Why exactly did emails need to be sent by today?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people really don't understand who is living in affordable housing.

Can you elaborate?

Affordable housing is not for the middle class. If it were, Arlington Mill wouldn't be 67% below the national poverty level. You can go on the county's website and see the breakdown of who is living in Arlington's AH. It's not teachers, police, or fire fighters. Not at all. It's cab drivers, construction workers, and servers. They are not middle class. They may or may not work in Arlington, and they are by and large not US citizens. Their kids might be, but many/most of the parents are not. They do not care if the kids go to school in shifts, just so long as they can get a meal at some point. These people are from politically volatile and dangerous places. They are satisfied that their children aren't being shot at or lit on fire when they walk to school. They don't give a fuck about band practice, and SOL testing. Many of the parents don't have a traditional formal education themselves. APS is offering them something they couldn't dream about in their home countries. Everything about Arlington is better.
I'm not casting a judgement on these people either way, but it seemed some of the MONA's needed some insight. Here ya' go.

link please

https://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/02/Occupations-of-Tenants-of-CAFs-Feb-2015.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ironic, if true, that they are thinking of using the Carlin Springs parcel for affordable housing. The whole point of affordable housing is to provide an opportunity for middle class families who otherwise couldn't afford to live here. So ostensibly it's to remedy socioeconomic stratification on some level. But if the public schools are no longer considered a viable option by most people, we'll have an urban style school system with the uber rich, who can afford private school, and people at the other end of the spectrum who may not have many options. Without viable, quality public schools, a whole lot of people in the middle will view Arlington as unaffordable anyway, regardless of how much affordable housing we have.

I support affordable housing, in principle, but not how it is implemented in Arlington. It is overwhelming NOT occupied by teachers, police, firefighters, etc. who struggle to live in the county where they work. Instead, it is mostly populated by families who make less than 25% of median income (think servers, wait staff, manual laborers, etc., which is still a-ok in my book) that DON'T EVEN WORK IN THE COUNTY. Why are we putting so many resources to help families who a) don't currently live here, and b) don't even work here? It's crazy.

Who is the "we" that is putting in resources here? If you have kids in schools, you are already using more in county resources than you are paying in taxes. And if you are higher income, your arrival in Arlington in the last 20 years likely contributed to the loss of market rate affordable housing (to rent or buy).

I don't have kids in the schools, but hope to one day. I have lived in Arlington for over a decade, and hope to stay until I retire (to a lower cost of living area), so I imagine I will end up putting in more in taxes than I take out. And that is ok. That's how society, and a community, works. I also volunteer. But to answer your question, the "we" I was referring to is the county, so that would be all of us living here. Why does the county prioritize those who don't live, or work, in the county over those who do?

And no, I am not high income (maybe one day). I live in south Arlington, in an area with the most affordable housing in the entire county. As I said, I support affordable housing. I grew up poor. I know many of the families are hard-working and the children are eager to learn and do well for themselves. I like where I live, and I want my neighbors to continue to live here. But I think the means by which the county is going about adding affordable housing is detrimental, especially to the schools. Adding more high-density multi-family units means way more students, in already over-crowded schools. Over-crowding is tough enough in the high-income schools of north Arlington, but concentrating the poverty in a few schools with already high ESOL and FARM rates really compounds the difficulties. And really, as one of the richest counties in the country, Arlington can, and should, do better. Putting in more affordable housing at one of the few (only?) sites for a new high school is particularly myopic

Unfortunately the only neighboring communities with decent public schools are further out in Fairfax, so you then have to make the Hobson's choice between your kids' education and your everyday commute, which didn't used to be necessary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, at least when I get old I'll have a big park to sit in and think about what we could have possibly done to prevent APS from going down the toilet.

oh so without the rich and powerful APS is mere cr@p? got it!

No, APS without adequate space to accommodate all of the kids who live here is mere crap. There, I fixed it for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, at least when I get old I'll have a big park to sit in and think about what we could have possibly done to prevent APS from going down the toilet.

oh so without the rich and powerful APS is mere cr@p? got it!

A community without a good school system isn't a place I'm interested in raising my family. And shift learning and distance learning isn't just a couple of extra trailers - it's a complete dismantling of the school system as we know it. I'm not going to get worked up about it at this stage, but I think a lot of families are looking very closely at how the County and the School Boards tackle this issue. It's hard to say if it will result in a mass exodus merely from the schools or from the county altogether. But if there are neighoring communities that have their act together, Arlington starts looking a lot less desirable to families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ironic, if true, that they are thinking of using the Carlin Springs parcel for affordable housing. The whole point of affordable housing is to provide an opportunity for middle class families who otherwise couldn't afford to live here. So ostensibly it's to remedy socioeconomic stratification on some level. But if the public schools are no longer considered a viable option by most people, we'll have an urban style school system with the uber rich, who can afford private school, and people at the other end of the spectrum who may not have many options. Without viable, quality public schools, a whole lot of people in the middle will view Arlington as unaffordable anyway, regardless of how much affordable housing we have.

