"Oversights?!"

“Vienna's decaying water system is in such bad repair that the town has studied getting out of the utility business entirely” Vienna’s decaying water system; quite the metaphor of the entire town. If only we, the town residents, could get out of the incompetent Vienna Town Council’s despot grip? Just think how much “better” Vienna could be if we were free of the cronyism of a few?

Imagine all the people, John Lennon

Is there a principle similar to the Dillon rule wherein counties can pretty much make their towns do what they want?

Maybe some of the nuts on here that keep yacking about loving Vienna can defend this too. Vienna is a nice place going down hill.

I have always wondered if the FC Board of Supervisors secretly read this site. Of course, none of them could ever admit to it.

More CEDAR LANE FUN…

VPD Highlights July 25- July 31, 2008

Arrest- Driving While Intoxicated-3rd Offense in Five Years 08-7308 Cedar Lane and Park Street, SE July 25 10:53 p.m.
Sergeant Clingerman observed a vehicle commit several traffic infractions and conducted a traffic stop. During the traffic stop he determined that the driver was possibly impaired. After some field investigation the individual was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated. The driver, Mr. Marlon Javier Centeno-Hernandez, 26, of Cedar Lane in Vienna was transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center for analysis of his breath to determine his level of intoxication. After the test, he was formally charged with Driving While Intoxicated- 3rd Offense in Five Years and held without bond.

Poster’s note: Hello SE/SW Vienna residents, just how many other drunks are driving around your families?

Missing Person Located- Juvenile 08-7383
200 Block Cedar Lane, SE
July 28 5:31 p.m.
Detective Sheeran encountered a 14 year old male juvenile that he knew from previous involvements with the Vienna Police. While interviewing the subject Detective Sheeran was given false identification and information from the subject. Detective Sheeran knew the correct identity of the subject and a wanted persons check revealed that the juvenile was wanted based upon multiple detention orders. The juvenile was taken in to custody and transported to Fairfax County Juvenile Intake and remanded to their custody.

Poster’s note: Detective Sheeran is VPD’s No. Va Gang Task Force member

Vandalism 08-7466
200 Block Cedar Lane, SE
July 30 5:15 a.m.
A vehicle had all four tires flattened while parked at the Islamic Center in the Cedar Lane Shopping Center.

Arrests- Drunk in Public 08-7512
200 Block Cedar Lane, SE
July 31 12:11 a.m.
A security guard at Cedar Lane Shopping Center called to advise that there were intoxicated individuals that would not leave. Officer Finelli arrived and investigated. After his investigation, one individual was arrested for Drunk in Public. The arrested, 39 year old Marka Penerro of Battery Road in Vienna was transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
A second individual was also found to be intoxicated and was arrested by Officer Simon and transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. The arrested was Fidel Guerrero Diaz, 36, of Cedar Lane in Vienna.

Vienna Mommy
I have a reliable connection that tells me in fact they do/have but, they think we are just a few psyco-crazy's especially HV owner.
Again they can spin anything to make it look like they want it to.

Just want to let everyone know that Vienna PD and FFX Co PD have recently instituted policies wherein they refrain from identifying suspects and those arrested as gang members to the public.

They say they do this because they don't want to glorify gang participation. However, the real reason is that they don't want us, the citizens, to know how much gang crime really exists here.

Town leadership should not be allowed to manage a public utility. Take it over, Fairfax County!

No !@#$ way the County takes it over w/o the sewer upgrades. Anyone know how much the sewer upgrades will cost?

Final question. Would you recommend moving to Vienna to someone moving into Northern Virginia? If not, where would you recommend moving to?

Would you recommend moving to Vienna to someone moving into Northern Virginia?

Shawn, in-a-word... NO!!!

It is unfortunate for the long tenured residents of this Town, they have sat back and let the town go-the-way of its decaying water system. Apathy is in great abundance in this town, and a few with power are taking full advantage.

Ok, Shawn, here it goes ...

Vienna has the ability to be a very, very cool place. Nearly every Town resident is within walking distance of the commercial corridor which could have amazing shopping/eating. In that respect, you would think we would have such an advantage over Tyson's Corner which has to create a walkable environment by rearranging streets into a grid pattern (and, the Tyson's proposal sounds very cool).

If our dipsh%t politicians would pull their heads out of their rears, we could be different overnight. And, no, people, I do not want 10-20 story high rises lining Maple Avenue. But, I would NOT mind at all, going up to 5-7 stories and setting the buildings way back, having 15 foot wide sidewalks and lots more green. Just because we've always been one way, does not mean a slightly different Vienna would not be a whole lot better.

Would I recommend Vienna at this exact moment? I guess so but with extreme hesitation.

