For those concerned about the City's anticipated proposal for bus rapid transit (BRT) on Patrick and Henry, don't miss tonight's (Wednesday, May 2) meeting of the Ad Hoc Transportation Task Force. The session will start at 7 p.m. in Room 2000, City Hall, 301 King Street.
32 comments:
The Task Force's transporation recommendations will be reported separately from the Braddock Road Small Area Plan, right? Deleting BRT language from the forthcoming Braddock Plan does necessarily end the discussion, right? What about the tax district language? The process seems unnecessarily complicated but our opposition is total.
We don't need BRT if the Braddock Road Small Area Plan goes through with less density (hence fewer cars, fewer people) - there goes the City's rationale for shoving it down Route 1.
And from the previous entry, check this out:
Herb Cooper-Levy, of Braddock Place, is Executive Director of a group that promotes and develops affordable housing. No wonder he was one of two people (or maybe three, if you include "ICCA Patricia")to praise the proposed super-dense Braddock Metro plan. No wonder he favors the increased density to pay for that proposed 40% affordable housing component of the Plan.
I wonder what Herb Cooper-Levy, RPJ Executive Director, is hoping to get if he can persuade the City to put in so much density to pay for so much affordable housing. A big contract, perhaps?
He does not speak for me or the people I know in PG - we don't want so much density and we certainly don't want to deal with BRT.
BRT? Rob has a better idea, a good way to spread revenue burdens around: Powhattan to Washington St (an example of true gridlock) through King St, where the City can make money from increased stop-n-shopping and peoples' bedrooms are recessed from the street by more than a three foot sidewalk.
"BRT? Rob has a better idea, a good way to spread revenue burdens around:"
Rob, who is Rob? Krupicka? Sorry but Rob only offers an alternative route. I want BRT to die. If discussions alternatively include to Powhattan Street watch for Poul Hertel, a task force co-chair, to go ballistic.
Actually ...
Two days after the last public Braddock Road plan meeting, RPJ was granted an interest-free $105,000 loan for new windows at Lacy Court, a property in Del Ray they bought last year with a much larger City loan.
Seems there were some Community Development Block Grant funds just lying around that would have to be repaid if not spent by the end of the City's current fiscal year.
Here's the City's memo regarding the loan:
http://tinyurl.com/25umq7
"BRT? Rob has a better idea, a good way to spread revenue burdens around:"
Exactly how does an alternative route spread revenue burdens around? BRT, as a concept, needs to die! The case statement is weak and WMATA reps confirmed at the April community meeting that metro has enough capacity to handle all new development density or no density. BRT is a trojan horse targeted to pass through traffic and we will not accept yet another neighborhood burden.
Without BRT, how do you propose that the new residents of Potomac Yard get to the Braddock Road Metro station?
They certainly won't want to walk through the ghetto to get there. WMATA can certainly handle the new capacity but how do you get the Yard residents to a Metro...its either Crystal City or Braddock Road, and they arent going to walk to Braddock Road through that north PG mess....
"We don't need BRT if the Braddock Road Small Area Plan goes through with less density"
And how do you propose to stop the denisty issue? Are you one of the lemmings that thinks the City is listening to you? How well are they listening to you on the public housing problem? Anyone catch Dearman's "seven years" comment?
"where the City can make money from increased stop-n-shopping "
the flaw in your thinking is that they would stop...Washington St isnt exactly Madison Ave...ever seen the Travelodge?
"Two days after the last public Braddock Road plan meeting, RPJ was granted an interest-free $105,000 loan for new windows at Lacy Court, a property in Del Ray they bought last year with a much larger City loan.
"
More loans! Wonderful! Can I apply to the City for an interest free loan to move some of the projects over to Cameron Station?
"and we will not accept yet another neighborhood burden.
"
You accept public housing overconcentration with a smile so how do you think this complaint will be any different?
"BRT is a trojan horse targeted to pass through traffic and we will not accept yet another neighborhood burden."
Agreed - I will never understand why the City commits scarce public safety resources to make cutting through our neighborhood easier on Fairfax and Prince George's county commuters. All those poor cops directing traffic at intersections should be patrolling Bland and/or writing tickets to speeders, radio blarers, and HOV violators.
Anonymous said...
Without BRT, how do you propose that the new residents of Potomac Yard get to the Braddock Road Metro station?
Get a Metro Stop (or two as proposed) at Potomac Yard
"And how do you propose to stop the denisty issue? Are you one of the lemmings that thinks the City is listening to you?"
