Flashback Monday: More on Reston's Homicidal Nudist Colony, Part 1: The Snakeden of Iniquity

You may recall the shocking discovery that Reston's predecessors were not just whiskey makers in a drunken village, but honest-to-goodness homicidal nudists. Our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, has uncovered more details about the infamous Green Forest Club, whose camp was located not far from the modern day South Reston Park and Ride Lot. Here is his exhaustive report:

The sordid tale of Reston's origins in the misty dawn of pre-history can now be told: our earth-toned paradise was once a Snakeden of Iniquity where exhibitionists pranced about and cavorted au natural amidst our hard-working dairy farmers!

Exciting historical research made possible by articles uncovered in the old-timey Washington Post "news-paper" reveals that, as this mighty nation struggled through the Great Depression in the autumn of 1933, 25 to 30 godless heathens from the Twin Sin Cities of Washington and Alexandria infiltrated our righteous county and established an 83-acre nudist colony called the Green Forest Club off of Lawyers Road.

We are reassured, however, by an October 13, 1933, article in the Post that such moral turpitude did not go unchallenged:

"A three-week old nudist colony has drawn fire from the American Anti-Nudity League and the attention of Fairfax County authorities. A letter of protest, signed by Dr. Jane B. Coates of Washington, executive director of the anti-nudity association, was sent to Governor Pollard. The governor took the matter under advisement, and jokingly said he wanted to get all the 'bare' facts in the case." Knee-slapper!

In her letter, Dr. Coates declared, "Virginia, of all states, has stood on its purity, nobility, and cleanness of principles." Yay for the Old Dominion!

It is then reported that the unfortunately named Deputy Sheriff Vernon Cockrell of Herndon "planned to visit the camp to see 'what is going on'. Arrests will be made, he said, if anyone is found 'walking around naked'." We wonder: would that be a summons for "naked as a jaybird jaywalking"?

In the next day's Post, however, Governor Pollard is reported to have adopted a 'hands-off policy' toward the nudist colony: "The Governor said he was unable to recall any law under which the State could eject any cult where there was no infringement on the rights of others." Sounds like the Guv was channeling his inner Ron Paul there!

We can only imagine the gut-busting humor all this hoopla must have created down at the nearby Herndon Grange on Saturday evenings:

"Say, Jethro, if that nood-ist colony had an Iraqi and an Irishman in it, what would be its name?'
"I don't know, Zeke, what?"
"Saddam and Begorra!"

In next week's Flashback: To Combat the Nudists, Virginia Plans an Erection. SRSLY.

Shocker: Bus Service Apparently Available to Reston, According to Dated Sign

Our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, made a shocking discovery at the West Falls Church Metro station, where this sign points out an amazing fact: bus service is available to Reston. Who knew?

The sign doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the quality of service we'll soon be able to expect on the Silver Line. As the Peasant notes:

Perhaps it is another example of Metro's managerial prowess that only 16 years later this totally outdated sign informs the hoi polloi that for a mere 25 cents they too can take a trip to our earth-toned Disneyland. Such a bargain! Please to notice on the sign other evidence of quaint antiquity, such as the phone number with no area code listed, or the now-legendary bus route designations such as "5A", "5B", etc.

RA Opposes Town Center Mauvescraper, Profiles It In Its Magazine

The Reston Association has joined the growing ranks of critics of the 23-story mauvescraper proposed for the site of the Reston Times building on Reston Parkway, arguing in a letter to the Fairfax County Planning Commission that although "redevelopment of the property in question is inevitable, RA also believes that the project as currently proposed does not conform to and is incompatible with the existing and planned development in the vicinity of the site." Specifically, the RA says the building is too tall and should include a residential component.

RA joins the ranks of Fairfax County's planning staff, which last month recommended denial of the project in its own report (PDF), which is 85 pages chock full of hilarious cross-sections like this one:

County planning staff argue the building is too tall and too far from public transit. As proof, they shared this elevation drawing, with the proposed building in a shockingly DRB-unapproved shade of violet:

Actually, that doesn't look so bad. But then look at it from the north:

Okay, so maybe it's a bit on the tall side, especially with the Macaroni Grill-razing Spectrum redevelopment, itself not exactly designed in the spirit of a 1960s rancher, wrapping around it like a hot dog bun. Although for us the biggest takeaway is just how ridiculous the Harris Teeter/Office Depot building, which is not included in the Spectrum redevelopment, is going to look with all the other non big box stuff around it. Also, where will people park?

