News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, August 7, 2009

RA President/Blogger Urges Restonians To 'Look At Our Community' (And Not Just to Turn In Neighbors With Red Mulch and White Stone in Their Yards)

Robin-Smyers.gifIn her latest post, our fellow "web logger," RA President Robin Smyers, takes stock of two recent uneventful issues that no one really paid much attention to at all.

When we reconvene for the September 24 meeting, we will have many, tough decisions to make that reflect what kind of Reston we want in the coming years. For example, – where will we choose to locate our next headquarters facility and how should we plan for both current and future Restonians as we continue to explore the idea of indoor recreation?

Our staff will be busy during August, compiling your opinions and ideas from our four community meetings. These were great sessions where we really heard from the community.
We'll say!
I also have a request of you. Between now and September, take time to get out and really look at our community of Reston. I ask you to consider our evolution from farmland and visions – many that have yet to be realized – to a community of villages, homes, businesses and recreation. You may not realize this, but getting Reston to where it is today has brought one challenge after another. There has never been what you might call “ smooth sailing.”
We'll say!

Smyers then lists a few pivotal moments in Reston's history, including this one:
In 1965, fewer than half of the 227 townhomes in Lake Anne had been sold because Reston was considered “too isolated, too overpriced and too liberal.” Later, several real estate agents would say that Reston’s idea of community was ahead of its time. Back then, people only wanted location and price. A decade later, they wanted community.
Then, as us filthy "web log" writers are wont to do, Smyers digs into the "web logger's" rhetorical bag of tricks to "bring it home":
Whether the leadership at the time was wrestling with the status of the community, or a drop in home sales, the duly elected leaders worked hard to maintain and advance the vision for the community that voters entrusted to their care.

We have a duty to see Reston as Robert Simon and others have – what it will be -- and not just what it is today. Just as our community was ahead of its time in 1965, we are responsible for keeping Reston ahead and not letting it lag behind.

Earlier, I called upon you to get out and see our community during August. As you tour, I ask you to really take the time to see the Reston that will always be ahead of its time. That’s why it’s always going to be a challenge for us to make decisions that sometimes don’t seem to be the best investments of today. However, I believe that if we trust the vision, we will find the same thing that Bob Simon found upon his 1984 visit – facing the challenges make for a good return on our investment.
We agree. And in that same spirit, we'd encourage the RA to think long-term as well. Why rent some generic class A office space for its new headquarters facility when it could instead get in on the ground floor of the Lake Anne redevelopment and become the anchor for a much-revitalized village center there? It might mean staying in the current, less-than-optimal space a bit longer, but in the long term, it would be worth it.

And instead of licking their wounds about the resistance to giving away open space for an indoor rec center, and downscaling the once-grand plans to a plexiglass dome over a couple of tennis courts, why not hold Fairfax County's feet to the fire and press for the full-featured indoor rec facility the community deserves to be built on county land -- and at county expense?

Leaders often have to make unpopular decisions. Like Bob Simon, the ones who are remembered are the ones that press forward with their big-picture vision even when they run into obstacles. There's a reason Reston doesn't look like Ashburn, and it has a lot to do with the fact that the overall vision for the community didn't change when initial sales were low and people complained about Reston being "different," or "liberal," or whatever.

Not a sermon -- just a thought.

27 comments:

  1. Is this good idea? why doesn't Reston build the new headquaters next to the Reston Libray?

    on the right side of the libary there is open space where Reston can build a building (headquaters) and at the same time they can connect that build to the libary like an expansion. The library would increase in size and reston would has a heaquaters.

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  2. How did a satire/humor blog become the center of serious community discussion? Bring back the snide!

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  3. Your statement "that’s why it’s always going to be a challenge for us to make decisions that sometimes don’t seem to be the best investments of today" is the disconnect that I am having with the Reston Association regarding the headquarters building and the indoor recreation center. The challenge is to make decisions that are the best investments. In fact, it should be the first priority.