I support affordable housing, in principle, but not how it is implemented in Arlington. It is overwhelming NOT occupied by teachers, police, firefighters, etc. who struggle to live in the county where they work. Instead, it is mostly populated by families who make less than 25% of median income (think servers, wait staff, manual laborers, etc., which is still a-ok in my book) that DON'T EVEN WORK IN THE COUNTY. Why are we putting so many resources to help families who a) don't currently live here, and b) don't even work here? It's crazy.

Who is the "we" that is putting in resources here? If you have kids in schools, you are already using more in county resources than you are paying in taxes. And if you are higher income, your arrival in Arlington in the last 20 years likely contributed to the loss of market rate affordable housing (to rent or buy).

Anonymous wrote:Well, at least when I get old I'll have a big park to sit in and think about what we could have possibly done to prevent APS from going down the toilet.

oh so without the rich and powerful APS is mere cr@p? got it!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh baby it makes me so hot when you mansplain the issues to me. Oh wait no it's just sunny out, sorry.

Don't you worry your pretty little head about it honey. Facts aren't mansplaining.

Terms like mansplaining make me want to vomit. As does driving on Columbia Pike because it's aesthetically repulsive.

Isn't one of the issues the size of the land? Presumably there's more flexibility when it comes to building affordable housing - basically whatever the requirements would be for developing an apartment complex? A full-service high school, however, needs a substantial plot of land both for the physicial structure and athletic fields. It seems that there will be numerous future opportunities to develop housing (as it requires a more modest land acquisition) whereas this particular piece of land offers a very hard to come by opportunity for building a school. Isn't that one of the compelling reasons for earmarking it for the development of a school, even if we all agree that affordable housing is important?

Anonymous wrote:Alright, I've emailed everyone on the county board and the school board. What's next? Who's going to be our Norma Rae?

Write to the local "papers": ArlNow & Sun Gazette

Anonymous wrote:Oh baby it makes me so hot when you mansplain the issues to me. Oh wait no it's just sunny out, sorry.

Don't you worry your pretty little head about it honey. Facts aren't mansplaining.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people really don't understand who is living in affordable housing.

Can you elaborate?

Affordable housing is not for the middle class. If it were, Arlington Mill wouldn't be 67% below the national poverty level. You can go on the county's website and see the breakdown of who is living in Arlington's AH. It's not teachers, police, or fire fighters. Not at all. It's cab drivers, construction workers, and servers. They are not middle class. They may or may not work in Arlington, and they are by and large not US citizens. Their kids might be, but many/most of the parents are not. They do not care if the kids go to school in shifts, just so long as they can get a meal at some point. These people are from politically volatile and dangerous places. They are satisfied that their children aren't being shot at or lit on fire when they walk to school. They don't give a fuck about band practice, and SOL testing. Many of the parents don't have a traditional formal education themselves. APS is offering them something they couldn't dream about in their home countries. Everything about Arlington is better.
I'm not casting a judgement on these people either way, but it seemed some of the MONA's needed some insight. Here ya' go.

link please

Oh baby it makes me so hot when you mansplain the issues to me. Oh wait no it's just sunny out, sorry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people really don't understand who is living in affordable housing.

Can you elaborate?

Affordable housing is not for the middle class. If it were, Arlington Mill wouldn't be 67% below the national poverty level. You can go on the county's website and see the breakdown of who is living in Arlington's AH. It's not teachers, police, or fire fighters. Not at all. It's cab drivers, construction workers, and servers. They are not middle class. They may or may not work in Arlington, and they are by and large not US citizens. Their kids might be, but many/most of the parents are not. They do not care if the kids go to school in shifts, just so long as they can get a meal at some point. These people are from politically volatile and dangerous places. They are satisfied that their children aren't being shot at or lit on fire when they walk to school. They don't give a fuck about band practice, and SOL testing. Many of the parents don't have a traditional formal education themselves. APS is offering them something they couldn't dream about in their home countries. Everything about Arlington is better.
I'm not casting a judgement on these people either way, but it seemed some of the MONA's needed some insight. Here ya' go.