Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 10:10     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Nobody in North Arlington seems to know why people in South Arlington hate the Kenmore idea. I'm sorry, but North Arlington people on my team, doesn't that give you pause a bit?

Did you hear Lois at the meeting last night saying a 4th Comprehensive probably wouldn't get a full football field or a pool? If we were putting a school like that in North Arlington, you think parents would sit for that?

The School Board came up with these 3 options of Kenmore, the Ed Center, and Arlington Tech space, but apparently there had been two others that were nixed because a high school would have been located too close to an elementary school. But that's essentially what Kenmore will be left with EVEN IF the middle school is eventually moved out of that space, which there is no immediate plan to do, meaning that there will be 3 schools basically on top of one another. Don't we care about that issue just as much if it's in the south?

It's all good and well of you to say to take the parking spaces out so high schoolers won't drive, but I don't see you rushing to take them out of W-L or Yorktown. So there is more inequity.

Is it true that there are no/few bike racks at Kenmore because traffic is so nuts that they don't want to encourage bike riding since it will result in accidents?

It is rich for people in the North to keep talking about "the greater good" when they are not being asked to sacrifice their parks and their amenities. I am one of those people in the North who is pro-Kenmore as a fourth site! But we can't keep dismissing the actual concerns of the people who live in the affected area! Did any of us go to the Glen Carlyn meeting to hear what those concerns were? No! WTF is wrong with us?


I don't know whether they have bike racks, but I believe they would discourage this mode of transport because it's definitely not safe to bike in this area. Even walkers face a safety challenge. The sidewalks are narrow and right up against the road. In most places there's not even a grassy strip separating cars whizzing past from the sidewalk. Just a curb. You are a foot or two from passing cars. People also drive like maniacs on this road, and I think we need more traffic calming measures now (lights, or something). I'd encourage everyone to drive down here and notice how close many of the homes are to the road. That could be an issue with being able to widen the road and/or improve sidewalks. Notice how many homes have boulders in front of their houses. This is because these homes have repeatedly had cars smash into them, or drive through their yards. Independent of the high school conversation, I think the county needs to make this area safer for the students who are walkers now.


Seems like a lot of people who are quickly dismissing this as a mere traffic issue haven't read comments like this one. It's a safety issue, specifically safety of the kids who are walking to school in the middle of the crazy traffic.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 10:09     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Wow.


These were both points that were argued last night, I didn't just pull them out of thin air.


You felt free to attribute a whole lot of things to me that I never said, nor do I believe, assigned me to a geographic area to which I do not belong, and did it all while lecturing me on how I needed to understand other perspectives.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:59     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:And if I were outnumbered 40-2 at a meeting, I would probably also take up valuable time at the end of the meeting representing my POV to people who either didn't seem to be listening to a word I had said or didn't care.


Interrupting people is ok as long as you are outnumbered? They had no succinct points -- they were just angry and talked about traffic.


I'm not sure why you're so angry at these people, but other people interrupted the moderator last night to get their points in. Granted, they didn't do it during someone else's question, and I'm not saying it was right. I'm just saying I understand it. I'd be upset too if everyone was arguing in favor of something and didn't seem to be listening to how it would hurt me. All the people at this Yorktown meeting should have gone to the Glen Carlin meeting instead; it might have done more good.

"No succinct points"? Sheesh, it's a community meeting, not a trial.


At least one of the GL participants had students graduate from HB -- they aren't impacted at all by school quality and just want to preserve the status quo - NIMBY all the way. Suspect other GL also had students who were aging out -- they got theirs and now want to deny a reasonable high school experience for the next generation of families. Because of traffic.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:55     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:The SB needs to facilitate conversation between communities. I did not see the Glen Carlin meeting widely advertised.


Does anyone have my minutes from it? Really looking to understand what their concern is other than 'traffic' -- which is a county wife problem (and looked at google maps at 8am carlin springs was green, so is there a different choke point?)
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:54     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The NIMBY last night was a man not woman but he was very upset and yelling over people.

