As a strong supporter of smart growth and transit-oriented development, I find this announcement to be very disappointing. Beyond that, I hate to say “I told you so,” but I’ve been warning for a LONG time now that the pro-streetcar folks needed to get their act together, that the opposition to the streetcar was a serious threat, and that there needed to be a seriously ramped-up effort to fight for the streetcar (a la “TysonsTunnel.org”) and against the anti-streetcar arguments.
For whatever crazy reason, none of that happened. Instead, as Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette stated a few minutes ago, pro-streetcar Democrats (Fisette, Mary Hynes, Walter Tejada, Alan Howze, etc.) were caught “flat footed.” To me, that’s just mind boggling, as many of us in the community were NOT caught “flat footed” at all. So what about pro-streetcar members of the Board, who are in the community all the time? Is this about arrogance? insularity? incompetence? overconfidence? all of the above? I’m just beyond frustrated with these people. Now, the question is whether this is not just bad policy but also “too little too late” politically for Mary Hynes and/or Walter Tejada. We’ll see in the next few months…
P.S. Miles Grant and I were just chatting, and were both looking forward to the anti-streetcar folks pushing for the “BRT” option they’ve been pushing, even though BRT is not feasible on Columbia Pike, as there’s no chance for a dedicated lane. Details, details. Anyway, let’s see how serious they were about what they kept referring to as BRT.
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