Reston2020 and ARCH have also both gone on record opposing the proposal, with R2020 going so far as to call it "the wrong building in the wrong place." The county planning commission is supposed to consider the project tonight, so we'll see what happens -- though we were under impression that the development plan was actually approved back in 1978, with no height or intensity restrictions.

While the RA has now gone on record opposing the project, it also devoted three pages to it in the summer issue of Reston: The Magazine. Here it is, front and center in the magazine's table of "content," which called it "a model project for partnering with Reston Association's Design Review Board." (Which, to be fair, has already approved the proposal, as has the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee.)

And here's the story. If you have a 13" monochrome monitor like the one at Restonian World Headquarters, you might have to squint a bit to read the text:

Apparently the RA Board has a shorter lead time than its magazine. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Update: The Fairfax County Planning Commission has deferred the project until May 17.

'Neighborhood Captain' Program Will Make Reston Sustainable, Or Else

As part of its five-year plan goal to have 12 percent of Reston households sign a pledge to make "simple changes" in lifestyle, transportation, environment, and buying locally, The Reston Sustainability Forum is looking for a few eager "neighborhood captains" to urge their comrades neighbors to recycle and maybe buy a nice recumbent bike to ride along the shoulder of the Toll Road to get to that job strapping bombs to dolphins developing biodegradable munitions and stuff.

Neighborhood Captains would lead the drive to obtain Pledges in their individual cluster, apartment building, or, in the case of single family homes, local neighborhoods. The Reston Association, Reston Town Center Association, ARCH (the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners), and WATCH (the Working Alliance of Town Center Homeowners) have volunteered to distribute Captain’s Kits throughout their e-mail lists in an effort to support the Forum’s goals.

Nice try, Ivan. You can rummage through my compost pile when you pry my Whole Foods-procured earth turner from my cold dead hands!

Actually, the pledge doesn't sound so draconian. The fancy "captain's kit" (PDF) shares a list of 12 easy things to do to be sustainable, including turning stuff off when you're done with them, recycling, carpooling, monitoring your car's tire pressure, planting a native tree, visiting the ole' farmers market, and, of course, everyone's favorite, installing a rain barrel (so long as you don't fall afoul of the DRB guidelines, of course). You don't even have to wear a cardigan, as Jimmy Carter once urged us to do. And besides, who's going to check and make sure you're not boiling seal blubber as an appertif, so long as those tins of I Can't Believe It's Not Ocelot(tm) wind up in the recycling bin?

So let's all be captains and inform on encourage each other to be more sustainable! Or at least go sign the pledge here before there's a knock on the door in the dead of night from a friendly neighbor.

Actually, the pledge is not necessarily a bad idea, but it's so... Reston-y. We have ways.. of making you recycle.

Bummer: SLHS Principal Retiring

Sad news: South Lakes High School Principal Bruce Butler is retiring at the end of the school year.

He announced his decision in a letter to parents and students on Monday.

Butler began his career in education as an earth science teacher at Herndon High in 1981. He was named assistant principal at Herndon High in 1993, then moved to South Lakes as an assistant principal in 1998. He was named principal of South Lakes in June 2005.

By all accounts, Butler changed the climate at South Lakes, which had, at times, been less than stellar before he became principal. He also saw the school through a contentious redistricting process that, among other things, generated the most incontrovertible argument ever about the evils of redistricting, in convenient toy form, largely by setting an example for students and faculty that enabled them to ignore some pretty unbelievable attacks on the school by entitled Oakton parents future Seahawks. He even managed to get windows for the school, which was built without them for some reason known only to school architects of that era.

Fairfax County will soon hold a community meeting to garner feedback on Butler's replacement. We'd encourage county school officials to find someone committed to the mission statement in the fancy image above.

Angry Nerds: RA Board Gets Fancy iPads

As befits a homeowners association in the "Dulles Technology Corridor," the Reston Association Board is moving into the 21st century, spending our annual assessments creating a paperless, Internet-friendly governance model by using fancy new iPads on which board members will electronically review DRB violations and other fun things, and maybe only just occasionally project manic-depressive avians towards unprocessed pork products. Um, huzzah?

RA will be giving iPads to members of the board of directors. It will cost the organization more than $10,000, but will save money in the end, RA spokeswoman Amelia Townsend says.

Though the price tag for the Pads is $10,333, the annual cost to deliver materials to board members drops to $4,726 – an annual savings of $8,964, Townsend says.

