Flashbacks:
The RNGC Caddyshackpocalypse
Bollards!The Observer is reporting, via the Twitters, that Joe Leighton, Mike Collins and Ken Knueven are the winners of the not-at-all contentious RA Board elections. All three are presumably enjoying refreshments at the RA party/meeting at the Sheraton.
For the skeptics keeping score at home, only Collins was elected from the Gang of Three mentioned in the Snowgate non-endorsement, while Leighton and Knueven were both endorsed by the Save Brown's Chapel crowd. So, um... 2-1? Or your typical split ticket that's a precursor to gridlock? As IBM once said, you make the call.
Shout-out to the Observer for the on-the-spot update. Now "tweet" something about the refreshments so we know if they served punch or something a bit stronger.
Update: If the vote tally posted by one of our intrepid informants is right, Collins won by a whopping two votes. Regardless of who you supported, that's a stunning argument for how a 13-22 percent turnout, depending on the race, just isn't enough.
Also, nice gloaty music embed on the Save Brown's Chapel site. And, thanks to the reporting of another informant, we now know that apparently they had some awesome wraps and whatnot at the RA party. Yay citizen journalism.
News and notes from Reston (tm).
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Breaking: Leighton, Collins and Knueven Elected to RA Board
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As the song on www.savebrownschapel.com says - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad. With appreciation to Meatloaf.
ReplyDeletecoffee & soft drinks only. Great food. Fabulous desserts.
ReplyDeleteIf only Smyers wasn't so in love with the sound of her own voice. Someone should have pried the mike from her hands.
Where was Hudgins?
Oh,yeah Observer has it right. Numbers weren't released.
Bulova was there and implied that funding for the Reston connector buses would be added to the County budget at next week's budget mark-up.
ReplyDeleteProof positive Smyers and Chew FAILED. SHAME ON THEM!
ReplyDeleteAT Large
ReplyDeleteLeighton 3,152
Shipp 1,865
Robinson 1,498
Koozmin 1,195
North Point
Collins 921
Greenberg 919
Morro 585
Lake Anne
Knueven 677
Rando 629
Danaher 351
HA! Robinson, failed; Danaher, failed; Collins...well only 2 votes, but that means he'll be closely watched.
ReplyDeleteWow, wow, wow!
Now, I hope they all ask Richard Chew to resign.
My reporter says : wraps, hot artichoke dip, cheese platter, tortellini w/ red sauce, vegetable platter, cheesecake, assorted sweets - everything refreshed by the Sheraton except the cheesecake. Some were observed to eat and leave prior to the meeting.
ReplyDeleteSo does McKee ascend to Dear Leadership?
ReplyDeleteWe all know Joe wants it but doesn't have the votes.
More intrigue tomorrow night. Stay tuned.
Anon 9:44
ReplyDeleteAin't happening
Chew and Smyers should be ashamed!
ReplyDeleteSBC missed out on a Grand Slam by two votes. Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteRemember the problem with online voting in the first week.
Mike, count yourself lucky.
Maybe Mike and Peter should job share.
Let the facts speak for themselves! Enough said.
ReplyDeleteJoe - with those numbers you are Mr. Reston.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. You deserve it. You are a man of the people.
You stood up when it counted and few others would in public. I am glad that people remembered and came our so strongly for you.
Joe, my sincere congrats to you.
ReplyDeleteAs Winston Churchill said...
"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
Anon9:58
ReplyDeleteJobsharing: Ain't happenin'
Do you remember the malfunction with online voting the first few days of the election. This especially affected North Point district owner/ occupants, and most of these people were voting for Pete. I think RA managed to find a way to cook the election to keep out the one person they feared the most.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:51 & 10:04: Are you hurting so much that this IS happening?
ReplyDeleteFor that malfunction, RA should be sued.
ReplyDeleteNote that even Joe got a majority of the votes cast in his race.
ReplyDeleteWith the low participation rates, Reston is apathetic and those few who are engaged are sharply divided.
