September/October 2006 Krupicka Council News

Dear friends,

The fall has started quickly and I am behind a bit with my newsletter.  I hope you had a great summer and your fall is starting off well. We spent a lot of time with the kids at their grandparents’ house in Williamsburg and kayaking on the James River, and otherwise, we enjoyed a nice casual summer in Alexandria. 

It was great to see so many friends at Art on the Avenue yesterday.  Despite the cold, a large group came out for our annual artistic kick-off to the fall season.

This newsletter is a bit longer than usual.  In it I provide updates on a few issues, information a great new small business that sells healthy baby-food and a new non-profit to help parents. Then the bulk of this newsletter is dedicated to reviewing the many comments I received to my last newsletter’s question, “What is your number-one priority for the city?” In sum, you highlighted:

-- Budget and Spending

-- Youth

-- Affordable Housing

-- Community Services

-- Development and Traffic

-- Crime and Safety

-- Consumer Issues

-- Neighborhood Improvements

-- Election Reform (changing the election process)

-- The Environment

Thank you for the great comments -- they have given me a lot to think about, as you’ll see below.

Question of the month – The resignation of our Planning Director, Eileen Fogarty to take a job in California will create a real void as we struggle with complex development issues.  As the City Manager begins his national search for a new Planning Director, I’d like to know what skills you think we should look for. 

Community Halloween Party.  As is my family’s tradition, after the Del Ray Halloween Parade this year, we will host a neighborhood Halloween costume party at my house with S’Mores, our famous Baked Potato Bar and much more.  Festivities usually get started around 4PM.  If you’d like to come, just let me know so I can add you to the count.  We’d be happy to have you.  Kids are especially welcome.

I hope to see you soon.

Rob

(If you or others want to be added to the e-mail list, send a message to Newsletter@Krupicka.com with “Add Krupicka List” in the subject line.)

** Small Business Task Force Gets Underway **

I talk often about ensuring that Alexandria’s small businesses are able to compete by making sure our government helps rather than harms them. A few months ago, in response to concerns, from me and others, about the sometimes confusing, burdensome and complex regulatory environment faced by small businesses, the City Manager created a Small Business Task Force. The City Manager has enlisted the assistance of business and civic representatives to make recommendations for policy and procedural changes. As the regional economic environment becomes more competitive, this is important work to ensure our small business community remains strong thereby helping our local economy and also ensuring we have great goods and services to take advantage of without long drives around the region.

** Storm Water Management – We need a Plan**

Many areas of the city experience flooding after prolonged periods of rain.  Dragging carpet and valuable possessions out of a basement isn’t fun.  While we all recognize that the summer rains were unusual in their intensity, the severity of the impacts on various neighborhoods requires us to take a hard look at our storm water systems. The City recently asked the Army Corps of Engineers to help us evaluate Holmes Run, Backlick Run, Cameron Run and Taylor Run in the City.  With our aging storm water system, local and regional development, it is time we took a hard look at the capacity of our overall storm water infrastructure and begin to develop a long term infrastructure plan. This won’t be an overnight effort.  There is an enormous amount of work to do.  As I mentioned at a recent Council meeting, we need a comprehensive storm water management plan that takes advantage of the best environmental practices and one that properly understands the cost of our current system and the appropriate resource needs to improve and sustain it. You can expect this to be a topic of conversation during the next budget.

** Spin City 2009 – Making Alexandria a Bicycle Friendly Community **

Alexandria has set its sights to become an official bicycle friendly community by 2009.  This is a continuation of the Community Pathways program sponsored by Councilman Smedberg and me and adopted by the entire City Council. Last June, the Council adopted a resolution to direct staff to take the actions needed make Alexandria a "Bicycle-Friendly Community" as determined by the League of American Bicyclists.  As fuel prices rise and congestion increases, more and more people are using their bicycles to travel through the City and our region.  You can read more about this effort at www.alexride.org/spincity.php

** A new Alexandria-based business takes baby steps **

Mom Made Foods LLC was launched in Alexandria, VA in the spring of 2006. The owner, an Alexandria resident, Heather Stouffer, sought a practical way to introduce children to a variety of wholesome, nutritious solid foods and create the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating.  But as a full-time working mother, it was difficult for her to find the time to prepare foods from scratch for her son. With no freshly made, store-bought alternatives available, Heather saw a niche and created Mom Made Foods, fresh frozen organic foods for children.  Mom Made Scoops, fresh frozen organic purées for babies, are the first product line available.  Look for Mom Made products in grocery stores and online for delivery in DC, Northern VA, Montgomery County, and Baltimore.  For more information, visit www.mommadefoods.com.  

** Parent Teacher Leadership Institute **

Former Councilwoman Joyce Woodson, Hopkins House, the City Schools, the City and many others have joined forces to bring the Parent Teacher Leadership Institute to Alexandria.  The program was first designed and implemented by the Commission on Children in the State of Connecticut.  PTLI helps parents becomes the leaders they would like to be for their children.  It teaches parents how to participate in public policy decisions.  This 20 week program can change lives and improve our community by helping more people participate in our city life.  If you would like to help support this program financially, or if you just want more information, please send an e-mail to info@plti-alex.org or visit www.plti-alex.org

** Your ideas for the next three years **

I was amazed at the response to my last newsletter’s question about your top priority.  Thank you for the many, many great ideas and comments about things the city needs to focus on.  While we can’t do everything, this far from all-inclusive list demonstrates the breath of things people in our City care about.   I have tried to categorize items into groupings and in some cases I have tried to provide an overview of some things going on in the City related to the issue.

