BacklashMayor Euille's recent statement in the Alexandria Gazette that "Some parents are just not ready to have their kids in an integrated environment" is earning him a long-term trip to the time-out corner in the eyes of many neighborhood residents.
The Gazette published several blistering letters to the editor this week decrying his remarks, and Mayor Euille himself had to backtrack by clarifying his statements at a Council meeting.
According to Gazette reporter Michael Lee Pope, Hizzoner now says that “Parents are concerned about the lack of quality education at certain schools, so they choose to opt out of the school in their neighborhood — not to mention the fact that we’re fortunate to have choices, and you have a choice to put you child in a public school or a private school or a religious institution,” he said.
“Our schools have made and continue to make progress, and we’ll begin to see improved demographics in the near future.”
Let's see if parents continue to shun Jefferson-Houston if and when the elementary school is finally brought up to the same levels of academic performance as Lyles-Crouch and George Mason. Until then, all such gratuitous gibes are beside the point.
Board-Building Exercise
Readers may not have noticed, but there's a lot of change happening with ARHA's board due to recent Council actions.
Earlier this month the Council did not reappoint long-time commissioner Leslie Hagan, who like Carlyle "Connie" Ring and Melvin Miller also had a stint on the School Board in the past and was seeking her final term under the City's recently enacted term limits for boards and commissions.
Instead, Council tapped a newcomer, Stan Vosper, who has many years experience as a HUD spokesman.
Over the last two years the Council has been quietly moving away from appointing civic activists and in favor of candidates with operational experience at HUD and other public housing authorities, in public housing policy, and in real estate development and financing.
Time to give our politicos a pat on the back.
End of the Line
Speaking of appointments, the Growler notes with interest that John Komoroske and Eric Wagner have been reappointed to the Planning Commission, but like Ms. Hagan are in their final terms. Mr. Komoroske and Mr. Wagner have been seen by some in our neighborhood as men with an entrenched and outdated view of our community during their decades-long stints on the City's single most powerful appointed commission.
Let's hear it again for Council, which quietly but courageously enacted term limits a while back to force more turnover and bring fresh ideas and views to advisory boards and commissions.
Vroom Vroom Vroom
It seems the battle over the City's proposed transportation add-on tax is gathering steam.
Vice Mayor Kerry Donley has been advocating for some time now that the City take advantage of recent legislation passed by the General Assembly, which allows jurisdictions in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to tax commercial properties at a different level than residential properties in order to fund transportation projects.
The argument is that this additional tax revenue can be leveraged to obtain federal matching funds for transit projects, and that Arlington and Fairfax County are well ahead of Alexandria in that respect.
However, there are some activists, like gadfly Bud Miller, who are skeptical about the need for such a tax and are concerned about the burden it will place on businesses. Other citizens have been wary about supporting the tax before the City's specific plans about how to spend the money are laid on the table.
The question for our neighborhood is whether the proposed measure is being promoted to solve the West End transportation crisis precipitated by BRAC or whether it is the preliminary measure needed to build up a war chest of revenue that will bring bus rapid transit down N. Henry and N. Patrick Streets in our residential neighborhood.
School Daze
It seems like the School Board and ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman are once again in retreat in the face of strong public opinion.
The latest cause celebre? A proposal to start school before Labor Day and to extend school hours.
Apparently the idea wasn't well-vetted with parents — the Old Town mom's listserve was buzzing — and a Board vote on the early school year start was "abruptly" postponed, according to Washington Post reporter Christy Goodman.
Given experience with the recent Jefferson-Houston dust-up, one must ask why the Superintendent continues to fail to consult key constituencies before coming out with his sweeping proposals, and why the increasingly ineffective-looking School Board lets him get away with it.
28 comments:
In re the Council getting rid of civic activists and replacing them with so called experts, remember Growler and all contributors, that all of you are civic activists and in this new trend, all of you are slowly being denied a voice on the various boards, committees, and commissions that have major effects on your neighborhoods. You are being disenfranchised bit by bit and replace by people who are closely tied to Council members and will often do their bidding and not what is truly needed for the area of their purview. Think on that. Citizens are being replaced by federal and state bureaucrats with bureaucratic mind sets who just happen to live in Alexandria but still see problems through the eyes of bureaucrats. And for this you commend Council.
