Over the weekend, the Growler and others received yet another postcard from the mysterious ADAM (Alexandrians Delivering Smart Growth Around Metro Stations), which reminded residents about tomorrow's meeting at 7:00 PM at Jefferson-Houston School.
The mailing also advised us to "Keep good change on track!" and that "Change is good--especially when done in a smart way."
If readers remember, the Growler disclosed back in July that one of the individuals connected to ADAM was Agnes Artemel, a development consultant and wife of Engin Artemel, the City's former Planning & Zoning Director.
A second postcard was dropped in August, while the Growler was on vacation, and the group also launched a Website.
With this third postcard, the Growler decided to probe a little further and find out who was behind the Web site. Although ADAM states it is a membership group, no members or a board of directors are listed on the Web site.
The domain alexmetros.com was registered for ADAM by Tugboat PR, a local public relations firm whose president is John Irvine. (The domain noalexmetros.org was also registered by Tugboat.)
Mr. Irvine is a member of the board of directors of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. He's also a 2006 graduate of the Chamber's elite Leadership Alexandria program, described as "a unique program that brings together a network of diverse community leaders who are committed to improving the quality of life in Alexandria." Mr. Irvine is now a member of Leadership Alexandria's steering committee.
In 2006 Tugboat PR was selected to provide public relations services to promote Alexandria First Night, the City's non-alcoholic New Year's Eve celebration. The 2007 chairman of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce board of directors is Rick Dorman of Catalyst Group, who is listed as staff for First Night Alexandria.
The PR firm provides "strategic counseling, media relations and creative communications" and also notes on its Web site that along with associations and computer firms, its clients include construction companies.
25 comments:
I just checked out that website and saw these quotes:
"Constant pedestrian activity by residents and workers enhances safety"
"Enough people live and work in a small area to support interesting restaurants, friendly coffee shops, and neighborhood-serving retail stores"
Pardon my French, but that is utter bull*&^%, if they are talking about the Braddock Road area. Density here does NOT support safety or friendly coffee shops if the population around the metro station remains primarily public housing.
Are those ADAM people telling me that the public housing residents are going to call the police and report crimes? Yeah right. They will continue to keep their mouths shut while harboring murderers on streets named after our mayor.
Simply put, if we build more densley here without dispersing the crime ridden public housing, then our neighborhood will be traffic ridden AND crime ridden. At least now, we're just crime ridden.
If ever there were doubt that they were trying to control both sides of any potential issue, the registration of the noalexmetros address makes intentions quite clear.
This is smelling of the loaded BID process where an unaccountable bureaucracy was set to be created and havesignificant city policy dictated from a small group of power-grabbers.
Every process from the BID to the Safe Haven to the Braddock Plan [sic] seems to spend every resource and effort to marginalize the public and grease the wheels for whatever developer[s] or other private business concern to do what they want without the pasky hassle of public accountability. Sickening.
Looks like the City is about to give us another promise - we can have increased density now and they will clean up the public housing with the money they get from the big buildings. And the extra tax district. And the money from BRT on Rt. 1.
Did anyone see in the report how some people iterviewed were glad density was staying on the East Side?
City is saying, in so many words, that our quality of life and eventually our homes will be sacrificed for the greater good of the rest of the city.
Someone in the previous post said we should refuse to break out into small groups.
I must admit I felt like a real cow when they moved us into different rooms.
"Every process from the BID to the Safe Haven to the Braddock Plan [sic] seems to spend every resource and effort to marginalize the public and grease the wheels for whatever developer[s] or other private business concern to do what they want without the pasky hassle of public accountability. Sickening."
And its easily explainable : CASH.
As in, the City needs more and more of it.
The more the City spends on big government, the more they need cash to pay for it. They believe a lot of building around the Metro will generate cash, which they then can use to somehow resite the public housing elsewhere.
What they seem to forget is this, though:
1. someone else has to want the public housing, and Alexandria is about as NIMBY as it comes.
2. if u cant move the public housing, you will have a hard time generating the cash, since the units might not sell (or even rent) and the pressure against public housing will only grow.
To me, its simple: Resolution 830 prevents neighborhood revitalization or progress. This is fixable, but it requires the city to accept vouchers, which they are loath to do since its not a "liberal" idea.
And thus, we are stuck with being another cog in the Citys desperate attempt to generate cash.
"Someone in the previous post said we should refuse to break out into small groups.
I must admit I felt like a real cow when they moved us into different rooms."
We cannot agree to break into small groups. The Kramer Report is written with divide and conquer in mind. Trading citizens' want to disperse public housing off against another's passion for open space. Mark my words. Transportation will get short conversational shrift because the city has to play down transportation in order to justify the density. It is all designed for political manipulation.
