Fairfax City Leaves Vienna in the Dust

Where is the vast parking lots, strip mall, anti-pedestrian sidewalk flower beds, telephone poles, and multi-stop shopping? Booooooooooo! They should make it like Vienna!

We get the "Town Green" and downtown Fairfax gets that?! I'm calling NO FAIR! This Vienna Resident is completely GREEN with envy.

From June 06 Town newsletter:

June 1976 - The Vienna Economic Policy Advisory Commission has recommended that the Town should attempt to attract a department store to draw shoppers to Vienna and support the small specialized shops. The Commission was established by the Town Council in 1972 and charged with recommending long-range policies for commercial activity. Other recommendations concern traffic, taxes, parking and beautification.

So, even back in 1976, they knew we needed a one-stop shop (re: department store)?! I'd love to see the 1976 Commission's full study - wonder if all their ideas were ignored just like they're trying to do today?!

While Fairfax is off to the revitalization races Vienna will be kicking off its newly formed committee to study sidewalks on June 7th (no joke). Whoopie!

For you history buffs, the sidewalk study started as a suggestion in the 1910 Vienna Comprehensive Plan. Town Council acted on it in 1946 when they decreed by a 5-2 margin (Maud and Aristotle voting Nay) that the earth DID NOT NOT ORBIT the sun and that it wasn't actually an "evil plan" concocted by "devil-opers" to build 50 story buildings in town. Unfortunatley for us, Council also decided to put off the sidewalk study until it was absolutley certain that electricity was not "dark magic". Just last week Town Council unanimously voted that electricity was not "dark magic" but actual proof that Klingons are planning to invade earth.

So, let's take a PROACTIVE position for our sidewalks and "Walk the Talk" (for the Walks...er...Talk the Walks...er...Talk...Walk... Me...Fence...er...)

The Town Meeting is at 7:30 at the Town Hall, on Wednesday, June 7th.

For more information (on the Sidewalk Seminar, not on the Design Seminar) Call Ailen Santiago - (Public Works) at 703-255-6389

Here's my Beef - If you guys want to complain, then you need to ATTEND the meeting, SPEAK your voice, and be counted on the Public Record...

No point preaching to the choir - D

I agree with Deborah Brehony that 'bitching' slone is not the solution. However, the posts here and this web site in general are the VERY FIRST opportunity many in Vienna have had to look under the covers of Vienna's government. All of the posts above, sarcastic or not, serve a purpose. They teach. That's the first step.

Deborah B: Many have tried the friendly approach over the years and have lost their "Vulcan Minds" in the process. Unfortunately this hammer of a website and lawsuits are the only tools that get through to Town Council.

Here's my Beef - If you guys want to complain, then you need to ATTEND the meeting, SPEAK your voice, and be counted on the Public Record...

Attend a Sidewalk Committee meeting? No thanks! How lame... a committee to talk about sidewalks... doesn't the Town employ someone smart enough to figure out a sidewalk plan? And if not, why not? How hard is it to CONNECT THE DOTS??? If somebody goes to this meeting, ask them:

• Why did the Town put the new sidewalk between Glyndon and Park ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TAPAWINGO?
  
• Why does the buss stop at Jiffy Lube have no sidewalk access?
  
• Why are the new buildings on Church Street up on stilts and require ascent of narrow brick stairs to enter... very customer unfriendly? To allow that pit of parking beneath? To allow a larger development and more profit... a favor to the Town's favored?
  
• Why do pedestrians on Maple Ave. have to walk single file to pass and even that's a squeeze with a stroller, bike, or dog?
  
• Why does the Town allow the W&OD trail to isolate neighborhoods by not connecting up the pedestrian crossings?
  
• Why can't the Town just say 'NO!' to asphalt sidewalks... they are ugly and they don't last very long without a proper base?
  
• Why does the Town force students to walk in Windover street to reach Madison High School?
  
• Why are all of those white, left-wing Presbyterians jay-walking to reach their church every Sunday morning? Convenient Tom should get out there and show them the right-way to use the cross walk at the corners!
  