“iPads are a versatile tool that allows Board members to review minutes and materials, communicate with members of the community and be more efficient and prepared for doing the work of the Association,” she said, pointing out that saving money and better using technology is in keeping with several of RA's 2012-2016 Strategic Plan goals.

Will the board members have to wait in line for hours to get their iPads?

To be fair, all kinds of organizations have switched from giant paper binders to iPads as a cost-saving measure that actually wound up saving money. And since Reston is the "city of trees," we should all be happy that fewer of them will be sacrificed for the codification of all our fancy regulations. But we can still imagine how the unique technological features of the iPad will be put to use "doing the work of the Association":

Of course, the joke will be on us when DRB Something becomes the best-selling iPad app of all time, the end.

As the Potential Silver Line Phase 2 Funding Meltdown Continues in Slow Motion, Don't Worry, Keep Clapping

Good morning! Does anyone have an extra $300 million lying around they could kick in the can for the folks building the Silver Line?

Actually, not to worry. Virginia lawmakers' decision not to pony up the extra $300 million for Metro doesn't mean that Phase 2 of the Silver Line won't be built. It means that Phase 2 of the Silver Line will be built, and the difference will be made up by even higher tolls on the Toll Road. It's a win-win, at least if you don't have a car or hate quarters.

Now Loudoun County is a different story. Loudoun supervisors' dithering about funding their share of the Silver Line has already delayed preliminary bids for the project, and they could derail it altogether. This isn't exactly confidence inspiring:

“Everything is so iffy,” said Patrick A. Nowakowski, executive director of the Dulles rail project at MWAA. “If Loudoun pulls out, we’re back to the drawing board. The funding agreement falls apart.”

We're guessing that brilliant last-minute suggestions like this one won't help break this logjam.

There's been a lot of gnashing and wailing of teeth about the much-touted economic benefits of Metro, especially given the economy and trends in office development. However, a "virtual rail-ty tour" (get it?) sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce suggests that even given the sluggish economy, developers are starting to make real moves towards growth around both the planned and the potential Reston stations:

Several commercial real estate and development firms gave an overview Tuesday of projects planned in conjunction with the debut of Silver Line Phase 1—which will run from Tysons Corner to Reston's Wiehle Avenue beginning late 2013. They said there will likely be a development boom in residential, rather than office space.

• JBG office buildings Summit I and II (288,000 square feet of office space) at Sunrise Valley Drive and Edmund Halley Drive, will undergo a $15 million renovation.

• An application to develop a parcel adjacent to Reston Station (where the Reston Mini Storage is now located) is currently under review, said Mark Looney, land use attorney with Cooley.

The proposed mixed-use development near the Wiehle Station (and the planned 1.5 million-square-foot, mixed-use development at Reston Station) will have 175,000 square feet of office space, as well as retail and residential.

• Reston Station will soon break ground on its luxury rental residences, to be called The BLVD.

• Boston Properties is at work on Block 16 (also called "The Avant at Reston Town Center"), a 15-story, 359-unit residential building (with 27,000 square feet of retail) at Reston Town Center (across the park from Vapianos). The project is expected to be completed next year and will feature a rooftop pool and dog area.

Boston Properties also has plans for Reston Gateway, a 22-acre site between the Reston Town Center and the Reston Parkway (Phase 2) Metro station.

"We anticipate a very vibrant, mixed-use development," said Pete Otteni, Boston Properties' vice president of development, "We are not necessarily recreating the Town Center, but connecting Reston Town Center to the Metro."

So the first parallelograms to rise along the Toll Road will be residential, which has got to please the folks who have argued that a larger mix of residential properties among the new development will help with traffic issues. And of course, there's the whole thing about what happens to traffic in Reston if the Silver Line ends at Wiehle Avenue, which, as we've said before, would bring traffic to an utter standstill as Loudoun cut-through commuters vie Mad Max-style for the last spot in the Reston Station parking garage not be good. So we have a vested reason for hoping that the folks in Loudoun see reason. Keep clapping, kids!

But not to worry, because pro-rail folks in Loudoun made this fancy faux-viral YouTubes video, thereby all but ensuring swift and speedy approval of any and all money needed for the project. It's interesting, but maybe not for the reasons its makers intended.


Note that every scene is shot in some hellish mega strip-mall that makes Reston Spectrum look quaint and homey by comparison -- including one particularly horrific shot of a parking lot that appears to be the size of a modest inland sea. This particleboard nirvana is what Loudoun is so worried about preserving?

