Urban Planning Discussion: "Fixing" NoVA (Outside the Beltway) (Arlington: appointed, how much)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by lchoro

Reston's fine. The Urban Town Center is screwed up. It's essentially an outdoor mall so it devotes almost as much space to parking as it does to space for stores, offices, and apartments. They also never should've built that huge New Domion Parkway that feeds into Fairfax County Parkway and divides the Town Center district in half.

The town center did make a tremendous number of mistakes. For example, why is there a massive surface parking lot across from a low-rise parking garage along Fountain Drive near New Dominion Parkway? Why are there big-box stores and MORE seas of "paved paradise" right next-door in the Spectrum Center? Why are there low-rise apartments right across the street from the town center (I'm talking about the newer ones---not Parc Reston)? Why wasn't a pedestrian overpass built across the dangerous Reston Parkway? Why does the town center cater exclusively to the upper-middle-class? Why are there mostly exclusively CHAINS---are mom-and-pops just largely non-existent on NoVA? If this is our "downtown" then why do most people drive to it? Shouldn't most people be able to WALK to it? Why was our downtown built as an afterthought instead of being planned FIRST with residential areas springing up around it?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by guyincognito

"We" build houses where our government zones a residential area. Will "we" also be demanding tax increases to pay for the infrastructure improvements as we sprawl further and further out? Will "we" be lobbying our congressman to pursue questionable foreign policy objectives when rising energy prices make it too expensive to commute 50 miles into work? Will "we" be outraged when our 1 hour commute in 2009 becomes a 2 hour commute in 2020?

In 2020 commute times will be much worse, and the same people who are now on this forum saying "if it ain't broke; don't fix it" will be the same ones whining and wondering why nothing was done sooner. Our population is predicted to surge in the coming years while there are literally nearly NO major infrastructural improvements planned for the region because the people here will whine about traffic but oppose any tax increases to pay to make things better. This means that existing roadways will be handling the strain of tens of thousands of additional vehicles. Even the Silver Line has been running into tremendous opposition, and whenever I ask one of the opponents what THEY think should be done instead to help alleviate congestion they either don't think there's a problem (crazy) or say "widen the roads." That's an asinine thing to do! All it does is waste open space, encourage speeding, and put a band-aid upon the situation. L.A. has the nation's worst congestion and some of the nation's widest arterials. Obviously merely widening a road by a lane or two doesn't reduce traffic, does it?

Unfortunately in some cases I don't know what, if anything, can be done. At rush-hour it is very dangerous to make a left out of Parc Reston onto Temporary Road or a left from Old Reston Avenue onto Temporary Road most of the time due to the high volume of traffic. Adding a parallel road (which, in Reston, WOULD be named "Parallel Road" due to the lack of sensible street names here) to Temporary Road would be a good quick-fix, but then I started thinking and realized there really isn't another good access point to link Reston Parkway to North Shore Drive because of the curvature of the latter road. What this means is that as Reston's population continues to grow and as congestion increases on two-lane Temporary Road there will be nothing that can be done. The WINDY roads here have really limited what improvements we can make whereas grids offer more opportunities to ease congestion by adding in additional through-streets.

I really don't know what the solution is. People in Ashburn whine about the traffic on Route 7 during their commutes but are likewise shooting themselves in the foot by protesting the proposed toll road hikes that would be a vital source of funding for the Silver Line Metrorail. It seems people here are just masochists (in the outside of the bedroom sense). They'll identify a problem, whine about it, but then when a solution IS presented to them they'll oppose it. There is no such thing as a "free" fix to decades of idiotic urban planning.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by lchoro

There are places, such as Springfield and Fort Meyer, that are urban but still have a lot of warehouses, low-rise office buildings, and decaying shopping strip centers. They should be redeveloping and maximizing existing areas in the manner that Arlington has done over the last 20 years. Even downtown Rosslyn is going to undergo a facelift with 35-story mixed-use skyscrapers replacing the 12-story office buildings.

Not that I'm doubting you, but you've honestly piqued my interest. Can you find a link for me to an article that discusses the skyscraper-fest that is soon to arrive in Rosslyn? That sounds pretty exciting. Most people consider Rosslyn to be the "dull" part of Arlington (along with Shirlington in my eyes, but I digress), so this sounds like it could truly do wonders to enhance its image. I'm excited to learn more about it!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Gottasay

The awful urban sprawl that is Northern Virginia is the result of a federal government that's gotten way too big. Fixing Northern Virginia? I don't think there's a realistic fix. I think if you don't like it, find a city that you can live with. Seems like the cities where there are jobs are usually pretty ugly and congested (not including the standard issue central park feature and historic district) -- this can be said for cities throughout the world. I guess that's why we have retirement to look forward to.

