I attended an hour-long candidate forum this afternoon at the Vienna Community Center today. This was sponsored by the Vienna/Oakton chapter of NARFE (rhymes with scarf), the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. They normally meet the 2nd Tuesday of most months, 1 PM, Vienna Community Center. And the first hour of this meeting was devoted to listening to the candidates for Vienna Town Council.
I will only make one observation, below. I’m voting for Springsteen, as he has been a voice of reason in much of the MAC discussion. I have already endorsed two candidates — Potter and Patel — and if you want to see why, you can read this post. Any comments here have to be read with that in mind. So, FWIW, I’d say Potter got to the point with some degree of passion, and that Patel both held her own on the facts and was charming with an audience consisting largely of seniors.
My most important take-away is that no candidate endorsed MAC as-is. No candidate endorsed MAC with the proposed amendments. Every one of them called for changes more radical than what Town Council has put on the table so far. All they differed on was how radically they would change it. I heard several variations of smaller buildings, further from the street, with more green space. Which is exactly what my survey showed that people want. So, at some level, it’s just a question of making that a reality.
Taken at face value, if you like MAC as-is, and think it has been a boon for Vienna so far, your choices for Town Council are slim to none. But if you dislike MAC, and want to see significant changes, you just have to decide what you most want to see changed, and vote accordingly.