Anon 10:05
ReplyDeleteI supported Joe! I'm very surprised he didn't get an outright majority.
anon 10:06
ReplyDeleteGood luck with a lawsuit. Go hire Steven David Stone. He charged CAPS $150,000 and lost; badly!
Anon 10:14 losers like you, recommend... well... losers ;)
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:05
ReplyDeleteNo one feared Greenburg.
Paranoia strikes deep in North Pointe.
Or is it sour grapes?
anon 10:17
ReplyDeletethat sarcasm slipped right by you, huh?
Lets be clear only an idiot with more money than brains would contemplate a lawsuit for a nanosecond.
Smyers couldn't let go the microphone tonight; surprised she wasn't in tears after learning the results.
ReplyDeleteThese numbers do not auger well for the $5 million Jim Elder employment center.
ReplyDeletePete Greenberg should demand a recount for at least 3 reasons:
ReplyDeleteIt's a documented fact that the online voting malfunctioned for North Point owner/occupants the first weekend after the ballots were sent. It was up to RA to follow-up with these voters...
Not to mention, RA got updates regularly as to number of votes cast. Did they leak the info and tell Mike how many more votes he needed to get?
And lastly, 166 ballots were invalidated for various reasons. Did RA find a way to invalidate a few of Pete's votes?
Smyers and Co wanted to keep Pete off the board more than anyone else.
Anon 11.01
ReplyDeleteCome on. Please say that this is tongue in cheek. You are writing a book on conspiracy nuts and want examples to quote. Just say that this isn't serious. Go to bed and sleep it off.
I know that Pete would not support this crazy talk.
1,195 people voted for Rod!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDo that many people in Reston need something sharpened?
That's the recount that I would like to see. It's a sanity check.
PS. I tried to write this with lots of grammar mistakes and bad spellings to make it funny but I can't emulate Rod no matter how hard I try.
Come on, man, he lost. No need to kick a man while he's down, unless he's Robin Smyers. And that's just a masculinist joke. I'm sure Rod can sharpen the koozmin out of some scissors.
ReplyDeleteLeighton & Knueval each got 40%.
ReplyDeleteGreenburg got only 38%
Obviously, several who voted for Joe also voted for Mike and not for Peter.
Balance says:
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:16 takes all the fun out of this by being sane.
Well, not all the fun. To Anon 11:01 - it would appear that a few pages from your documented facts have blown off the grassy knoll as you reviewed them.
Yes, there was a problem with a handful of online votes from North Point. Reading your documents further, you would see that RA identified every voter whose ballot did not go through and informed them so that they could have their votes included.
It is true that the counting agent (an independent CPA firm) gave RA regular updates on total vote counts. But they do NOT indicate how those votes are distributed among the candidates until the election is over and the vote count is certified.
Every election has a number of invalid votes. While the vast majority of Restonians do not vote, a number of our dear neighbors haven't figured out that (a) casting votes by BOTH mail and online is contrary to the rules - causing their vote to be invalidated; and (b) checking off too many names on the same mailed ballot renders it unintelligible and therefor invalid.
With a two-vote margin, I cannot imagine the CPA firm not having done a recount, but it would have been comforting for the RA to have come out and announced that as the case. View the silence as sinister if you will...to me it is another example of the tone-deafness of RA staff or the election committee.
So Reston has 65,000 residents, and only a few thousand voted? Wow. It's so nice to see so many care about the leadership here. It took me all of three minutes to vote online. I know people in Reston are too busy to say "hello" to one another as they walk past each other, but are they also so busy sitting in traffic trying to get to Starbuck's or Pottery Barn in their SUVs that they couldn't use their iPhone or Droid while sitting in traffic to go on ahead and VOTE?! Why should youth like me who want to make a difference someday even bother if the Baby Boomers here don't give a rat's derriere? Apathy isn't something to be proud of. Restonians ought to be ASHAMED of themselves! I don't think I've ever heard of a community's voting turnout being that low. No wonder why Reston is in the abysmal shape it's currently in when nobody seems to give a damn.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I voted for Collins (one of the "puppets") and Koozmin (an outsider who may have just been a breath of fresh air). Unlike the pro-Smyers or pro-Brown's Chapel folks I don't like to turn politics into a popularity contest or use an election as an opportunity to grandstand or air grievances.
