What comes to mind when you hear Livability?

• Car-free and Car-Light living are keys to livability - communities where people can walk & bike to many of their destinations are happier, healthier, and more likely to know their neighbors.

• We must expand the number of neighborhoods in Arlington where car-free and car-light living are possible, and we must allow as many people as possible to gain the benefits of Arlington’s current walkable neighborhoods by allow more housing and jobs to be located there.

What comes to mind when you hear Harmony with Nature?

• Arlington needs to embrace turning spaces for cars into space for people/greenspace. Meeting onerous off-street parking requirements is a giant waste of land that could be providing tree-cover and stormwater filtration and capture.

• Housing should be built to enable people closer access to parks. Many parks in Arlington are quazi-private because all the available housing nearby is out of reach. Nature spaces such as Potomac Overlook Park, Glebe Road Park and many other North Arlington Parks do not have any housing opportunity nearby within reach of middle-income and below households.

• Density should be increased to allow more residents access to existing flagship urban parks such as Quincy Park, Lubber Run Park, and Virginia Highlands Park. Density should be allowed to grow on all sides of these parks. 

• Parks should be accessible by all modes of transportation to enable safe travel for people of all ages and abilities

• Arlington must embrace tall buildings as they provide much needed shade; this will become more and more important due to climate change. 

What comes to mind when you hear Resilient Economy?

• Having a robust new supply of housing is key to attracting new business to locate in Arlington. Many businesses can’t afford to retain talent in Arlington so they relocate where their employees can more afford to live and raise a family. 

• Car ownership is extremely expensive; supporting other modes of transportation so that Arlingtonians don’t have to rely on a car to get around gives households key flexibility in their budgets to deal with economic shocks and uncertainty

What comes to mind when you hear Interwoven Equity?

• Access to Arlington’s Public Transit and Micromobility networks are great economic opportunities - we need to work to make sure they are available to the full spectrum of Arlington residents, not just those who can afford million dollar homes.

• Many of today’s transportation challenges in Arlington are a direct result of past bigotry and inequitable decision-making.  Certain neighborhoods being cut-off from the rest of Arlington by poor street connectivity and misaligned cross streets is not a coincidence or bad luck, and intentional efforts must be made to bridge these arterial divides.

• We must strongly support car-free mobility to equitably support those who cannot drive as well as those who choose not to.