You have to hit the City over the head to get their attention. And you must do it repeatedly. One email to tell them there's a problem. More to show you won't go away. And then you pick up the Sunday morning alley trash and publicly present it to the Mayor. Or record "High Times at the Spa Court" and play it at the Council meeting. Or you gather a protest contingent for the next local parade.
"Without BRT, how do you propose that the new residents of Potomac Yard get to the Braddock Road Metro station?
"They certainly won't want to walk through the ghetto to get there. WMATA can certainly handle the new capacity but how do you get the Yard residents to a Metro...its either Crystal City or Braddock Road, and they arent going to walk to Braddock Road through that north PG mess...."
I can only hope that this poster was being facetious.
If not, then let me try and understand. So, you're suggesting that the residents of the Braddock Area and Parker-Gray should put up with the burden of BRT running through their already congested neighborhood so that the future residents of Potomac Yard won't have to worry about walking through the 'hood in order to get to the Metro station?
Perhaps we should have a special tax district here, too, to subsidize the Yarders bus fare. Maybe we can even bake the BRT riders muffins each morning in case they're still traumatized at having to see the ghetto from the bus windows.
Better yet, why don't we move all of the public housing to the undeveloped land in Potomac Yard and then the path through our neighborhood will be "mess" free?
"You accept public housing overconcentration with a smile so how do you think this complaint will be any different?"
How utterly arrogant! I do not accept the overconcentration of public housing with smile. Grow up dude!
"Or you gather a protest contingent for the next local parade."
Oh-mah-gahd. I LOVE this idea.
All this banter is amusing. In reality, BRT is for lower income residents of Fairfax County who have no cheap route to jobs in Pentagon City and Crystal City. I am not sure why residents of Old Town should have to pay for that. Folks living at Potomac Greens won't use the bus, they will drive to Old Town! Don't believe me? How many of you readers ride a bus down route 1 now? What about the DASH? Did you know that DASH buses work with smarttrip cards now? I ride buses, often, and can say that most of the time, I am the only white-collar professional there. (I hate traffic and driving in it) What the city really needs right now is free Vespa parking on King Street and in parts of Delray, to encourage people (both restaurant workers and professional folks) to leave their suvs at home and scoot on highly efficient, small vehicles, to work and shopping.
As to the density of public housing... There is one way to make the city listen. At the next city council election, vote in a new, more conservative mayor and council body! If you really want change in your neighborhood, you need to change the cities views. Don't forget that the libs on the south side of town will be a force to be dealt with, as they like keeping all the public housing to the north while feeling like they are helping out.
As to metro building a new stop in Potomac Greens, it won't happen anytime soon. Metro was counting on developers to pay for this. Metro won't have the money to expand around Alexandria in the near future. Heck, they can even get more train cars for the over-crowded yellow line.
Lastly, we are getting on towards summer. If you really want to make your neighborhood nicer, don't hide at home writing blogs (I am at Bread and Chocolate) get out, walk around, chat with people! As the rowdier public housing residents realize they are surrounded by greater numbers of chilled, friendly, hard working tax payers, maybe, they will get a clue!
clue!
clue!
BRT? If I lived on Patrick or Henry, or even a block away I would be furious!
"I can only hope that this poster was being facetious."
I was being facetious and sarcastic....and realistic. I dont want or agree with BRT, but if you want Yard residents to use the Metro, the BRT is the only way to get them to the BR Metro, because they arent going to walk through the ghetto.
WMATA wont build a Potomac Yard station because when they had the chance, the City blew that one too, and now WMATA is done with dealing with the city's so called economic development team....
"You have to hit the City over the head to get their attention. And you must do it repeatedly. One email to tell them there's a problem. More to show you won't go away. And then you pick up the Sunday morning alley trash and publicly present it to the Mayor. Or record "High Times at the Spa Court" and play it at the Council meeting. Or you gather a protest contingent for the next local parade. "
Didnt citizens hit them over the head hard about the tax increase and budget issues? And what did they do? Jam another 10 million into the budget....and this doesnt even include the new ARHA loans.
Council exceeds budget target
By CARLA BRANCH
May 3, 2007
The Alexandria City Council is on a path to exceed its own budget target by $10.6 million and show an overall budget growth of 4.4 percent in FY 2008. This nearly doubles the $11.2 million increase that was proposed by the city manager.
