As RA Election Season Draws To A Close, Voting Cracks the Two-Digit Barrier

You, valued voter Reston property owner and/or renter, have until Monday to cast your votes in this year's climactic Reston Association Board of Directors election.

And despite a bit of hubbub about this year's election -- "multiple resignations" from the RA election committee! Delayedballotgate! Slategate! Accusations of campaign observers going off the rails! -- the turnout to date doesn't look like it's setting the world on fire.

According to the most recent RA quorum tally, as of March 23, between 11 and 14 percent of eligible households had returned ballots, depending on the race. Three weeks in last year, turnout was between 10 and nearly 18 percent depending on the race; when all was said and done the final turnout wound up at around 19 percent. Unless there's a Mauvetober surprise, it's not looking like we're going to get the massive turnout these actually contested races deserve.

As in a couple of rocky RA elections in the past, there's been a lot of heat on online forums -- but it remains to be seen if these discussions percolate up from beyond the relatively small number of people who keep slinging accusations back and forth at each other. What's worse is that all the noise has made it hard for even filthy "web loggers" like ourselves to sort through the noise and make an informed decision.

That's unfortunate, as the stakes are particularly high this year. Fairfax County has, at least for now, tabled its proposed density changes for Reston zoning (although it's worth pointing out that the road cutting across two holes of the Hidden Creek Country Club golf course that mysteriously appeared on county plans ahead of the golf course being bought by a company that coincidentally happens to develop residential complexes and also coincidentally bought the neighboring Charter Oaks apartments was reaffirmed as necessary by the county as recently as yesterday):

An attempt to remove the road connection between American Dream Way and Isaac Newton Square — a mapped road across Hidden Creek County Club — was also not favored by staff. The option for the road is necessary to reduce congestion at the intersection of Sunset Hills Road and Wiehle Avenue, county staff said.

We need the RA to step up as much as possible in the months and years to come, and a turnout higher than 19 percent will help its board do just that.

Voting closes at 5pm Monday; we'll learn who the winners are at a RA meeting April 10.

Fake News Misreports, Does Not Mar, South Lakes Student Walkout

As the second student walkout in the wake of the Parkland tragedy unfolded today, Reston was on the national teevee news! Well, sort of:

Students at South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia walk out of their classrooms to protest for stricter gun laws as part of #NationalWalkoutDay. https://t.co/JuOWURifIL pic.twitter.com/zFke7RWbAK

— ABC News (@ABC) March 14, 2018

Only that's not the South Lakes protest. Even an unskilled Krelminologist would notice the conspicuous lack of trees and the normally shaped red-brick houses in the surrounding neighborhood, etc. We even thought we spotted a bit of red mulch in a yard! Totally FAKE NEWS. This was the South Lakes protest:

We appreciate the coverage, but that is not South Lakes. Here are some photos of our walkout in the football stadium for gun safety if you would like. pic.twitter.com/bnaP5ZHoUQ

— SL Young Democrats (@slyoungdems) March 14, 2018

We are proud of our Seahawks for using their voices today and everyday💚💙 pic.twitter.com/bxyhkkbZol

— Slakes Class of 2018 (@SouthLakes2018) March 14, 2018

Lest we forget, South Lakes students have a very real reason to march today -- the school was locked down last week for what was believed to be a very real threat.

The scariest 30 minutes of my life.
I can’t even begin to tell you the flood of relief I had when he told me South Lakes’ lockdown had been released.

We cannot keep standing by any longer. This has to stop. pic.twitter.com/hn6FQDVFh6

— Katie (@_photokat) March 9, 2018

The kids are alright, in more ways than one.

We're #20! Reston Ranks Below Soul-Sucking Exurban Va. Wastelands, Even With Our "Not Overweight" Populace

In our favorite plastic fantastic planned community, the hits don't stop until we get to... somewhere in the middle of the list of Virginia communities.

That's right... Reston was ranked #20 among the best Virginia places to live, according to apparently automated listicle generator Niche.com. Ranked first was Arlington, the place we're all terrified we're about to become, what with its appropriate and carefully planned development around Metro stations (spoiler alert: not likely). That we can live with. But other communities that ranked higher than Reston? Former drive-in Merrifield (#3), exurban particleboard Loudoun wastelands Stone Ridge (#4), Broadlands (#6), South Riding (#7), Ashburn (#13), Cascades (#14) and Landsdowne (#16), I Can't Believe It's Not Herndon! subdivision Franklin Farms (#8) and the I Can't Believe It's Not Franklin Farms! McNair neighborhood (#19), X-rated Brambleton (#10), and the X-rated sounding "Short Pump" (#11), which, just... ick.

Of course, we can blame the eggheads who "crunched the numbers" on such things as "public data sets." We all know life in Reston isn't about the numbers, man! (Except maybe for Pantone codes, but we digress). Fortunately, the folks at Niche also allowed people to write reviews of Reston, and the entries, which generally read like Yelp reviews of a mediocre local drycleaner written by Russian bots and hastily run through Google Translate, really capture the essence of Reston! Just look:

The locals are friendly and non disturbing. Most are not overweight.

Non-disturbing and skinny? Someone pinch us.

Reston va is surrounded by section 8. Crime is everywhere and people are very poor. Almost no one in here owns a car.

Don't tell the folks surrounding us in Oakton and "Great" Falls! We wish no one in Reston owned a car; it would make our dinnertime runs to McTacoHut a lot less stressful.