This website is the most free-spoken, public record in Vienna! Plus we don't have to suffer amateur pronunciations and manipulations by the likes of Creed and Miller... "I'm not a lawyer, BUT garble, garble, garble..." Life's too short to go forth and get jerked around by people with a microphone who admit that they don't know what they are talking about and then proceed to prove it. Perhaps if it would make a difference, but it doesn't... Vienna is how old? and it is still talking about sidewalks!!!

Regarding Town Green vs. a public parking facility... if it were up to me, I'd raise the entire Maple Ave. strip and plant trees and grass, but that won't grow a viable business district. Everyone has to respect their priorities... the Town should plan and develop a thriving business district first... if they want one. Without such a plan, the Town Green is just someone's pet project regardless of where they put it.

DeborahB: Thank you for your posts. They are thoughtful, considerate, and worthwhile.

Well, TR - If you think my posts are Thoughtful, Considerate and Worthwhile then WHY suggest that my advice to attend the Sidewalk Meeting is LAME?

It's not a lame idea - Not lame at ALL - At least, now there is a group of poeple dedicated to studying the problem...That's a GOOD thing!

There ARE things in TOV that need change - I Agree - BUT - There are ALSO things in TOV that we can do (I sound so reptitive) PROACTIVELY to make a cahnge!

I do not think all is lost! I DO think we have a voice, and let me say that is a voice of Respect and Reason...

YOU, TR, sound as someone who has studied the Sidewalks extensively...I think you would be an EXCELLENT candidate to go to the meeting, and post exactly the questions that you raise...

All But One...If you study and know the "history of Presbyterianism", then you must know that we are pre-destined to do what we will do - So likely, we cannot help ourselves from jaywalking...It is our destiny, and we are bound by fate to do that...

LOL - You are so funny! So am I! I ALWAYS wait at the cross walk and go when it is my time.

My time will come. Deborah

I just want to add an addendum because growing up it was SO FUNNY to me. We had all these "Cross Signs" in our NC Town that said "Yield to Pedestrians"...

Well, I was just starting out to READ, maybe 4-5-6 years old, I thought they said "Yield to Presbyterians"...

So, I went marching across the Main Street, thinking I was NUMBER ONE - NOBODY beats a "Pres"....

So, I GUESS, that is why we jay-walk. We just din't know no betta....D

To continually presuppose that the contributors to this website have not tried for decades to be “proactive” or have “given up” is extremely naïve. Give us a holler when you realize that the TOV does whatever the Maudasaurus wants with no regard to input from beyond the 20th Century or basic property rights.

DeborahB: Your suggestion to participate is not lame... we all appreciate the merits of civic involvement. What's lame is a Sidewalk Committee, another do-nothing garden-club style approach by the Town that puts the cart before the horse to fake public involvement adnauseum. We're talking sidewalks here... plan them everywhere people need to walk safely... prioritize them... and then build them going forward. Done... no committee required. If you read between the lines, you'll see that committees in Town are a part of the problem. They are used to publicize balanced opposition by those most likely to go forth and whine about their personal views on Town matters. Then the Town proceeds to do not much, seeming to appease and compromise with the handful of activists that bothered to show up. Sometimes I think the Town Mothers actually work to load these public hearings to get their preference voiced... and then proceed to use these staged outcomes to justify the action, or more likely, the inaction they desire to push through. The result is that no real work on the greater public interest is accomplished. Get some planning engineers to develop and show me a real firm sidewalk plan... then maybe I'll go to a public meeting to offer some helpful feedback. But don't ask me to listen to Joe Citizen go on for 20 minutes about why a sidewalk should not be built on his side of the street for fear he will suffer litter and dog walkers... yawn!

Question: Was there a Town Green Committee that invited residents to come forward to discuss whether or not the Town should pursue a Town Green project?

The Town Green has always been the pet project of Maud.

So there you have it... you'll never see the Town Council relegating a pet project to death by committee. And now we can look forward to the Town Green becoming plastered with plaques honoring this, that, and the Maud... it's hobby Town government.