(Counterpoint: Wegmans!)

Update: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is now taking the involved parties to the woodshed, which actually sort of worked the last time thing things were looking a bit iffy for the project. Also, it turns out that Phase 1 of the Silver Line will come in $150 million over budget -- or 600,000,000 quarters short, in the parlance of Toll Road fees. But hey, who's counting?

On the YouTubes: The Action McNews Team Wishes Bob Simon a Happy 98th

Please to be enjoying this exciting video from one of the Action McNews Teams, who shouted at Bob Simon all the way from their fancy studios downtown as part of the coverage of his 98th birthday and Founder's Day. We especially enjoyed Simon's dis of the "huge, mausoleum-type houses" that have been built elsewhere cough cough Loudoun County, though we think the ActionMcNews anchor should be summarily flogged for the use of the hokey phrase "98 years young," eccch, the end.

Airplane Carrying Space Glider Flies Near, If Not Directly Over, Reston

This Twitter photo from an office in Reston captures the excitement of Space Shuttle Discovery's DC flyover. Here's a better one of Discovery buzzing Reston Town Center from the teevee:

This photo from the Twitters was taken from one of those same buildings. Nice!

Of course, the nerds safety-conscious staff of some of Reston's office buildings had to spoil the fun:

And in a RESTONIAN WORLD EXCLUSIVE, please enjoy this breathtaking footage of the shuttle landing:

Flashback Monday: For Want of a Sewer, a Town Was Lost

This exciting photo from the Reston Museum shows the drunken village of Wiehle in the 1950s. If you just removed the railroad crossing signs and added some spandex-clad cyclists zipping across Old Reston Avenue with total disregard for life and property, it could have been taken today.

A recent Reston Historic Trust lecture shed some new light on what led a German doctor to decide to build a planned community in the hills of Virginia a century before homicidal nudist colonists and New Town devotees moved into the neighborhood. Turns out land was cheap out in them thar hills.

“Land was just beginning to become expensive in Washington at that time,” said [historian Karen Washburn]. “The recovery of Northern Virginia after the Civil War, on the other hand, was very, very slow. Land was cheap and people were willing to sell.”

According to Washburn, Wiehle formed a partnership in 1886 with Gen. William McKee Dunn to buy 6,450 acres of heavily forrested land in Fairfax along the railroad in the area (today located near Sunset Hills Road) for about $20,000, or about $4 per acre.

“Believe it or not, that really wasn’t a great bargain back then,” she said.

Washburn said the land later was equally divided between Wiehle and Dunn — who later developed the area today known as Dunn Loring.

Have you been to Dunn Loring? Wiehle got the better deal.

Wiehle took the 3,228 acres north of the railroad tracks, where he eventually built his own home, a post office and a town hall. In 1892, he hired a German city planner to draw up plans for the town of Wiehle, which was to include 800 residences laid out along a grid of streets and avenues named after famous locales, such as New York and Paris.

“Much like Reston today, he envisioned the area as a planned community where people could work, play and live, and to be able to do it in a healthy way,” Washburn said. “Washington at that time was pretty unhealthy and there were frequent outbreaks of Cholera and other communicable diseases within the city.”

But according to Washburn, only 12 of Wiehle’s 800 planned residential lots were ever sold —and, of those, only about half ever had homes built on them. Only one remains today, and is privately owned.

That would be this place, which was recently on the market.

Flash forward to 1961, when Bob Simon saw the contiguous chunk of land that would someday become Reston--and realized something that has affected Reston's governance ever since:

“I knew that he had tried to set up a town and so I looked at his ideas for it. I discovered that if we tried to use the same license for setting up a new town, Fairfax County would not give us access to sewer hookups, so we instead just became part of the county.”

That's right: For want of sewer hookups, Reston didn't become Res-Town.

First Triffids, Now Eerie Glowing Squares: The Public Art Invasion Continues

While this appears to be the result of a black ops warplane accidentally jettisoning its payload over Lake Anne on its way to an undisclosed location, it's actually Art, with a capital A. What looks like a bunch of glowing squares is actually an exploration of "individual and collective acts of building and un-building, measuring and marking space, and the fluidity and mutability of both water and bodies." Alrighty then!