I don't at all want to dismiss the neighborhood's concerns. But let's get the math straight. 1500 + 1300 = 2800, not 3800. It's still a lot of kids, yes, but not as many as are being proposed for WL. More like the same number that will be at WL in a couple of years just with the overcrowding.


And again, that is 3800 kids spread between elementary, middle, AND high school versus WL which would be alll HS and competing for spaces in academic and extracurricular programs, and ALL be on same schedule. Totally different animal


3800 is incorrect. Please no alternative facts. 1300 HS + 1000 MS + approx. 500 ES = 2800.

We can and should as a community insist on equal amenities by the time it becomes a comprehensive high school (i.e. when the MS moves out and it goes from choice to neighborhood school- before that, if possible). But I just dont see the inequity. It is one of the largest plots of land APS. Larger than WL or Yorktown. Let's fight for the facilities it needs and deserves but let's face facts that it will be built on.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:53     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
The SB needs to facilitate conversation between communities. I did not see the Glen Carlin meeting widely advertised.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:50     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Are you sure? They solutions they offered to me were to pick one of the other two options, or to put some of the other land options back in rather than the Kenmore one, which according to them wasn't even supposed to be on the table until the School Board changed their mind at the last minute and reordered the list to include it.

Furthermore, here YOU are talking about sacrificing for the greater good, but the Kenmore plan YOU AND I are offering as a solution to this problem doesn't inconvenience me (or you, I'd hazard) one bit. Oh sure, my kid is already inconvenienced by general APS nonsense, but this particular plan doesn't make my options smaller. For this family, it cuts down their green space, it seems sure to increase their already terrible traffic situation which is from what I'm hearing already the worst in the County but nobody seems interested enough to help them. AND there seems a good chance that the promises of redistricting to achieve equity aren't really going to work out as many of us are wanting, AND by the way you might not get a stadium or a pool, and if you do it won't be for another 20 years maybe, but hey please make some sacrifices so us Northern folks won't be overly inconvenienced!

Don't you see that you have become the thing you seem to most despise about the Arlington Way -- you are making your points about sacrifice and the greater good over and over without listening to how ACTUALLY INEQUITABLE things will be for the people who will go to Kenmore. But you just keep making them because you're sure you're right. Just say it again and we will all agree with you, even the nutters.

Where I'm standing, you are probably a parent who thinks Yorktown traffic is worse than anywhere else (which is clearly wrong) and who thinks Yorktown shouldn't be asked to relieve the W-L situation even though W-L has 2,300 and Yorktown has 1,600 (which is also clearly wrong). We are all in our own little bubbles, the trick is to see outside of them into other people's bubbles.


Wow.


These were both points that were argued last night, I didn't just pull them out of thin air.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:50     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:And if I were outnumbered 40-2 at a meeting, I would probably also take up valuable time at the end of the meeting representing my POV to people who either didn't seem to be listening to a word I had said or didn't care.


Interrupting people is ok as long as you are outnumbered? They had no succinct points -- they were just angry and talked about traffic.


I'm not sure why you're so angry at these people, but other people interrupted the moderator last night to get their points in. Granted, they didn't do it during someone else's question, and I'm not saying it was right. I'm just saying I understand it. I'd be upset too if everyone was arguing in favor of something and didn't seem to be listening to how it would hurt me. All the people at this Yorktown meeting should have gone to the Glen Carlin meeting instead; it might have done more good.

"No succinct points"? Sheesh, it's a community meeting, not a trial.


Interrupting the moderator or SB member is very different from interrupting other citizens, and they were the only ones doing that.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:45     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:And if I were outnumbered 40-2 at a meeting, I would probably also take up valuable time at the end of the meeting representing my POV to people who either didn't seem to be listening to a word I had said or didn't care.


Interrupting people is ok as long as you are outnumbered? They had no succinct points -- they were just angry and talked about traffic.


