown. They would feel a lot more comfortable if there were more white kids to keep their white kids company. So their solutionis to kill the option schools to get more of their white neighbors to stay in the neighborhood schools. That's all it is, they claim to be social justice warriors but it's racist and self interested. [b]What really gets me is they attack others for their ethics.[/b] [/quote]
The ethics of doing anything you can to buy a house in north Arlington specifically to avoid the south Arlington schools? Those ethics? The ones that aren't so obvious and can be shaded over with claims of "commute, walkability, didn't want a fixer-upper" etc? Those ethics? 
[/quote]

SA resident here, and I think it’s ridiculous to say that NA residents bought their homes *specifically* to avoid SA schools. There are many things about NA neighborhoods that are appealing.

And it totally ignores the fact that many CHILDLESS couples buy homes in NA.

You, my friend, are reaching. And kinda dumb.[/quote]

The price differences are massive, though--hundreds of thousands of dollars--for houses that are similar in size, age, lot, condition, etc--whether you are talking about old stock or brand new builds. The locations are not that different in terms of proximity to metro, highways, DC or Fairfax, etc. What is different? Neighborhood/school demographics.

22204 -- 4 bed, 4 bath, 5,000 sq ft house, 2 car garage, 8000 sq ft lot, nice SFH neighborhood close to 395 and Pentagon City metro (Douglas Park), $1.3M
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3505A-16th-St-S_Arlington_VA_22204_M91441-13462?from=srp-list-card

in 22207, similar houses are $1.8M
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2115-Military-Rd_Arlington_VA_22207_M60569-95271?from=srp-list-card

$2.0M    https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5205-27th-Rd-N_Arlington_VA_22207_M66375-43352?from=srp-list-card

$2.0M   https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2254-N-Columbus-St_Arlington_VA_22207_M67625-96482?from=srp-list-card

$2.3M   https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6207-29th-St-N_Arlington_VA_22207_M54395-94810?from=srp-list-card

[/quote]

The 1.3 mil Douglass Park house is relatively old. Here’s a pretty house in 22201 for quite a bit less within walking distance to the Apple Store. And it has nothing to do with school demographics.

https://www.homes.com/property/724-n-cleveland-st-arlington-va/j119e7w41rrhw/[/quote]

Also, you have to factor in how densely populated the surrounding area is. Parks (and schools) located in areas with tons of high rises are going to offer a different experience than parks (and schools) where everyone is more spread out.

Sometimes it’s not the color of everyone’s skin, but sheer number of bodies.

Nothing like the Aurora Hills splash pad being like a most pit in the summer because it’s super crowded![/quote]

Huh? No. It’s the schools. That’s why realtors steer, that’s why real estate sites include school scores prominently, and it’s why agents are sure to talk about NORTH Arlington, as if it’s a separate place from the rest of Arlington. It is a separate place, by design. [/quote]

I thought N Arlington was created back when it was mostly all farms. The post office wanted the county to come up with a street naming system, hence the N and the S. So it has nothing to do with “rich vs poor.”

I think other factors are at play that determine house prices: quality of the build, historic charm, tree canopy, Metro rail, cute shops and cafes (like in Westover), the reputation of the neighborhood, i.e., is it posh. None of those have to do with schools. Arlington Ridge is quite posh and along the southern edge of S Arlington.

Rt 50 is more of a psychological distractor. I personally would like Buttigieg to direct some of his freeway removal funds to eliminating Rt 50. It’s unnecessary and it divides neighborhoods.  [/quote]

[b]What are you even talking about?[/b] Sure, being “posh” has nothing to do with poor people being kept out of that “posh” area. And when poor people are largely minority, again, by design, through a system of racist housing and bank lending policies, it’s really about tree canopy. WTF

The SFH neighborhoods in Arlington, N and S, if you get off the main roads, are really lovely. They have comparable parks and trees, too. It’s the higher density areas, more common in S, that have lower tree canopy. But if you compare apples to apples where house age, size, repair, etc. are similar, there’s still a premium for houses in areas with “good schools.” So, maybe people are trying to be in leafier “posher” areas for that, but it’s all part of the same system. It was designed and it operates the way it was intended. [/quote]

The comment was in response to N Arlington being “a separate place by design” as claimed by the previous poster, which is not true.

I personally don’t see how schools affect housing prices in such a small county where people move for its charming, family-friendly neighborhoods and convenience. But families here do love their walkable neighborhood schools. I’m no realtor so I’ll give you some benefit of the doubt regarding the schools’ affect on home prices in Arlington.

