Please Pick Up Newspapers in your Neighbor's Driveway

I cycle.  And since I dont like getting hit by cars, I cycle on back-roads.  And cycling in the back-roads of Arlington, one of the thing that dumbfounds me is seeing piles of newspapers sitting at the end of driveways - announcing to the world that the residents are on vacation and please come rob the house.

Photo by Theilr (CC)

Do your neighbor a favor - for that matter do yourself a neighbor - pick up those newspapers.  Dont wave a flag that there are empty houses in your neighborhood.  You dont want your neighbor's house robbed - and you dont want crime in your neighborhood.

The City of Oklahoma Police gives this advice:

Good neighbors should look out for each other. Get to know your neighbors on each side of your home and the three directly across the street. Invite them into your home, communicate often, and establish trust. Good neighbors will watch out for your home or apartment when you are away, if you ask them. They can report suspicious activity to the police or to you while you are away. Between them, good neighbors can see to it that normal services continue in your absence by allowing vendors to mow your lawn or remove snow. Good neighbors can pick up your mail, newspapers, handbills, and can inspect the outside or inside of your home periodically to see that all is well. Good neighbors will occasionally park in your driveway to give the appearance of occupancy while you are on vacation. Allowing a neighbor to have a key solves the problem of hiding a key outside the door. Experienced burglars know to look for hidden keys in planter boxes, under doormats, above the ledge. Requiring a service vendor to see your neighbor to retrieve and return your house key will send the message that someone is watching. This neighborhood watch technique sets up what is called 'territoriality' which means that your neighbors will take ownership and responsibility for what occurs in your mini-neighborhood. This concept works in both single family homes communities and on apartment properties. This practice helps deter burglaries and other crimes in a big way. Of course for this to work, you must reciprocate and offer the same services.

Get to know all your adjacent neighbors
Invite them into your home and establish trust
Agree to watch out for each other's home
Do small tasks for each other to improve territoriality
While their on vacation, pick up newspapers and flyers
Offer to park your car in their driveway
Return favors and communicate often

When I am not on a bike, I am walking the dogs in my own 'hood.  You bet we watch the neighbors - pick up the papers - check on them in storms - help shovel snow.  As GoRemy says, this is my town. Arlington is a great place to live - let's watch out for each other.

Arlington Public School Buses - New Plans Will Result in More Cars Near Schools

Back to school night is always fun.  You get to see the school. You get to meet the new teachers.  You get to ask questions.  And without exception, the most common question and the question that has the most anxiety: the bus system.

Superintendent Murphy has worked hard to improve the APS bus system.  And it needs improvement.  Last year, at one point, our bus was running irregularly and early.  One morning it came so early it left all the students at the bus stops.  When we called, we were told our students had been late to the stop.  The problem with that excuse, the school principle drives by the bus stop every morning.... and knew better.  With the help of the school principle, this situation was rectified.  But other problems continued... with students getting lost in the system, parents unable to confirm where their students are, and students simply getting left behind.

With Dr. Murphy's new transportation system, you apparently are going to get a voucher if you live more than 1.5 miles away from the school.  If you live 1.4 miles from school, you dont get a voucher, you dont get on the bus - you are SOL.  What does Dr. Murphy advise?

Otherwise, we hope you will encourage your student to walk or bike to school - this is a healthier option and will otherwise help our environment by reducing the number of cars transporting students to and from school.

Bullshit (oops. Am I allowed to say that on the Internet?).  First, the most dangerous place for students to walk or bike is anywhere near a school at the start of school.  Parents flagrantly violate traffic laws and Arlington police do not enforce them.  I am a full time bicycle commuter.  I have been a bike commuter for almost 40 years.  I dont bike anywhere near a school during opening. (BTW if APS is serious about bikes as a means to get too and from schools, perhaps APS would be willing to install Capital Bikeshare stations at Arlington High Schools)

This also fails to take into account lousy weather.  And we know over the past few years the weather has gotten lousier.  Snow storms. Rain storms.  Cold.  Walking or biking to school isnt viable in those weather conditions.

This also fails to take into account whether there are safe routes to school.  Some routes to school that may be less than 1.5 miles from the school involve crossing major rush hour roads with high traffic volumes.  These are roads and intersections designated on Arlington Bike Maps as dangerous intersections.

So what does this add up to - its easy math - those students who live just inside the 1.5 mile perimeter - are going to get driven to school - which will increase the environment impact, increase the number of cars transporting students to and from school, increase traffic congestion near schools, and increase the risk of traffic accidents near school.

I applaud Dr. Murphy on working to reform the bus system.  But creating a voucher system, and refusing to transport students who live just less than 1.5 miles from school - is only going to make things worse.

The Arlington Career Center: A Gem of the Arlington Public School System

One of the many things happening at the Arlington Career Center.... 

3 day movie promo for acc tv from PUNishers Productions on Vimeo.

Build it and they will bicycle: Wash Blvd Bike Path @ArlingtonDES

Arlington is a great place to bicycle - Arlington has been certified as a Bike Friendly Community.  The growth of bicycling as a form of transportation has been tremendous.  The Custis Trail along 66 and the W&OD Trail have become major commuting arteries, with cues at traffic lights as deep for bicycles as it is for cars.