BiCo, do you do anything other than complain? Please leave Reston if all you want to do is b*tch and moan about how sh*tty it is when, in fact, it is amazing.
ReplyDeletePS, I'm 25, my fiancee is 27, hi neighbor!
Bico
ReplyDeleteSome pollsters will tell you that low turn-out reflects satisfaction with the status quo among the electorate.
Only 5% of the electorate voted for President in 1789. Everyone assumed Washington would win. He did.
Ease up on the self righteousness just a tad, o.k.
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
ReplyDeleteDing Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below [To Texas she go
!].
Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know the Wicked Witch is dead!
Steve --- just another one of the Wisteria Lane types I can see---you will fit right in to Reston.
ReplyDeleteWe preach tolerance here --- if you and your wifey-wife didn't get it that bigotry is dead, then YOU move!
What the hell is wrong with you, people?
We are an interracial couple with diverse friends from every regard. The only intolerance I have is for people who complain about their situation with no intention of bettering it.
ReplyDeleteWe also have an idiot that likes to call people a bigot (whether or not there's any there) because they don't conform to their world order.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to all of the winners. To all of the losers, I hope you didn't quit your day jobs.
...meanwhile, over at the Lake Anne Community Center, the Reston Task Force was carving up the Herndon-Monroe area, proposing a "grid of streets" in the wetlands, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhile everyone was focused on the utterly petty RA election, corporate developers, landowners, and property managers are going about the business of destroying Reston, piece by piece, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.
YAY --- that festering mosquito-breeding swamp will soon be paved over -- don't forget to bury the long-neglected sign.
ReplyDeletePS -- what's up with the falling-down fairfax county garage? Is it fixed or will we soon be paying many millions more to fix yet another botched fairfax county white elephant project?
Steve
ReplyDeletedon't know if you know Bico has come out here on Restonian comments. So the word "bitching" might have been taken the wrong way.
Convict
you're still a homophobe and a bigot.
Restonian
Any wagering on tonight's race for Prez?
Joe gets his own vote and Knuevals.
Chew gets his own vote and Collins.
McKee gets her own vote, Beamers and Vis (they're such a cute couple)
Paul Thomas votes for whom?
Have I missed anyone?
When the margin of victory for a swim meet is 5 points or less it triggers an automatic recount with both managers present, and yes it does often change the result. This is for a recreational sport.
ReplyDeleteYou would think the RA would have a similar process for something as important as an election. There should be a recount with both candidates present to review everything, including invalid ballots. This should take place before the election results are announced. This is just ethical and professional behavior.
Please don't call us paranoid for questioning a 2-vote margin. Put yourself in the candidates place. Wouldn't you want to see a recount under these circumstances?
To anon 1:36 am. You sound like you work for RA or are you Mike Collins?
ReplyDeleteIf I were the candidate, I would say thank god. And I agree with comment above, the CPA firm likley checked and double checked.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a push for a recount, the folks at SBC are going to have to deal with some interesting PR issues going forward (right or wrong). If I were them, they should take take what they have and run to the high road. Greenberg can still take active role on committee(s) if he is that interested in the welfare of the community.
Do Tim McMahon and John Higgins vote for Prez?
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:45, you are still an assclown with a narrow, intolerant political agenda. But I do appreciate your analysis of tonight's voting.
ReplyDeleteso what if they do a recount of the North Point seat and it ends up in a tie? Can we flip a coin and the loser is on the board?
ReplyDeleteThe RA will find the most expensive, most controversial, least transparent and least useful way to manage this North Point "crisis."
ReplyDeleteAt least YWK is GONE -- so we won't have to listen to her platitudes any more!
Convict
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right I am politically intolerant of bigotry and xenophobia, especially from someone who chose to live in Reston, a city founded on the antithesis of those human failings.