A "site-situated installation and contemporary dance performance conceived by architect Ronit Eisenbach and dance artist Sharon Mansur, inspired by the history of the planned community of 1960s New Town of Reston, Virginia and the sculpture and architecture of Lake Anne Plaza," Out of Place debuts at 7:30pm next Saturday, April 28. The floaty glowy things will remain in the water through May 13. Co-sponsored by Reston Community Center, the Initiative for Public Art – Reston, Friends of Lake Anne and the Reston Museum, here's what to expect:

The dance performance, a duet featuring Mansur and longtime collaborator Daniel Burkholder, will take place on Lake Anne Plaza and will last for a half hour as daylight fades, activating the plaza through human actions and interactions, and drawing Eisenbach’s constellation of floating frames and tensile lines across the water. At night, the sun’s harnessed energy will transform these elements to create a landscape of luminous, hovering color in the lake. The installation will linger in the quay until May 13th delighting viewers with the memory of the duet—an architecture of situation marking temporal rhythms and reframing place.

Actually, it looks pretty cool. Like the Town Center Triffids, it's exciting to see that Reston is continuing its tradition of cutting-edge, if at times baffling (Serious Art Critics would instead say "challenging"), public art.


We, for one, welcome our artistic overlords.

Fairway to Heaven: Not With a Bang But a Whimper, Redevelopment Project Finally Approved By Fairfax County

After (literally) years of back and forth, JBG has finally won approval from Fairfax County to redevelop the Fairway Apartments complex into an 805-unit development. The Board of Supervisors approved the request earlier in the week, at the same meeting it recommitted itself to funding the second phase of Metro's Silver Line. Together, the two projects paint a picture of where Reston may be headed.

Up until the bitter end, Reston residents and county officials expressed concerns about a variety of issues, most recently the amount of workforce housing included in the project. But ultimately, approval came with a whimper, not a bang:

The vote had been postponed at a March 20 BOS meeting, where Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins asked the supervisors to defer decision pending further review of the developer's plan for workforce housing.

However, the issue of workforce housing - developer JBG has pledged 12 percent of the 805 units - did not come up as a development condition on Tuesday.

What was mentioned was a reduction in loading area spaces, underground storm water management and pavement changes. Also not listed were developer proffers, which could be valuable contributions to improve Reston recreational facilities.

Because the redevelopment is not a rezoning, JBG is not required to provide any certain level of workforce housing.

Which they didn't at first, though to be fair they now have. JBG also gave up plans for a 15-story mauvescraper, ugly parking structures, ground-level retail that could have competed with Lake Anne Plaza, taller townhouses -- and, of course, the infamous yet delicious Texas Donut design. Most of these changes came due to a fairly tenacious push by the Reston Design Review Board, which approved the project in principle back in February, winning concessions that other groups -- cough cough Reston P&Z cough cough Fairfax County Planning Commission cough cough -- did not.

That this is a sign of things to come can be seen by other actions taken by Fairfax County, which is currently seeking bids to redevelop its Crescent Apartments property on the other side of Lake Anne in an attempt to jumpstart the long-stalled redevelopment plans there. Here's what Supervisor Cathy Hudgins had to say about the Fairway approval:

"This plays a major role in the redevelopment of Lake Anne," Hudgins, a longtime resident of the Lake Anne neighborhood said at the March 20 meeting. "We needed a larger participation of residents in order to provide the synergy in redeveloping Lake Anne village Center. The density being provided is part of the plan. The most important part - people will be able to continue to live in Lake Anne with the same commitment that was made in the beginning of Reston."

We're supportive of higher density redevelopment in the places in Reston where it makes sense. But the Fairways project shows how important it is to stay on top of proposals as they slowly work their way through the pipeline.

Will 'Reston West - Herndon, Not Herndon' Become the '54-40 or Fight' of Western Fairfax County? No, Probably Not

Now that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has agreed to fund Phase 2 of the Metro Silver Line, it's time to focus on what's really important: the names of several stations that may never be built once Loudoun County decides to take its ball and bounce it against its own particleboard walls go home.

In a fancy press release, the RA has taken objection to the county's recommendations for the proposed Silver Line station names, which somewhat oddly strip "Tysons" from the name of three of the four stations in "Fairfax County's downtown." Almost like they're embarrassed of that fabulous model of urban planning or something? Closer to home, the county has recommended calling the station that's kind of near Herndon, and no one seems to want in Herndon, "Herndon." Them's fightin' words!

The RA -- or at least one member of its board -- has asked the county to reconsider suggesting the station name "Reston West - Herndon" (we still like the idea of calling it the Polo Fields station). Could this dispute become the "54-40 or Fight" of western Fairfax County? Probably not.

