Source: clipart-library.com To me, the original for this seem as if it were genuinely old. But I got it, presumably without copyright restrictions, from that source. If this is new, kudos to the creator for the look of it.
Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) employees recommended discontinuing fall vacuum leaf pickup. Continue reading Post #1821: Fairfax County staff recommend discontinuing fall leaf vacuuming.
Today I stumbled across the dollar value of the 1961 Town of Vienna operating budget, in an old Town of Vienna newsletter. It seemed small to me, even after considering inflation. So I decided to compare a few key statistics for the Town of Vienna, 1960 (ish) versus 2023 (ish). And, in fact, it was small.
N.B., one U.S. dollar, in 1960, was worth just over $10, in current (July 2023) currency. Actual silver coinage (90% silver coins) did not disappear from U.S. circulation until 1964.
Town of Vienna, VA: 2023 versus 1960
Population: 43% increase
Dwelling units: 100% increase:
Persons per household: 26% decrease.
N.B. 2 x .74 = 1.48, so even though the data above come from different, independent data sources, the math very nearly reproduces the actual increase in population (44%, not 48%) over the period.
Median house price: Roughly five-fold increase.
Town of Vienna operating budget: Roughly 10-fold increase.
Most of the operating revenue for the Town comes from real estate taxes. To reconcile the 10-fold growth in house prices, and the five-fold growth in the cost of government, you have to know that the tax rate per $100 of market value fell by roughly 50% over this period. In 1961, it was $1.35 per $100, assessed at 32% of market value, or (1.35 x .32 =) 0.42 per $100 of market value. That, from the June 1961 Town newsletter. Currently, the rate is just over $0.20 per $100 of market value, per the 2023-24 Town budget.
References:
1960 Census of Population and Housing: https://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/pubdocs/1960/pubvols1960.shtml
2020 Census: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/viennatownvirginia/PST045222
Town of Vienna 1961 newsletter: https://www.viennava.gov/engagement-central/newsroom/vienna-voice-town-newsletter
Town of Vienna operating budget: https://www.viennava.gov/your-government/town-budget
Inflation calculator: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Source: WTOP.
There was an article today on the local news-radio website (WTOP) regarding speeding in school zones. I took note, because I routinely drive through one of those zones where Fairfax County VA operates speed cameras. The zone is clearly marked, and you’d have to be blind to miss it, as shown above.
And yet:
In total, 23,431 cars were caught going 10 or more miles per hour above the speed limit in April, May and June combined.
I supposed I should be impressed by the sheer numbers. But instead, a completely different figure caught my eye: They only ticketed folks for going at least 10 MPH over the limit.
First, I thought it was intemperate of the reporter to note that exact figure. Anybody reading the article realizes that there’s no risk of a ticket at anything up to the posted speed plus 9 MPH. So, presumably, if generally known, that now becomes the de facto speed limit.
But second, I’d heard that same figure before, a few years back, in a discussion of red-light cameras and speeding cameras in Vienna, a town in Fairfax County. There it was phrased as “we don’t ticket unless they are going at least 11 MPH over the posted limit.” The explanation given at the time was that Fairfax County courts would not accept cases for any infraction less than that.
Short answer is, yes and no.
In theory, by Virginia statute, you can get ticketed for traveling one mile an hour over the speed limit in a residential area. This is my interpretation of § 46.2-878.2 of Virginia statute, which says :
Operation of any motor vehicle in excess of a maximum speed limit ... in a residence district of a county, city, or town ... shall be unlawful and constitute a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of $200, in addition to other penalties provided by law.
The black-letter law provides no slack. If you’re in a residential district, on a highway (meaning, in Virginia, any public alley, street, road, or highway), and you’re going a mile over the limit, you can, in theory, be ticketed and will owe a minimum of $200.
Except that the law spells out a different set of penalties for drivers caught by speed cameras in school zones. My interpretation is that because the process is, in effect, automated, they cut drivers a lot more slack than they would if they’d been pulled over, in person, by a uniformed officer.
In the case of speed cameras in a school zone (§ 46.2-882.1), emphasis mine:
1. The operator ... shall be liable for a monetary civil penalty ... if such vehicle is found ... to be traveling at speeds of at least 10 miles per hour above the posted ... speed limit ... . Such civil penalty shall not exceed $100 ... ... 4. Imposition of a penalty pursuant to this section ... shall not be made part of the operating record of the person upon whom such liability is imposed, nor shall it be used for insurance purposes in the provision of motor vehicle insurance coverage.