1) Budget, Budget, Budget -- The most frequent comments I received focused on concerns about City spending and the budget.  A few people also mentioned the need for comprehensive senior tax relief. They pointed out that fixed incomes don’t always mesh well with rising personal property taxes. A slowing housing market and potential cooling of the economy (coupled with inflation growing at about 4.8%) will make the next few City budgets a challenge.  At the direction of the Council, the City Manager is working with city staff to develop a performance-based budget. Staff members are finalizing audits of various departments that will be shared with the community.  These efforts reflect the more open, more inclusive budget process started a few years ago.  While we do not yet know of specific audit results, we know this next budget process will challenge us to think creatively.  Average home assessments are predicted to increase by only a few percent and some properties will likely see their values decline. We will need to focus the budget on necessities, not nice-to-haves.  I don’t want to see us balance the budget on the back of basic city infrastructure.  We balanced most of last year’s budget with capital spending reductions.  We can only do that so much before we are saddling future residents with repairing facilities and other infrastructure that we should have maintained ourselves.

2) Take care of city youth with good schools and services -- I received a number of comments about ensuring the success of every single Alexandria school, providing mentors to help get kids off the street and out of gangs and other trouble, increasing the opportunities for youth exercise and sport, empowering parents to take better care of their children, expanding early childhood education opportunities so more kindergartners show up with the basic skills needed to succeed, and providing more parks and places for kids to play.  While it is impossible to do everything, there is no question that providing the best possible environment for our children is at the front of many people’s thoughts.  The City Gang Task force which I co-Chair with Councilman Gaines is, amongst many things, looking to expand mentoring programs for youth in the City.  We are also looking for ways to reach out, directly to parents to help them help themselves.   

3) Affordable / Workforce Housing -- People told me that we need to ensure that moderate-income residents -- people with entry-level jobs, teachers, police officers, non-profit workers and senior citizens --  have opportunities to live in Alexandria.  This is one of the most vexing public policy challenges.  Providing a range of housing choices is not a simple task. The cost to create an affordable home for a teacher can run hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies.  The State of Virginia does not allow some of the affordable housing regulatory tools that have been successful in states like Maryland.  Federal housing support is quickly vanishing. Over the next year, the Council is going to take a close look at current City policies in this area and try to come up with some clear priorities to govern our approach to this complex issue.

4) Community Services -- A few readers commented that we have to remember that Alexandria prides itself on providing opportunities for everybody and that we need to ensure our city is open to and accommodating of people with disabilities.  I am happy to see that the School Board has made improvement of our schools’ special-needs programs one of its top priorities as it starts its new term.  

5) Growth, Development and Transportation -- Some of you told me that McMansions (aka infill development), growth and transportation are your greatest concerns for our city and region.  This is all the more reason to ensure we hire a strong, talented planning director. One small (very small) glimmer of help came out of last year’s general assembly -- State Legislators passed a new law that requires jurisdictions to submit large development projects to the State for an analysis of regional transportation impact.  This action was long overdue.  Each jurisdiction’s development decisions have a regional impact as well as local.  This data can help us make better decisions.  People have commented that they want to ensure we include the broadest possible community input in all development decisions.  I agree that this is critical to our overall planning efforts. We all want an attractive, vital city with the charm and character that attracted us here in the first place.  We also want a transportation system that works effectively.  To that end, it is essential that we finish our work to re-write Alexandria’s transportation master plan (hopefully it will be completed shortly) – and broaden our transportation perspective beyond cars to include convenient mass transit, walking and biking.  Our road capacity can only go so far. Like many European cities, Alexandria needs a true mixed-use, high quality transportation system.  Over the next few years there will be community based planning efforts from Braddock Road to Landmark Mall and Van Dorn. Active community involvement will be critical to the success of these efforts.

6) Crime and Safety-- Incidents of youth crime have increased nationally and regionally, and we have seen it in Alexandria as well.  A number of people raised concerns about crime in Arlandria and in the Inner City community near the Braddock Metro.  These areas of the City see some of the highest concentrations of crime in Alexandria.  We started a comprehensive community policing effort in Arlandria last year.  In the first six months of this year, crime in Arlandria has dropped about 32%.  City-wide we are down about 5%. Still, robberies, burglaries and assaults are slightly up over last year so there is clearly more work to do. The City has a critical role to play to ensure everybody feels safe walking in their neighborhood, but so do civic associations and neighborhood groups.  Well-organized neighborhoods are one of the strongest deterrents to crime.  Our new Police Chief, Dave Baker, will be a great leader for our police force.  I know that he is looking forward to working with all of us as we strive to make Alexandria even safer.