The RA also suggested changes to the other two Reston station names. flipping Wiehle - Reston East to Reston East - Wiehle and changing Reston Town Center to Reston Central. According to the press release:

“The Reston Association believes the names should let riders know they are in Reston,” [RA President Kathleen] Driscoll McKee said.

She added that using Reston as the primary name rather than the street or shopping area appearing first would “clearly identify the location to passengers and station staff.”

Wait a minute -- did the RA president just call Reston Town Center a shopping area? While we agree with the county that Reston Town Center's probably the best name for that station, that means that people can't fault us for calling it a Fake Downtown anymore.

Of course, all of this could be moot, since the Metro board ultimately chooses the names -- and by the time these stations are open, it'll be so broke it'll have to sell the naming rights off to commercial sponsors, just like our state's right-thinking highway system. We can't wait to alight at the Gold Bond Medicated Powder station on the newly renamed We Buy Gold Line to head to Tysons Corner Greensboro Park. (Seriously, WTF?)

Meanwhile, our BFFs at Reston2020 sent Fairfax County supervisors a report with this fancy graph to show what will happen to tolls on the Toll Road:

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Indecision 2012: Rostant, Sanio, Chew Elected to RA Board

Michael Sanio, Donna Miller Rostant, and Richard Chew were all elected to three-year terms on the Reston Association Board of Directors, the RA announced at its annual meeting last might.

With 2,810 votes, Rostant and Saniow (2,707 votes) beat out Eve Thompson, John Farrell, and Tom Vis for the two open at-large seats on the board. Chew, running unopposed for the South Lakes seat, received 1,774 votes.

Leaving the board are current President Kathleen Driscoll McKee, Vice President Paul Thomas, and Vis, an incumbent.

Update: Lake Anne/Tall Oaks Director Ken Knueven was elected president of the RA Board. Andy Sigle was named vice president and Joe Leighton will serve another term as secretary.

Happy 98th Birthday, Mr. Simon, and Thank You For Not Building Your New Town in Staten Island

Not too shabby for a 98-year-old, right?

To celebrate his birthday, we learn a few Fun Facts about Mr. Simon and his plastic fantastic New Town, courtesy of The Washington Post "news paper." Chief among them:

Reston could have unfolded on Staten Island, N.Y., instead of some hills way outside Washington, D.C. Simon said he bought an abandoned airport and surrounding land in the heart of Staten Island and began drawing up plans for ”Downtown Staten Island” there, but eventually dropped those and focused on his Virginia project.

Good call.

Simon also had a few choice words about the sale of Carnegie Hall, which as we all know in Reston's ur-creation mythology, helped finance the purchase of land outside a drunken village in the Virginia countryside:

Simon’s family owned Carnegie Hall for 35 years, and Simon himself ran it for 25 years until it fell on hard times in the late 1950s. When no one stepped up to buy it, the threat of the wrecking ball emerged until violinist Isaac Stern led an effort that resulted in New York City’s buying the famed venue in 1960.

I had read somewhere that perhaps he had gotten some bad press around that time, and asked Simon if the papers had misrepresented him. ”No,” he said unhesitatingly, “but Stern did. That son of a bitch.”

Oh, snap! Simon's equally open about the mistakes Reston has made:

He said Reston made “two major mistakes” in the evolution of its Reston Association, which manages the parks and facilities for the unincorporated town. Though his New York consultants had studied homeowners associations, they assessed flat fees per home, rather than based on the value of each home, and they did not require non-residential buildings to pay fees. In addition, he said the Reston Town Center was allowed to divorce itself from the Reston Association when it was being developed, so its residents do not pay the fees. “Good-bye millions of dollars,” Simon said.

He's also pessimistic about the arrival of Metro, and along with more high density housing around the original village centers, he thinks Reston still needs a university, an arts auditorium, and indoor tennis.

Mr. Simon also spoke with the folks at the Post about his unwavering vision for "smart growth":

My idea was that we should have plazas because they build communities. And my successors decided that they would rather have strip centers. And they thought that it was necessary, for it to be successful from a retail perspective, for cars to park in front of stores.

On the impact of Metro:

If there’s not a major bus improvement to get people to the stations, I wonder how much it will do. I don’t think it’s going to revolutionize Reston at all … I hope that what it will lead to is that they will tear down the [strip] village centers and replace them with real village centers with high-rise residential.

