Arlington County Board election focuses on streetcar debate
By Patricia Sullivan, Published: October 14, 2012

Libby Garvey, the Arlington County Board member who is trying to retain her seat in the Nov. 6 election against two challengers, has made up her mind on the Columbia Pike streetcar. She’s against it.

The controversy over whether to put a streetcar line down the curb lanes of the busy street has been one of the most contentious issues in Arlington over the past year. Garvey, 61, a Democrat who won a March special election for the seat, abstained from voting when the board endorsed the streetcar July 24.

That abstention has drawn significant fire from Republican candidate Matt Wavro and Green Party candidate Audrey Clement, who have opposed building the 4.5-mile streetcar line for months. Garvey said she was studying the issue and waiting for more information, and last week she got it.

“I now believe a modern, bus rapid transit system is by far the best system for Arlington and the region,” she said during a Patch.com candidates’ forum at Arlington Independent Media on Thursday. “Just this week a real cost-benefit analysis came over the transom into our offices and I’ve read that and it absolutely confirms everything I’ve thought . . . not only because of the tremendous difference in expense. I think we can get a much better quality of service because of the connectivity a BRT system can provide.

“Fairfax County is looking at BRT, Alexandria is looking at BRT, Montgomery County is planning a BRT. It makes no sense to have Arlington in the middle with a streetcar and a BRT system all around us.”

The cost-benefit analysis was a 33-page document written by Peter Rousselot, an attorney and transportation consultant and former chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee. The report concluded that a modern BRT system would cost one-fifth to one-half of a streetcar system, while achieving the same goals. A BRT system could be in place faster and would help the redevelopment of the Columbia Pike area, it said.

Whether the report or Garvey’s position will have any impact on the decision is unclear. The County Board voted 4 to 0 to support the streetcar, and the Federal Transit Administration is expected to decide by year’s end whether to endorse and fund about one-quarter of the project.

Wavro, 32, a human resources consultant making his first bid for elective office, prefers a system of articulated buses on the Pike. But his main concern is with the all-Democratic board, which he said does not listen to all points of view on a variety of issues.

He said housing services for people who make less than half the area’s median income should be continued, but that the county should stop directly funding housing. Negotiating with private developers to swap development rights for market-rate affordable housing is the better way to go, he said.

“The policies of this board have made it more expensive for businesses to rent, not less,” he said. He urged the elimination of the county’s commercial real estate property tax.

Like Wavro, Clement supports the hiring of an independent inspector general to scrutinize local spending. Clement, 63, a computer programmer who is making her third try for county office, said Arlington needs a public housing authority to combat higher rents and wants developers to pay more of the infrastructure costs their projects create. She’s also concerned with the county government’s “profligate capital spending,” pointing disapprovingly to the board’s support of an indoor aquatic center at Long Bridge Park, the money-losing Artisphere and the Columbia Pike streetcar line.

Eliminating those kinds of capital projects, Clement said, would allow libraries to be open seven days a week, solar panels to be erected on all county buildings and a green jobs project to be created. She also pledged to roll back real estate taxes.

Garvey, who describes herself as both an independent and a team player, warns that Arlington’s “comparative advantage is slipping” for businesses, which pay half the county’s tax revenue. The cost of housing, the coming expansion of Metro into Loudoun County and the increasing commercial rents also create challenges. The National Science Foundation’s lease expires next year and other knowledge-based organizations such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Virginia Tech’s Research Center, as well as long-standing private organizations, are constantly tempted with lower-cost locations elsewhere.

Garvey also supported negotiations to buy an office building near the county courthouse for government offices and a year-round homeless shelter. Neither she nor the other candidates wanted the county to use eminent domain for the purchase, but Clement and Wavro said the county is willing to spend too much.

Garvey has the edge in campaign contributions, reporting $45,449 in cash donations through Aug. 31. Wavro followed with $4,345, and Clement raised $3,966. The county routinely elects Democratic office-seekers, and the national election this fall is expected to bring out large numbers of voters.