"Looks like the City is about to give us another promise - we can have increased density now and they will clean up the public housing with the money they get from the big buildings. And the extra tax district. And the money from BRT on Rt. 1."
Thats been the plan all along. Once the buildings are up and the residents start dealing with all the problems that we all know about, enough outcry will be generated that the City will have to do something. And they will use the money from the density to supposedly do something.
Grnated it all sounds fishy to me: it sounds like they are saying "trust us" when the report clearly states people dont trust them.
I thought there was going to be this Braddock Metro Advisory Group that was going to work on a compromise. Is that dead?
We cannot agree to break into small groups. The Kramer Report is written with divide and conquer in mind... It is all designed for political manipulation.
Agreed! We cannot go along with the small group idea.
Anyone remember how few residents there were at the last meeting when that lady asked residents to stand up?
"I thought there was going to be this Braddock Metro Advisory Group that was going to work on a compromise. Is that dead?"
I believe that there is a compromise group being fashioned around the ARHA properties in the area. Supposedly they are going to look at the current public housing situation and make recommendations about moving forward.
"Constant pedestrian activity by residents and workers enhances safety"
"Enough people live and work in a small area to support interesting restaurants, friendly coffee shops, and neighborhood-serving retail stores"
I live in Carlyle and we have all that. As far as pedestrian safety, after dark it's every man for himself trying to avoid cars that go plowing through the Dulaney/Jamieson intersection after 8pm. I think some people have forgotten how to drive and obey traffic laws. I was traveling down Duke by the GW Monument and someone passed me like I was standing still. Must have been going 60.
Parking? Fuggedaboutit. The same cars park in their spots for hours on end. The city sends a parking enforcement person every now and then. If their car gets marked, the PTO employees just come out and wipe off the chalk.
Retail? We just got a Jerrys Subs, a Starbucks and Roebeks opened recently. The Carlyle Club is opening soon over on John Carlyle Street. The city is approving venues like this in our area so that the PTO employees will stick around after work. They're way too smart for that.
If the city wants to generate cash, then why don't they use some ideas from the past like Dockside, where a natural city resource like the city's deep-water port was used as a focus that allowed wares from ships from around the world to be imported and sold directly from here.
That concept is a sure attraction and money-maker for the city, much more than any developer-led pier idea at the base of King Street to Duke Street or any notion of grabbing leftover pennies from the patrons of the National Harbor Casino-In-Waiting. It's not hard to come up with good ideas to generate revenue for the city and also improve quality of life when it's not a bunch of developers leading every discussion and treating the city like its a generic urban area and their own personal playground.
SO - Where were all you anti-public housing types? Too afraid to speak up?
Last night is summed up in one word: R-A-P-E
Did anyone else see Nathan Carter get handed a folder by some City official? Or see him joking around with Lenny Harris?
Hmmmmmm? Can anyone else confirm that Mr. Carter was present?
Growler,
He came in only briefly. He sat in the back row, on the right side of the room if you are facing the speakers. He had a goatee, the type that goes around your mouth and looks like a few day's growth of beard. I had to look again to make sure. Was wondering what was up, with the houses he runs.
"SO - Where were all you anti-public housing types? Too afraid to speak up?"
Please, what was the point after all the shrieking from the public housing apologists last night? Anyone who tried to inject some calm reason would have been tarred, feathered and branded a racist, with no benefit. It's clear from last night that the City plans to rebuild all its public housing here again anyway, no matter what we say. Why do you think they've hired David Dixon, Mr. Cabrini Green?
I'm tired of sticking my neck out. Keep your civic activism. I'm going to get a life.
"Did anyone else see Nathan Carter get handed a folder by some City official? Or see him joking around with Lenny Harris?"
Saw him not the folder. Rumored that he is protected at city hall. Also rumored that he and Harris once bought and sold some houses together. Carter rents "affordable" rooms don't ya know? There were street signs posted not long ago advertising his involvement in a meeting of unknown type at the Lee Center.
If it was Mr. Carter (the Growler's still not convinced) let's remember he has a right to be present, since he owns property in the neighborhood.
"SO - Where were all you anti-public housing types? Too afraid to speak up?
Last night is summed up in one word: R-A-P-E
Did anyone else see Nathan Carter get handed a folder by some City official? Or see him joking around with Lenny Harris?
"
Frankly, because I have reached the point where logic is out the window. After hearing all the crying from the apologists last night, its clear the City would rather be persuaded by the same tired apologists than think with their brain.