On the future of Reston:

We had originally planned for 75,000 residential people. We don’t have quite 60 [thousand] yet. The other thing is when we were planning back in the ’60s, there was no “Silicon Valley East.” We’re now in the center of “Silicon Valley East.” So what I see for the future is a lot more employment and a lot more residential and I see the population going over 100,000. And it should go in the town center and in the village centers.

Happy birthday, Mr. Simon -- and thanks again for giving Staten Island a pass.

Update: Here's a link to Reston Patch's own conversation with Simon.

Flashback Monday: Dairy Farmers, Hucksters and $10 Rents in the Proto-Reston of the 1940s

From the newly released 1940 U.S. Census, please to be enjoying this fancy map of what would eventually become Reston. Our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, recently dove into the newly released Census records for the area that would become everybody's favorite earth-toned community. Here is what he found:

Channeling his inner PBS History Detective persona, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston took a leap backwards in the space-time continuum via the just-released 1940 U.S. Census to discover...that there was no South Reston back then! Nor even a sought after North Reston! Our earth-toned wonderland-to-be was just a twinkle in 25-year old Bobby Simon's eyes. Now, none of this is news to anyone even remotely familiar with our area's not so distant past, but The Peasant discovered that this census count offers a fascinating snapshot of an America simultaneously on the brink of entering a world war yet living in a much simpler time.

Through navigational skills finely honed by trying to find the correct lane on the Dulles Toll Road to enter the inner loop of the Beltway, we successfully locate the right "enumeration district", as it's called in Census-speak, for our part of NoVa. District 30-8 encompasses the area bounded by Loudoun County on the west, Rt. 50 on the south, Difficult Run on the east, and Rt. 7 on the north. 43 pages of census records at 40 persons per page...using our advanced placement math skills, we realize this entire area had only about 1,700 residents back then -- fewer than will live just in the redeveloped Fairway apartments. Studying the map of District 30-8, it soon becomes obvious that the area where we now live, work, play, and pay ever higher RA assessments contained in 1940 only a handful of homes centered around the drunken village of Wiehle. (No homicidal nudist colony to be found on the map, alas). Indeed, the entire district was obviously a rural community with the vast majority of its inhabitants living on farms.

As we scan the individual records for 30-8, some trends appear. The area was so rural that houses did not have street numbers, and the census identified those streets only by their three-digit numbers (673 for Lawyers Road, 608 for Ox Road, etc.) And speaking of houses, no real estate bubble back then. Most houses were worth between $1,000 and $3,000 -- barely enough to cover a walk-in closet in today's McMansion -- and monthly house rents for the non-landed gentry were between $10 and $15.

It was a time when people held honest jobs. It was udderly fascinating to see that just about every other person in ED 30-8 appeared to work on a dairy farm. Other salt of the earth jobs included carpenters, coal deliverymen, laborers, and the like. Not a single lifestyle coach, lobbyist, spinmeister, flack, or hack. For a fleeting second we thought we saw an exception to the rule when a certain Mr. W. Garner Haines living on Rt. 602 listed his profession as "huckster", but no, he didn't peddle half-truths; he sold...produce.

And finally, for those Restonian readers who wonder how to break teenagers of their electronic gadget addiction or motivate them to go out and earn some honest money, the following may be instructive. When Junior complains how hard it is to shovel snow in the cold or mow a lawn in the summer heat to earn some $$$, tell him about 16-year old Joseph Stotts and his family of wood cutters who lived on Lawyers Road. His father and two older brothers each earned between $400 and $500 of annual income in 1940. Young Joey, meanwhile, pulled in $296 for 12 weeks of work -- but he fully deserved every cent of the $5 a day he earned for his backbreaking summer job of excavating a basement.

Somehow, whipping up a grande soy caramel macchiato at the local Starbucks just doesn't seem to fall in the same league, or even the same universe.

But what did our favorite earth-toned community look like? Please to be enjoying this photo from the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection at Indiana University.

Looks like the invasive plant problem was already in full bloom (rimshot).

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a 1940s-era Loudoun commuter on his way to work from his particleboard McMansion farmhouse:

He's apparently unaware that the Wiehle Avenue Metro garage won't be open for another 73 years, the end.

Who is This Mystery Man? Yet Another Reston Graffiti Whodunit

Sometimes graffiti is unambiguously and disturbingly clear in its messages to its intended audience. However, following a recent baffling installation at the Home Depot playground, we've been seeing variations of this poster in locations all over Reston. These particular specimens were defacing a piece of much earlier -- and officially sanctioned -- public art, quite possibly called Oblong Concrete Pointy Thing, at the Lake Anne underpass. Other posters in other locations have included arcane symbols like $$$ and 6-6-6 (hopefully not a variation of our modest suggestion for a 9-9-9 plan for Reston). Any thoughts on what all this might mean? Whatever it is, it couldn't be more confounding than this blast from the past, the end.

