Not So Great Moments in Pedestrian Safety

Came upon this as I was walking to work today - a crew digging up the sidewalk at 17th Street and Sycamore Street in Arlington with no warning for pedestrians heading north. Not that a sign would've helped - I'd have had to backtrack four blocks to get to a crosswalk.

As I approached, the guy in the reflective vest further down the street towards me waving his arms trying to get the guy in the backhoe to stop so I could walk in the bike lane as cars flew past at 35 miles an hour.

Is "Here's a Picture of a Cute Chipmunk" an OK Blog Post Title?

This chipmunk was like a little vacuum cleaner, scrambling across my patio and barely slowing down to pick up sunflower seeds as it went:

I've seen tons of bunnies around East Falls Church, but hadn't seen one on my patio until this weekend. Or more accurately, saw my cat seeing the rabbit:

My friend Brian was over recently & noticed Wilma watching a chipmunk, a squirrel & a few birds on the patio. "I wonder what Wilma would do if she could get out?" he asked. Having previously observed this vicious predator in action, I said, "Let's find out!" and opened the door. Wilma lunged out onto the patio and ... watched the chipmunk & squirrel run away, watched the birds fly away, and moseyed over to the grass and started munching. Cats may be America's top threat to birds, but mine is apparently a pacifist.

So here's the updated list of species I've spotted in just the 7 months since I put a bird-feeder on my patio:

• Tufted Titmouse
• Carolina Chickadee
• Sharp-Shinned Hawk
• Carolina Wren
• Northern Cardinal
• Mourning Dove
• English Sparrow
• European Starling
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Eastern Cottontail
• Eastern Gray Squirrel
• Eastern Chipmunk

I hadn't realized that as much as I complain about invasive European sparrows & starlings, American squirrels have been introduced to & invaded other parts of the world.

My Apartment Building Says Bikes Hurt Property Values

From my August newsletter here at Roosevelt Towers in Falls Church:

In walking in the community, we have seen a number of bicycles locked up on the railing of the lower lobby entrance. This is NOT the place for them, not the look we want to portray for potential and/or current residents and more importantly, it is an extreme safety hazard. Because we are unaware of who they belong to, we ask that the owners of these bicycles please remove them immediately. We do have storage space allotted for bicycles. We ask all residents to please help us in keeping the community beautiful and safe!

Given that my building is less than a mile from East Falls Church Metro & the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, I can imagine bike commuting is a popular option. I can also understand why people might not want to drag their bikes into the building, up some stairs, and down a long hallway to a storage area, then repeat the process before work the next day.

What's less understandable is the "extreme safety hazard" reference. The areas in question are wide paths, so they're not blocking the way. And there are railings on either side, so it's not like they're costing elderly residents their only handhold. If you were trying to move in or out through that entrance, it might be annoying, but dangerous? What are they really getting at here?

Then we come to the real meat of the argument: Thinly-veiled references that only poor people use bikes to get around frequently. The rest of us can lock up our bikes in storage and only pull them out on weekends.

It's strange that building management would respond to apparent resident need for more convenient bike storage not by gauging interest in a bike rack but by threatening to confiscate bikes. And it's not like the complex is hurting for outdoor space - even on the most-full nights, there are always at least 5 empty spots in the parking lot and usually a lot more.

They were responsive on my request for more recycling, so I emailed them:

I don't have a bike myself, but if there's such great demand for bike storage closer to the street, why not install a bike rack in one of the surplus parking spaces on the north side of the building?

I haven't heard back.

Arlingtonians Want Hyper-Restrictive Zoning, Except When They Don't

According to Charlie Clark of the Falls Church News-Press, it looks like Arlington's zoning administrator is holding up yet another improvement in Arlington's Westover neighborhood, this time a proposed farmers market:

[John] Reeder's vision, which he says is backed by Westover merchants, would start with 20 farmer-vendors on McKinley St., on the grounds and parking lots of the Reed School/Westover Library. He and 25 fellow enthusiasts foresee the market as being open on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., supervised by a new nonprofit created with civic associations. The newly renovated Reed, he says, was designed with a front plaza and sidewalks with just such a use in mind.

This November, Reeder won verbal approval from the School Board, which has jurisdiction over the Reed property.

But there's a snag. "The county zoning staff has indicated they will not issue a use permit until after an elaborate change in the county ordinance pertaining to farmers markets," Reeder says. Officials asked for detailed plans that require the blessing of school board and superintendent. "The staff told us it will likely not be till September or later this year before we could get a use permit," Reeder says. "That means essentially there will be no Westover farmers market in 2011."

What, do you expect Arlington's zoning administrator to go rushing in blind to something as dangerous and controversial as (gasp!) a farmers market! Won't someone think of the children???

But Arlingtonians have asked for this type of hyper-restrictive regulation. At the same time Westover residents are shaking their heads at the regulatory maze to set up a simple farmers market, Lyon Village residents are asking for new ways to restrict parking on their streets. And while the project is finally moving forward, it took a concerted community effort to overcome citizen & County objections to the Westover Market Beer Garden.

Look at the East Falls Church redevelopment plan and the top citizen complaints about the area - "Lacks unifying identify or central focus," "Has underused land and prevalent surface parking," "Lacks neighborhood-serving retail." Historically, Arlingtonians haven't see those as bugs - they were features. In 1986, EFC residents had the county create zoning bans on business or multifamily homes to keep those loud young people out of their neighborhood. And now 25 years later they're wondering why their neighborhood is boring and isolated.