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  4. Well said Restonian - could not agree more.

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  5. She's a hypocrite and ignorant of her duties which are clearly spelled out in the Reston Deed and recently updated other governing documents.

    We do NOT want a million-dollar rec center.

    We do NOT want class A office space for the RA HQ.

    We do NOT want to continue with "liberal" redundant and underused "resources" from a bygone era.

    We WANT RELIEF from ever increasing "assessments" and taxes that are being wasted and squandered.

    CLOSE the underused pool permanently, REDUCE the assessment and stop kingdom-building.

    Reston had the chance to become a town and blew it (thanks to incompetent leadership by smyers and others). Reston is an unincorporated area of Fairfax County which should be using the hundreds of millions of dollars it collects from Reston property owners to fund ALL of the WANTED services this "community" WANTS.

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  6. I find it funny that Reston was seen as "too isolated, too overpriced and too liberal." Well, at least we're not isolated anymore.

    El Peruano, that land next to the library belongs to the County, and is designated for the library's future use.

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  7. No thanks to the County building another rec center. Not until Small Tax District #5 is dissolved.

    Any further rec facilities in Reston will just extend the life of that anti-democratic travesty. The RCC is really a front for whomever is the then current Hunter Mill Supervisor.

    RCC has no authority. Their budget is voted by the Board of Supervisors. Their bonds require the Board of Supervisors approval. Their elections aren't on a November ballot like real public officials.

    Let the Hunter Mill Supervisor take direct and transparent responsibilty for what RCC does or make RCC real elected officials who vote their own budget and raise their own taxes and face the electorate in a real election in November.

    As it is RCC is neither fish nor foul, it's just a farce.

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  8. Anonymous 9:05 -- but the people of her district keep re-electing her by overwhelming numbers. Someone has to be voting for her -- it sure isn't me! I think people must be just voting straight party tickets -- better someone incompetent than someone who might have an "R" next to their name?

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  9. Not far down the line Restonians will have to make a choice -- to allow many Reston neighborhoods to be redeveloped or vote for a Republican for county supervisor. I guess we'll find out how really "true blue" Reston is.

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  10. Anon 10:52

    What in the world makes anyone think an R won't vote to allow all the big national develoers to amke as much money as possible "redeveloping" Reston? Seriously?

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  11. We know how the Democrats stand. They have sold Reston down the river. Seriously.

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  12. We know how the Republicans stand. They have sold the USA down the river. Seriously.

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  13. What a ridiculous untrue generalization ''The Republicans have sold the USA down the river.'' I did not vote for OBAMA and it's clear to me that many who did regret it. Funny though how he is keeping many of the Bush administration policies intact. Many of my Dem friends are on fire over it. How about the anti-war activists. Can you say beefing up in Afgan ....Obama is sending thousands into war. He is undermining our country in various ways and it is interesting that more and more people realize it, his poll numbers are dropping. But, many Dems will vote the names with a D next to them no matter what is at stake. That is the way it's been in Reston especially when it comes to back stabbing. All one has to do to figure out the driving force to spend money to build oversized ''monuments'' is to follow Hudgins, Bouie and Smeyers statements and actions. These are not fiscally responsible people. In fact, one could argur they, especially Bouie are professional volunteers driven by self gratification. If Bouie or Smeyers see a way to get their names on a building, or at least in print -they will. Follow the facts..................

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  14. EPA and OSHA were created under the Nixon administration. And the US Bureau of Mines created to protect miners was disbanded under Clinton. D and R designations leave out a lot of details.

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  15. oyyy -- when will this partisan crap stop... !!!

    please people -- give it a rest -- go have beer together and talk it out -- believe it or not, you both probably agree on 90% of the issues

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  16. Restonian... I absolutely agree with your assessment... Lake Anne would benefit greatly from RA going back to where it all started -- the original "Town Center"...