Since there are neighborhood transfers and option programs through high school, APS students have multiple pathways. Kind of like DC with all its top-notch charter schools where I don’t think a house in the J-R/Wilson pyramid sells at a premium over a large rowhouse on Capitol Hill because of the assigned schools.  [/quote]

WTF--north Arlington is [u]absolutely [/u]a separate place by design. THE SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOODS WERE LEGALLY SEGREGATED. Halls Hill and Nauck/Green Valley were the only places where black people could own property. Lots in those neighborhood are very small because they have been subdivided many times to the minimum lot size because it was the only way black people could buy. The schools serving those neighborhoods (Drew, Hoffman-Boston, Gunston) were the original segregated schools and until recently were still majority black.

Similarly, the neighborhoods closer to the Pentagon--along Columbia Pike, on the south side of Route 50, Fairlington, etc.--were all built as apartments in the 1930s and 1940s as high density housing for the war effort and then for the returning soldiers/early Boomer generation. That is all older/affordable condos (not usually families) or low-income rentals now (for low-income families) and is not going to change. The zoning decisions for the high-density Metro corridors was made in the 1970s and at that time explicit decisions were made about what would be high-density, medium-density, and low-density to preserve SFH neighborhoods just a few blocks from the Metro (see--Lyon Park, Lyon Village, Bluemont, Westover, etc.) around the orange line versus the decisions made about the neighborhoods around the Yellow/Blue line and Crystal City/Pentagon City.

STFU about the differences in north Arlington/south Arlington not being by design. As people keep saying, it is the continuing effect of racist and segregationist housing, school, and zoning policies. The school policies could be undone by making the three high schools, at least, all countywide through some system, and maybe the five middle schools, and by greatly expanding the elementary boundaries to have four or five grouped choice zones with a traditional/Montessori/immersion/science focus/arts focus/outdoor focus cluster in each quaarant of the county. Or some other model that would loosen the tight hold that the traditional boundaries have on APS.

[/quote]

I really like your countywide high school / middle school proposal. Students could also rank their choices. Same for the elementary school clusters you propose—Excellent and well thought out. (That was actually successfully implemented by APS for the former Jamestown, ASFS, Key Immersion, Taylor cluster.) I hope that discussion takes place higher up in APS and that it is implemented countrywide.

But your historical analysis that focuses on supposed injustices foisted on Arlington south of rt 50 is wrong. Yes, individual neighborhoods and commercial areas were segregated by design, but that has nothing do to with Arlington north of Rt 50 or south of it. School segregation by law prior to 1959, and during court ordered desegregation through the 80s, also had nothing to do with a school’s geographic location south or north of Rt 50. (You left out Langston ES. And I need to correct you about Gunston. That was a segregated white junior high school along with TJ, Stratford, Swanson, Dolly Madison, etc.)

The Metro redevelopment at Pentagon and Crystal cities also preserved single family home / low density neighborhoods so the “smart growth” policies were not limited to N Arlington. There are/were plenty of garden apartments from Parkington/Ballston to Rosslyn prior to Metro constuction. Many of those were lost to redevelopment, like Pollard Gardens, but many others still remain like Buckingham and Colonial Village. That same redevelopment would have happened along Columbia Pike in the 80s as well if a Metro line was constructed as proposed. The stub tunnel still exists at the Pentagon Station. The lack of funding for mass transit projects during the Regan era likely ended that. I do think Columbia Pike could use a subway today. Doesn’t it have the busiest bus line in the Commonwealth?

In sum there were a series of events from the 70s onward that prioritized redevelopment around the Orange Line corridor while Columbia Pike languished, but that was not by design. Lee Highway / Langston Blvd also languished, hence the plans to redevelop it with high density affordable housing. [/quote]

Yes, it has nothing to do with the "north" or "south" postal designation [i]per se[/i], no one is saying that, it just happens that those also correlate with the school boundaries. High View Park is in north Arlington and Glebe used to be the most integrated of the north Arlington schools and the area around it had the lowest SFH prices.  You know what other schools people used to avoid? Barrett in 22203, which was majority Hispanic until Buckingham got redeveloped (again---WWII era garden apartments), Key (which they ended up using for a countywide program because it was surrounded by apartments), and TJMS (which was majority-minority even though it pulled in a lot of kids from Ashton Heights and Lyon Park and under capacity for a long time when WMS and SMS were bursting at the seams).

Between 2005-2015 there was an enormous run-up in SFH prices in north Arlington at the same time there was tremendous overcrowding in the same schools, while prices in south Arlington did not increase at the same time, there was not a comparable increase in development/redevelopment (until recently) and the schools were often under capacity. Why did people pay hundreds of dollars more for housing just to send their kids to schools where they would be in trailers and have to eat lunch at 10:00 am? [/quote]

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