By David Schultz/The Connection
Wednesday, November 05, 2008

AS EXPECTED, Arlington Democrats retained the two School Board seats and the one County Board seat that was up for grabs in yesterday’s election. County Board Member Barbara Favola, an 11-year incumbent, won another four-year term last night over Green Party Candidate John Reeder. Favola won in all of Arlington’s 51 precincts, receiving 69,250 votes or 75 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the State Board of Elections. Reeder received 21,503 votes or 23 percent of the vote. The Republican Party did not nominate a candidate in this race.
Favola said that she secured her landslide victory by emphasizing the past accomplishments of the County Board. “My overall strategy was to run on my record,” she said. “I think [this election] was a very positive referendum. [Voters] basically said yes to the direction we’re taking the county. They said yes to the fiscal management of the county and they said yes to our vision.”

Favola described her campaign against Reeder as “spirited,” but said that he “did not have a cogent message and that was unfortunate. I would much rather have a win against somebody with a very cogent message and a detailed platform.” However, Favola also said that she will work with Green Party members in the future and would be open to appointing them to citizen commissions.

Reeder said that the presence of President Elect Barack Obama (D) on the ballot this year made it difficult for his campaign to win over Democrats. “We have a lot of Democratic supporters but they had become wrapped up with Obama’s campaign,” he said. “We couldn’t get any traction.”

Reeder also said that he wishes he had been more aggressive against Favola in the campaign and said that he thought “she kind of coasted. I think she relied on the Obama effect to carry her. I know there’s a lot of unhappiness with the County government.”

Despite a steady rain throughout the afternoon and evening, turnout was high this year. Seventy four percent of the county’s total voters and 77 percent of its active voters came to the polls to cast ballots. But of the 109,927 Arlington voters who showed up to the polls or voted absentee in this year’s election, 16 percent did not choose a candidate in the County Board race and 34 percent made no choice in the School Board race.
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=321806&paper=60&cat=104

My response:
Favola’s claim that the Reeder campaign had no cogent message is ridiculous on its face: she evidently never bothered to read this webpage and my platform. My platform focused on four areas:
l. eliminating wasteful county spending on white elephant projects of dubious value–the Columbia Pike trolley (price tag of $130 million or more), and the North Tract/Long Bridge aquatics/recreation site (cost of over $100 million).
2. improving the environmental programs in the county, particularly recycling and energy conservation
3. reforming housing programs in the county, namely funding a housing authority, and finally
4. involving county residents who are not hard-core machine Democrats in their own county government through appointments and encouragement–whether the resident is a Green, an independent, Republican or simpy a non-machine Democrat.

The Arlington Green Party is building an alternative vision of our world that is based on ecological wisdom, peace, and social justice. The Reeder campaign was built around these themes of social justice so that people making less than $60,000 a year and those with disabilities can continue to live in our community. And that a program of conservation and recycling be begun in Arlington where rising use of electricity (much of it generated in coal-fired plants), much higher stormwater runoff, and the loss of nearly half of the tree canopy threatens our environment.

I sincerely thank all who supported me and supported our initiative for a housing authority to address the loss of moderate income housing in Arlington.

By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 30, 2008; VA01

Barbara A. Favola and John G. Reeder agree on the problem: It’s tough to find an affordable apartment in Arlington County. Since 2000, thousands of residences have dropped from the affordable category, they say, squeezing out many lower- and middle-income families.

Reeder, a retired foreign trade economist, has built his bid for a spot on Arlington’s County Board around this theme. “The number of affordable rental units in Arlington fell by about 13,000 between 2000 and 2008,” Reeder wrote on his campaign blog.

Government efforts to try to keep rents within reach for some — by setting aside below-market units — have fallen short of county goals, Reeder, a Green Party member, said in an interview.

“He’s right, and I concede that,” said Favola, a Democrat who joined the board in 1998. “It is a struggle to create the number of affordable units that this community really wants, because we value our diversity so much. We’d like a much more even mix of affordable housing than we have.”

In 2000, about half of Arlington rentals were affordable, as measured by federal standards, Favola said. “In 2008, it’s slightly less than 25 percent,” she said.

But although Reeder and Favola share a view of the challenge, they part ways on the solution. Reeder said he wants voters to approve a referendum proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot to create a housing authority. Favola said such a body isn’t the right fix.

