Reston: Apparently Only Semi-Super

Well, well, well. The Washington Post ran a fancy article over the weekend about "Super Zips" -- neighborhoods with high incomes and outsize numbers of college degree holders. Turns out that of Reston's three Zip codes, only two are sufficiently super to make the list. With a paltry median income of only $92,830, poor old 20190 -- which includes our purportedly tony fake downtown gritty urban core -- along with Herndon, Chantilly, and (shudder) Sterling, Just Won't Do, according to Census data. "The 20194," as the kids today certainly don't call it, with its median income of $133,549, does get the Super Zip tag, though it pales in comparison to the Zip code to the north, "Great" Falls, where the median income is nearly $200,000. South Reston's median income of $105,540 also nudges it over the Super Zip threshold, though only 63 percent of its denizens hold college degrees, compared to 66 percent in poor-intensive 20190 and 72 percent in 20194.

Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at the Post:

A Washington Post analysis of the latest census data shows that more than a third of Zip codes in the D.C. metro area rank in the top 5 percent nationally for income and education. But what makes the region truly unusual is that so many of the high-end Zip codes are contiguous. They form a vast land mass that bounds across 717 square miles. It stretches 60 miles from its northern tip in Woodstock, Md., to the southern end in Fairfax Station, and runs 30 miles wide from Haymarket in Prince William County to the heart of the District up to Rock Creek Parkway.

One in four households in the region are in a Super Zip, according to the Post analysis. Since the 2000 Census on which Murray based his analysis, Washington’s Super Zips have grown to encompass 100,000 more residents. Only the New York City area has more Super Zips, but they are a much smaller share of the total of that region’s Zip codes and are more scattered.

Suck on that, Manhattan! Plus, we have better parking for our midscale chain retail.

Not all is sunshine and light, even for the privileged residents of the 20191 and the 20194. For a community that was predicated on the idea that folks from many different backgrounds and income levels would live together, it sure looks like were moving away from that piece of the Reston ideal:

Zip codes are large swaths of territory, and people from many different walks of life live in them. But many Washington neighborhoods are becoming more economically homogenous as longtime homeowners move out and increasing housing prices prevent the less affluent from moving in. The eventual result, in many cases, is a Super Zip. And because the contiguous Super Zips are surrounded by areas that are almost as well-off, it’s possible to live in a Super Zip and rarely encounter others without college degrees or professional jobs.

It's not just Reston where this is happening, but if you consider Reston not just another DC suburb, it's something to think about.

Reston, or at Least Its Midscale Chain Retail, Makes the Small Screen

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the teevee, Reston played a not-quite-starring role on the hit NBC series James Spader Is Creepy The Blacklist earlier this week. A Confidential Restonian Operative with a working remote tells us that after a terrorist attack on the pre-Silver Line Metro system in D.C., one of the CIA agents investigating the attack talks about "picking up a nice outfit in Reston." Yes, word of our exciting midscale chain retail options has even reached Hollywood, folks, though we can't wait until a network teevee show features a climactic scene in which some key DNA evidence is stored in just the right container from another prominent Reston retailer.

Maybe it's not quite as exciting as Reston's recent starring role in a major motion picture, but it'll do until our own home-grown movie receives the accolades it so richly deserves, the end.

Shocker: Alien Artifact Materializes in South Reston

Our favorite correspondent, the Peasant from Less Sought After South Reston, checks in with this disturbing cellular telephone photograph. He writes:

Proof positive now exists that a multi-dimensional vortex of paranormal energy is emanating from the intersection of Twin Branches and Glade in Less Sought After South Reston.  Alert Restonian readers might remember this was the exact same spot where, several years ago, our own version of the Beast of Berwickshire lay sprawled across the roadway after apparently gnawing its way to freedom out of the RA's Penal Re-Education Colony for Wayward Beavers farther upstream.  And now we have this...alien artifact...gracing our roadway.
 
So many theories to ponder:
 
1)  Could this be the version 2.0 personal mobility vehicle of Spielberg's loveable alien botanist ET, who has returned to Earth to check out how the reforestation of the Glade streambed is going?
 
2)  Is it IPAR's newest high-falutin' art installation, stylistically representing a vowel-less Vanna White's wheel of misfortune?
 
3)  Given the VW logo on the tire, is it battle debris just now uncovered from the final offensive of the Wehrmacht's little-remembered Northern Virginia campaign?
 
4)  Or, perhaps most intriguing of all, is this a prototype of a new mass transit option for Restonians that will render redundant the Fairfax Connector?  On opening day of our glorious Silver Line, we envision hordes of local commuters wheeling down to Wiehle from all points of the compass on these hipster-inspired unicycles in a procession of thousands led by Dear Leader Bob, CEO Cate, Supervisor Cathy, and VDOT Engineer Randy.
 
On second thought, what with this mysterious artifact having materialized the weekend before Election Day, we conclude that in fact it was subliminal political advertising.  We just are not sure whether it represented the sum total of what Terry McAuliffe was able to sell to Cuba on his trip there, Ken Cuccinelli's transportation plan for Virginia, or a desperate cry for help from Robert Sarvis to be taken seriously.

Rumors that this was merely the remnants of a car accident proved too far-fetched to take seriously.