    "...We agree. And in that same spirit, we'd encourage the RA to think long-term as well. Why rent some generic class A office space for its new headquarters facility when it could instead get in on the ground floor of the Lake Anne redevelopment and become the anchor for a much-revitalized village center there? It might mean staying in the current, less-than-optimal space a bit longer, but in the long term, it would be worth it.

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  17. Folks with an "R" started this mess decades ago when FFX County saw an opportunity to get more development and more tax base out of Reston... the RA Homeowners Association never stood a chance -- look at the Town Center and the Toll Road corridor ...

    R's and D's don't matter at this level -- we're homeowners with a common interest -- get the incompetents out of our association...

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  18. I agree -- this is a Homeowners Association -- not a damned political circus... the last thing i think about regarding my neighbors is their political affiliation... you folks on the extremes frighten the hell out of me...

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  19. Regarding RA Headquarters moving -- I agree with the opinion -- the HQ should occupy one of the new buildings envisioned in the Lake Anne Revitalization Plan...

    Unfortunately, I just tried calling Mr. Matthews at the number he provided in his latest HQ move Communication 703-435-6530 -- no answer, no voice mail, no nothing -- so much for transparency in this dysfunctional association of ours...

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  20. Let's see. Do you feel safer now than you did 8 years ago? I certainly don't. I work within spitting distance of the White House. I thank the Republicans everyday for keeping me on my toes at my job.

    Do you feel wealthier now than you did 8 years ago? I certainly don't. I feel that the competition at the office has been ratched up because of the downturn in the economy. I thank the Republicans everyday for keeping me on my toes while at work.

    Do you feel freer now that you did 8 years ago? I certainly don't. I have relatives overseas and I wonder whether the NSA is listening in our conversations. I thank the Republicans everyday for keeping me on my toes while talking to my family.

    The list goes on and on. Let's not even start to talk about how the Virginia legislature screws over Northern Virginia constantly on taxes and infrastructure. Seems they're too busy pandering to their hillbilly constituents to pay attention to the needs of their productive and profitable brothers and sisters who live in upstate.

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  21. But back to the original question - how do we get rid of Cathy Hudgins?

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  22. "But back to the original question - how do we get rid of Cathy Hudgins?"

    Since I doubt she'd be unseated in a Democratic primary, and since Republicans are on the endangered species list in Reston, maybe the only way is for a sane, moderate, intelligent person to runs against her as an independent. There may actually be a lesson here from Particleboard Paradise, i.e., Loudoun County. If memory serves correctly, when that nitwit Bruce Tulloch was chairman of the County Board there and, together with his cronies on the Board letting development run rampant, one of the countervailing voices of sanity on the Board was Scott York, an independent. He has continued to fare quite well politically.

    I'm wondering if there are other areas in the Hunter Mill District so disenchanted with Hudgins' performance as seems to be the case in Reston.

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  23. Ms. Hudgins needs to go I agree... but the real impact from the county comes from the Planning Committees... and we need very savvy people to deal with these bureaucrats... Robin, Milton, Bill and team are not capable of taking the RA Membership’s primary interests as their own, nor are they capable of holding their own at the Taj Mahal... we need to work on our own Board first...

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  24. Regarding Milton not picking up your call... would not have mattered... I don't believe he's visited Lake Anne except for those obligatory meetings at the community center. Lake Anne Revitalization is the last thing on his mind... and Robin, don't get me started...

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  25. When it becomes public knowledge that Cathy Hudgins is endeavoring to redevelop large numbers of Reston neighborhoods to enrich her developer friends, it won't matter what letter is on her forehead, she'll be on a slow boat to China.

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  26. In response to Anon 10:27 wanting to know if other groups in Hunter Mill oppose Hudgins.
    Have a look at Hunter Mill Defense League. They have been resisting efforts to add density to Hunter Mill Road for years.

    http://www.hmdl.org/

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