Thanks for the complement on the analysis. Do you know if McMahon and Higgins vote?
Anon10:45
The thing is, 10:45, that you use these terms and platitudes so often that they mean nothing. If anyone disagrees with you on a racial or ethnic issue, you automatically brand them a bigot, a xenophobe or a homophobe.
ReplyDeleteBut you don't deny being an assclown then?
Did anybody see Greenburg at the soiree last night? Several of the other unsuccessful candidates were there. Were Koozmin, Rando or Robinson there? Hope they weren't sulking.
ReplyDeleteGreenburg has until Sunday to ask for a recount, at his own expense?
Restonian, any word from the Greenburg/SBC camp?
Convict
ReplyDeleteYou must be confusing me with another anonymous.
Define "assclown." And I know you're more clever than to reply: "you."
If St. Francis can be "a clown for Christ" (his words), what have I to be ashamed of in being called a clown for Reston's founding principals.
The last day of voting was April 2 (thankfully not April 1). The vote was announced April 13. At what point did RA know the results? The minute that Milton Matthew knew that one of the districts was going to be decided by such a small margin he should have taken some steps to mitigate the reaction that is certain to follow. He could have notified both candidates that it was too close to call and done an automatic recount with the candidates involved in the process. He could be out in front of our community with the answers ready for our questions about the on line voting glitch in the same district that is now decided by two votes. He should be managing this so that it doesn't turn into a fiasco. Isn't that what we are paying him for?
ReplyDeleteFrankly, you remind me more of Torquemada than St. Francis, Clownie. However, I suppose that if you can label somebody involved in an interracial relationship or somebody who's the product of an interracial marriage or somebody who's spouse is a naturalized citizen as a bigot, I would suppose that you have too widely defined bigot.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1:06
ReplyDeleteshouldn't it be said "Isn't that what we are overpaying him for?"
Do you realize 2 votes is one household (owner/occupant). In any well-run election there would be a process in place to audit the results under such circumstances. 24 households were not allowed to vote for their North Point rep online. No one knows for sure, not even RA, if this was corrected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with someone above who blames the lack of notice about a recount as tone-deafness. It's a fine question to get a confirmation about, but it also shows continued lack of good PR (at the very least) to not even address it until asked.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, despite the closeness and the contentiousness of the election, I find it difficult to believe that this has potential for getting any more attention. Given that so few people voted, and out of them probably only a small percentage follow this blog and/or know much about the politics involved, and out of those how many are actually more sympathetic to Greenburg et al then to Collins, well, you probably end up with a very small number of people, and even out of those how many will continue to raise the issue when 2/3 of their slate were elected?
As for BiCO's comments, yes, again, only negative! BiCO, your comment about people saying hello to you on the street is new to me, I thought you'd gotten much more then hello's from plenty of cougars, or are you bemoaning the lack of hello's from eligible gay males? Seriously, I give and get hello's all the time from people who walk down my block, but rarely people who jog/bike. I wonder if you are expecting to get them when jogging/biking or just walking? In fact, my sister, who hails from NYC as I do, was amazed upon visiting lately that people were so friendly and so many people you pass say hello. It's all a matter of perspective, of course, if you come from a tiny town, you're apt to think Reston is big and impersonal, especially in the denser parts around RTC, but if you come from a place like NYC, as I do, it's very different.
Another Question for you BiCO, I missed how you decided to move to Colvin Woods, since for as long as I can remember you were threatening to escape reston to either Warrenton or Balston. What happened? You realize that your bitching will now be derided even more because you have a chance to leave this place you can't say much of anything good about yet still choose to live in? But perhaps the new user "AtHiCW" will be a kinder, gentler derider...
Convict
ReplyDeletebigotry takes many forms. Homophobia is bigotry.
No growthers are xenophobes
Now you're stretching, 1:46. And I don't mean that in the fatphobic sense.
ReplyDeleteLepigeon
ReplyDeleteare you trolling; are you trying to make a point;or are you, like your namesake, (snark) a rat with wings.
SBC was two votes (one household) away from a sweep.