Let me finish the second part of the question: If not, where would you recommend moving to?

Best Places to Live: Money's list of America's best small cities. Apparently, (1)Plymouth, MN is rated well. (4) Irvine, CA, that’s where Vienna was 3 years ago, today we don’t even make the list. Although for VA, (19) the town of Hunter Mill, VA ranks well as does (31) Burke, VA and (37) Reston, VA.

But, you have to understand, these areas of Fairfax County are unincorporated. And, that is exactly the point about Vienna! You like to look outside the box Shawn, just because we’ve been an incorporated town for 100+ years does that still make sense in 2008 and beyond? Should we continue under the tyranny of cronyism and people that have no business managing a $30 million dollar-a-year-budget? You have to look at the cost benefit. And, it is very apparent that the costs are great and the benefit is diminishing.

I would not recommend my area of Vienna (Patrick St./Cottage/Cedar Lane area) due to the crime, boarding houses, and the many men who loiter in the area.

I have a reliable connection that tells me in fact they do/have but, they think we are just a few psyco-crazy's especially HV owner.

County people don't view this site as crazy. They know what the deal is. The only people who view this site as "crazy" are the people who have something to lose if they are exposed as crooked shysters in charge of a Town ... that they use for their own purposes ... power and doling out jobs and favors to buddies. Yeah, that's "crazy" talk that happens to easily be backed up with evidence of these clowns actions across this site. My *** digresses...sorry.

Sorry, I read that post in haste!
I thought it read TC/not FC Board.

Falls Church charges the same rate for water for customers in both the City of Falls Church and Fairfax County. In addition, Falls Church buys all of its water from the Washington Aqueduct and does not buy any water from Fairfax Water. Somebody needs to do some fact-checking.

Burke, I can see. My wife and I were looking at Burke before moving here. But the houses seem cheaper -- are illegals/flophouses more of a problem in the Town than in the areas surrounding the Town?

Hunter Mill might be a fancy way of saying north Vienna and north Oakton. I know folks at FX underground were confused.

On the other hand, Reston? You mean the Reston whose South Lakes HS and Hughes MS are avoided like the plague? (If the RD plan had involved kids going to Oakton, Madison, Langley, or McLean there would not have been a PEEP from anyone.) I'll grant that for DINKs or older couples, Reston would be a great place.

I'd recommend Vienna over Fairfax, anything along Route 1 and anything inside the Beltway south of Rt. 29 and north of 236. There's some nicer parts of Alexandria, but the schools there are not so great. Not sure about Chantilly/Centreville, Fairfax, Springfield, and the parts of Alexandria closer to Springfield.

Should Vienna remain a town? That's debatable -- you could also question the existence of Herndon, Fairfax City, and Falls Church City.

A little curious -- what is the reason the Town Council is stomping their feet about the Tyson's makeover? I agree with Vienna Mommy, it does sound awesome.

Falls Church:
Call Fairfax water authority and ask, you will find out that... Falls Church buys it wholesale and then marks it up.
My info came directly from employees at Fairfax water authority not unless they are lying...

Interestingly the existnece of Farll Church City and Fairfax City vs. the Town of Vienna is raised. Note that a city adminstration is different than a Towns. When the two jurisdictions became cities it was to avoid being absorbed into a city of Fairfax comprised of a merger of Clifton and Fairfax County. Vienna did not want to be saddled with the schools as required of a city and they dodged the bullet. How, they did all the work to bgecome a city except to have Council vote on it. They then watched the process. If Fairfax County was to become a city, therby absorbing all the towns within its jurisdiction which included Vienna, the Town Council would have called an emergency session to vote to make Vienna a city. Note that the cities do not pay tax to Fairfax County. In other words cities are not double taxed. As a footnote: I am not sure that Fairfax County would not have become Clifton City.

Are illegals/flophouses more of a problem in the Town than in the areas surrounding the Town?

Shawn, illegals/flophouses are reflective of a jurisdictions acceptance of illegal activity; that being either violation of our immigration laws or our zoning laws. As for the degree of the problem(s) in a locality, it tends to be concurrent with the availability of affordable housing; a reflection of the fact that illegals are at the lower level of income. This is why you have the western areas of Fairfax County, Prince William County, Loudoun County realizing the greater effects of illegal immigration; the housing in the outer suburbs is financially more affordable. However, as you have observed, there are many locals in near-in Fairfax County that have a high concentration of people that are in all likelihood illegal aliens; Rt. 1 – Mt. Vernon, Rt. 236 – Annandale, etc. I recently spoke with a Fairfax County District Police Captain who said that anywhere in the County with an older apartment complex will be an area of concentration of illegal immigrants; reflective of the financial reality.