Council met on Tuesday night to negotiate budget additions and deletions. Members were required to submit their personal lists last week. While no vote was taken, the group reached consensus on a number of large items. The big winner was the Alexandria City Public School System, which will receive $4.7 million more than City Manager James Hartmann proposed and the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office, which will receive an additional $300,000.
Athletic fields also will get artificial turf sooner than anticipated because of an additional $850,000 from the FY 2007 surplus. The Department of Human Services will be able to remove all eligible children from the subsidized daycare waiting list with the additional $778,000 Council is proposing to provide. In addition, school and city employees will receive a 1.5-percent Cost of Living Adjustment where the city manager had proposed none.
The big losers were Alexandria homeowners who will see the real estate tax rate rise from 81.5 cents per $100 of assessed value to 83 cents per $100 of assessed value.
“This was a very difficult process and we would not have been able to keep the real estate tax rate so low if we had not set budget targets,” said Councilwoman Redella S. “Del” Pepper. “We didn’t meet that target but this is a learning process.”
“The budget target was a goal and while we did not meet it, we did the best we could and we also had some additional revenue for 2008 which we were not expecting. This allowed us to fund some daycare needs, give our employees a COLA and meet some other requests that were not included in the city manager’s recommendation. Next year we are going to have a conversation about whether COLAs should continue and we will set a budget target. This is an important part of our new budget process,” said Mayor William Euille.
School system gets more aid
ACPS had requested $6.8 million above the budget target Council set in November. The school system will receive $4.7 million of that, requiring the School Board to cut $2.1 million from its Board-approved budget for next year. This includes $2.65 million in additional resources and a 1.5-percent COLA for all school employees.
“It was very difficult to know exactly what the school system needed because of their very confusing budget,” said Councilman Tim Lovain, who has three children at George Mason Elementary School. “It was like throwing darts in the dark. I am very disappointed that the superintendent did not make more of an effort to meet the target that we set in November and would like to see the School Board go to a budget process that is similar to ours, one that manages for results. Also, we have offered our staffs’ help in working with the school system to prepare a budget that is much easier to understand and which provides much more detail that will help us make decisions next year.”
The sheriff’s office will receive an additional $240,000 to bring sheriff’s deputies’ pay levels up to that of police officers.
The $850,000 to purchase artificial turf for an additional field in FY 2008 was a late addition. “I had at least 80 emails about the need for artificial turf this week,” Pepper said. “Our fields are in deplorable condition and we need to do something quickly.”
By the end of 2008, the fields at Minnie Howard, Fort Ward and T.C. Williams will have artificial turf. Now, one additional field can be added to that list.
Council will vote on these options and adopt an FY 2008 budget on Monday, May 7.
"Better yet, why don't we move all of the public housing to the undeveloped land in Potomac Yard and then the path through our neighborhood will be "mess" free? "
I thought that was the point of our, as Krupicka put it, "world class scattered site public housing model"
Ask the Chatham Square HOA or the Lofties what they think of scattered site.
"get out, walk around, chat with people! As the rowdier public housing residents realize they are surrounded by greater numbers of chilled, friendly, hard working tax payers, maybe, they will get a clue!"
Or maybe they will call you a white bitch or make noise until 4 AM and leave trash all over your lawn.
But hey I will go out there and talk to those 4 loiterers on the corner at 2 AM and see what they think about Melvin Miller.
"How utterly arrogant! I do not accept the overconcentration of public housing with smile. Grow up dude! "
I am being sarcastic. When push comes to shove at the community meetings, it seems the public housing issue gets pushed to the side by Staff and Council, and deftly so.
"Ask the Chatham Square HOA or the Lofties what they think of scattered site."
I can't speak for the Lofties, but I live in Chatham Square, and frankly, the idea works. It's not perfect, in part because ARHA insists on providing housing to young, unemployed guys who should be joining the Peace Corps or the Army rather than hanging around Old Town till the wee hours yelling at each other.
"Or maybe they will call you a white bitch or make noise until 4 AM and leave trash all over your lawn."
I have never had people do this to me. Most housing residents are friendly, decent people. The ones who cause the biggest problems, in my recent experiences, tend to come visiting from Maryland and DC.
"But hey I will go out there and talk to those 4 loiterers on the corner at 2 AM and see what they think about Melvin Miller."
Heh. Your four loiterers are my four drug dealing suspects brandishing guns! You'd be surprised at how fast that brings out the police, only to find they need to disperse loiterers who are disturbing the peace.