ReplyDeleteEach household gets two votes? We only got one.
ReplyDelete1:46, Do you know what the word "xenophobia" even means?? Totally inappropriate word choice here. Makes no sense at all.
ReplyDelete1:58 Ask not for whom the troll trolls because the troll is thee.
ReplyDeleteZero growth = xenophobia?
Bullshit on you. One does not have to hate/fear people of differing cultures and races to not want thier community to become changed from massive developments which altar the character of the "town".
Ha that rhymes with ass-clown which is what you are.
Trollish ass clown.
Come on, people. The Restonian is viewed by many Restonians now. Let us keep it civil. It takes a lot to run in an election. I think we should be thankful that we had so many running. And I am with Broke in Charter Oak, more should have voted!! And I am not anonymous. jnorton720
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:26
ReplyDeleteAn intense irrational fear of the "foreigner" is an appropriate description for the NIMBYism evidenced in some of the postings in opposition to the Metro stops. In that usage, the "foreigner" is anyone who doesn't already live here. Totally appropriate usage of "xenophobia."
HCKD
"Massive" development? You're kidding right? How do these proposals compare to what's already authorized or built in the RTC. You meant "alter," right? You do know that Reston is already a city in every sense but political, right? Assclown that.
Steve
ReplyDeleteIf you own your home, your ballot is coded to count as two votes. If you rent, the tenant get a vote and the landlord gets a vote.
Thus you saw only one box on your ballot but it counted as two in the vote counting.
Assclown:
ReplyDeleteThe Comstock proposal, the Fairway development, the Spectrum center development aggregate together int massive development of Reston.
And your understanding of what xenophobia means is flawed. Using it in this context is quite histrionic.
Yes I did mean alter, Nice typo spotting there Mr. Clown.
-HCKD
HCKD
ReplyDeleteCombined those 3 don't total the square footage two blocks of RTC. Talk about histrionics. Pot meet kettle.
You're not really questioning my understanding of the meaning of the word. You're disagreeing with my usage.
And you'd be wrong.
Glad you weren't around when RTC was going through the planning and zoning process. It would never have happened.
Sheesh
From my own point of view, the woods that were there before RTC were far more attractive than our own faux town center.
ReplyDeleteI'm disagreeing with your understanding and your meaning of these terms. By your own lax standards, anybody who doesn't want more people living around them is a xenophobe. Anyone who is critical of homosexuals and homosexuality in any of its manifestations is a homophobe. Anybody who might joke about ethnicity or race is a bigot. Maybe in your world, Clownie, but not in mine.
I've got a question for you. What about a person who looks at a 17 year old in their bathing suit while they're at the pool and thinks to theirself, "Gosh, if only I were 10 (or however many) years younger." Does that make them a pedophile as well, Clownie? By your lax standards, I'm guessing that would probably qualify.
Clown of the Ass:
ReplyDeleteEnglish lesson:
Xenophobia: Definition:
fear of foreigners: an intense fear or dislike of foreign people, their customs and culture, or foreign things.
That is not a fear of development, or antipathy for development, or dislike of development.
And those developments aggregated together would be massive in relation to the existing infrastructure of Reston.
Reasonable people can disagree as to whether there should be more development. However, disagreeing with additional development especially with regard to the level of existing infrastructure and capacity of Reston is not by any stretch of the word xenophobic.
Hey, Duster, doesn't Ringling Bros run an Ass Clown College in Florida? I wonder whether that's where the anonymous one got its English and Sociology degrees.
ReplyDeleteConvict, you're being anonymist, clownist, Floridist and sociologist. Don't hate.
ReplyDeleteBut I can understand why you're a Xenaphobe. Everybody knows only lesbians like that show.
Great news that Leighton and Kneuven were elected. Disappointed that Greenberg did not win, and by such a close call. I was really pulling for him from over here in Lake Anne.
ReplyDeleteHCKD
ReplyDeleteOf course that "development" is being constructed for cows, right?
Could you be any more intentionally obtuse.