Photo via Arlington Green Party

What Generation Y's Preferences Mean For Arlington's Future

One more thought on the research discussed here yesterday about Generation Y's living preferences. This is what I find so weird about attempts to kill the Westover Market Beer Garden or opposition to the East Falls Church redevelopment plan.

Current neighbors view them as shattering their quiet community. But according to this research, that's the equivalent of when those same neighbors' parents told them to knock off that darn rock & roll music.

Generation Y doesn't want single-family homes and a neighborhood that (even if it's lively during the day) demands they drive elsewhere for entertainment - any more than their parents wanted to listen to Bing Crosby. They want smart density, townhouses, a pub they can walk home from, and who knows, maybe 30 years from now some sort of transit option we haven't even considered yet - a streetcar down Washington Blvd. all the way to the Pentagon?

The Westover Market Beer Garden isn't an aberration - it's Rubber Soul, an evolutionary leap that signals a generational shift. Let's say neighbors block music at the Beer Garden - won't someone just see that untapped niche for live music & act accordingly? Maybe Samuel Beckett's would look there for a 2nd location?

This isn't about whether change is coming - it's about what will change look like. Neighborhoods like East Falls Church & Westover will never be Clarendon, but they'd be wise to learn from its history. You may not be able to stop change, but you can make sure it's doesn't look like Home Depot.

Sidewalk Closed. Detour Plan: Run!

Would a construction crew walk out into the middle of an intersection & drop "road closed" signs without plans for detours?

Then why would a crew in Arlington start jackhammering the sidewalk at one end of the heavily used Sycamore & 17th St crosswalk with no pedestrian detour?

I've talked to Arlington County Board members & staff about issues like this before and I know it drives them as crazy as it does me. But it would be nice if the road crews got the message as well.

Green Geekery: The Mayor of East Falls Church Park

The Green Miles recently got a Blackberry & started using FourSquare. It allows you to "check in" to a location, see what other users are there, and see where your friends are. You become "mayor" when you check in at a location more than any other user.

FourSquare has actually gotten me to go to parks more often. It creates a little incentive to do something positive by telling your friends LOOK AT ME I'M SO GREEN & HEALTHY & INSUFFERABLE. Joking aside, if something makes me even 5% more likely to get off the couch & get some exercise, it's valuable.

This week I became mayor of East Falls Church Park in Arlington along the W&OD Trail. It's just a basketball court & a patch of grass barely big enough for a game of catch:


View Larger Map

Mini tangent: Tiny urban parks like this one deliver huge value. There's no other public place to play basketball within a mile of here. A park like this will deliver a lot more bang for the buck than parks located far from populated areas.

From now on, if I'm ever shooting baskets with anyone there, I will insist on being referred to as Mr. Mayor. And refer to myself that way in the third person. The mayor is open! Pass it to the mayor! The mayor for three! That sort of thing.

The Green Miles Leaves Arlington

OK, so I'm only going two blocks outside Arlington into Falls Church. And I hope to put the savings that come from the move towards a condo in Arlington someday soon. But I couldn't pass up the vastly better deal that comes from moving literally 500 feet away from Arlington:

• In Arlington, I could've had a good quality apartment with a balcony in a high-rise with a pool & gym that was a 10 minute walk from Metro but not right next to anything for about $1600.
  
• In East Falls Church, I'm getting a good quality apartment with a patio area in a high-rise with a pool & gym that's a 15 minute walk from Metro but not right next to anything for about $1100.

I priced apartments in different areas, but to get to my target price range in Arlington, I'd have had to leave the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, give up proximity to Metro, or lose quality of apartment. Basically, an older apartment off the Pike with a longer commute would've been the same price as the nice place a short walk from Metro in EFC. And my new places is walking distance from some places I love in Arlington, like Upton Hill Regional Park & Westover.

And, much as I hate to admit it as a shameless Arlington homer ... my time in East Falls Church so far has been pretty nice. My apartment features this view of big old trees & I'm becoming reacquainted with how loud blue jays can be when they put their minds to it. My walk to Metro crosses Four Mile Run & I've now seen rabbits hopping past twice, making the 15 minute walk seem almost shorter than my previous 10 minute walk through the generic concrete office canyons of Ballston. And my building is much more pleasantly diverse than the filing cabinet for young professionals I'd been living in.

My friends have been reacting with mock horror when I tell them I'm leaving Arlington, especially after having run for Virginia House of Delegates here. To which I say, I don't know how to break this to you, but ... I lost. About the only fringe benefit of that is that I get to be a normal person & not be constrained by political boundaries. But it's also a statement about the guy who won -- Patrick Hope has been a great delegate in the 47th & I hope he continues to be for years to come.

So yes, I'd like to have stayed in Arlington, but I wasn't willing to spend an extra $6,000 annually just to keep "Arlington" in my mailing address for the next couple of years. I'll still be active in Arlington issues & politics (I'll be volunteering with Arlington Young Democrats this weekend), and am eager to learn where a mouthy treehugger might be able to help out on progressive issues in Falls Church. And maybe by the time I'm ready to move again, the bright line dividing affordable apartments in Falls Church from single-family homes on the Arlington side of the line will have been softened by the long-overdue EFC redevelopment plan.