Two newspapers endorsed Barbara Favola for re-election, and chief among their reasons is that she is business friendly. This is code to signal that she approves virtually any project or development any developer wants to put up in Arlington, and and opposes raising taxes or regulations on developers.

The Sun Gazette editorial (Oct. 20) says, “[Favola is the county board's] liasion to the development and business community, where she tries to smooth out hurt feelings and misunderstandings every time board members, with their limited knowledge of real-world isues, do somthing inane.”

The Washington Post opined (on Oct. 29), “[Favola's] well-earned reputation as the County Board’s most business-friendly member–she was the only one to oppose a tax increase on commercial real estate, for example–provides the body with a welcome perspective.”

So that’s it in a nutshell–Favola favors developers and commercial property owners. I have asked her when she EVER voted against a development project in the past four years, and got no response.

At county board meetings, she cautions that commercial taxes on developers or other restrictions might hurt the feelings of the development community. Hurt feelings? Do Arlington voters care about “hurt feelings” of billion-dollar corporations and realty companies who refuse to pay their fair share of the tax burden in Arlington and instead dump it onto homeowners?

Hurt feelings? What about the hurt feelings of actual tenants kicked out of the moderate rental apartments so that UBS Bank (one of the largest banks in the world) can knock down historic buildings so that a high rise and millionaire townhouses can be built?

Ms. Favola carries out the chamber of commerce and the developer’s aggressive agenda in Arlington no matter what the environmental or social costs of such development. Will such development increase traffic, stormwater runoff or eliminate trees and moderate cost rental apartments? Who cares? Will such development overwhelm Arlington solid waste facilitiy and overwhelm the capacity of Metrorail to service more residents and people working in the county? Who cares?

Yes, the Post got that right this time. Ms. Favola is the developers’ best friend in Arlington.