Several of the proposed BRT options include overhead wires do they not? How can the city justify undergrounding wires in Old Town, ostensibly for health reasons especially electromagnetic fields, then place BRT's overhead wires within unsafe proximity to our homes. What kind of self serving analyst is behind this craziness? In total the two plans, Braddock and Transportation, are yielding few enhancements.
"but if you want Yard residents to use the Metro, the BRT is the only way to get them to the BR Metro, because they arent going to walk through the ghetto."
Sorry there, lawyer, but if Yard residents use the Metro, and the BRT gets them to the Braddock Road metro, then we don't "need" BRT. As someone pointed out earlier, the can go to Metro at Crystal City, which is a nicer walk anyway. I don't care if they use Crystal City, let them use Crystal City.
And forget this BRT nonsense.
"Or you gather a protest contingent for the next local parade."
"Oh-mah-gahd. I LOVE this idea."
Glad you like it. And it worked pretty well for the Mirant activists at the Washington's Birthday Parade. Brought attention and greater awareness of the issues.
The $850,000 to purchase artificial turf for an additional field in FY 2008 was a late addition. “I had at least 80 emails about the need for artificial turf this week,” Pepper said.
MMmmm. That's about a ten grand per email. Eighty people sent an email and they get close to a million bucks.
Amazing what can happen when there is a group effort.
"then place BRT's overhead wires within unsafe proximity to our homes."
Please explain why wires would be placed for a bus?
"BRT" as defined by DOT/FTA come in many shapes and sizes. There is little reason to think that an Alexandria BRT would have overhead wires. One reason against the overhead lines is that the planning folks wouldn't want to give us such a tangible reason to oppose it! Check out the FTA website and search for BRT, you'll see lots of pictures of BRT systems without wires overhead.
I'm not especially in favor of BRT, but if you look at those photos some of the infrastructure looks quite nice. Of course it's because I'm imagining this in the context of PG right now - a "nice" looking bus stop would be an improvement on the public housing stock any day! Heck, we might even get fancy trash cans!
Finally - just to the person who is wondering about how the Potomac Yard residents would get to BR Metro - of course they would use Crystal City. A much quicker walk or bus ride, and for many residents it would be heading in the direction they are going - DC. Now many will be going to Ft. Belvior, but don't forget many folks travel in couples and head in different directions for work, and also that the Yard might be a good alternative to over-priced Crystal city and Pentagon city housing/rental stock which already houses DC workers. Personally I am wondering how the Potomac Green residents will get to Braddock. That's going to be the challenge, and personally for air quality's sake I'd rather they NOT drive to work but to take Metro. However, I certainly don't think you need BRT for that! What's wrong with a regular bus system? I know ours has a poor reputation but I can't imagine BRT solving all the problems like magic. I'm glad FTA requires an alternatives study - just rerouting the buses and maybe upgrading the vehicles could be a better bang for our buck.
"BRT" as defined by DOT/FTA come in many shapes and sizes. There is little reason to think that an Alexandria BRT would have overhead wires. One reason against the overhead lines is that the planning folks wouldn't want to give us such a tangible reason to oppose it! Check out the FTA website and search for BRT, you'll see lots of pictures of BRT systems without wires overhead."
The Ad Hoc Transportation Task Force has outlined three possible scenarios two of which include overhead wires. There is no place for optimistic thinking.
Thanks for all the info, but no one answer the question.
Please explain why wires would be placed for a bus?
Some bus/rapid transit systems use electric vehicles and/or dedicated tracks. Seattle for example has buses that run on overhead wires under the city and then convert to some sort of diesel electric hybrid when going into the suburbs. Cities like Prague in the Czech republic, use electric railcars with the track system integrated into the streets. Having driven a car around a city with this type of system, trust me, you don't want it! It can be very confusing to follow which part of the street is for the train vs the cars.
My beef with BRT is that the people who will have to pay for it, probably won't use it, and the people who need it ought to be walking, biking or scooting to metro. The light rail concept of BRT (in-ground tracks, overhead wires, and multicar train units) does not fit in Old Town... But what about an electric trolley, that charged its batteries with a small, quiet diesel engine?
"My beef with BRT is that the people who will have to pay for it, probably won't use it, and the people who need it ought to be walking, biking or scooting to metro."
Agree 100%, but like the previous blogger said, they wont walk, scoot, or bike to the Braddock Metro. Many of the Yard residents will no doubt quickly hear about the surrounding area's issues. I do hope they plan to build the Potomac Yard Park first, down towards 7-11, as people might feel safe enough, if its well lit and well patrolled, to walk that way at night.
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