On The YouTubes: We Watch the Reston Association Videos So You Don't Have To

Andy Sigle and his dulcet tones take their lives in their hands as Sigle saunters across the on-ramp to the Toll Road in the opening moments of this, the April edition of RA Today. Gesturing at the Great Hole of Reston behind him, Sigle promises, "we'll find out who's under some of those hard hats."

Sadly, what follows is not the long-anticipated Village People reunion. Instead, we get contractors toiling away on "the largest single construction project this side of the Mississippi." At the moment, 250-300 tradesmen -- a term we love -- are on site every day, working to pour 2.8 million tons of concrete. Check out the MOVING GIANT BUCKET spewing wet concrete at about 1:50 -- it's FREAKIN' SWEET.

"We're still hauling dirt out of this big hole," one of the guys under a hard hat says -- and all told, 500,000 cubic yards of dirt have been hauled out of the Great Hole, which ought to be enough to put down in all those fancy new parks we're supposed to be getting.

Then Andy moves to the side of the W&OD, telling us about the benefits of bicycling as spandex-clad speed demons cyclists zip by. We also catch a familiar glimpse of pedestrians stranded in the median where the trail crosses Wiehle Avenue as traffic zips by. We hope that with all the bollardy goodness cropping up around it, someone shells out a few bucks to build a bridge or a tunnel for the W&OD at that intersection. Perhaps that was in the Powerpoint.

There's also some stuff about the 5K Nature Fund RunWalk on April 21, an event we wholeheartedly endorse, and then, as abruptly as the video begins, it's over, providing a poignant reminder of the fleeting nature of time and existence even as the flowers blossom and spring arrives with a vengeance. Happy Wednesday!

Reston Master Planners Consider Indoor Tennis, Swimming, Concert Hall, and a Bunch of Other Stuff That May Never Get Built

So what's been doing with the fabulous Reston Master Plan Task Force With an Unpronounceable Acronym (§)? They've just been stone cold considering a bunch of new parks and indoor facilities, is all.

Members of the Fairfax County Parks Authority, the RA and RCC made a joint presentation on parks, recreation, and culture needs in Reston. (Their fancy Powerpoint is here). It calls for an added 54 acres of open space, parks, another 60 acres of play fields, as well as an indoor aquatics facility, an indoor tennis facility, the memorial garden, and an indoor performance center. Of course, there was no discussion of who would actually foot the bill for these fancy projects, the RA's recent push to receive development proffers instead of the county to build such facilities notwithstanding.

Our BFFs at Reston2020 shared a little of what that conversation sounded like:

One TF member called for a major recreation facility that might incorporate some of the above, perhaps at a Village Center. John Carter also raised the issue of a how a major university center might fit into the picture.

Peter Otteni of Boston Properties (BP) said that the 20 acre BP site adjacent to TC station might be considered for a major performance center, but pointedly commented that BP could not be expected to carry this load by itself. John Carter noted the Strathmore facility in MD cost $90 million. Leila Gordon said she was thinking of $50 million.

$50 million or $90 million -- it's just a rounding error, right?

What was funnier was what R2020 called "cryptic comments" by the presenters:

Anna noted that Reston Town Center North offers a “particular opportunity” because so much of it is county land.

Larry Butler commented that future developments might depend on “where they draw the stable neighborhood lines” in Phase II.

(Cue the eerie X-Files theme whistle.)

We have no doubt that all of these facilities are needed and would help Reston make the transition to a larger, denser community with its most attractive features intact. What's missing, at least as of now, is a plan to actually pay for these facilities and consider them as part of discrete development proposals, which is where the rubber meets the road. Otherwise, we might only get some surplus tetherball poles to go along with our surplus art.

Flashback Monday: Reston, in All Its 8-Bit Glory

Since April Fool's Day fell on a weekend, we didn't subject our readers to one of hilarious "pranks" this year. Fortunately, our BFFs at the Googles helped fill the void, creating an old school version of Google Maps. Confidential Restonian Operative "Joel" sent us this image of what searching for the Macaroni Grill and other midscale dining options might have looked like back in the glory days of the late 1980s, if such dining options were there at the time (they weren't) and Google Maps was available on the NES (it wasn't).