The authority would be an independent government entity with a board appointed by the County Board. Today, the county’s affordable housing initiatives are run through Arlington’s Housing Division, which works with nonprofit and for-profit developers and others, Arlington officials said. Funding comes from county taxes, state and federal grants, and developers.

“There’s no guarantee that a housing authority would do any better because they are under the same constraints we are: They are facing high land costs. They’ll have to come up with the money to buy the land,” Favola said.

Moreover, the authority would not be able to offer the kinds of incentives the county does, such as allowing additional apartments when a developer commits to renting some units below the market rate, she said: “They won’t have as many tools as the county currently has.”

But Reeder, citing the example of Fairfax County, which has a housing authority, said such an entity would bring much-needed focus and efficiency to the task.

“They do larger projects. They raise more money,” Reeder said.

Favola said Arlington has created more units per capita.

An Arlington authority could also operate and manage rental units itself, something county officials cannot do. “They can’t own and operate housing for public employees, like teachers and police,” Reeder said.

A key part of Reeder’s critique comes down to cost. He argued that officials move too slowly in acquiring properties and overpay for the units they decide to get, citing Buckingham Village as an example. Reeder said the county lost a chance to save more than 450 affordable apartments, which he said would have been possible if the county had declared Buckingham Village a historic property or threatened to use eminent domain to take it over.

Instead, the county has agreed to spend more than $50 million on the project, Reeder said. That’s more than the property was appraised for in recent years, he said, and it saves only some of the units. In all, the project will build or preserve 300 affordable units.

“If the county had had a housing authority, for less money, they could have bought the whole complex,” Reeder said.

But Favola said her opponent does not understand how such transactions work.

“We negotiated as good a deal as we could negotiate,” she said. “The issue is the value of land in Arlington is high. You either have to pay it or it goes out on the market. This is an amazing thing; we’re in a free market here.”

“We’re the most sophisticated buyer you’re going to find in the county,” she added. But that “doesn’t mean we’re going to get the land at . . . a significant discount.”

Reeder has sought to hit Favola where it hurts in liberal-leaning Arlington, from the left. He said the county doesn’t do enough to promote recycling and is doing too much to promote “smart growth.” He dismissed the idea of advocating building around Metro stops as “stupid growth,” saying environmental consequences to such construction include diminished green space and increased runoff.

“The Green Party, a lot of us really appreciate having open green space,” he said. “The County Board is basically wedded to this idea that we have to have more and more density.”

More broadly, he said, the five Democrats on the County Board need some ideological diversity.

“Essentially, you have people voting the same way who listen to each other. It’s one-party rule,” Reeder said.

Favola said she and her colleagues disagree, but not on many fundamentals.

“New blood is only good if you really want the direction this person is talking about. To me, his ideas are not thoroughly thought out,” Favola said.

If reelected, she said, she will continue to work to improve the quality of life in Arlington.

“My first priority is to continue to make Arlington a pedestrian-friendly community,” she said. That means more crosswalks, more time to cross and more sidewalks, she said.

She is also pushing for “single-stream” recycling, which allows plastic, paper and other recyclables to get pitched into the same bin. And she has worked for years to increase services for seniors, she said.

“I think I’ve delivered on good, progressive government. I have been a compassionate leader,” Favola said. “I have focused on the things that are important to our heart and soul.”

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.

Out of Touch in Arlington
The Post’s endorsement of Barbara Favola for County Board (see below) and its rejection of the housing authority referendum demonstrate the degree to which it is out of touch with Arlington County realities.

Which of the Board’s vanity projects for developers are examples of Favola “pursuing worthy initiatives while keeping costs low”? Is it her support for the $160 million Columbia Pike trolley which will cost 3-4 times as much as rapid bus transit without moving more people more quickly? Is it her advocacy for the $150 million-plus North Tract aquatics center, situated on land which needs environmental remediation, a project that the Post dubbed a “yuppie sports complex”?

Unfortunately, the Post chooses to parrot mistruths on the housing authority without mentioning any of its attributes such as the County’s ability to own and operate affordable housing in perpetuity and set aside units for employees who are currently priced out of Arlington. How is this an example of a “flawed proposal” or “wasteful government bureaucracy”? How can the Post opine that Arlington does “an adequate job of securing affordable housing” when its stock of market-rate affordable units has decreased by approximately 2/3 since 2000 and the County fails yearly to build its stated goal of 400 committed affordable housing units?