I no longer wish to raise my daughter here.

Transit-oriented developments: NO GIRLZ ALLOWED.

Gardeners do very well at maintenance with trees and plants. It would be nice if the Reston Association could do something about the colors of the bricks.

They're so... brick colored!

For me the buggiest concern would be little vandalism crimes done by teenagers.

The "buggiest concern" is probably this person's spellcheck.

I also notice the workers in the different restaurants and stores vary not only in age but in race and sex.

"Varying in sex" sounds like something you'd find in 11th rated "Short Pump," ick again, the end.

Past Is Prologue 2018: The RA Election Blog Post We Kept Trying To Put Off Writing

So, (almost) every year when RA elections roll around, we post the usual hilarious Soviet-era posters and complain about how so few of the races are contested, LOL, good Internet jokez gang, how about that boring HOA and its unhealthy fixation on red mulch?

But this year, after various bouts of unpleasantness, all of the open spots on the Reston Association Board of Directors are contested. In fact, a whopping thirteen candidates are running for the four open board seats. And, as has happened in the past when there's been a lot of interest in the RA Board, folks are joining forces to run on reality tevee-like alliances slates. Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

This year, four candidates — Travis Johnson, Sridhar Ganesan, Tammi Petrine and John Bowman — are running on a slate, a choice they said was driven by shared positions on the Tetra purchase and a plan to increase Reston’s population density.

In mailing distributions, four other candidates — Colin Meade, Aaron Webb, Andy Sigle and current South Lakes District Director Julie Bitzer — are running as the “Alliance for a Better Reston.” In mailing distributions, they say they are committed to “implement[ing] Bob Simon’s original vision” for the community.” The alliance’s endorsements include Eve and Rick Thompson, Cheryl Terio-Simon, Bill and Betsy Keefe and others.

Because this filthy "web log" has been around so long that we remember a magical, long-ago time when you had to get to some place called "Falls Church" if you wanted to take the Metro and parking to eat at this other place called "Uno's" was free, we know all this has happened before. Apparently since then, someone decided that it was okay for sitting RA board members to endorse other candidates, which is... fine, really. Frankly, we're mostly just happy that all the tumult of late has turned out multiple people who are actually willing to do this thankless job.

One contentious issue -- the departure of RA CEO Cate Fulkerson -- has already been taken care of by the current board. Yet with that pound of flesh presumably exacted for the Original Sin of purchasing the Leaky Lake House, you'd think the discourse would shift ahead to the many real threats facing Reston, not the least of which is county officials looking at their zoning maps with cartoon-like dollar signs popping out of the empty sockets where their eyes should be while claiming it takes more than a decade to build a humble footbridge even though developers can somehow manage to slap up massive quadrilaterals in a fraction of that time. You would think.

Too much of the RA Board conversation in the past few months has been about relitigating the Tetra purchase (which, full disclosure, we supported assuming somewhere there was a competent adult who might actually understand complex terms like "rotting truss" and "fiduciary responsibility") and not enough about taking an active role in our current problems.

Of course, if you went by the tone and intensity of online comments, you'd think that turnout for this election would be staggering. In reality, it's likely to be... less impressive:

The beleaguered issue of lower voter turnout, which has hovered between 11 and 19 percent over the last four years, belies the importance of the election. RA commands an $18 million budget, funded in part through assessments from property owners.

In recent years, RA has pushed to boost voter turnout. Last year, nearly 19 percent of eligible voters participated in RA’s election for the Board of Directors – departing from a trend where turnout remained around 14 percent the three years prior.

This year, RA’s elections committee hopes to push turnout beyond 20 percent — a goal that Caren Anton, co-chair of RA’s elections committee acknowledges is a somewhat of a low standard.

If fewer than one in five households winds up voting in this election, we'll be curious about what it would take to get turnout above 20 percent in future elections. Maybe tearing down the Leaky Lake House and replacing it with a combination dog park/indoor bocce arena surrounded by paid parking and high-rise workforce housing?

But we digress. Because Restonian Is The Web Log That Cares(tm), we're presenting video from the candidate forums to date, along with this link to all 13 candidate statements (PDF).

Uniformed federal agents should have delivered ballots to your home by now if you're a luddite; online voting began yesterday and runs through April 2. We don't care about slates, or leaky roofs, or much of the other noise that's consuming people at the moment. We just want people to actually focus on what matters most right now, the end.

Windpocalypsmageddon 2018(R)(tm): A Children's Treasury of Cellular Telephone Photos of Stuff Blowing Around Reston (Updated)

Apparently it's a tad gusty outside:

Still life with Reston the last two days. pic.twitter.com/8n7LkxFdKo

— Reston History (@RestonHistory) March 5, 2018

Reston Association staff say windstorm cleanup could take at least one month. https://t.co/C7JZvYxtyw pic.twitter.com/OxC1nWLRnl

— Reston Now (@RestonNow) March 2, 2018

PLEASE STAY OFF PATHWAYS: Staff have encountered many large fallen trees and limbs. These high winds are creating extremely hazardous conditions, walking on the pathways can be life-threatening at this time. #windmageddon #noreaster #Reston pic.twitter.com/XcQTWPE3hq

— Reston Association (@RestonOnline) March 2, 2018

Reston, VA #windmaggedon pic.twitter.com/IBzOt792Ph

— John Schaller (@JohnFSchaller) March 2, 2018

See more by clicking this link.