Boundaries Start to Blur In Va. Talk on Growth

Washington Post ^ | 7 October 2003 | Michael Laris

[Lorianne]

Andrea McGimsey sat at a maroon desk in a Sterling strip mall one recent evening and called a list of strangers to talk about sprawl.

"Did you know our county is the second-fastest-growing in the nation?" she asked a retired sales executive named Daniel Fritz. And could she count on him to vote for incumbent county board Chairman Scott K. York on Nov. 4 because of his record on controlling development?

[Capriole]

OK, I hate getting into another of these debates, but here goes anyway: it's a sorrow, an irreparable tragedy, that the magnificent forests and fields of Virginia are being bulldozed so assuage the money-lust of greedy developers. Northern Virginia is turning into a near-uninhabitable tangle of roads clogged by exhausted, enraged commuters fighting their way through endless identical strip-malls. This is a mess we can't build our way out of.

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[afz400]

"This is a mess we can't build our way out of."
The builders are having a field day because everyone is moving further out to get away from the illegal immigrant invasion in Arlington and Springfield (same people who build the houses in the new subdivisions) - ironic isn't it? Sad that such a beautiful part of the country is being destroyed. Of course there are many freepers who think that paving over all of America is God's will.

[Capriole]

Exactly. And of course the builders make huge campaign contributions to Richmond, thus preventing the pro-obsessive-growth laws from being altered so that local government can make local decisions in response to local needs. In theory conservatives should favor smaller government and local controls, but alas, some as you remark think that having a Blockbuster Video every twenty-five feet is in some way a desirable situation and leaving a few trees standing is a scandal.

Of course people are all moving out to get away from the immigrants. I live in an upscale suburban neighborhood and I'm not crazy about the smell of onions and curried lamb drifting into my bedroom at 6 a.m. Do these people really eat that for breakfast?? That's okay for dinner, but, please, not at 6 a.m. And please stop leaving your raw chicken guts out in the back yard, you heathens.

[witnesstothefall]

I'm here in Falls Church and know what you mean. Different county, but I see the same all over suburban DC. Damned shame.