Indecision 2013: SHOCKING Voter Suppression Unearthed at South Lakes

Forget hanging chads. Forget dead people voting. As the bellwether Virginia governor's race between whazzhisname, that creepy guy, and whazzhisname, that other creepy guy, (and also the libertarian) drew to a close, the vast political machines would stop at nothing to Subvert the Public's Will. Observe this shocking cellular telephone photo taken by Confidential Restonian Operative "Mary Anne" outside of the South Lakes High School polling place, and heed her chilling first-person account:

I wished my spousal unit included South Lakes High School on the right in the photo. But this sign was aimed the wrong way -- we immediately thought, "Aha! Voter Suppression!"

Spousal unit got out of the car and fixed the sign. 

And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Dead Weight: Golds Gym Opening Another Blow to Tall Oaks

From the sudden closing of midscale chain eatery Chammps to the new ownership of its fitness center, it's been a busy month for signmakers at Plaza America. But Gold's Gym's move to take over operations of the former Fitness First is an apparent blow to one of Reston's older, more stucco-y, town centers.

You see, for more than a year, the rumor was that Gold's was going to move into the anchor spot at Tall Oaks Stucco Wasteland Shopping Center. This was never confirmed, but it was well known that Gold's was planning to expand to Reston. But apparently Tall Oaks' vacant spot, most recently the home of two short-lived international grocery stores selling sexist bread, Didn't Do. Who knows, maybe they were frightened by the lingering spirit of "Susie de los Santos".

It's now been nearly three years since Tall Oaks has had an anchor tenant. Not even 7-11 or Burger King could make a go of things there, and smaller tenants have left in recent years, although the village center is still home to a couple of Reston's finest, non midscale chain eateries.

So what exactly is going on? As RCC began exploring other potential locations for its planned indoor recreation center, Tall Oaks' management company apparently told them they're not interested in selling, according to our BFFs at Reston Now. With master planners possibly making a (long delayed) shift to focus on the existing village centers, they may just be biding their time, waiting to build a more modern midscale model of bollardy goodness. But that hasn't stopped other, more container-intensive stores from opening in spots whose days are already officially numbered.

All we know is three years is a long time for a major eyesore vacancy in a spot soon to be within walking distance of a Metro station, the end.

Flashback Monday: At Hunters Woods, a Sign of the Times

Strap on your seat belts as we set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to the 1970s, where we are greeted by.... this as we materialize in the parking lot of the Hunters Woods Village Center. In previous Flashbacks, we've spent quite a bit of time in this center, from its humble origins to its pre-strip mall incarnation to its once-lively pedestrian mall. But this is the first time that we've focused on the sign that coaxed wary Restonians into the exciting faux-streetscape adventure that awaited them once they left their VW campers in the parking lot.

We've definitely got some pretty sweeeet application of earth-toned wood stain going on here, in several attractive shades of "wood." Those vaguely phallic thingies on the left are both accentuated by notches -- much like those on the bedposts of many a swingin' single from that era. The smaller wooden blocks must have invited the youngest Restonians to play on and around the sign, perhaps explaining why the grass is mostly gone. We dig the groovy '70s font and the evocative use of a hunting horn, and the one tree in the parking lot reminds of there are "woods" somewhere around, too. All in all, much more creative than the other signage around the corner during that era, the end.

Grading on a Curve: Reston's "D" Master Plan Approved Anyway

For all the talk about how rigorous Fairfax County schools are, the rest of the county apparently grades on a curve.

After our BFFs at the Reston Citizens Association gave the current draft of the Reston Comprehensive Plan a "D" for a variety of reasons, the Master Plan Task Force with an Unprononcable Acronym (¶) voted to send it along to the Fairfax County Planning Commission just the same. The RCA voted against approving the draft, but the Reston Association and the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners (ARCH) both voted "yes."

In a fancy "web log" post, RCA President Colin Mills called the decision -- and the work of the Task Force writ large -- "a failure of process."

The Task Force had to hold a rushed vote, because the Planning Commission deadline was a ticking clock, and everyone is so sick of the process that many members were probably grateful just to pass something and move on.

I can understand that. And I can understand and respect those (including the representatives from RA and ARCH) who voted “yes” because they wanted to lock in the positive things in the plan, or felt it was the best they could get. And there were positives in the plan: after our successful joint community forum, County staff listened to our concerns, and addressed some of them, especially on environmental issues. I’m proud of the collaboration with RA and ARCH, and I think we made the plan better than it would have been otherwise.

But transportation and parks & rec have been two of RCA’s biggest issues with the plan, ones that we’ve been concerned about for years now. And we weren’t satisfied with where the plan ended up on those issues.

The master plan draft now goes to the Planning Commission and then the Board of Supervisors for approval, and the RCA says it will continue to advocate for changes:

We at RCA are going to continue pushing for the changes that we feel are important, and our colleagues at RA and ARCH have vowed to do the same. It will likely be a more uphill battle at this stage, but we’re not going to let that dissuade us.

Good.

The result is disappointing for many reasons, but chief among them is what might happen going forward. Remember that these four-plus years of work have yielded this highly imperfect plan that will guide development in Reston going forward, but primarily development around the new Metro stations. The much thornier question about what to do with the existing village centers hasn't really been touched yet, and those conversations are likely to be much tougher. It's one thing to plop an awesome mauvescraper down near other dense buildings; it's another altogether to plop one in the middle of an existing neighborhood, even if the current stucco strip mall awesomeness there now isn't doing so well.

That work has already been long-delayed, so some of the same time pressures that drove this week's decision will come into play as different stakeholders weigh in. Let's hope those conversations don't end with another failure of process -- or, in this case, a "D" of process, the end.

(If you've got nothing else to do this weekend, you can peruse the full 139-page 9th version of the draft here.)