NIMBYism is people hating is xenophbia.
What a maroon.
9:41: You've got Koozmin's Disease: The more you talk, the more you sabotage yourself. I say trade in your political correctness for some humanity. Learn how to laugh to heal your wounds, wounds that are only salted and deepened by your adherence to rules made by inferior minds. Laughter, as many know, is by far the best medicine, and everything can and should be laughed at. Our hero, Restonian, prepares and provides for you an original, high-grounded path towards levity. To go against that grain in the manner you've been choosing is futile, and hastens your self-destruction, by natural law.
ReplyDeleteLaugh, goddammit, laugh, you stupid troll.
I don't understand, Pij. Considering the popularity of the show here in the States, we must have a very large expat community from the isle of Lesbos. I guess it must be a source of some kind of regional pride for that neck of the Mediterranean.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Clownie is laughing. It has accomplished its goal as a Troll. It has managed to derail the thread, managed to get people worked up with its stupidities, kept people focused on its agenda no matter how ludicrous its arguments and managed to do so without really revealing too much information about itself. Is "NIMBYism is people hating is xenophbia" really a cogent argument?
To those telling me to, more or less, "shut up or move", bear in mind that I see something in Reston called "long-term potential" that I didn't want to be entirely dismissive of. Yes, there's an apartment in Cherrydale within walking distance of the Ballston Metrorail station beckoning to me, but I DID choose Colvin Woods in the end. Why, pray tell? I'm not downright "miserable" here, and for all of the complaining I do trying to provoke thought and rile people up to question things I truly don't think this is such a terrible place in which to reside.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I dislike here?
-The fact that people think trails are a perfect alternative to sidewalks. No. They're not. Arlington has both. Why can't we?
-The lack of streetlights. Aim them DOWN to mitigate light pollution and make them blend in with the foliage to mitigate the ugliness. It sucks having to use my high beams all the time to avoid the risk of hitting jaywalking deer or elderly people running amok during my pre-dawn commutes.
-The "poseur" scene that has been perpetuated by RTC. I want to stick my foot out and trip every spoiled 24-year-old douche from Ashburn who sits at Jackson's on a Friday night, still dressed in his Armani suit from work, bragging to chicks about his vacations to Aspen or Prague as he checks for new "apps" to buy for his iPhone and jingles the keys to the Porsche his parents bought him (but nobody is supposed to know that). LAME!
-The dearth of good, quality, down-to-earth, cozy, "hole-in-the-wall" joints (i.e. Jimmy's in Herndon, Auld Shebeen in Fairfax, Carpool in Ballston, etc.) for a community of 65,000. Not everyone is a Starbuck's or Cosi poseur. Even Arlington, with 71% of its residents being single (and most of them being affluent) has more variety.
-The traffic congestion and the fact that people think the only option to mitigate that is to widen the roads (WRONG!) L.A. has the widest roads around and STILL has the worst traffic. It's called sprawl, folks, and like it or not that's what much of our area is. I try to walk to as much as I can here and have even walked to the Northpoint Giant for groceries, but saying Reston is as walkable as Arlington is a fallacy.
-The dirty politics. This recent RA election has brought out the worst in people. We now have practically a half-dozen little "fiefdom" groups comprised of people pounding their chests proclaiming THEY know what's "best" for Reston and calling each other names instead of working collaboratively to move the community forward through compromise.
-The lack of "community." My own upstairs neighbor moved out in a rush recently without saying good-bye. I had my window rolled down as I drove slowly past another neighbor, said "How ya doin?" with a smile, and she walked right past me. For both of these people I really reached out to help them during the blizzards. Just two months later I don't exist. I try to smile and nod politely at people as I run, but most just turn away. Restonians are like self-centered zombies. Friendly to an urban New Yorker? Perhaps. Friendly to a rural Pennsylvanian? Not a shot in hell! A lot of them look at a person and think "what's in it for ME?" before agreeing to friendship. Terrible.
What do I LOVE about Reston?