There appears to be no hard-and-fast rule regarding ticketing for how much “slack” you get, speeding in a residential area in Virginia. The plain language of State law in Virginia law says that if you exceed the posted limit, you can be ticketed. I believe that pre-empts any local law, as we are a Dillon Rule state. That is, local governments can only make their own rules where the Commonwealth grants them permission to do so. And nothing in Commonwealth statute appears to do that, with a few limited and explicit exceptions spelled out in the law.
Except that “ten miles over the limit” is written into law, in Virginia, for speed-zone cameras. There, the Commonwealth leans heavily in the direction of protecting drivers’ rights, and avoiding Big Brother information harvesting. So, in exchange for what is basically an automated process, you face a small fine. There’s a monetary penalty, but (as I read it) no points on the license.
First, if you are speeding, in Virginia, you lose any claim to having right-of-way. So if some bonehead does something to get you in a car accident, where you had the right of way, but you were speeding at the time … tough luck. You cannot claim right-of-way while you are speeding.
§ 46.2-823. Unlawful speed forfeits right-of-way. The driver of any vehicle traveling at an unlawful speed shall forfeit any right-of-way which he might otherwise have under this article.
The reason for that is pretty clear. Traveling at excess speed makes it difficult for other drivers to judge whether or not an accident will occur.
We had a horrific accident in this area, last year, that is a classic illustration of that. The culprit was a bozo who was driving a BMW about 80 MPH in a 35 MPH zone. His car got struck by a car turning left, and his car subsequently jumped the sidewalk and killed two high school student who were on the sidewalk, walking home from school.
Normally, the car going straight has the right of way. Should the car turning left have therefore been charged with the accident, for failure to yield right-of-way? I don’t think any sane person would suggest that. If nothing else, on a curved road, excessive speed of that magnitude more-or-less prevents drivers from seeing you coming in time. The accident was entirely the fault of the speeding driver.
Second, if you speed significantly in areas with red lights, you will run red lights.
Not may, will.
This point is courtesy of Road Guy Rob on YouTube. Yellow light duration is set based on expected traffic speed. (Plus regional variation, I guess). High-speed roads have long yellow lights, low speed roads have short yellow lights. In both cases, the length of the yellow allows drivers that are far from the intersection to stop before the light turns red.
If you drive at high speed, on a low speed road, there will be a stretch of pavement, and a rage of excess speeds, so that if you see the yellow light while you’re in that zone, you will literally be unable to avoid running the red. That’s because, between your reaction time and the car’s stopping distance, your car will travel much further than the engineers who set up the light expected. If you are within just the right range of excess speeds, if you see the light turn yellow, you both a) can’t make it through the intersection before the light turns red, and b) can’t stop before entering the intersection. No matter what you do — hit the brakes, hit the gas — you go through the red light.
And so, at some level, excessive speeding and running red lights go hand-in-hand. There’s a certain pleasing symmetry to that. My guess is, the folks who don’t care about the first, don’t much care about the second either.
As a gardener, I try to keep an eye on the thievin’ varmints wonderful creatures of nature passing through my back yard.
As a retiree, I have nothing better to do.
But my eyesight ain’t what it used to be.
Keep that in mind when I say that I’m fairly sure I saw my first backyard coyote yesterday.
The pictures you might typically see — making the coyote look like some noble offshoot of the wolf — don’t match reality of the eastern Coyote. Around here, if you see something about the size of an adult fox, but without the good looks, chance are, that’s a coyote. If you see an ugly brown dog with a mottled coat and a long tail, not acting like a domesticated dog, chances are good that you’ve spotted an eastern coyote.
This was not unexpected. Coyotes are native to the western U.S., and have been expanding eastward for the better part of a century. The predominant theory is that we invited them in by killing off bigger predators (wolf, bear), and converting forest into open areas.
I got my first-hand introduction to the Eastern coyote about five years ago, camping at Sky Meadows State Park. That sits adjacent to the ridge of the Blue Ridge.
Just at dusk, the coyotes had themselves a howl. At first, you hear a few individuals starting it off. You think, oh, cute, that must be a coyote. A minute later the entire ridge is ringing with the sound of howling coyotes. Three minutes later they wind it down, and silence returns.
It was chilling. There aren’t a few coyotes in those woods. Like bear, or foxes. There were hundreds within earshot of where I was camping. At least by the sound of them.
In short, the Blue Ridge Mountains are infested with coyotes. Given how few bear and foxes there are left, I’m guessing coyotes are now the dominant predator species in this area. That’s a complete change from my youth, where there were no coyotes in this area, period.
And they are here in the ‘burbs. There have been sporadic reports of pets being eaten by coyotes, here in the D.C. area. I think I spotted one crossing a construction site a few years back.
