Anonymous wrote:I saw a petrified mouse in the doorway of the old gourmet burger shop while standing in line for the organic butcher. Then there is the old hamburger in the window of the abandoned McDonalds/seasonal plant stand. So much to be proud of in McLean!

Anonymous wrote:Much of the downtown is abandoned, which is so pathetic. But unless and until the landowners decide to build, there's nothing to be done. They hold the cards and they will decide what is a return on their investment, and Fairfax County Planning and Zoning are the only ones with the leverage to accept or reject their plans, at whatever height, at whatever density. I just hope the builders respect the Central Business plan (or should I say aspiration) to a great degree, since it has been in the works for decades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rich neighborhoods block stuff. My neighbor growing up we were aghast when our one “semi fast food place” Friendly’s was to be bought by Burger King. We got into lawsuit with Burger King and eventually they won but we passed a law it is illegal to serve food on a paper or foam plate, use silver ware or serve food in disposable containers or have plastic forks and knives.

Burger King would have to open with glass plates with silver ware and glass cups. They backed out.

Fast food even trendy fast food brings litter, roaches, rats, noise, parking issues, also shady workers into town. As no one in town would work in that place.

We did not even want supermarkets and banned new ones. We don’t need denser housing or even jobs. Why those rich areas are all white collar or trust fund babies. No one in that town would work those jobs so all it does is bring strangers in.

It is why rich towns ban AIRBnB, my favorite one town in the Hamptons banned Uber and Lyft. They charge a huge taxi permit fee and only their licensed taxi can do pick ups or drop offs. The town pays a bit more taxi service but blocks riff raft.

It is uniform and drab on purpose.

Completely irrelevant points. McLean is not incorporated and can’t ban anything. Two developers own Downtown McLean and haven’t wanted to redevelop it, point blank. The County keeps trying to entice them to redevelop with different plans but it’s not working. I don’t think the truly rich in McLean care one way or another what happens to downtown. There is an older retired contingent that is anti-development but they really have no power (and are not the McLean wealthy.)

Anonymous wrote:Rich neighborhoods block stuff. My neighbor growing up we were aghast when our one “semi fast food place” Friendly’s was to be bought by Burger King. We got into lawsuit with Burger King and eventually they won but we passed a law it is illegal to serve food on a paper or foam plate, use silver ware or serve food in disposable containers or have plastic forks and knives.

Burger King would have to open with glass plates with silver ware and glass cups. They backed out.

Fast food even trendy fast food brings litter, roaches, rats, noise, parking issues, also shady workers into town. As no one in town would work in that place.

We did not even want supermarkets and banned new ones. We don’t need denser housing or even jobs. Why those rich areas are all white collar or trust fund babies. No one in that town would work those jobs so all it does is bring strangers in.

It is why rich towns ban AIRBnB, my favorite one town in the Hamptons banned Uber and Lyft. They charge a huge taxi permit fee and only their licensed taxi can do pick ups or drop offs. The town pays a bit more taxi service but blocks riff raft.

It is uniform and drab on purpose.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ultra wealthy don’t really care about the same things you care about.

The ultrawealthy in cosmopolitan cities want amenities. Maybe not in backwoods Virginia.