ReplyDelete-Diversity. Reston is a huge melting pot of people from all over the nation and world. In my immediate apartment sub-unit I have neighbors from Oregon, California, Kentucky, Pennsylvania (myself), and I believe New Jersey. We're all college-educated professional types, but in adjoining sub-units there are working-class blue-collars, recent immigrants, and people from all other sorts of backgrounds. Most suburbs are predominantly filled with white-collar Caucasian yuppies (i.e. Ashburn). Reston is different, and I cherish that. I truly do.
-Liberal population. Not one person thus far has given me a hard time about my sexual orientation. I'm on the "butch" side, but I still have it public on my Facebook and will not lie to others about being of an "alternative" orientation. I don't flaunt myself and harbor a disdain for public displays of affection, but I still frequently had people back in PA who made me feel terribly for being different. In Reston it's been different. I appreciate that people here are willing to judge someone based upon more than whom they happen to love.
-Great worship options. My church along the Northpoint Reston and Herndon border has been a true "Welcome Wagon." I'm pretty much the only early-twenty-something single who regularly attends worship, so a lot of the middle-aged family types tend to view me as a distant adopted son of sorts. When I moved here I was invited over for dinner. I was invited to a meet-and-greet brunch. I've reciprocated by trying to reach out more to help volunteer my time and efforts. The strong church community at Good Shepherd is one of the PRIMARY motivating factors in my decision to give Reston a second chance when I was nearly ready to sign a new lease in Arlington. Joining that "flock" has taught me that not everyone in Reston is out for themselves.
-Great library. I volunteered my time and efforts last year to help with a volunteer book sale on behalf of the library, and I plan to also help out with the sale next week. I've never seen a community so dedicated to its library, and it has been very refreshing for me. The library itself could probably use some expansion, but it is still a very vital and very efficient part of the community.
What else do I LOVE about Reston?
ReplyDelete-Foliage. The only thing in my eyes that sets Reston apart from generic and sterile suburbia is its very dense canopy of trees. When the blizzards knocked so many of them down I felt like crying because walking beneath them to get to Lake Anne on a pleasant Saturday makes me feel so inspired inside. After my suicide attempt earlier this year recently seeing the trees come back into bloom (including one very nice row of blossoming trees along North Shore Drive near Charter Oak) has made me feel much happier. I would hate to live in a nearly tree-less place like Eastern Loudoun County.
-Convenience. Although traffic here is very congested I can get to work in Tysons Corner in 20 minutes via Route 7 with my flexible scheduling. We're also close to Fairfax, Great Falls, and Dulles Airport. My favorite drive to destress is to take Route 50 West through the Hunt Country and Middleburg, jut up Millbrook Road just past Upperville, take 340 through Boyce, and then hook onto Route 7 in Berryville, cutting down Business Route 7 through Round Hill, Purcellville, Hamilton, and Leesburg before coming back to Reston. I appreciate having a bus here that takes us to the West Falls Church Metrorail station. I also appreciate that despite the fact that most Restonians are NIMBYs we ARE getting the Silver Line. You CAN get "there" from "here."
-Low crime. I feel safer living in this community of 65,000 than I did in my former community of 3,450. When I first moved here I had a police helicopter hovering over my apartment and received a notice shoved in my door jamb about a vehicular break-in spree, but property crime isn't a big deal to me. As long as I don't have to fear getting shot in a gang initiation just trying to get to Lake Anne I'm a happy camper.
-Potential. Overall I'm not very content with Reston right now, but I chose it over Arlington because I foresee great things on our horizon. I truly see this place becoming the "ultimate" place to live in NoVA in the coming years, and I think I'd like to be a part of that and help make it happen, even if it means making a bid MYSELF for RA in a few years when I've matured a bit more and can better understand what makes the typical Restonian "tick!" :-)
Great summary BiCO, wish more would share...
ReplyDeleteBiCo, though I don't share your personal sentiments about the negatives, it was refreshing to hear your positives. You should incorporate these things into a compliment sandwich (lol), otherwise it just sounds like a bunch of whining that I hate hate HATE.
ReplyDelete