Gullible Me

Folks, I tend to operate from the perspective that the bureaucrats and politicians that I deal with are honest and civic minded. I hate to give up that assumption despite so many experiences to the contrary.

I have, just this morning, confirmed that Arlington County is encouraging ˜development' of the entire county-owned portion of the Wilson School site. The County owns the FireStation plus the Rosslyn Highlands park. The County plan would have commercial (and residential?) development on both the FireStation and Park portion of the Wilson School site. The main benefit we'd get for the lost greenspace and playspace would be a free firestation.

That's a new and dangerous precedent: ˜development' of a park.

Over the last few years I've received disquieting, but credible reports that County Staff has been talking with developer(s?) about this in closed secret meeetings. Interestingly, those closed secret meetings are considered ˜land negotiations' when County Staff wants to justify why the meetings are exempt from sunshine laws; but they are considered ˜discussions' when County Staff explains them to the public.

At some point the County will have to pull the veil off on this one. I hope that we residents of Rosslyn, plus other civic minded individuals, will speak up at that time.

By the way, let me contrast the County plans for their portion of the Wilson School site, with Arlington Public Schools (APS) plans for their portion of the site. The current APS Board leadership continues to work toward long-term establishment of a primary education facility on the APS-owned portion of the Wilson School site.