I'm not sure why you're so angry at these people, but other people interrupted the moderator last night to get their points in. Granted, they didn't do it during someone else's question, and I'm not saying it was right. I'm just saying I understand it. I'd be upset too if everyone was arguing in favor of something and didn't seem to be listening to how it would hurt me. All the people at this Yorktown meeting should have gone to the Glen Carlin meeting instead; it might have done more good.

"No succinct points"? Sheesh, it's a community meeting, not a trial.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:43     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What I don't get it why Kenmore has to be a neighborhood HS. If it won't have all the ammenities in the beginning, why not make it an option school? Then, those who don't care about a pool or would prefer a smaller school, can elect to go there. It seems so obvious!


When it is first built as 1300 seats it won't be a neighborhood school.


So the equity argument isn't valid.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:40     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The NIMBY last night was a man not woman but he was very upset and yelling over people.

I don't at all want to dismiss the neighborhood's concerns. But let's get the math straight. 1500 + 1300 = 2800, not 3800. It's still a lot of kids, yes, but not as many as are being proposed for WL. More like the same number that will be at WL in a couple of years just with the overcrowding.


And again, that is 3800 kids spread between elementary, middle, AND high school versus WL which would be alll HS and competing for spaces in academic and extracurricular programs, and ALL be on same schedule. Totally different animal


+1
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:38     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:What I don't get it why Kenmore has to be a neighborhood HS. If it won't have all the ammenities in the beginning, why not make it an option school? Then, those who don't care about a pool or would prefer a smaller school, can elect to go there. It seems so obvious!


When it is first built as 1300 seats it won't be a neighborhood school.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:36     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:
Are you sure? They solutions they offered to me were to pick one of the other two options, or to put some of the other land options back in rather than the Kenmore one, which according to them wasn't even supposed to be on the table until the School Board changed their mind at the last minute and reordered the list to include it.

Furthermore, here YOU are talking about sacrificing for the greater good, but the Kenmore plan YOU AND I are offering as a solution to this problem doesn't inconvenience me (or you, I'd hazard) one bit. Oh sure, my kid is already inconvenienced by general APS nonsense, but this particular plan doesn't make my options smaller. For this family, it cuts down their green space, it seems sure to increase their already terrible traffic situation which is from what I'm hearing already the worst in the County but nobody seems interested enough to help them. AND there seems a good chance that the promises of redistricting to achieve equity aren't really going to work out as many of us are wanting, AND by the way you might not get a stadium or a pool, and if you do it won't be for another 20 years maybe, but hey please make some sacrifices so us Northern folks won't be overly inconvenienced!

Don't you see that you have become the thing you seem to most despise about the Arlington Way -- you are making your points about sacrifice and the greater good over and over without listening to how ACTUALLY INEQUITABLE things will be for the people who will go to Kenmore. But you just keep making them because you're sure you're right. Just say it again and we will all agree with you, even the nutters.

Where I'm standing, you are probably a parent who thinks Yorktown traffic is worse than anywhere else (which is clearly wrong) and who thinks Yorktown shouldn't be asked to relieve the W-L situation even though W-L has 2,300 and Yorktown has 1,600 (which is also clearly wrong). We are all in our own little bubbles, the trick is to see outside of them into other people's bubbles.


Wow.
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:33     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
What I don't get it why Kenmore has to be a neighborhood HS. If it won't have all the ammenities in the beginning, why not make it an option school? Then, those who don't care about a pool or would prefer a smaller school, can elect to go there. It seems so obvious!
Anonymous
Post 04/26/2017 09:31     Subject: APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown
Anonymous wrote:And if I were outnumbered 40-2 at a meeting, I would probably also take up valuable time at the end of the meeting representing my POV to people who either didn't seem to be listening to a word I had said or didn't care.


Interrupting people is ok as long as you are outnumbered? They had no succinct points -- they were just angry and talked about traffic.