"Attention My Children of Vienna, This Is Maud Talking. I Will Now Educate You."

Must be that Maud is distraught about "investors' profits" in companies that she hasn't had the good sense to invest in herself.

I have no idea how she can mention the 50s and 60s with a straight face. What politician anywhere continually talks about 50 years ago?! It's irrelevant and it's idiotic.

Maud also has the uncanny ability to be completely condescending whenever she opens her mouth. It is really quite a skill she has honed in her 113 years.

This year or next, town residents and elected officials will need to deal with the question of how Vienna will respond to this latest development trend which jazzes up the investors' profits as well as the downtown ambiance.

Great, we are going to have Council meetings to discuss making money. Maud knows that subject even if she knows little else!

Maud's statements are appalling. How can a landowner maintain expensive commercial property without a profit. This is how slums are made. What are all the small businesses that serve us so well? You cannot buy a tie in Vienna (well that is not true anymore, they probably have one in the dollar store.) One of the first concerns I have always had about Vienna businesses is why the owners did not take advantage of the two story limitation on buildings. I know the town built in faults for businesses, such as parking spaces tied to table seating and no drive in signs and who knows what other limitations to dissuade development. Then comes along the establishment of Southern States stores to befuddle the imagination. BTW a tv show on restaurants this evening had a segment on Jammin Java where the owner expounded on their large parking lot. Anything else, I give up.

I have to agree that I like VIenna because it's a single-family home based.... I realize y'allare into the idea of mixed-use development along 123, but I'm not. And I expect I'm not the only one who feels that way, given the clear rejection of the candidates pushing this view in the last election.

I have to agree that I like VIenna because it's a single-family home based.... I realize y'allare into the idea of mixed-use development along 123, but I'm not. And I expect I'm not the only one who feels that way, given the clear rejection of the candidates pushing this view in the last election.

Why don't we start from Nutley to Beulah on 123 and go down each piece of property and building and discuss the reality of what is there? No one in their right mind buys your logic except the machine voters. That means 1000 people out of 10000 voters in this Town buy this moronic rhetoric. What will you people do if Vienna elections move from May to November? Might be hard to keep this spin up...and the number of votes needed to keep the machine going will go up dramatically.

Kelleher, Dellinger and Polychrones are all against well planned redevelopment on Maple?

the towns she mentions: Falls Ch, Fairfax, Herndon, & McLean, are not losing their identity, they're evolving with the times. to think that a town can survive by trying to stay locked in the 1950s is idiotic. here, i have to separate the residential portion of the town from the commercial. the residential clearly HAS evolved despite the town council, because they never figured out how to control redevelopment that occurs lot by lot. but the commercial is under Maude's thumb and it suffers from her crazy notions that we're better off with dusty old shops that don't serve the current demographics than we'd be with a bookstore, a place to buy a tie or a pair of running shoes, and yes, even those "upscale shops" she hates so much.

when the median household income in (and surrounding) the town is well into the 6 digits, why would she think no one wants the kind of shopping that those other localities have? do Vienna's thrift stores and Mill Street industrial strip really serve the community as it exists in 2007? the fact that Whole Foods' parking lot is always filled & Safeway's is always empty is an indication of what the town wants.

Fall elections are coming, baby!

The dog-n-pony show will end.

Sometimes their arguments are so off the wall that you literally have to drop your brain down multiple levels to compete. Anne, thanks for dropping down today to make one of the best points ever made on this site! Whole Foods compared to Safeway! So easy to grasp. Says it all. Their ability to ignore the obvious is pathological. But of course they don't do and say these things because they actually believe their own words, they say it because it gets them elected. None of them truly believe this nonsense - its all election strategy.

Stepping down to explain the voting at the last town election: The Squirrels were running and only squirrels came out to vote.

Likewise, you can use Bazin's very pricey menu as another indication of how we are progressing. For coaches gifts for my friend's VYS soccer team, the gift certificate was for Bazin's not The Virginian Restaurant. This is how most young families think. Bazin's, Whole Foods and Panera ARE at the top of their brains. Not the Clock Shop, Pennywise and Magruder's.

Lyrics to music are great - they allow each one of us to interpret them individually to find personal meaning. I can't but help but think of Dylan when I see the old generation losing ground slowly to the new:

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

We can argue about Bukont, his style, etc...but his direction, Bazins etc. is right. These people who rail against "mixed used development" are they railing against Bazins too? Maud doesn't want ANYTHING like that on 123. If she could she would have the beat up car wash across from Magruders up and down 123 on every block - that is more to her style. BTW, can anyone substantiate the whisper floating that Maud used to own that car wash?

When I read Maud's comments in the town newsletter, I was appalled. She's nuts if she thinks crumbling buildings and crack pot planning (or lack thereof) is a positive municipal identity. Does anyone know if it's possible to do a recall vote in Town elections?

On the negative side is the probable demise of the small shops and service providers so essential to day-to-day needs of home owners.

Let's get this straight. She tears down a building in Vienna with these very shops and builds the Town Green. She pushes VPC to take a business and make a parking lot. Not only is Maud full of it, she steps in it.

AH YES! MAUDE THE FRAUD STRIKES AGAIN WITH ANOTHER PILE OF MANURE. AND THE OLD FOLKS ALONG WITH OTHERS E.G., "LIKE IT HERE" THINK SHE'S GREAT FOR MAINTAINING THE WONDERFUL 50's STRIP MALLS (HISTORIC?) AND SHIFTING TAX BURDENS FROM THE COMMERCIAL TO THE RESIDENTIAL SECTOR. I WONDER HOW MANY MORE TOWN GREENS AND CHURCH PARKING LOTS SHE PLANS TO REMOVE FROM THE TAX ROLLS.

Well that is great 'Like it Here' because you now are probably getting another bank along 123 where the Shell gas station is. Way to go!

anyone know the scoop on the Shell station? is it closed for good? who owns the property? it's another prime corner for "downtown" style development but the previous post is right--it will probably sit for a while, then become another drive-in bank.

What a load of horsesh*t!

I drove through McLean this afternoon and to my eyes, McLean has gained a municipal center - something it never had when I lived there. It actually looks like a town (which is ironic, given that Vienna is a Town and McLean is not.)

One advantage that central McLean has over Vienna (which I'm not sure can be overcome) is the layout. The intersection of Old Dominion and Old Chain Bridge form a center, a bullseye. All of the commercial district is within a certain radius of the bullseye and the roads are a sort of grid in the area. (Being a native McLeanite, I realize that characterizing it as a grid is a stretch, but I hope you get my point.)

Vienna, on the other hand, is a strip with residential zoning forming a VERY CLOSE border. As I see it, the options are few.

Now now Highlander be careful if you compare McLean with Vienna. The people of no change will just tell you either to move, or criticize you rather than exploring the incredible possibilities Vienna does have.