Deborah Brehony Campaign Web Site Goes Up

Looks like someone is taking this campaign seriously. Watch out incumbents.

Maud, I hope you don't try your usual whisper campaigns to smear/humiliate/disgrace your challengers. If you haven't figured out yet, HV isn't whispering - it's yelling out loud and in public about you.

It might be only me but I see some strange parallels here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Misery-annie.jpg

She "just" looks crazy to me!

A quick review of DB's Town Council campaign platform:

1. I am a strong proponent and activist for putting the Tysons Metro underground. A tunnel is the only sensible and sane long-term solution.

That's nice but Vienna Town Council will have zero influence on this issue. So much for Number 1.

2. I believe in the Safe Routes to School program and working to make our sidewalks connect with one another and our streets and neighborhoods safe for pedestrians of all ages.

A perennial Vienna campaign issue... rings more hollow every spring. Why not just pick 5 or 10 of the most ridiculous pedestrian failures in Town and commit to getting them fixed in 2 years? If you fail, you can just blame it on whomever during your next campaign.

3. Video Taping and televising of Town Meetings guarantees greater accuracy and access for all citizens.

Agreed. This would make a good Number 1 since the biggest problem in Vienna is voter apathy. Informing the electorate is a necessary first step to improving and maintaining good government.

4. Cross-city traffic congestion needs to be eased. We have done our best to move commuter traffic along Maple, but in-town traffic bogs down at intersections.

Yep, traffic sucks! Vote for Debbie!

5. The Maple Avenue Commercial Corridor needs revitalization and modernization. We need to develop incentives for owners and merchants that include parking, retail, professional and residential options for mixed-use buildings.

Finally we get to the meat... bread and butter at Number 5. And lets not forget that you want buildings over 35 feet and multi-residential rezoning with zero-lot coverage along Wolftrap Creek in SE neighborhoods:

"I do not visualize condos in SE Residential neighborhoods, but only limited to 4-6 story structures along the 123/possibly Church Street corridor. What I see in my mind for the RPA/RMA area along Wolftrap Creek, is not condos, but several parcels given to parkland, and then others re-zoned for smaller/affordable zero lot homes or perhaps quadraplex units."

I guess it should be no surprise that development is the off-center piece of your platform. Expect Maud to meet you here. A good question for this campaign should be, 'just how much redevelopment density can/should our residential Town of Vienna allow?' There are only a few through roads that traverse the Maple/123 commercial corridor in town... and that's stretching it... Beulah, Park, and Lawyers/Courthouse are all marginal narrow roads with already difficult intersections with Maple/123. And Maple serves Tysons, which is planning to get much, much bigger. Is it really practical to fully rebuild the Town's commercial corridor to include parking, retail, professional and residential mixed-use buildings 6 stories tall? Exactly HOW is that increase in density along the Town's commercial corridor going to "ease" cross-town traffic congestion on our residential neighborhood streets? The alternative, of course, is to rebuild without significantly increasing density, gasp! Believe it or not, there are limits to growth... just keep your eye on the Park/Locust intersection.

6. We should explore the possibility of some degree of term limits for both council and mayor.

Term limits might be necessary when certain forces are at play such as in big-time politics, but Vienna doesn't suffer from these... there's nothing wrong with Vienna politics that the voters can't fix. Meanwhile, voter apathy deserves what it gets. Campaigning on a platform to "explore the possibility of some degree of" fixing what is not really the problem is about as mamby-pamby limp-wristed you should allow your political career to get. And so you put this after thought last at Number 6. Good builders discard weak planks. And lose the numbers... your priorities might offend someone.

Open Abbottsford from Lawyers to Route 7? How many houses would actually have to be torn down to achieve this? 5 or 6? Or even that?

Is this what Debbie is talking about?

Deborah, you have my vote! I'm tired of Maude's lies, including those she told in the parking lot in the last election. As to revitalizing Maple Ave, neither the Town Green nor three stories w/ or w/o mixed use will solve the present residential vs commercial tax burden or parking. Moreover, revitalizing Maple Ave with 5-6 story mixed use w/parking would not destroy the residential character of Vienna any more than the present 5 or more story buildings do.