Garvey, a 15-year veteran of the School Board, allowed that this was not the toughest campaign she has weathered.

“I’m confident, but you never want to take any election for granted,” she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/arlington-county-board-election-focuses-on-streetcar-debate/2012/10/14/c58caebc-147c-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html

Washington Post: Jill Stein responds to five key debate questions
Posted by Jill Stein for President 1844.80pc on October 15, 2012 ·Brook Silva-Braga of the Washington Post asked Jill Stein for her responses to five key questions from the first presidential debate.

Watch the video of Jill Stein’s responses at the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/thefold/green-party-nominee-jill-stein/2012/10/12/b68c8f6a-14ac-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_video.html

Green Party Issues Split Verdict on County Bonds
Posted: Monday, October 8, 2012 5:00 am
http://www.sungazette.net/arlington/news/green-party-issues-split-verdict-on-county-bonds/article_505358f6-0f15-11e2-aeb3-0019bb2963f4.html

The Arlington Green Party has voted to support two of the four county bond referendums on the Nov. 6 ballot, to oppose one and to stay neutral on the fourth.

Meeting on Oct. 3, party members endorsed the $31.9 million bond for Metro and transportation, as well as the $28.3 million bond for community and neighborhood infrastructure.

But like the Arlington County Republican Committee several weeks before, the Green Party urged voters to reject the $50.5 million parks and recreation bond. Greens said their opposition was because the vast bulk of the bond funding would fund a “vanity water park” at Long Bridge Park.

Greens took no position on the $42.6 million school bond; party members split on whether the funds were the best way to address crowding issues.

“More must be done to open more schools and provide more classrooms, but the hasty School Board plans to build two new elementary schools next to existing schools, and to simply add more trailers or to build more classrooms at already overcrowded elementary schools, is ill-advised,” Arlington Green Party chairman John Reeder said in a statement.

County Republicans have endorsed all bonds except the park bond, and the Arlington County Democratic Committee has endorsed all four.

Oct. 5, 2012

Arlington Green Party supports bonds for Metro and transportation, and community infrastructure on the November 6 ballot in Arlington, but rejects parks and recreation bond, and stays neutral on the school bond.

Arlington Greens voted at their October 3 meeting to urge Arlington voters to approve the $31.9 million bond for Metro and transportation, and the $28.3 million bond for community and neighborhood infrastructure. Greens urge Arliington voters to disapprove the $50.5 million bond for parks and recreation (most of which will go to build a vanity water park in Crystal City at the Long Bridge Park). Greens supported the two Virginia Constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

Arlington Greens stayed neutral on the $42.6 million school bond, and were divided as to whether the school board plan to spend these funds was a wise and sustainable way to reduce student overcrowding and at the same time improve student academic achievement.

Arlington Green chairman John Reeder said,” Arlington school enrollments are rising, and that more must be done to open more schools and provide more classrooms, but this hasty school board plans to build two new elementary schools next to existing schools, and to simply add more trailers or to build more classrooms at already overcrowded elementary schools is ill advised.

Green parent and activist Sandra Hernandez said, “the school board’s building plan is too costly and eliminates green space and recreation fields. “ She recommended that the board open up smaller, magnet and new elementary schools, at the Fairlington Community Center or the Madison Recreation Center, and even open a new performing arts and arts middle school at the Newseum building in Rosslyn, now used as a failing performing arts center at county expense.

Arlington Greens rejected the $50 million bond for recreation and parks as wasteful. AGP chairman John Reeder says the county does not need the proposed aquatics center with five pools because there already are three Olympic-sized public pools available at three Arlington high schools, and many private summer pools as well. The Long Bridge Park is remote, and inaccessible to most county residents, and aging parks and ball fields in other parts of the county should take precedence over building five vanity swimming pools. The county board has persistently neglected parks like Lubber Run Amphitheater in order to fund its pet vanity projects like the Long Bridge swimming pools and the money-losing Newseum in Rosslyn, Reeder said.