But it’s a different thing entirely to find one eyeballing your back yard. It skedaddled as soon as I opened my back porch door.
I would like to think I’m not the sort of person to form an opinion about animals based on cuteness. For example, I loathe deer, for the destruction they bring. Despite being handsome creatures. Foxes, I like for the fact that they eat squirrels, and not just because they are really elegant-looking beautiful animals.
Eastern coyote? My gut reaction is, one step up from rat. They may be noble wolf-like creatures in the western climate. And most photos you’ll see of them make them look the part. But around here, they look like mangy stray dogs. As in this view, from Wikipedia:
Looks aside, near as I can tell, this newest invasive species brings along only one good attribute: They kill deer.
Better yet, they kill baby deer. More specifically, in many areas, coyotes are the number one cause of death for fawns. (See, e.g., this random reference).
Much of the literature on this topic comes from the deer-hunting community, which of course tut-tuts over these premature deer losses. The deer hunters have a valid point of view. For them, coyotes are competition. Having eliminated wolves and nearly eliminated bear in this area, the deer hunter is the only native carnivore that’s in competition with the coyote.
By contrast, as a back-yard gardener, I’m am definitely on Team Coyote on this one.
However.
However, coyotes are omnivores. Sure they eat fawns. They also eat poodles. And squirrels. And garbage. And fruits and berries, if there’s nothing else around.
Oh, and they are known to attack small children occasionally. Just thought you might want to know, in case you were still harboring some sympathy for coyotes.
This invasive species is definitely going to put some pressure on our local fox population. And that’s a pity, because the foxes in my neighborhood don’t go around hunting down my neighbor’s cats. Or kids.
So if the coyote succeeds in pushing out foxes, we’ll have replaced a relatively benign and good-looking wild creature with one that’s far more of a nuisance. And ugly to boot. But one that is capable of reducing the deer population.
If Fluffy goes missing out of your backyard any time soon, you’ll know whom to suspect.
Coyotes aren’t advertising their presence. They aren’t howling, here, yet. (I think that’s a large-group activity for them and they aren’t yet that numerous.) They are stealthy, and they are hard to spot. They are easy to mistake for a fox or a stray dog.
But they are here. As in, prowling the suburban back-yards of Vienna VA.
In the grand scheme of ongoing slow-mo environmental apocalypse — (reference insect loss, reference global warming) — I guess this hardly even registers. Just another nuisance invasive species to deal with.
I’m not one to bash the USPS. For two decades, my business-related financial transactions went through the mail. The only time a check ever got “lost in the mail” is when a client sent it to my prior address. To within rounding error, in all that time, the USPS had more-or-less a 100% success rate.
But for this post, I’m going to make an exception. Continue reading Post #1797: Rethinking mail-in voting in Virginia
I am in the middle of looking at plastics recycling in my area.
Any internet search in this area feeds you a lot of pessimism about the entire concept of plastics recycling. People say that it’s not worth doing, that it’s greenwashing, that it’s a scam, that it all ends up in the landfill, and so on.
But is that true? It all seems to start from a figure that just 5 to 8 percent of U.S. waste plastic is recycled.
Less than an hour of internet search, and I now know that figure is totally irrelevant to the situation I’m investigating. The often-cited 5% is for every conceivable form of plastic waste — stuff that was tossed in the trash, stuff that was tossed on the ground, plastic resins that are not recyclable, plastic items that are not inherently recyclable, plastic integrated into multi-material items, and so on.
That’s a problem, for sure. But right now, I just want to know what happens if I properly handle a recyclable plastic object, where I live. I want to know two simple things:
I tuned in to parts of the Town of Vienna Town Council meeting last night, on Verizon channel 38, to listen to their legally-required public hearing on the property tax rate for the coming year.
There’s a simple question that citizens want to know: How much are real estate taxes going up, in the coming year?
And the answer, from the Town of Vienna, was, figure it out yourself.
Which, although it may somehow satisfy the letter of the law, is the exact opposite of the clear intent of Commonwealth statute.
The Commonwealth of Virginia requires that any government entity that charges property taxes must inform its citizens about the increase in taxes from year to year. (As long as total taxes are expected to increase by at least one percent.) There’s a standard notice, with a calculation and language set out in statute. The whole point of which is to combine the increase in assessments with any change in tax rates, and tell the citizens the bottom line on how much their real estate tax bills will rise, on average.
But every year, the Town manages to goof up the math on that legally-required notice. See, e.g., Post #1495, for the 2022 notice. They literally get the math wrong, year after year. And, so far, they have always understated the actual increase in taxes that would occur based on the proposed tax rate.
