STATUS OF VOTE ON 444 MAPLE WEST: UNKNOWN
The agenda and meeting materials are now available here, as of 11:30 AM 8/16/2018.
My initial take on this is that the Town is setting this up for approval. They are (e.g.) introducing materials never before presented, all of which support passing this proposal. For example, there’s a fiscal analysis, a re-analysis of the traffic situation and so on. Continue reading August 20 Town Council Meeting Review
The Town of Vienna has budgeted $16M to renovate and expand the police station. In fact, they are planning to raise the meals tax from 3% to 4% to cover (most of) the additional debt service cost that will entail. You can read the details in my posting about the Town capital budget, here. Continue reading The $16M police station renovation, 9/4/2018
At the 8/20/2018 Town Council meeting a decision was made to suspend MAC for between 120 and 270 days. In fact, that announcement was how the meeting started. Continue reading First Tuesday in May, 8/22/2018
First a summary of the facts, then detail on the facts and my take on the meeting. Continue reading Review of the 8/20/2018 Town Council Meeting
Merchant’s Tire left the Town of Vienna last month.
And this month — Va Tire and Auto is moving in. My wife just spotted a help wanted sign.
Could I possibly have been more off-base in my prior post about Merchant’s Tire. No, I don’t think so. That was about as wrong as wrong gets. For an economist, that showed a shocking lack of faith in the market. Mea culpa. Continue reading Merchant’s Tire, 8/17/2018
The Town of Vienna Planning Commission met 8/8/2018 to discuss, among other things, some potential changes to MAC regulations. There were perhaps 20 citizens in attendance, and maybe 8 people got up to speak. My overall take is that MAC zoning will proceed as business-as-usual, with minor changes.
For me, the absolute low point of the evening was when a Commissioner (who shall remain nameless) called out the citizens for spreading false information — and then proceeded to spread false information. Continue reading Planning Commission Meeting 8/8/2018 – Review
Thoroughly updated 8/5/2018: As it turns out, there’s an app for that. And a modern slug is a well-organized slug.
On this page, I argue that maybe the best commuter use of the Mill Street garage is to make it the base for the first successful I-66 slug line from Vienna. And that the Town should work to make that happen. The question I address here is, could that work? Continue reading Slug line
I’m going to start a series of pages that wander through the Vienna Town budget. This is the FY 2018-19 Adopted Budget — for the year starting July 1 2018. At first glance, it’s just a welter of numbers. But if you study a while, a few interesting stories emerge. Continue reading A few items from the Town Budget, 8/10/2018
As I was walking down Maple yesterday evening (7/24/2018), I did a double-take at the former Merchant’s Tire and Auto building (Maple between Lawyers and Center). I hadn’t realized they had vacated that. But the Merchant’s website no longer lists the Vienna location. Continue reading Et tu, Merchant’s? Revised 7/26/2018 to walk back a previous version
Updated 7/24/2018 to add reference to Town of Vienna 2016 Community Survey.
One of the arguments that the Town makes regarding MAC zoning is that it will make Maple Avenue more “walkable”. I find that puzzling, as I walk on Maple all the time. On this page, I want to take the “walkability” issue apart and analyze what I think the Town means by that. My conclusion is that the “walkability” they are aiming for will not reduce car traffic on Maple.
First, 81 percent of Vienna residents are satisfied or very satisfied with the “Safety/ease of walking in Town of Vienna”, according to the Town’s 2016 Community Survey. That certainly matches my impression: Once on Maple, there are no barriers to walking anywhere on Maple. Continue reading Walkability, updated 7/19/2018