Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

+1. They need to allow market rate multifamily housing. I understand why nobody who bought a SFH likes the idea of being sandwiched between 6-plexes of rentals, but they really ought to allow duplexes and 3 row townhouses everywhere. In reality, those will be sold to slightly less rich families. I think it would stabilize neighborhoods and schools. The choice between multimillion dollar SFHs or Affordable Housing is terrible for the County.

Sadly, developers don't see a viable path forward for market rate multi-family housing in our area. Most high rise apartments and condos are aimed at young couples, singles, and retirees. The only multi-family projects aimed at families that meet the requisite financials are for low income housing--typically for families with 3 kids, and often multigenerational.

What does that have to do with duplexes and townhomes though? Are you saying developers also can't build those here? I'm not talking about rentals, I'm talking about units that can be sold (so people can get on the property ladder). That's not viable, or that's not allowed?

County staff are trying to prevent this developer from building a new townhouse development that would be good for families because they really want a highrise there instead.

https://www.arlnow.com/2026/05/13/controversial-langston-blvd-townhouse-proposal-returns-at-next-county-board-meeting/

Anonymous wrote:I think people are not having as many children, nationwide, in general.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is actually predicting slightly larger numbers from immigration. The job of a demographer is very hard, but the ones at APS have been more or less accurate over the years.

Is this really true? FCPS is down 2500 ELL students for next year. I would be surprised if the numbers go up in APS since it's so expensive to live there.

Look at the enrollment statistics APS publishes monthly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

+1. They need to allow market rate multifamily housing. I understand why nobody who bought a SFH likes the idea of being sandwiched between 6-plexes of rentals, but they really ought to allow duplexes and 3 row townhouses everywhere. In reality, those will be sold to slightly less rich families. I think it would stabilize neighborhoods and schools. The choice between multimillion dollar SFHs or Affordable Housing is terrible for the County.

Sadly, developers don't see a viable path forward for market rate multi-family housing in our area. Most high rise apartments and condos are aimed at young couples, singles, and retirees. The only multi-family projects aimed at families that meet the requisite financials are for low income housing--typically for families with 3 kids, and often multigenerational.

What does that have to do with duplexes and townhomes though? Are you saying developers also can't build those here? I'm not talking about rentals, I'm talking about units that can be sold (so people can get on the property ladder). That's not viable, or that's not allowed?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is actually predicting slightly larger numbers from immigration. The job of a demographer is very hard, but the ones at APS have been more or less accurate over the years.

Is this really true? FCPS is down 2500 ELL students for next year. I would be surprised if the numbers go up in APS since it's so expensive to live there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

+1. They need to allow market rate multifamily housing. I understand why nobody who bought a SFH likes the idea of being sandwiched between 6-plexes of rentals, but they really ought to allow duplexes and 3 row townhouses everywhere. In reality, those will be sold to slightly less rich families. I think it would stabilize neighborhoods and schools. The choice between multimillion dollar SFHs or Affordable Housing is terrible for the County.

Sadly, developers don't see a viable path forward for market rate multi-family housing in our area. Most high rise apartments and condos are aimed at young couples, singles, and retirees. The only multi-family projects aimed at families that meet the requisite financials are for low income housing--typically for families with 3 kids, and often multigenerational.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

+1. They need to allow market rate multifamily housing. I understand why nobody who bought a SFH likes the idea of being sandwiched between 6-plexes of rentals, but they really ought to allow duplexes and 3 row townhouses everywhere. In reality, those will be sold to slightly less rich families. I think it would stabilize neighborhoods and schools. The choice between multimillion dollar SFHs or Affordable Housing is terrible for the County.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is actually predicting slightly larger numbers from immigration. The job of a demographer is very hard, but the ones at APS have been more or less accurate over the years.

Is this really true? FCPS is down 2500 ELL students for next year. I would be surprised if the numbers go up in APS since it's so expensive to live there.

They keep building affordable housing

They are predicting numbers from immigrants to continue to trend upward over the near and long term.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

+1. They need to allow market rate multifamily housing. I understand why nobody who bought a SFH likes the idea of being sandwiched between 6-plexes of rentals, but they really ought to allow duplexes and 3 row townhouses everywhere. In reality, those will be sold to slightly less rich families. I think it would stabilize neighborhoods and schools. The choice between multimillion dollar SFHs or Affordable Housing is terrible for the County.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS enrollment has declined due to the fact it blows.

APS enrollment has declined due to the fact that young families cannot afford to live here.

Multiple factors at play

You can look it up online, but APS enrollment has declined since COVID and they are predicting flat to negative growth in the next ten years. Agree that multiple factors are at play, but the district’s decisions during COVID did not help for student retention. We know many families that were all public, all the way until then.

yes the APEs and good riddance

We’re very liberal, always vote for Dems, and left APS during Covid.

a lot of APE's left

Thank god.

Too bad they still infest APS committees.

All I know about APE is that their existence is extremely polarizing on this board, as in people are strongly for APE or strongly against APE. Given that limited awareness of APE, I will say that I find it baffling that so many people get so riled up about parents....caring about public education and...advocating for its improvement. Disagreements about how to improve education are one thing, but some people seem to think your views are only relevant if you have a child in public schools. If a parent has their kids in private but still advocate for improvements in public schools, that sounds to me like someone who values public education enough to try to improve it, and would move their kids to public schools if they thought the public schools were better. Isn't that a level of engagement a good thing?

-signed a parent who is NOT part of APE (in case that wasn't clear)

I think the divisiveness and bitterness goes back to a couple highly controversial APE stances like the return to classrooms during covid, and the push to reduce the amount of time spent using ipads and macbooks in the schools. Both issues were/have been very polarizing in Arlington.

and APE's support for Youngkin and privatization and vouchers, the anti mask stance back during return the school, the insistence early on of 5 days in person without safety standards, the refusal to say who funds them, the alignment with conservative causes....

Anonymous wrote:I think people are not having as many children, nationwide, in general.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is actually predicting slightly larger numbers from immigration. The job of a demographer is very hard, but the ones at APS have been more or less accurate over the years.

Is this really true? FCPS is down 2500 ELL students for next year. I would be surprised if the numbers go up in APS since it's so expensive to live there.

They keep building affordable housing