Streetcar skeptic John Vihstadt won a seat on the Arlington County (Virginia) board this week, the first Republican to do so in 15 years. One of the main issues in his campaign was the board’s plan to spend $250 million on a streetcar in this suburb of Washington, DC.
The election took place less than two weeks after the release of a consultant’s report that concluded a streetcar would dramatically boost economic development in the county (a claim disputed by the Antiplanner. Some people believe the report was timed to influence the election. If so, it didn’t work.
The election also took place after the unveiling of Arlington’s $1 million dollar bus stop that doesn’t even provide decent shelter from the elements. This served to raise voter awareness of the county’s free-spending ways when it comes to transit.
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Counties in Virginia, incidentally, work differently than in most other states, where city residents are also residents of, voters in, and taxpayers to counties. In Virginia, people live in either a city or a county, not both, so cities and counties are just different names for the same level of government. Arlington is 100 percent urban, so though it is called a county, the county board is really the same as a city commission.
I wouldn’t overgeneralize if I were you. Low turnout election with only 16% turnout. The impact on the streetcar project remains to be seen. Hopefully the streetcar proponents will not flinch nor blink in getting it built, regardless of how streetcar opponents will continue their act like the chimps at the zoo and keep on flinging their mendacious poo.
msetty wrote:
I wouldn’t overgeneralize if I were you. Low turnout election with only 16% turnout. The impact on the streetcar project remains to be seen. Hopefully the streetcar proponents will not flinch nor blink in getting it built, regardless of how streetcar opponents will continue their act like the chimps at the zoo and keep on flinging their mendacious poo.
This is Arlington County, Virginia. Might be the most Democratic (and traditionally liberal) place in the entire Commonwealth, even though it is also home to the Pentagon and the George Mason University Mercatus Center.
Low turnout or otherwise, electing someone running as anything other than a Democrat to the at-large Arlington County Board is pretty significant.
The Antiplanner wrote:
Counties in Virginia, incidentally, work differently than in most other states, where city residents are also residents of, voters in, and taxpayers to counties. In Virginia, people live in either a city or a county, not both, so cities and counties are just different names for the same level of government.
Though it is important to note that Virginia has another kind of municipality as well – the town. Towns are rather different from cities in the Commonwealth, in that towns are always part of a county, while cities are never part of a county.
Arlington is 100 percent urban, so though it is called a county, the county board is really the same as a city commission.
Agreed. The parts of Arlington County that the Smart Growth industry likes to promote are high-density areas along the Metrorail Orange Line, and Pentagon City and Crystal City.
But much of Arlington is reasonably sprawling suburbia, dominated by single-family detached and single-family attached housing.
Only $250 million? But Amazon will pay for half of it!
The $1million bus stop is actually a streetcar stop. Not that it will make it any easier for public transit haters to swallow, but it’s an important distinction to me.
Bennett is wrong on two points.
1. It is a bus stop. It would become a bus and streetcar stop if the streetcar is built.
2. Claiming that everyone who does not support paying $1 million per bus stop is a “public transit hater” means you have no valid argument – so you just call people names.
For a moment I thought this article was about Portland, Oregon, but sadly, no.
John is wrong on 2 points.
1. It was built as a streetcar stop, in anticipation of a streetcar. Hence the high costs. If the street car line is not built then it’s a waste (it’s probably a wast anyways).
2. My use of “public transit haters” was not meant as a derogatory phrase. In fact, many around here wear the badge proudly. If one hates public transit, then they are a public transit hater. If you hate public transit but claim not to be a public transit hater, then you are lying to yourself (I’m referring to the proverbial “you” and not anybody in particular).
I wouldn’t overgeneralize if I were you. Low turnout election with only 16% turnout. The impact on the streetcar project remains to be seen. Hopefully the streetcar proponents will not flinch nor blink in getting it built, regardless of how streetcar opponents will continue their act like the chimps at the zoo and keep on flinging their mendacious poo.
Pot meet kettle. Low turnouts in special elections for referendum items like this one are the norm, not the exception. And how incredibly mendacious of you to suggest that the opponents of the streetcar are the ones whose behavior is beyond the pale. They aren’t the ones who are trying to spend $250,000,000 of other people’s money on a speculative project with entirely unproven benefits (no, a consultant’s report does not count as evidence).
so msetty is a liar and a corrupt tool who is probably working for the corrupt companies building corrupt and profitable rail systems all over. What else is new?
Can anybody explain why a “street car” is something that runs on rails and not rubber tires?
Must be like a “town car” that is more than a cab but less than a limo, or why we park on “driveways” and drive on “parkways”.
No wonder Metrosucks doesn’t tell us who he is. Otherwise he’d have to back up his actionable slander. Cowardly ignoramus pinhead. Typical of right wing blog commenters, I suppose.
MJ
(no, a consultant’s report does not count as evidence).
Consultant reports do if they have verifiable empirical evidence substantiating their claims.
I’d say it is quite mendacious of you to make such a claim without also pointing out the validity of a consultant report depends on the actual contents and quality of a particular report–rather important details. But then ignoring context and important details is most popular method of the right wing noise machine.
For the record, the findings of the Columbia Pike project consultants are consistent with those of a large number of other studies documenting and use impacts of rail, e.g., streetcars create much more property value and focus much more development than bus-only projects. Why do you think in some places, e.g., Seattle, Detroit and Kansas City, many property owners are willing to pay large portions of the capital cost of streetcar lines, when they generally don’t do so for BRT projects?
I hope Arlington streetcar advocates stop playing nice and play hardball politics to ensure the project gets built and dispatch their mendacious opponents, as their compatriots did so successfully in Cincinnati.
I wonder what proportion of knee-jerk opposition to transit, either rail or bus (such as Nashville’s BRT proposal getting Koch bother attention) is animated by what the book at this link documents:
http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Nightmares-Media-Right-Moral/dp/081664361X.
“some places, e.g., Seattle, Detroit and Kansas City, many property owners are willing to pay large portions of the capital cost of streetcar lines”
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. Tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies.
Sorry, Frank. You can have your own opinions but not your own facts.
In a VOTE, property owners approved the assessment district in Kansas City for the streetcar.
The “M-1” streetcar line was initiated and is funded by major property owners along Woodward Avenue in Detroit, presumably because they believe it will increase the value of their properties and help kickstart additional development.
In Seattle, please don’t be so naive about politics to believe that a property assessment district for the South Lake Union line would have been approved by the City of Seattle had the relevant major property owners involved not favored it. Despite your opposition to rail, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t heavyweight players in Seattle that were, and continue to be, strongly in favor of streetcars and other forms of rail.
But then there are so many “conservatives” who continue to believe the Bush and Cheney lie that the Iraq war was justified by Saddam’s alleged “weapons of mass destruction,” despite mountains of evidence that their existence was a big lie. You seem to suffer from the same sort of refusal to believe established facts.
The vote in Kansas City was not property owners. It was only by residents who lived within the boundaries of the streetcar district. It’s a decent enough example in regards to Frank’s flippant comment but it’s far from what you seem to want to be.
High streets and arterial roads are natural places to put tram tracks.
You don’t complain about sidewalks, street lights or fire hydrants, so don’t complain about streetcars. :$