Birthday Fundraiser A Success

The birthday event was scheduled from 6-8pm tonight. 

It rained in Arlington from 6-8 pm tonight. 

But, the rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the 62 people who we packed into our living room, basement and front entry after the backyard was rained out.

Keirsten and I are so grateful for all of your support. 

Many thank you’s are in order.  Jeff Miller and Rebecca Goodhart braved the rain to help bring things under the eaves.  Sandy Mikilia and Lisa Tutrow checked people in and got them their name tags.  I also missed the Elliots when publicly thanking the sponsors.  “Thank you.”  And, thanks Scott McGeary for his kind words of support.

We really could go on and on with the thank you’s for words of encouragement and support.  The campaign continues to build positive momentum as we look toward Election Day, November 6th.  Together, we can present the people of Arlington and the City of Falls Church with A New Way Forward.

Buried Treasure

Buried at the end of this DC Examiner Story on campaign fundraising in Arlington is the fact that of the contested races in Arlington, we are second only to Democrat Mary Hynes in cash on hand in our campaign account.  With your help, the Mark Kelly for Clerk campaign outraised the other Democrat candidate for County Board, Walter Tejada.  Also, Paul Ferguson, our opponent, raised $0.  After noting that Ferguson raised $0, the article simply said:

The figure was outpaced by Republican Mark Kelly, who raised $2,575 in June and has $8,355 on hand.  

Paul Ferguson still has some money he can move into this race from is PAC, but our campaign is building positive momentum, and we need your help to finish closing the gap.  Please visit our website at www.markkellyforclerk.com and find out how you can join the team.

Used Water Bottle “Art”

If you’ve seen the funny looking polls with water bottles on top in Rosslyn, here’s an answer as to how much that little display cost – $50,000 (according to this Washington Post story).

Normally if you lined up empty water bottles on a Rosslyn median strip, you could be fined as much as $2,500 for littering. But in one case Arlington County paid $50,000 to have hundreds of bottles arranged into a piece of public art that looks like a field of luminescent cattails.

The installation is at one of Rosslyn’s busiest intersections: the exit of Arlington Boulevard where Fairfax Drive, Fort Myer Drive and North Lynn Street all intersect. The piece consists of plastic columns on a grid, ranging in height from 5 to 13 feet and held aloft by metal reinforcing rods, with used water bottles — culled from country government offices — perched atop each stalk. At night, LED lights powered by a single solar panel illuminate the bottles — a no-emissions form of power that inspired the work’s name, “CO2LED.”

That’s right, it cost $50,000 to raid the recycling bins from county offices and perch them on poles and light them up, but hurry up and see them because the display comes back down sometime after September 1st.

The field of bottles is temporary, built to be part of the landscape of the Planet Arlington World Music Festival on Sept. 1, after which it will come down. Angela Anderson Adams, public art administrator for Arlington County Cultural Affairs, says the piece makes distinctive use of urban space. It’s also a test case of what to do with an intersection.

Cost of Living Going Up, So Is The Views at Clarendon

With the unanimous support of the Arlington County Board, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority yesterday voted to raise taxes and fees yesterday by $334.3 million. 

Fully 90% of that will make it more expensive to either buy and sell a home, or to buy and maintain a car.

• $171 million will be raised by a 40% increase on the grantors tax charged when selling a home.
• $64.6 million will be raised by a 1% tax on the purchase of a new car.
• $33.2 million will be raised by a $10 regional inspection fee and a $10 regional registration fee on your car.
• $33.2 million will be raised by a 5% sales tax on labor for your car repairs.

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In other news, an Arlington Circuit Court Judge yesterday dismissed the lawsuit of Clarendon residents opposed to Clarendon Baptist’s construction of the Views at Clarendon – 116 unit apartment building on the church’s property.  Last year, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Views, originally approved in 2004, for violating Arlington’s zoning, but the County Board re-approved the plan in February.  Unless a higher court intervenes, the church, child care and housing will be built over objections of the neighborhood.

Inclusion?

Arlington County Democrats unwilling to embrace inclusion or change.

The recent dust up among Democrats in Arlington over a racially charged mailing by Frank O’Leary unveils problems within the party according to the Sun Gazette. 

Party leaders are “not doing enough to represent who we say we represent,” added Krysta Jones, who was deputy campaign manager and spokesman for Bob James’ unsuccessful effort to defeat O’Leary in the primary. Jones is African-American.

So, too, is Voncille Trotter Hines, who in an interview after the meeting suggested that party leaders are taking Arlington’s historic African-American community for granted, and are unwilling to let newcomers into what she contends is their private, club-like domain.

 “You have these people who have been here for years and years – there is no room for inclusion,” Hines said. “The culture of this particular party is that they talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.”

The Sun Gazette goes on to suggest that it may go beyond race and get more to the desire for power among those currently controlling the Party.

The O’Leary campaign mailing against James may ultimately have had less to do with skin hue and more with the point Hines brings up about the unwillingness of party leaders to foster healthy competition and embrace change.

Current County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson tried to explain the problem away:

 Ferguson said that part of the problem facing his party could be that newcomers, of any race or ethnicity, might not be interested in sitting through what often can be the tedium of political operations.

“It takes a special effort,” said Ferguson . . .

17 Years and Counting

Headline, Sun Gazette: County Board Members Want Quick Decision on Fire Station Location

The 17-year odyssey of the fire station’s future took another twist last month, when the Sun Gazette broke the news that county officials were considering a previously tabled option for the station.

The announcement came two years after the County Board voted to put the fire station on part of a site currently occupied by Koons Arlington Toyota along Lee Highway. Complications in making that deal happen have led county officials to reconsider a site currently occupied by the Bromptons at Cherrydale condominium development, located between North Oakland and North Pollard streets.

The citizens of Arlington passed bond issues to pay for the Cherrydale fire station in 1990 and 1994.  Yet, in 2007, the location is still very much in doubt.

County Board members say they want to make a decision on the site of the Cherrydale Fire Station quickly, then move to start construction.

“I don’t think we should drag this out,” County Board member Barbara Favola said at the board’s July 7 meeting, citing further “tension in the community” that would be created by more delays.

Most Cherrydale residents would say that 17 years of waiting = “dragging this out” quite some time ago.