Bicycle commuting is a bit like field of Dreams: Build it, and they will come!  If you look where people bike commute from, it is heavily from where the bike / multi use paths are.  Where multi use / bike paths exist, you get lots of commuters.  Good infrastructure is vital to cycling as a form of transportation.

As great as Arlington is, there is a piece that is missing.  A good bike path through the center of the county.  Washington Boulevard cuts from the North West corner through the county to the South East corner.  The proposed Washington Boulevard Bike Path will provide good bicycle infrastructure that will dramatically enhance and promote bicycle transportation in Arlington, linking North and South Arlington, providing access from the Rosslyn / Ballston corridor to Columbia Pike, and ultimate to Pentagon City.

It is a good idea.  It promotes bicycling.  It promotes the car free diet.  It will reduce pollution.  It will reduce the number of cars on the road.  It will relieve congestion on the roads. It will promote healthier residents of Arlington.

To build it, Arlington County will have to remove trees along the route.  This is sub-optimal.  But Arlington is working hard at adjusting the bike route to minimize environmental impact, and will be replanting all trees removed.  In the long run, the environmental impact of this project will be positive - reducing carbon emissions and reducing cars on the road.  And Arlington's plan to replant all trees is positive.

The Washington Boulevard bike path would provide a major link from North to South Arlington, and will be well used.  This is a good project.

History of Cherrydale / Lyon Village

There is a geocache down in Lyon Village that talks about this history of Cherrydale.  One geocacher added the following history:

Dreamer of Pictures nabbed this one while awaiting fulfillment of a prescription at CVS on another blast furnace afternoon, just before the weather gave us a break.

Cherrydale is adjacent to the Lyon Village community where my wife and I grew up. I can add a few tidbit to the history, notably in the gap between rail history events.

In the late 1950s the area where the shopping center now stands was occupied by multiple tall trees and one business, a small hardware store that offered consumer services such as lawnmower blade sharpening. It was located roughly in the middle of what is now the shopping center, almost hidden from the streets around it. My dad shopped at the hardware store and sometimes took me along.

A freight rail line, the W&OD, operated along the north side of the property, crossing above Lee Highway on an old iron bridge. The rail line delivered product to a Hechinger's lumber yard in Rosslyn, long before Rosslyn became Baby Manhattan. The line also served a cinderblock factory that resided along Spout Run in a ravine next door to Washington-Lee High School, between Quincy and Stafford Streets.

In the early 1960s, a second business appeared in the former cherry orchard, along the Lee Highway edge of the forest. It was a small amusement park, with pony rides and a few simple ride machines for young kids. That of course was impossible for young kids to ignore, and  every family car ride past the place caused the kids to beg for pony rides.

Across Lee Highway, near where the Walgreens now stands, was a Hot Shoppes, the first Marriot success story, with a fairly diverse menu and lots of ice cream. It was inevitably the destination for all Washington-Lee High School marching band members after each football game on Friday nights. The restrooms were in the basement. Due to inadequate pipes under Lee Highway for the nearby Spout Run , heavy rains would overflow the Run and flood the restrooms right up to the top of the stairs.

When Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he told the local political leaders that the long-delayed I-66 would become a reality while he was in office, using federal funds. With the right-of-way along the W&OD, and an exit planned adjacent Lee Highway, the businesses evacuated. The amusement park moved briefly to the Four Mile Run area by the south end of Arlington Ridge Road, until they learned that flooding was even more frequent and more severe there.

A number of local residents, including yours truly, organized an effort to stop I-66 construction. We had some victories, and delayed construction through much of the 1970s. The highway certainly has become the nightmare we predicted back then. Now the state government is pushing to add lanes to I-66 in Arlington, a ridiculous 1950s response that will only postpone the real solution: telework.

Lost Dog: Terra, Border Collie last seen Wakefield & 19th St

Pictures from Donaldson Run

First, the good news... most of the power appears to be back on.  Donaldson Run Pool has power, the pumps are operating, and they hope to have the pool open tomorrow.  I stopped by for a look and the pool looks good, if not strangely empty on the 4th of July.

When the storm came through, what we saw was a brilliant fireball of yellow burning from the next block over.  Apparently it was a power line that had landed on a car, causing an electrical fire, and melting the tires right off the car.  You can still see scorched rubber on the asphalt.  When the power kicked off, so did our local rendition of a micro-sun.

Up the street a power line lay on the ground marked by two police cones.  I suspect that's what did us in.  Down further on N Taylor a power pole snapped in half taking down a spaghetti of lines.   You can see below that the pole has been repaired by gluing a new pole right next to it.  I suspect there are a lot of quick fixes in place now.

 

Down near the park on N Utah was a picture of destruction: big tree down, smashed car, lines drooping from poles.

 

Up the street Vacation Lane remains blocked by a very large tree.  Two vehicles from Arlington County were there inspecting the situation. 

 Everywhere is littered little splinters of the former electrical / communications system.

Of course what is unseen from the road is the destruction in people's yards.  

Biking around this afternoon it was once again well into the 90s with a "feels like temp" of 100 degrees.  Some neighbors and I found a loose dog over on Military and Vacation Lane, a little Sheltie.  First, in heat like this, never leave a dog unattended in your yard.  A dog will suffer from the heat far too quickly.  But the owners of this dog... even in 100 degree heat, they did not even know there dog was missing.  *sigh*