September 2009 Archives
September 29, 2009
Church Street Parking Problem? Comments (10)
October 2009, Town of Vienna Newsletter:
Comment from the Council Table
Parking Around Church Street
By Laurie A. DiRocco
Vienna Town CouncilwomanThis past spring, when I was campaigning door-to-door, I heard many citizens' concerns. One of the concerns was inadequate and inefficient parking around Church Street. Parking between Church Street and Maple Avenue from Center Street to Mill Street is segregated, under-utilized, and frustrating for customers. Currently, most of the businesses have individually marked parking spaces for their own customers and no parking for other customers. Many of the parking areas need repaving and restriping. Though a few businesses have adequate dedicated parking, most do not, and the net effect is less foot traffic for everyone. I believe a more area-focused, open, and attractive parking configuration can be a solution.
Recently, Mayor Seeman and I sent out letters to the local property owners in this area proposing a new public parking configuration. This new public parking configuration would improve utilization and provide more parking spaces for all businesses. If the business owners are willing to open up the parking, the Town would repave, restripe, and landscape the parking area. The businesses could also
consolidate trash and recycling materials. Customers would have an easier time accessing and parking at the businesses. Increased foot traffic from public parking would provide many potential new customers. The Church Street area would be more attractive and inviting for all businesses, customers, and residents.I believe a new public parking configuration around Church Street will benefit businesses by creating a parking destination for customers to walk around and shop, but we need the local property owners to agree. This summer I was fortunate to travel to Kenya with my family and help build a health care facility (along with many other people and workers) in the Masa Mara area. While we were working, the people in charge of the building would talk about harambe. Harambe is a Swahili word which means bringing everyone's talents, ideas, and energy together for the betterment of the whole community. I certainly felt that unity while I was working on the health care facility.
This word comes to mind when I think about improving the parking in and around Church Street. If we, as citizens,business owners, property owners, and government employees and officials, come together and bring our best ideas and energy to the situation, we can improve the area and make it an enjoyable destination for its customers. I know this is not a simple problem, but I believe we, as a group, can come up with solutions to improve the area as a whole. The Church Street area is a great place to bike, walk, shop, eat, and relax. So with an improved parking configuration, this part of Vienna will continue to be a thriving commercial destination.
September 28, 2009
Eight Wasted Acres at 442 Beulah Road NE Comments (6)
Isn't is about time that Beulah Road Park becomes a productive member of society? A soccer field, a baseball field, a softball field, a tennis court, or even a community pool? Anything other than a complete waste of resources. The Town does NOT need its own mulching facility.
September 24, 2009
Please Skip the Idiotic Raised Planters. Comments (6)
Economic Reality May Limit Options in Maple Avenue Upgrade
by Brian Trompeter September 23, 2009
This artist's rendition, provided by Bowman Consulting Ltd., shows how concrete sidewalks could be incorporated as a cost-saving measure of Phase 4 of the Maple Avenue Enhancement Project.
Vienna residents and visitors are familiar with the town’s brick sidewalks, period street lamps and other streetscape amenities along sections of Maple Avenue and Church Street.As town officials prepare to undertake the fourth, and presumably final, phase of the Maple Avenue Enhancement Project, budget pressures and site conditions may force a change in materials and aesthetics.
Bowman Consulting Ltd. of Alexandria has been studying a 3,500-foot stretch of Maple Avenue between James Madison Drive and the Lawyers Road/Courthouse Road intersection, which will be the site of Phase 4 renovations.
M. Scott Delgado, the firm’s engineering director, outlined three streetscape scenarios at the Vienna Town Council’s Sept. 21 work session.
“Nothing is in stone,” he told council members. “This is very conceptual. We have flexibility and time for feedback.”
The first, and most expensive, option would be to continue the aesthetic used in the project’s first three phases and install raised planter beds and brick sidewalks with mortared joints. But those sidewalks are costly to install and maintain, while raised planter beds complicate the site’s drainage, Delgado said.
A second streetscape option would place planter beds at street level and install sidewalks in which the bricks abutted each other sans mortar, with only sand between them.
The third option would employ concrete sidewalks with brick banding for aesthetic purposes. This option would be half as expensive as mortared brick sidewalks (Option 2’s costs fall about in the middle) and likely would be appropriate at the project’s west end, where Maple Avenue is wider but the right of way is not, Delgado said.
Project designers also looked at options for placing utilities underground, an aesthetic benefit introduced on the north side of Maple Avenue in the project’s other phases.
It would cost between $2.1 million and $3 million to do the same on Phase 4, with at least some utilities remaining above ground on Maple Avenue’s south side. And to go for the whole enchilada and put all utilities underground? A whopping $8.4 million.
Vienna can expect little financial assistance from utility companies in this matter, said Vienna Town Manager John Schoeberlein. While utilities might chip in if the road were being widened, they’re not likely to do so if the project is aimed just at beautification, he said.