I post about that every year. Each year, the Town posts a notice that does not comply with the statute, because it does not do the calculation correctly. (The details of the calculation are laid out in statute, shown at this reference). Each year, the Town ignores it.
This year, we continued that long-standing tradition. The 5.4% increase, underlined below, is actually an 8.4% increase, based on the numbers shown. Roughly speaking, the 9.7% increase in assessments, less the 1.2% reduction in the tax rate, leads to an approximate 8.4% increase in total real estate taxes.
If you had an interest in the Town’s legally mandated public hearing on the tax rate, this is the document the Town showed you (reference). For purposes of that hearing, as a citizen, you’d think that the new tax rate was going to be 0.2025 cents per $100 of assessed value, and that taxes were going up an average of 5.4%.
But in addition, as of two weeks ago, at the Town’s public hearing on the budget, the Town also knew that the tax rate stated in that notice was incorrect. The Town wasn’t going to proposed a new tax rate of .2025 cents, but instead Town staff had already figured out that they could balance the budget with a new rate of 0.1950.
The bottom line is that none of the numbers in that legally-mandated notice to citizens was correct. Except for the increase in assessments, which comes from Fairfax County. Based on the tax rate shown in the document, the percentage increase in total taxes was a math error. The numbers supporting that estimated increase were incorrectly calculated. And, in addition, the tax rate for the coming year had itself changed weeks before the public hearing.
But nobody felt the least obligation to change or correct anything. Or even note that they were wrong, in the public hearing.
Which leads to an obvious question: If the numbers in that legally-mandated notice don’t have to be correct — if the stated tax rate isn’t the rate the Town is planning to use, and if the stated increase in total taxes (and subsidiary calculated figure) isn’t even calculated correctly — then what, exactly, is the point of the law that requires it? You can use any tax rate that’s in the ballpark, and do the arithmetic wrong, and … well, basically offer a page full of misinformation as the background to your public hearing. And … that satisfies the letter of the law?
I guess so. I have to wonder of the folks who wrote that piece of the statute realized that this would be the bottom line. It literally appears to make no difference whether the numbers in that document bear any relationship to reality or not.
Not that it really matters here, because the citizens are indifferent. Routinely, the public hearings on taxes, water-and-sewer rates, and the budget draw no public comment. Literally, nobody cares enough about it to say anything.
Anyway, if you listened to last night’s public hearing, you still wouldn’t have been told what the proposed increase in total taxes is. Amidst all the back-patting, and the emphasis in cutting the rate (while increasing the assessments), nobody bothered to inform the citizens what their average increase in real estate taxes will be. I think that just underscores how little this seems to matter, in this increasingly wealthy town.
In any case, 1.097*(0.1950/0.2050) =~ 1.043, or a 4.3 percent increase in real estate taxes, on average, for the coming year. That’s what I calculate. That’s the increase in assessments, times the reduction in the tax rate. Not that anybody cares.
The bottom line is that the Commonwealth enacted a rule requiring entities such as the Town of Vienna to tell citizens how much tax bills were going up, on average. The Town has to provide a document combining the increase in assessments with any change in the tax rate. And the Town does that. The only problems are that the document bears no relationship to the actual increase in taxes. And it’s still up to the citizens to calculate, for themselves, what this year’s increase in taxes will be.
This is a post about what “Yield” means, as in, what you must do to obey a yield sign at an intersection. Continue reading Post #1780: Yield!
I’ve removed two posts:
Post #1591: How to disenfranchise Town residents, at random. Posted on September 15, 2022
Post #1675: Town of Vienna elections, there’s no excuse for this. Posted on January 9, 2023
As it turns out, I was wrong. The Town of Vienna web page that begins with this paragraph (emphasis mine) …
Due to a change in Virginia election laws, Town Council elections no longer take place in May. The next Town Council election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. All seven Council seats will be on the ballot at the same time, rather than the staggered 2-year term cycle in past elections.
… does not actually describe how you will vote under the changed Virginia election laws.
In particular, this paragraph …
Voting takes place at a single polling location for Town elections: The Vienna Community Center, 120 Cherry Street SE. ... (Note that other polling locations are open in Town for state and national elections.)
… is wrong.
Shame on me for not checking with the people who actually run that election, Fairfax County, rather than relying on what was posted on the (seemingly) updated Town of Vienna web page.
My understanding as of this morning is that, contrary to what it says on the Town of Vienna web site, you will be able to cast all your votes — state, local, and town — at your normal polling place for state elections.