In other words a lot of people are okay with letting the area go downhill in the coming years? Not all of us come to NoVA just to "take the money and run." I still haven't 100% ruled out the possibility as of yet of planting down roots here permanently, raising a family, and becoming a very good citizen here, which is why I get so ANGRY during my weekly country runs when I see more trees coming down out in Loudoun County for more McMansions that will put more SUVs on my bumper along Route 7 while I drove recently along a stretch of Route 50 through Annandale that looked like Tijuana. If many of the current existing "built-up" parts of NoVA are NOT being fully realized to their fullest potential, then why not start there first before automatically increasing the footprint of the area? Why not focus first on brownfield redevelopment instead of letting these areas sit and rot?

I have seen a dead deer lying at the western gateway of Tyson's Corner along Route 7 for two days in a row now en route to work. It is just another sad reminder of how places like Tyson's Corner could EASILY be revamped to house tens of thousands of more people while leaving the open space of Loudoun County (what's left of it) unscathed.

[Alicia Bradley]

Scran, unlike a lot of the others here, I think you'd be *far* happier in the long run if you cut your losses and got out of here - I'd do the same if I could. (Obviously, though, you wouldn't want to move an inch without having another job lined up first.) At the very least, you're probably a lot less naive now about your own preferences and the reality of D.C. metro (and hence would probably make a better choice re: where to live next time around).

I dunno if you mentioned that you'd be visiting Chicago in this thread or another one, but I think you'll love it. Comparing the Chicago and D.C. metro areas in terms of urban planning is, well, just depressing, if you're stuck living in the latter. I actually think Chicagoans can be a bit more stuck-up than D.C.-area folks (especially in the most swoon-worthy neighborhoods), though, so be prepared for it. (The attitude and the cold are reasons I could never move back there permanently.)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Alicia Bradley

Scran, unlike a lot of the others here, I think you'd be *far* happier in the long run if you cut your losses and got out of here - I'd do the same if I could. (Obviously, though, you wouldn't want to move an inch without having another job lined up first.) At the very least, you're probably a lot less naive now about your own preferences and the reality of D.C. metro (and hence would probably make a better choice re: where to live next time around).

I dunno if you mentioned that you'd be visiting Chicago in this thread or another one, but I think you'll love it. Comparing the Chicago and D.C. metro areas in terms of urban planning is, well, just depressing, if you're stuck living in the latter. I actually think Chicagoans can be a bit more stuck-up than D.C.-area folks (especially in the most swoon-worthy neighborhoods), though, so be prepared for it. (The attitude and the cold are reasons I could never move back there permanently.)

Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Boston are three major cities I'm still considering for my next relocation. From everything I've studied and observed (and experienced on several visits each to both Pittsburgh and Boston) urban planning in these cities is MUCH better in the suburban areas, for the most part, than in NoVA outside the Beltway. The cost-of-living is also dramatically lower in Pittsburgh, marginally lower in Chicago, and probably about the same in Boston (with WELL-PLANNED AREAS to compensate for it though).

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Can you find a link for me to an article that discusses the skyscraper-fest that is soon to arrive in Rosslyn?

CentralPlace

project was delayed because of recession, but if you go down there they've cleared away the old restaurant and Lynn St. is looking much better than it used to

once again, have no idea why you live in Reston, you are way outside the target demographic for that place

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11

CentralPlace

project was delayed because of recession, but if you go down there they've cleared away the old restaurant and Lynn St. is looking much better than it used to

once again, have no idea why you live in Reston, you are way outside the target demographic for that place

I was originally working in Herndon and thought living in a place like Clarendon or Dupont Circle would have been an unreasonable commute. I was told Reston was the "next best thing." Sadly, I'm still not seeing how Reston can even come CLOSE to comparing to Arlington or DC.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11

CentralPlace

project was delayed because of recession, but if you go down there they've cleared away the old restaurant and Lynn St. is looking much better than it used to

once again, have no idea why you live in Reston, you are way outside the target demographic for that place

Should I be concerned that the web site for RosslynForward has not been updated in well over a year?

[lchoro]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Not that I'm doubting you, but you've honestly piqued my interest. Can you find a link for me to an article that discusses the skyscraper-fest that is soon to arrive in Rosslyn? That sounds pretty exciting. Most people consider Rosslyn to be the "dull" part of Arlington (along with Shirlington in my eyes, but I digress), so this sounds like it could truly do wonders to enhance its image. I'm excited to learn more about it!

The area around the Rosslyn metro is being redeveloped as Rosslyn Central Place. Those buildings will be 30 stories. Within walking distance of the same station, garden apartments are being replaced with high-rise apartments. The first project is supposed to spur revitalization of Rosslyn.

Under Construction | Rosslyn BID & Rosslyn Renaissance

DC Metrocentric » Rosslyn Central Place

DC Metrocentric » Rosslyn Central Place Interiors