Bowman Consulting also studied traffic conditions along Maple Avenue, which handles about 34,000 vehicles per day. The firm noted jaywalking trends and looked for places where a pedestrian-activated, signalized crossing would be appropriate. No locations could be justified from an engineering standpoint, Delgado said.
Council members asked whether turning radii at some intersections could be increased, a boon to drivers that had been implemented at other locations along Maple Avenue. Delgado said no significant radii changes were planned, adding that his firm did not wish for the project’s scope to become unwieldy.
“We’re not going to be able to fix all the issues with this project,” he said.
Council members also queried whether a service road in front of a car wash and McDonald’s at the project’s west end would be eliminated. Project designers would like to enhance that site’s entrance, but would have to work with landowners and businesses concerning those parcels, which are privately owned, Delgado said.
Bowman Consulting will work toward a final design during the next few months, at which point the Town Council will have to choose which streetscape, utility and traffic options it wants.
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th) obtained $1.25 million in federal moneys for engineering of Phase 4 of the Maple Avenue project. Construction funds will be financed from a future bond issue, Schoeberlein said.
Council member Laurie Cole said she was happy that Bowman Consulting plans to contact businesses and landowners about the impending project, and said designers provided a good rationale for possible streetscape-material changes.
Vienna Mayor M. Jane Seeman concurred.
“I can see [the project] will be a little different from what we did before,” she said.
Come Retire to Vienna .... Comments (8)
Vienna Makes Ranking of Best Places for Healthy Retirement
September 24, 2009The Town of Vienna has been ranked 19th on a new Money magazine ranking of “Best Places for a Healthy Retirement.” It was the only Virginia jurisdiction to make the list.
Researchers looked at longevity, access to health care and “opportunities for an active lifestyle” in ranking communities, town officials said.
“The fit residents of this D.C. suburb stroll from their homes into town for an evening in Vienna’s charming downtown,” the magazine noted in its evalution. “Washington’s museums, restaurants and other activities are only 12 miles away, yet Vienna boasts plenty of its own cultural offerings.”
The survey ranked Anaheim, Calif., as the top place to spend a healthy retirement. Rounding out the top 5 were North Hempstead, N.Y.; Fort Lee, N.J.; Yonkers, N.Y.; and Downers Grove, Ill.
September 23, 2009
Today: "Our Nest is Best!" Comments (10)
Six months ago:
But, as things have unfolded, JP and I have made the choice to leave Vienna for Richmond, where we have (shockingly) purchased a 100 year old home in the old historic Fan District.
We feel that we can both work much more effectively in a new and different environment.
Mixed use, ecclectic zoning, numerous cafes, pubs and galleries, narrow streets, generous sidewalks, pocket parks with scheduled events, close-in mom and pop shopping, a $1.99 movie theatre with a genuine Wurlitzer, traffic and parking permits in place...Pretty much all the things we had hoped Vienna could become, but now realize it cannot.
We'll miss you guys terribly, and invite each and every one of you to celebrate our new nest in the heart of Richmond!
September 16, 2009
Anita's Anita Dies. Comments (5)
Legendary Local Restaurateur Anita Tellez Dies by Brian Trompeter and Dave Facinoli September 16, 2009Anita Tellez, an Oakton resident who founded her New Mexico-style restaurant empire from a former doughnut shop on Maple Avenue in Vienna, died on Sept. 5 at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital. She was 78 years old. No cause of death was given.
Tellez, along with her husband, Felimon, and son, Thomas, founded Anita’s New-Mexican Style Foods on Dec. 23, 1974. The family moved to the Washington, D.C., area from Albuquerque, N.M., after Felimon Tellez, now 81, took a job at the U.S. Postal Service headquarters.
Anita Tellez insisted that her recipes include sauces made from chiles grown in New Mexico. Chiles harvested while green were used for a mild, chunky sauce, while those allowed to ripen until red were dried and pounded into rista, which produced a spicier sauce.
The always well-dressed Anita Tellez, sporting an outsized blonde hairdo, high heels, and wide-rimmed glasses, kept meticulous watch over her restaurants. She usually arrived in a black Rolls-Royce.
Anita’s now employs more than 200 people and last year sold in excess of 1 million breakfast burritos, said Thomas “Tommy” Tellez, the company’s president. Its restaurants are open seven days a week and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.
That original store has closed, but another larger location in Vienna continues to operate. Anita’s also has restaurants in Ashburn, Burke, Chantilly, Fairfax, Herndon, Leesburg and Stafford. The company has postponed further store openings for one year because of the struggling economy, Tommy Tellez said.
Tommy Tellez said his mother lived a “full live” and her hobbies and interests were her children and the restaurants.