I'll take recognized experts in their field over neighborhood activists any day. If we had real experts on the job long ago, we might not have had Res 830 and so much entrenched public housing in PG. And maybe our metro stop wouldn't be a ghost town after 7pm.
Your report and comment on the Superintendent's proposal were spot on. The idea of extending the student day was abruptly postponed, yet the idea of squeezing an extra 30 minutes into each school day is still alive and kicking. Now the Superintendent wants to spend $2,000,000 of our money to have teachers work another 30 minutes each day. For what? One of the ideas from the Super is to use this teacher work time to "study the potential use of additional school time for students." Wha? Yet another proposal to spend more money we don't have on a plan that has no details or lacks merit.
I'm happy to have any expert replace the "civic activist/segregationist" Connie Ring this year and Melvin Miller next year on ARHA's board... What loophole is city hall dreaming up to bypass their new rule?
I've been called many things over the years, but Gadfly is a new one!
Yes, I do ask questions that some professional politicians would prefer were not asked. Readers of this site should ask incisive questions as well. After all, it's our money they are spending and our neighborhoods and homes that are being impacted by their decisions.
I also think it is important that our locally elected leaders listen to the people to live and work in Alexandria, not professional politicians and lobbyists from other areas pushing their own agendas which may harm our Citizens. The residents of Alexandria put our City Council Members in office, not the narrow business interests of Arlington or Fairfax.
It's easy to be a critic, but one should be constructive as well. We've also done our best to make positive suggestions on how to cut/control the budget while minimizing the impact upon service delivery.
Keep up the great job and keep Growling or we will all just be ignored.
"I'm happy to have any expert replace the "civic activist/segregationist" Connie Ring this year and Melvin Miller next year on ARHA's board..."
I totally agree. They design housing policy in reaction to school policy. Both are past School Board Chairmen who want to contain public housing keep public housing physically segregated in order to properly purify certain schools.
We at ACPS love the Growl! It seems the teachers have a blog that has gone viral...acpsunderground.blogspot.com
Check it out Growler!
I love that ACPS blog. All we need is ARHA Underground and this neighborhood will finally have a voice....
Ah, the Miller legacy...
By Carla Branch
alexandrianews.org
Since it was built 40 years ago, Pendleton Park Apartments has been affordable rental housing in the Parker-Gray neighborhood of Alexandria. In 2012, the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s involvement in the project will come to an end and the Third Baptist Church, which owns the property, is selling it. Will it remain affordable housing or be redeveloped into condominiums or high-priced commercial property?
The 24 units at Pendleton Park are currently home to people with HUD Section 8 vouchers and to people who are paying much less than market rate rent. For years, the church has subsidized those rents to maintain them as affordable housing. They need to sell the property and are asking $150,000 per unit or $3.6 million for the building.
“The church hopes that the building can remain affordable housing and is talking to buyers who have that same goal,” said Alexandria Deputy City Manager Mark Jinks. “The City is working with nonprofit corporations such as the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation and others to try and make that happen.
“To make that happen, the City will have to have some involvement. That could mean a loan from the Housing Trust Fund, which has fewer dollars than it has had in the past because the one cent of dedicated funds has been reduced and there are fewer voluntary developer contributions because there are fewer developments. We think that the amount of affordable housing funds we have available to loan will be somewhat north of $2 million.
“The decision is going to have to be made soon because those who are considering the property are also in need of Low Income Tax Credit financing from the Virginia Housing Development Authority and those applications are due in March. Also, the church wants to sell the property as soon as they can and are negotiating with potential buyers. I would imagine there would be a decision by the end of this month. If the City is involved, Council would have to approve it,” Jinks said.
