(This map was generated by walkscore.com. You can check out the walkability of your neighborhood by visiting their website and typing in your address.)
Town government has repeatedly said that MAC will make Maple Avenue more “pedestrian-friendly”. But that’s … questionable, at best. And in some key cases, I am almost sure that MAC-redeveloped property will make Maple less safe for pedestrians. Continue reading Pedestrian-friendly? 3/4/2019
This page explains a critical step coming up in the development of MAC zoning. Turns out, the Town is going to ask the citizens what they think about MAC, and then act on that. Which sounds pretty good, until you realize that the way they are proposing to do that is … confused, to be as polite as I can about it.
Read on and decide for yourself. This shouldn’t take more than five minutes. Continue reading If the community says No, No, No, then we’ll have to start all over, 3/4/2019
I attended last night’s meeting of the Traffic Transportation Safety Commission (TSC). You can find a (rather poor-quality) audio recording, and an Excel file that serves as an index to the recording, here on Google Drive. Basically, use the Excel spreadsheet to find the times for items you would care to listen to, then move to that spot in the recording to hear what was said.
I attended because TSC was considering an on-demand flashing sign at the crosswalk where Glen Avenue hits Courthouse Road. The sign is called a rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB). It would allow pedestrians to stop traffic in order to get across Courthouse. We already have a few of these in Vienna. Here’s a view of an RRFB pair on Beulah.
Continue reading 2019-02-26 Transportation Safety Commission, audio recording and notes
This post is not yet complete. It will change over the course of today (2/26/2019) as I add more video segments. At present, it gives you immediate access to video of the MAC “visual preference survey” portion of last night’s Town Council meeting .
EDIT: The Town has posted its own video of last night’s meeting, as of about noon today. That’s a first, as you can see by looking at the meetings calendar to see that the next-most-recent Town Council video dates back to 1/7/2019. If this rapid turnaround reflects a new policy, then it is a material and welcome change. As of now, it appears that the Town has moved from a policy of holding the videos of meetings for months before posting, to a policy of releasing them immediately.
Click the meetings calendar link above, then click the video link to get to the Town’s recording of last night’s meeting. If you can’t get the video to play, try using the Google Chrome browser. On my system, that’s the only browser that works with the Town’s video host. Continue reading Town Council meeting video, 2-25-2019, UPDATED to reflect a what I sincerely hope is a change in Town policy
Updated 2/28/2019 to remove a couple of properties that I thought were vacant, but are either occupied or in the process of being occupied. I’ll put the new material in … whatever color you’d call this. Continue reading Retail vacancy rate estimate, 2/13/2019, REVISED 2/28/2019
The Town has released a schedule for revising the MAC statute (.pdf, at this link.) And all the changes will be wrapped up and approved just before the new Town Council members are seated July 1 2019.
Then the MAC moratorium ends, and it’s back to business-as-usual approving more new big MAC buildings. Continue reading The schedule for revising the MAC statute, 2/10/2019
You can read my recent post about plans to attend and record this morning’s 2/8/2019 Board of Architectural Review (BAR) meeting. But that meeting didn’t happen. Instead, I got yet another lesson in how little the Town cares about letting the peasantry citizens know what it’s doing. Continue reading Meeting? No meeting? Schedule? No Schedule? My tax dollars at work, 2/8/2019 PM edit to correct newspaper info.
My small random-sample survey of Town residents suggested that many Vienna residents are ready to vote pro-MAC Town Council members out of office. (“Suggested”, not “showed”, due to the poor response rate for my survey.) In that survey, a plurality of residents opposed MAC zoning in general. But people strongly objected to buildings the size of 444 Maple West/Tequila Grande. Almost two-thirds of survey respondents said they’d vote against any Town Council member who approved buildings that size on Maple. Continue reading My endorsements for Town Council and the problem of splitting the vote, 2-7-2019
If you are new in town, or have never voted in a Town of Vienna election, now is the time to check your voter registration and change it if necessary. Continue reading Are you registered to vote in Vienna, 2/5/2019
Are apartment-dwellers less likely to participate in civic life? For example, are they less likely to vote? Continue reading Apartments and voter participation, 1/28/2019