“She would spend every day at work and she taught us how to work,” he said. “Her desire was to serve people. My mother would rather go to work then fly around the country and vacation. She loved teaching waitresses how to waitress. In the kitchen, she could make a baloney sandwich taste like steak.”
Vienna Mayor M. Jane Seeman said she did not know the Tellez family, but added she and her late husband, Rodger, were fans of Anita’s.
“I was so happy when they came to Vienna,” she said. “When we came here from the Midwest, there wasn’t any Southwestern food. I’m happy for their success.”
Said Tommy Tellez about his mother: “If anybody could teach anybody to love a business, said could. She touched so many people with her work ethic, and my mom was big at common sense.”
Anita Tellez is survived by her husband of nearly 60 years, Felimon Tellez; sons Larry Guitterez, Michael Tellez, William Tellez and Thomas Tellez; daughters Diana Tellez-Mancy and Roseanne Tellez; 21 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
Private memorial services were held on Sept. 7 at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Vienna.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions may be made to Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, Development Director, 158 Linwood Plaza Suite 220, Fort Lee, New Jersey 07024. Donations can also be made online at www.parentprojectmd.org.
September 11, 2009
Sidewalk Petition Help ... Comments (2)
A special prize will go to anyone who can scan and send HV a copy of the petition circulated last year trying to stop the sidewalks on Windover Avenue NW. We'd like everyone to see who signed against sidewalks.
September 10, 2009
JOAN LILLIS, MARTY HAVERKEMP, and DAVID MEDWEDEFF do not want Sidewalks on Windover Avenue. Comments (11)
Yes, this is old news but it's still very much a vital concern to MANY people.
NW Vienna residents learned this week when school started that Fairfax County, in an effort to save gas due to budget cuts, got rid of bus stops in neighborhoods. Children are now walkers from even further distances or have to walk to bus stops along routes with no sidewalks.
NONE OF THIS WOULD BE A PROBLEM IF SIDEWALKS WERE ALL OVER VIENNA.
Once again, the priority sidewalk list:
PROPOSED SIDEWALKS – PRIORITY GROUP 1
• McHenry Street, S.E., from Park to Fardale Streets (This project has been completed.)
• Windover Avenue, N.W., from Lawyers Road to Nutley Street
• Plum Street, S.W., from Cottage Street to Harmony Drive
• Park Street, N.E., from Church Street to Hilltop Road
• Moore Avenue, S.E., from Park Street to Ninovan Road
• Lewis Street, N.W., from Orchard Street to Windover Avenue
• Orchard Street, N.W., from Lewis Street to Windover Avenue
• Harmony Drive, S.W., from Cottage Street to the swim club
• Lawyers Road, N.W., from Blair Court to Abbottsford Drive
• West Street, N.W., from Lewis Street to Windover Avenue
• Dogwood Street, S.W., from Cottage to Center Streets
• East Street, S.E., from Maple Avenue to Echols Street
• East Street, N.E., from Maple Avenue to Church Street
• Talahi Road, S.E., from Park Street to Ninovan Road
• Nutley Street, N.W., from Maple Avenue to Knoll Street
September 02, 2009
Windover Avenue Death Wait Comments (15)
The Vienna Town Government knows Windover Avenue is a child death waiting to happen. Every study says it is the number one sidewalk issue in Vienna. However, since people like Paul Layer, Maud Robinson, Laine Hyde and Jane Seeman want the dead cedar trees along Windover Avenue saved, we get no sidewalks. What will the reaction be when the first child is run down? A tragic accident or something that could have been prevented?
September 01, 2009
Keeping Vienna Low Rent Is Done On Purpose Comments (78)
Have you ever wondered why Vienna's housing stock of Yeonas homes (the one story ramblers by the thousands off of Cottage Street) never change? Why are more of these home not redeveloped? There are in many instances over 50 years of age. Many of the Yeonas 1-story homes sit on beautiful lots just begging for redevelopment. Redevelopment would help beutify Vienna and enhance the tax base.
So why do these homes just by and large sit there never changing?
That my friends is the political power of the Maud machine. If these lots were allowed to be redeveloped, which is easily done by jumping lot coverage from 25% to 35%, the union thug-acracy that is the Vienna political machine would disappear. Those Yeonas homes are purposefully kept suspended in time because Vienna Town Council knows that if more money and influence comes into Vienna via redevelopment, the blue collar machine types will no longer have the power reigns. Vienna will never be a Republican stronghold, but it sure would be nice to see more progressive Democrats control power. The loser thugs, the loser class warfare types in power now, only hurt Vienna's future.
Note: For the ding dongs who will rail about residential lot coverage being smart as 25%, give me a break. Arlington, which is damn livable, is upwards of 70%. We don't need 70%, but 25% is a low number on purpose. I wish the loser thugs in Vienna could understand how much Vienna government hurts their pocketbook and drives the value of their homes down, but alas it was not meant to be!