If the Post can’t get right basic facts about Arlington, then it should not give voters such a skewed and biased opinion.

Josh Ruebner
2006-2007 Green Party Candidate for Arlington County Board

Washington Post Editorial: Oct. 29, 2008
Arlington County County Board: Arlington is weathering the current fiscal crunch better than most Washington area jurisdictions, in part because the county is buttressed by a high number of recession-proof government jobs. But its five-member County Board also deserves credit for guiding it through financial dangers and pursuing worthy initiatives while keeping costs low.

A mainstay of the all-Democratic board, Barbara A. Favola, is up for reelection and clearly deserves another term. Ms. Favola, a leading voice for affordable housing, has sought to reduce the county’s carbon footprint and increase school funding. Her membership on key regional committees, including the Virginia State Health Board, gives her an unusually prominent pulpit from which to advocate for the county. Her 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.

Ms. Favola’s opponent, Green Party candidate John G. Reeder, is a retired economist with an admirable record of community service. But the centerpiece of his campaign is his support for a flawed proposal to create affordable housing by establishing a housing authority. Ms. Favola would do a superior job of securing such housing without the needless bureaucracy. There is no Republican candidate in the race.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102802971.html

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. - Long time veteran of the Arlington County Board of Supervisors, Barbara Favola is up against John Reeder of the Green party to keep her seat.

Vice chair Favola has been on the county board since 1997 and is hoping to win a fourth term. “I’m going to continue to emphasize children, youth and families. I’ve been a very strong advocate of youth activities and fully funding our public schools,” said Favola.

Going against the incumbent is first-time candidate John Reeder, who wants voters to see the Green party as a way to bring change to a county government run mostly by Democrats. “I’m really rooted in the community here so I feel that I would do a better job representing the Arlington community than the county board members do presently,” said Reeder.

Reeder says he wants to bring about changes, starting with the current housing situation in the county. “We’re not talking about building new units. We’re talking about preserving existing generally older buildings that have been here 40 - 50 years and the development pressures have been relentless just destroying old buildings,” said Reeder.

He says a housing authority, independent from the county government, could be a solution. The Green party got the referendum on the ballot and voters will decide on the new measure on election day. “I think if we did an in-house by public employees who already work for the county with a board of citizens, which is what a authority is, they are paid no more than 300 dollars a year each to be citizen activists and supervise the housing programs. I think we can do a much better job, more cost effective,” said Reeder.

Arlington County already has a 13 member housing commission appointed by the board and funds for affordable housing come from developers, taxes and grants. Favola agrees improvements can always be made with housing, but doesn’t see eye to eye with Reeder’s proposal. “All of the dollars they would have to spend would come from the county. They would have to be appropriated, so I would be redirecting dollars that are already going into affordable housing and right now, for every county dollar spent, the county is leveraging 5 non-county dollars. You’re not going to get a better return than that,” said Favola.

The two candidates also disagree on some major projects in the county, like the Long Bridge Park and the Columbia Pike streetcar, both estimated to cost millions of dollars. Favola says introducing a streetcar is a good investment. “Riders are much more inclined to take a streetcar than a bus. They view a street car has a higher level of transit service. A streetcar is permanent We put tracks down on the street. Investors view that as a positive,” said Favola.

But the Green party candidate says the $150 million plan won’t help commuters. “Columbia Pike is already the busiest bus corridor in the state of Virginia and buses will continue to roll from Fairfax, so a trolley will impede traffic. Also, we just can’t afford this price tag right now,” said Reeder.

He adds the Long Bridge Park is also too costly, a project that includes a recreation center and other amenities. “The tax payer shouldn’t be burdened with this. It’s a dubious advantage, very few people live around there and I’m concerned the county is getting over extended and wasting public money,” said Reeder.

Favola is optimistic about creating more open space and recreational opportunities for residents. “It’s down near Crystal city, 28 acres. We have great plans for an aquatic center, passive recreation, active recreation,” said Favola.

Despite their differences, both candidates say there’s a need to address the environmental issues in the county. Both Favola and Reeder hope to push for more recycling if elected.

By David Schultz/The Arlington Connection
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=321046&paper=60&cat=104
Tuesday, October 21, 2008

ROGER COREY used to work with John Reeder at the U.S. International Trade Commission before Reeder’s recent retirement.
They’d often argue about political issues, with Reeder taking staunchly liberal stance and the Corey, an avowed contrarian, taking the opposite. Despite working together for more than 20 years, Corey rarely claimed victory. “He always stood by his beliefs,” Corey recalled. “He didn’t waver.”

