So this is where George lived....really?

When is Costco coming to the Highway? Is it before or after Nordstroms?

I love the "other Alexandria" one! Don't like the water view one--we here in lower Huntington HATES water now. :)

Watch out for that bunch of kids running across the middle of the road!
When is that road to Kingstowne going to open?
Why does no one go the speed limit on Route 1?
Why does everything Route 1 touches turn to crap eventually?

How do folks who live on Sherwood Hall Lane get a signal??

I see we are getting more and more motels I guess to accomodate folks coming to Belvoir but where will they eat? We need some good sit down restaurants besides Pema's on our end of the Highway.

You see so many interesting looking people walking along and across Jeff Davis Highway. Too bad the area's dangerously pedestrian-unfriendly.

"everyone considers them the black eye of the county"(to the tune of Kenny Rogers Coward of the County)....enough said!

Broken vehicle strut again?!?! I live on Route One. Oh yeah--that's right.

Where do I insert the token for this game of Frogger?

If Demi, Judd, Ally, Emilio, Rob, etc. lived here, do you think they'd call them the BRAC Pack?

It's what we hear from people in Mount Vernon and the rest of Fairfax outside of the beltway. "Richmond highway is a dump. There's people who don't look like us there. There's people who don't have any money". To me, that diversity and density of Richmond Highway is what makes it great. Those of us that live on the corridor are not without humor or able to take a joke. We've been experiencing them for decades. The supposedly funny remarks listed above are emblematic of the attitudes conveyed through the quoted comments in this post. I love my neighborhood on the strip. We are multicultural with a range of income levels and housing options. We have a strong sense of community and hold block parties and have worked diligently for revitalization along the corridor while many citizens outside of the corridor feel making jokes is more productive than challenging county leaders and elected officials for claims that made over strip shopping centers is revitalization. So keep on cracking on the corridor and reinforcing the stereotype. That's what keeps giving those with power a pass to do nothing substantive to fix the degradation and to implement a real revitalization plan for the corridor from the beltway to Fort Belvoir. I agree with the comment "The traffic at the new Wal-Mart suuuuuuucks." but then so do mean people.

Hi Beth,
I'm all for humor. I'm a regular fan of Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. Humor can be perhaps unintentionally hurtful as well. The plight of people trying to cross Richmond Highway goes as far back in my memory to 1981 when I moved to the area. The number of deaths and the mediocre response from local and state officials to come into the communities and engage the citizens reflects a top down approach to solving this issue that has not worked for the past 3 decades.
How about some creative humor directed at the officials that are failing us on the creation of a more economically vibrant business district, a diversity of housing opportunities, replacement of archaic infrastructure that harms the environment and a pedestrian friendly corridor? Just how many times does the Mount Vernon Supervisor have to take Mount Vernon citizens on a faux bus tour of the corridor and wax eloquent on the potential for a better US 1 without delivering his passengers to that destination?

Beth,
I'll show for the poster session in the multipurpose room but the auditorium presentation is all to predictable. So much so that regular attendees as I have been over the years could parrot the "we're working hard for you" message from county officials and the stops along the "bus tour" will highlight nothing the majority of the citizens don't already know if they read the local papers and follow PATCH of course.
The Supervisor is supposed to unveil the plan for the Visioning Task Force, a hand selected committee by none other than the Supervisor. The Supervisor has virtually ignored the fact that there is/was a grass roots "Special Visioning Committee" of the MVCCA headed by Kahan Dhillon that preceded the Supervisors committee by a year perhaps even more. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then maybe the MVCCA should be proud but my sense is that the Supervisor felt an urgent need to cut the legs off of the MVCCA committee by grandstanding his own hand selected group. Oddly enough some of those picked by the Supervisor were serving on the MVCCA committee. Was the message to them that you will accomplish more by being on his committee? This goes back to my earlier statement about governing from the top down. Personally I prefer the more democratic grass roots bottom up approach. So in my view, the Supervisor likes to not only control the wheel and destination of the bus but also the source of ideas for the future vision of the corridor.

Beth, I will be attending. Looking forward to talking with neighbors and gathering signatures for the VA8 campaign. Of course, I will take any questions and listen to people's concerns.

A. Will Radle, Jr.
Democratic VA8 Candidate
Will@VA8.com
www.VA8.com

Pray for me. I drive US1.
Pray for me. I must cross US1.

Pray for me. I drive US 1.

Ain't it great we don't have to drive through Potomac Yards?

Congrats Martin Tillett! You've been picked as the winner of last week's Patch Game. Please email me to claim your prize.

Hi, just curious: which novelette of Martin's won? Congrats, Martin. I hope you got a goody.