Pendleton Park, which is located at the corner of Pendleton and Payne, is a project that Melvin Miller helped bring to Alexandria when he worked at HUD. He is now the Chair of the Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority Board. ARHA is also interested in purchasing the property.
“We have looked at the property and are very interested in purchasing it,” Miller said. “We don’t want to get into a bidding war with AHDC but we have worked out a way that we could purchase Pendleton Park without any funding from the City. We have submitted a letter of intent to VHDA to preserve our option to apply for Low Income Tax Credit financing for the project as has AHDC.
“If we buy Pendleton Park, we could allow Section 8 vouchers there or simply keep it affordable rental. We have a lot of options and we would like to add 24 units to those we have already,” Miller said.
Interesting news for our neighborhood: Pendleton Park apartments are for sale.
http://www.alexandrianews.org/2011/02/pendleton-park-for-sale/
I learned in the article that we have Melvin Miller to thank for the project, which is a section 8 rental. The City, of course, would like to keep it "affordable" but, as a neighbor, I'd like to see it sold to a for profit developer which would rebalance the neighborhood. We have too much section 8 and affordable housing and it's not good for anyone.
The part of the article which causes greatest concern is that ARHA is interested in purchasing the property. I cannot seriously believe they're considering this! We are going to have to watch out. Otherwise, the City is going to use that at a location to "offsite" the 16 units from Bland - a mere three blocks away. Hardly in keeping with the concept of fairly distributing public housing.
Notice to the City Council, my neighbors and I will NOT be happy if this happens.
“The church hopes that the building can remain affordable housing and is talking to buyers who have that same goal,” said Alexandria Deputy City Manager Mark Jinks. “The City is working with nonprofit corporations such as the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation and others to try and make that happen.
And, seriously, didn't the City just bail ARHA out with a loan? And now they want to buy another property? Good lord, hopefully, this is just Melvin running his mouth.
Um, was the City trying to keep this quiet from the neighbors and present it as a fait accompli once they had identified (and financed) an affordable housing developer??
We have been SCREAMING in this neighborhood that we bear an unfair portion of affordable housing. Why why why must they keep interfering with natural market forces and jamming more low income housing here? WTF is the obsession with keeping this neighborhood down?
Breaking News: the City Manager, Jim Hartman has resigned. Just learned from Frank Fannon's email newsletter.
Backlash
'Mayor Euille's recent statement in the Alexandria Gazette that "Some parents are just not ready to have their kids in an integrated environment" is earning him a long-term trip to the time-out corner in the eyes of many neighborhood residents.
The Gazette published several BLISTERING LETTERS (emphasize added by this poster) to the editor this week decrying his remarks, and Mayor Euille himself had to backtrack by clarifying his statements at a Council meeting. '
I read those letters. I know kids who attend public and private schools in Alexandria. To anyone who thinks that racism isn't alive and sick in Alexandria, well, I have a bridge to sell you... Our City youth are blatantly caught up in it, learn it, mock others and it is sad.
Btw, my kids attend ACPS because we still believe in public education, and we do have the means for them to attend elsewhere. The world is a diverse place; embrace it fully and you will be a better person.
Mayor Euille, it is long past time for you to go.
Not happy with the city's repeated hypocrisy. Of course Frank Fannon will blindly follow Connie Ring's lead Ring Miller's. At a minimum we need to invoke the Chatham Square model a design in which Ring participated and demand that 50% of the low income units be offsited. 50% market rate, 50% affordable. Mixed income was the Bland message. What a Jim Crow waste of valuable real estate.
Not to ask the obvious but WHERE IN THE HECK DOES ARHA HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY THESE UNITS?
All we hear is that they are land rich and cash poor. All they get is essentially unconditional loans from the City. Now all of a sudden they have access to 3.6 million dollars to buy a building?
This Pendleton Park situation looks like a mess waiting to happen. If ARHA bought the building, would they do anything to improve on its physical condition? It looks like it is deteriorating and needs significant rework.
Also, why cant this be mixed income to support the "alleged" goal of City Council to make our neighborhood more diverse?