It’s this kind of conviction that has spurred Reeder (G), a first-time political candidate running for a seat on the Arlington County Board, to run for office on a third-party ticket in a county dominated by Democrats. Reeder deeply believes that it will take someone from outside of the political mainstream to tackle the biggest issues facing the county today.

“Politics is a competition of ideas,” Reeder said. “I think a lot of voters in Arlington are really upset with the County government. … It happens in a democracy. Problems build up.”

HOUSING has been one of the constant themes that runs through Reeder’s years of community activism. He first became involved in local civic affairs after forming a tenant’s association at his apartment and taking his landlord to court to get the heat turned on. “That’s one of the most important facets of life, having a place to live,” Reeder said.

Since then, Reeder has worked tirelessly, both through secular activist groups and through Our Lady Queen of Peace, the South Arlington church he attends, to ensure that people from all walks of life can afford to live in the county. “John is a very compassionate man,” said fellow activist Pricilla Haskins. “He believes in equality for his fellow man.”

Haskins is a 59-year-old retired nurse who has been diagnosed with diabetes and lung cancer. She met Reeder two years ago when she was living in an apartment complex on Pierce Street that had been sold by its owner to a local development company. Reeder not only helped her and her fellow tenants organize, Haskins said, but he also helped her on a personal level.

“He has come to my rescue,” she said. “Sometimes when I didn’t even have any food to eat he’s helped me to buy food. … He’s been there both from a moral standpoint and even from a financial standpoint.”

HOUSING has also been one of the major issues in Reeder’s campaign against two-term incumbent Board Member Barbara Favola (D). Reeder has come out in favor of a referendum on this year’s ballot that would create a public housing authority in Arlington while Favola has opposed it.

On other issues, Reeder has been surprisingly conservative. He has frequently called for a scaling back of County spending and has opposed public funding of a new arts facility in Rosslyn. “I would like to go through the whole County budget with a fine-tooth comb,” he said. “I support the arts but we have way too many public facilities to be spending on an arts facility. It’s not essential.”

Instead, Reeder said he would look to increase County funding for people with mental disabilities and for the elderly. “The County should be providing people like that with help,” he said.

Two complexes that were razed and now have empty fields overgrown with grass where about 90 modest apartments stood are the Buckingham Village complex on Henderson Road and N. George Mason Drive, and about 150 apartments at the Parkland Gardens (bounded by 21st Street & N. Glebe Road). Now we have empty fields where 500 people lived. The Buckingham site contains two rows of mostly empty, unsold million-dollar townhouses. The Parkland Gardens site is surrounded by a high wood fence that hides the foot-high grass where previously 50 years of Arlington renters lived in modest brick apartments.

Another complex, the former Concord Gardens near S. 4-Mile Run Drive and Walter Reed Drive, was converted to condominiums, nearly all of which sit empty. Condo prices are dropping like those of houses; the supply of unsold condos growing both from owners trying to sell and new projects coming on line, according to industry reports like Delta Associates, Trends in Washington Metro Area (May 9, 2008, www.deltaassociates.com).

Is this kind of “economic growth” or “development” that County Board Democrats want? They allow developrs to tear down perfectly good rental apartments standing for 50 years, and replace them with empty fields? This is not growth, but economic contraction. The well-being of Arlington residents is worse off.

A group supporting the proposal to create a county-run public-housing authority rallied outside the county government headquarters on Oct. 18. (Photo by Scott McCaffrey)

With the odds stacked against them and time ticking away, advocates for a county housing authority on Oct. 18 made what could be their last big pitch to voters.

“I don’t feel like I’m wanted here in Arlington County,” said Pricilla Haskins, a retired nurse who is living on a monthly Social Security payment of less than $1,000.

“When will you help the poor here in Arlington County with housing?” Haskins asked County Board members. “It’s another form of discrimination.”

Haskins was one of about 20 local residents who showed up at the County Board meeting to voice support for the housing authority, which is on the ballot on Nov. 4. A dozen supporters braved an early-autumn chill to stage a rally on Courthouse Plaza prior to the board meeting.

Those dozen or so will need to swell to 50,000 by Election Day, if the referendum stands a chance of passage.