If the City wants to leave Adkins where it is, be my guest...they will reap what they sow, believe me.
Hmmm... Tugboat PR... that fellow did the "outreach" for the Old Town BID process. I remember him from some of the meetings - I seem to remember him being a buddy of Boyd Walker's, etc.
I guess the quasi-city leadership has given him a bunch more money to push other questionable agenda.
" clear from last night that the City plans to rebuild all its public housing here again anyway, no matter what we say. Why do you think they've hired David Dixon, Mr. Cabrini Green?
"
If they hired Dixon, then they probably believe they can accomplish what he did around Cabrini Green. At least he fixed up some of the issues related to that notorious Chicago housing project by building up more mixed income housing (although the price of course was even more density).
All is not lost if he is involved. Frankly, though, he probably has not dealt with a bigger bunch of incompetents than this bunch. Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland will probably look like scientists compared to these buffoons.
And the CHA, while incompetent as well, at least has a semi-clue. Not sure if he can deal with Melvin the Magnificent and all the other victim hustlers that seem to dominate every planning meeting now.
"Hmmm... Tugboat PR... that fellow did the "outreach" for the Old Town BID process."
Well, we know the BID process failed and Boyd Walker's Council bid failed.
Cabrini Green?
hmmm
Suggest you google cabrini green, and read up a bit on the results of the redevelopment thus far before you get too excited about this social experiment.
I'm not prejudging, just suggesting folks do a little research ...
"Grnated it all sounds fishy to me: it sounds like they are saying "trust us" when the report clearly states people dont trust them."
Fishy? Smell this - a note from the newsletter of the Montgomery County Civic types that dealt with Hamer just before she came to work in Alexandria:
"What is most baffling of all is what Ms. Hamer, asserting her authority as director to make decisions about FCL violations, decided to do about the Ashton case, which was one of the three cases described in detail in the May column. Despite overwhelming evidence provided by a neighbor, and despite assurances made by Ms. Hamer and other M-NCPPC staff since June that this evidence was very persuasive, Ms. Hamer decided last week that the property owner can end the FCL violation case by planting just 25 two-inch caliper trees. Ms. Hamer claims that she did not have any evidence that the violation was willful and considers this to be an adequate remedy for clearing more that 12,000 square feet of forest, even though the neighbor and others have provided evidence that more than 20,000 square feet of forest were cleared and have made the allegation that the owner had worked with an M-NCPPC inspector to conceal evidence of some of the clearing.
Community members around the county .... are seriously considering filing a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against M-NCPPC, claiming that such inconsistent treatment under the county FCL violates their constitutional right to receive equal treatment under the law.
MCCF has recently written a letter to the Planning Board asking that the Board order a new investigation of the Hillmead allegations to be done by someone whom everyone agrees is neutral, and that the Planning Board also schedule the Ashton case as an FCL violation hearing where the Board can see the facts and make a decision based on those facts."
source: http://www.montgomerycivic.org/documents/sentinel/20061026.asp
Braddock Road development plan gets another look
Maria Hegstad, The Examiner
2007-09-26 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 604 of 5,676
Alexandria -
Alexandria city planning staff has restarted controversial development plans around the Braddock Road Metro station after neighborhood protests stalled efforts last spring.
City planning staff see the warehouses, parking lots and garages between the Metro line, U.S. Route 1 and Oronocco Street as potential sites for mixed residential and retail redevelopment. As revenues from homeowners’ tax assessments decrease, Alexandria officials also want to increase income from commercial taxes.
Two years ago, city planning staff started the Braddock Road small-area plan, a set of guidelines for developers building within the area. Like similar plans in other parts of the city, it would provide a streamlined approval process for developers who work within the guidelines of building a mixed-use and mixed-income community and provide amenities such as parks, brick sidewalks and underground utility lines.
“The community will be better able to manage and control the development if the plan is completed,” Hamer said.
The plan stalled last spring when residents objected to dwarfing their properties with high-rise apartment and condo buildings near the Metro. City staff wanted to encourage growth around the Metro station to reduce traffic, another of the residents’ concerns.
On Tuesday, staff unveiled an aggressive schedule of community meetings through the fall and winter with the aim of presenting a completed plan to City Council in March.
“The city was beginning to lose credibility we could get anything completed,” Planning and Zoning Director Faroll Hamer told The Examiner. “We need a deadline so people know the city will get things done.”
There are also concerns that development plans could go ahead before the guidelines are complete. Developers have already submitted three proposals, Hamer said.
The city has hired consultants who will run many of the meetings. One consultant, David Dixon, has helped to create new mixed-income neighborhoods with shops near old public housing sites in Baltimore and Chicago.
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