In Vienna, the concentration of illegal immigrants is in the SE/SW side of the town. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. The Vienna PD does an excellent job of reporting all the ill social effects of illegal immigration and the where abouts of this activity. The Vienna Park Apartments is an older apartment complex in Vienna (located at Cedar Lane and Park St. SE) that rents to a high concentration illegals (of course, Southern Management will deny it) Additionally, the smaller single family homes in SE/SW Vienna are more affordable than those of our north-side neighbors. During the housing boom days of no-down, no-doc, variable interest loans, the SE/SW homes became popular as affordable housing; so long as the owner was able to rent out every conceivable living space in the dwelling. As a result, the SE/SW neighbors became the breeding ground of Vienna’s flophouse concentration.

The lesson here is make sure you have enough money to live in Hunter Mill (Oakton) and you (and, your family) will not have to endure all the ill social effects of illegal immigration. Otherwise in SE/SW Vienna, buy a gun, get a German Shepherd, ADT alarm system, don’t drive around town at night so you & your family are not killed by a drunk driver “with no operators license” and resides at “no fixed address”. If your child attends Cunningham ES take a reality check of the educational environment and if your child attends Thoreau MS don’t allow them to walk to school. Shop at the Cedar Park Shopping center at your own risk.

J. Seeman: I wasn't debating the existence of illegal aliens/flophouses or how they come about -- I was merely asking if Vienna had it worse than similar areas of unincorporated Fairfax.

As for leases -- isn't the way that game is played -- legal immigrant signs the lease and then invites 1-10 of her/his best friends of dubious legal residency, either immediately or upon discovering the rent cannot be paid?

Southern Management then ignores calls, etc., indicating the presence of a floproom.

History Buff: I suspect the City of Vienna could have tried to draw up a similar agreement to what Bedford City, Lexington City, Emporia City, and others have done. (Or did they have tiny school systems in the 1950s/60s which got absorbed into the county system?) Whether they would have succeeded or not is another issue.

I wasn't debating the existence of illegal aliens/flophouses or how they come about -- I was merely asking if Vienna had it worse than similar areas of unincorporated Fairfax.

When you asked what time it was I thought you wanted to know how they made the watch... the answer is Yes, Vienna is substantially worse than Burke, Hunter Mill and Reston

A little curious -- what is the reason the Town Council is stomping their feet about the Tyson's makeover? I agree with Vienna Mommy, it does sound awesome.

Change makes VTC lose sleep at night. I seriously think Maud has convulsions to think about anything different. I wonder if she gets weepy losing the only thing in Tyson's pre-mall (a strip joint!).

J. me gusta - do you have kids at Cunningham Park ES? I have 3 there. I have been very happy with the educational environment. The principal is fantastic, the teachers are very good - it's a nice mix of experienced and newer teachers. The PTA is very active, and because it's a small school, everyone knows each other and looks after each other's kids. As for the kids from Cedar Park apts, I've found that they learn English very quickly and are just like any other kids at school - some are sweet, some are a pain, some are really smart, some need more help. Exactly like my own kids. Please don't go after this great neighborhood school just to make a point about the apartments. For those of us at the school, the presence of some non-English-speaking families is truly not an issue.

Attacking Cunningham Park School is not fair. I know plenty of parents who are very happy with their decision to send their children to the school.

How do the schools measure up?

Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/NewHome/pressreleases/2008/jan10.html

Only one Vienna school failed the No Child Left Behind law (Freedom Hill):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/08/24/GR2007082400933.html

Please... my children attended VES long before CES. However, talking with my younger neighbors with children I was surprised when they told me of their decision to place their kids in private elementary school. Seems they felt their children's academic progress was substandard at CES. I'm pleased that you are satisfied with your children's taxpayer paid education. However, not every parent(s) feels the same.

School marm... CES is not on the Governors list for Fairfax County schools.

Although, the No Child Left Behind stats you provide are quite telling. Out of 190 schools, 68 schools failed; compared with 32 (failed)the previous year.

We're working to correct oversights of previous councils. ... We're trying to catch up," Dellinger said.
PREVIOUS COUNCILS....they are still on there NOW. What a crock!

Je me gusta - I think there will always be people who think any private school is better than any public school. I have friends like that. But in general, Vienna schools are very highly regarded. The Madison pyramid (as you probably know, if your kids went to VES) is one of the best in Ffx county. CPES had a bad reputation a bunch of years ago as I understand it, but the demographics in the neighborhood have changed a lot, skewing toward much higher income families - McHenry St., for example, and the neighborhood behind it with the Ayrhill houses. Lots of those families have young kids at CPES. Not that higher incomes = better schools, but it does seem to mean more stay-home moms, which means a very active PTA.