"At a minimum we need to invoke the Chatham Square model a design in which Ring participated and demand that 50% of the low income units be offsited."
You better be prepared to organize your neighbors. We howled at the City's hypocricy when they approved the concentration of public housing at the new Bland. And they still failed to offsite 50%. I'd just flat out demand that the whole building to market rate. No tax dollars should be used to finance that project for an affordable housing developer, or worse, finance it for ARHA.
Just seriously cannot believe they're even considering financing another ARHA project in that neighborhood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this was Arlington, you know that the city would take advantage of the property being for sale and encourage a sale to a private party for redevelopment. A nice complement to The Aspen project going up across the street. But we all know that Alexandria operates differently.
I am a close neighbor to Pendleton Park and I don't have any complaints about the people living there. It's a quiet crowd and I've personally spoken to many of the residents. There have been few issues. But the parking area in the back of the building has attracted drug activity in the past. And it worries me that the issues may increase if this converted from a Section 8 property to an ARHA property. Having a church as a landord instead of a public housing agency seems to instill something different in a community.
Where does ARHA have the money to buy this property?
And if ARHA or AHDC buy it, would it be redeveloped or are they just buying it?
I wouldn't mind redevelopment on that site, preserving the 24 units in the process.
But simply having ARHA take it over is a disaster waiting to happen.....they can hardly manage Adkins as it is.
"There have been few issues. But the parking area in the back of the building has attracted drug activity in the past. "
Yeah, a few. Dope deals, drug usage, open containers thrown in peoples backyards, used condoms in the corners of the covered garage, urinating in public (again under the garagein the corners), prostitution, i'm leaving something out... Oh yeah, Homicide a year and a half ago.
Far from few
I am unclear as to why the property cannot be sold off to a private developer and then terms can be finalized with that developer to preserve 24 affordable units.
Why do AHDC or ARHA (and by extension, the City and its taxpayers) have to be involved in any way? It doesnt seem economically feasible to spend nearly the entire Housing Trust fund to buy this property.
"Why do AHDC or ARHA (and by extension, the City and its taxpayers) have to be involved in any way? It doesnt seem economically feasible to spend nearly the entire Housing Trust fund to buy this property."
I agree. Everybody better email council with their objections immediately. Otherwise, with those tax credit deadlines looming, they'll try to do this quickly and quietly before the neighborhood has a chance to organize its opposition.
""Why do AHDC or ARHA (and by extension, the City and its taxpayers) have to be involved in any way?"
The city always offers the out of date "Resolution 830" as it's reason for containing / keeping Public housing within our neighborhood.
LOL and where's the comment from our preservationist elite that this is the site of a famous all-black school back in segregtaion days?
Off the topic, but as long as we're asking "where" stuff is, has anyone noticed the illegal carwashing business in the 1100 to 1200 blocks of Queen Street and also the 300 block of N. Fayette? Sometimes they wash an entire car while being double parked on N. Fayette Street.
"Where" is our community officer? Maybe the loitering at the Spa Court would slightly decrease if the folks hanging there didn't have customers they were waiting for.
"Maybe the loitering at the Spa Court would slightly decrease if the folks hanging there didn't have customers they were waiting for."
I have noticed and dislike the carwashing around Q&F as much as anyone else. I see this done year after year. I know this isn't something I should think about this issue, but it continues to be a thought evertime I see these guys out their washing cars with D.C. and Maryland plates.
If the police make the corner dwellers stop washing cars, does anyone (other than myself) think that crimes like larcenies from auto & burglaries, could possibly rise?
As I say, I know I shouldn't think this way, but I'd like to see if anyone else shares my thoughts on this issue.
RE: the carwashing
People, call the damn police. Email your city council members. Join your civic association and put this on the agenda.
It never ceases to amaze me how much people complain, but then fail to do anything whatsoever about it. Trust me, if you complain (and oftentimes it takes multiple and increasingly loud complaints in this City), they WILL do something about it.
Please, do your part. Your neighbors really need your help.
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