7) Consumer Issues -- A few people asked that the City help bring in a competitor to Comcast. Legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Kaine may bring competition and choice for cable television services to us more quickly. Cable choice legislation became effective July 1. The new law provides a streamlined process for telecommunications companies that want to offer consumers new services. At this point, it is up to the telecommunications companies to decide to enter into franchise discussions with Alexandria. So, we will wait and see what happens.  I will keep you informed of any updates.

8) Neighborhood & Community Improvement -- A number of people talked about the need for community improvement projects, like beautification of neighborhoods and parks, expansion of our bike-paths system, and implementation of the Four-Mile Run improvement plan.  A few of you said you wanted to see new services and shops in your neighborhoods so you don’t have to drive everywhere for hardware or groceries. Many of you reminded me about pedestrian safety -- Old Town was recently recognized as one of the most walk-able places in the country.  I look forward to the day when our entire city is known as a walk-able community.  There are efforts going on in each of these areas.  The efforts are the most successful when a neighborhood comes together for a common goal.  They City can help, but neighborhood groups are essential partners.

9) Election Reform -- In multiple forums, I have pointed out that the last Council election had the lowest percentage of voters turning out in over 30 years and suggested the need for change.  Other cities around Virginia have been moving from spring to fall city council elections and have seen enormous increases in voter participation as a result.  Of all the topics I have written about, this one has generated more positive comments and debate than any other.  Both the Alexandria Times and the Gazette Packet have endorsed the need to move to November council elections. I have heard from people who moved here recently and just didn’t know we had city elections in the spring.  Some, like my new colleague Tim Lovain, have pointed out that fall elections would save the government money because we wouldn’t have to pay for and staff two different elections.  Others say that with such a mobile population, fall elections would be a better way to introduce people to local government and encourage them to get involved in local issues.  Others have raised a concern that low turn-out elections in the spring can empower small groups of special interests at the expense of the larger public. 

One frequent critique of the idea for fall elections is that it would cost the candidates more money because more voters mean more cost to run a campaign.  Well, that made sense on the surface so I looked into it.  It turns out, in Arlington County which is larger than Alexandria and has fall elections, the candidates generally spend less than we do in Alexandria.  In Arlington, the candidates seem to benefit from greater media focus on fall elections and also seem to benefit from money spent on other campaigns occurring at the same time.  I think Arlington candidates also benefit from staggered terms --- running only a few people at a time makes it easier for the public and the media to focus clearly on a local government campaign.  That cuts down on confusion for the media and simplifies things for voters. 

Other critiques suggest we should consider a ward system.  Moving to November elections does not eliminate the option for wards.  But I do have concerns about wards for a few simple reasons.  First, consider the current School Board ward system. In that case, not every ward is equally competitive and there is a wide range of disparity in voter interest in the different wards.  I wouldn’t want a Council where some people have to campaign and others just have to get their name on the ballot.  Second, gerrymandering the city with wards could lead to highly parochial decision making.  I personally like knowing that all elected officials have an obligation to every resident, not just a few.  I know wards make sense when communities get very large like Fairfax County, as they help spread out the work amongst elected officials.  I am not convinced, though, that Alexandria is so large that its elected officials can’t spend time working with and talking to people throughout the entire City. 

Some have suggested that the job of council member is simply too much work to cover the whole city or even to allow a councilmember to have a day job.  So they see wards as a way to lower the work load. I don’t subscribe to that view.  I enjoy talking to and working with people throughout the city. I think my colleagues with day jobs bring valuable perspectives to the Council.  My day job certainly gives me perspectives on technology and business issues that help me on the Council.  The day-to-day work of running the City is the responsibility of the City Manager and his staff.  Council, rightly in my opinion, is meant to direct and craft policy. That shouldn’t have to be a full-time job or require a ward.  I think our basic City structure works and contributes to the great success and quality of life in our City.  But I think it could be even better if more people voted, participated, shared their ideas and helped us move forward. 

The Mayor has said he will appoint a small group to study the issue of moving elections.  In the end, this issue comes down to a simple question, do you want more people voting and participating or not?  When we consider recent voting in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world, and think about the fact that George Washington was one of the founding fathers of our City, I certainly hope we side with more convenient voting and increased public participation.

10) Environment Improvement -- Many of you mentioned environmental goals from closing the Mirant power plant, to improving water quality and storm water management, to the protection of city trees, a desire to see more solar power usage and other environmental goals.

Councilwoman Pepper and I recently put forward an initiative to have Alexandria develop an environmental action plan. With pollution mounting, regional growth straining our resources, energy prices growing and recently published reports that raise questions about state water quality, now is the right time for Alexandria to develop a model Environmental Action Plan.  Alexandria can and should be a City that integrates a respect for the environment into everything that we do.

We are asking the City Council to direct the Environmental Policy Commission to work with two Members of Council to create an Environmental Action Plan for the City Council to adopt. Building on the recommendations of the US Conference of Mayors and our own local energy, open space, green building, development, transportation, water quality, pedestrian, bicycle and experiences, this action plan should summarize current environmental activities in the City as well as identify additional areas for enhancement.  The plan should include specific actions with clear, measurable outcomes.

The End…

9:49:25 PM