The proposal has some formidable opposition: both the Arlington County Democratic Committee and Arlington County Republican Committee have come out against the referendum. Only the county’s fledgling Green Party is backing the proposal to create a public-housing authority.

“We witness daily the loss - a cycle of destruction and gentrification,” said Don Rouse, who supports creating a housing authority. “Yet nothing is done to address it.”

Parts of Arlington are becoming “Disneyland East” while hard-working residents are being forced out, Rouse said.

“We need to do better than this,” he said.

County Board Vice Chairman Barbara Favola, who is seeking re-election in November, took time during the board meeting to urge residents to reject the referendum.

“Arlington has done a very good job leveraging [housing] dollars,” Favola said. “I don’t think a public-housing authority is going to do any better.”

But Favola’s comments seemed to unnerve County Board Chairman Walter Tejada, who previously was able to hold board members to strict neutrality on the issue while they are up on the dais.

“The board has not taken an official position on this matter,” Tejada hastened to add - twice - after Favola concluded. “The people will decide.”

County staff used the public forum to defend their own actions, saying a question-and-answer sheet on the referendum, authored by County Manager Ron Carlee, was non-partisan and meets the requirements of state law in not taking sides.

“What has been prepared is within the bounds of what we can do,” County Attorney Stephen MacIsaac said of the information sheet. “It doesn’t cross the line - I don’t have any concerns about it.”

County Board members earlier had directed Carlee to write such a synopsis.

Josh Ruebner, a two-time Green Party County Board candidate and backer of the referendum, said he felt Carlee’s action violated both the letter and the spirit of state law.

Ruebner said the Q&A sheet contradicted itself in places, was too long and at times read like the Democratic Committee’s resolution opposing the referendum.

“Why is the county manager putting out this propaganda?” Ruebner asked. “Put some impartial information before the voters.”

Voters in the late 1950s and early 1980s turned down similar referendums that sought to activate a public-housing authority.

http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2008/10/20/arlington/news/nw886.txt

Rather than boldly stepping forward to improve Arlington wastewater, the County Democratic Board had to be dragged into a legal consent order by DEQ and EPA to meet its clean water obligations to help save the Bay. Is this the Democrats commitment to the enviroment–wait till you are being sued–to clean up your act?

Nevertheless, this welcome step in markedly improving Arlington wastewater may be over-whelmed by the relentless development in Arlington that brings in more thirsty commercial and residential developments. High rise buildings produce prodigious amounts of waste water from their cooling towers and toilets and sinks.

For example, there are a half-dozen high rise building being built in the Potomac Yards area on Jeff Davis Highway just outside the gates of the Arlington treatment facility on S. Glebe Road that will add alone 0.5 million gallons of waste water daily taking up 1 percent of Arlington treatment capacity.
Every high rise building built in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor adds similar large amounts of wastewater.

Question: Will continue commercial and residential development in Arlington overwhelm Arlington’s new sewage treatment plant that will not even come on line until 2011?

Arlington County is modernizing its sewage treatment plant (”water pollution control plant”) in an elaborate $560 program that will bring a new plant on line by 2011 (within 3 years). The plant will reduce the nitrogen in treated sewage from 8 mg/liter to the EPA standard of 3 mg/liter. (See http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/environmentalservices for the fact sheet).

The capacity of the new plant will be 40 million gallons daily, up from a listed 30 million gallon capacity currently. Currently the plant operates at 100 percent or more of this 30 million gallons; during heavy rainfall, the plant has to release untreated sewage. So, actually the plant capacity is closer to 32 milion gallons daily or higher. Twenty percent of sewage treated comes from Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax County–so only 80 percent of the sewage comes from Arlington.

The EPA requires that treatment plants operate at no more than 95 percent of full capacity. For the new plant, this means a new usable capacity of 38 million gallons. The county indicates that the new 40 million capacity expands current plant of 30 million gallons by 33 percent, and will meet expected Arlington’s needs until the year 2020 or for the next 12 years.

However, if one uses 32 million gallons as the current capacity and considerd that only 38 million of the new 40 million gallon capacity should be used following EPA standards, the increase in capacity is closer to 19 percent. The new plant comes on line in 3 years from now.

Will the 19-percent de facto capacity increase last for the next 12 years or will it be overwhelmed as more water-intensive development occurs? Then, how much will Arlington taxpayers have to spend to upgrade the plant in 2020, and where will it be built since the current plant site is now fully taken up by the new facility?