Dear Supervisor Reid,
We are writing to urge your support for completion of Phase 2 of the Dulles rail project. Bringing Metro rail to Loudoun County is such an important decision that your vote on Loudoun’s participation will be a key factor in determining whether we can support you as a member of the Board of Supervisors in the future. To say we are concerned about your recent public comments indicating that you may oppose completion of this critical project would be an understatement.
For over a decade, your predecessors on the Board of Supervisors, Loudoun’s state and federal government representatives, business leaders, commuters and advocates of all stripes have worked to make the Dulles rail project a reality. They did so because of the obvious benefits – relieving traffic congestion, spurring centralized commercial development, increasing property values and reducing air pollution. Phase 2 of Dulles rail will also provide Leesburg residents with a welcome alternative to one of the most expensive toll roads per mile in the entire country, the Dulles Greenway.
As with most important infrastructure projects, Dulles rail is a considerable investment. However, Loudoun County’s contribution to Dulles rail is only 4.8 percent of the total and has been known for nearly five years. The overall cost of Dulles rail has actually come down over the last year by more than $1 billion due to cost savings from the route design (thereby reducing the cost to Loudoun). You have previously stated that the County's fiscal impact analysis would weigh heavily on your final decision. That analysis has been delivered and even under the most conservative estimates, the revenue generated by the Dulles rail project will exceed the capital costs to the County.
Again, we want to stress how important it is for you to support Phase 2 of the Dulles rail project. Given the decade long process that has brought together the various partners for this project, it is not likely that Loudoun will get another opportunity if the Board of Supervisors votes to withdraw.
Now is the time to lead. Now is the time to perform your civic and elected duty. Now is the time for you to look beyond the next election to those living in Loudoun county 10, 15, 20 and more years down the road. Do you honestly believe that their quality of life will improve if rail is hung out to dry?
While we know plenty of people who've moved to Loudoun over the years, we know just as many who've become frustrated and feel disenfranchised by the county's elected leadership and its unwillingness to plan for the long-term and look at the big picture.
This is an opportunity to change that trend and act in the county's generational wellbeing.
Committing to or killing Metro rail in Loudoun county: one of those will be your legacy. We sincerely hope you choose the former.
Sincerely,
Alex Cudaback and Jason Gleason
Woodlea Manor
Leesburg, VA
PS: To view the electronic signatures of over 200 other concerned individuals, I invite you and anyone else who is concerned to visit our online petition at http://signon.org/sign/lcbos-dont-kill-metro
Stick to your guns! You were voted in by the residents of Leesburg in part due to your courageous stand against this overfunded, poorly managed project. We realize there has been (and will continue to be) a lot of pressure to make you turn your back on the residents of Loudoun by those with outside interests. You are better informed on this topic than most, and you have continued to be a champion against waste and poor projects. Thanks for being informed. Thanks for having integrity Thanks for putting the residents above profit Thanks for really digging in to this mess but most of all.... Thanks for putting the people first, and opposing this type of wasteful project. Bravo!
Yes to Metro
1) "Ad hominem." While this may not be exactly the place to talk about an elected official's public driving record, since this is a debate about transportation, I'd say it has a bit of value. As for campaign contributions and consulting fees, I'm surprised you think there can't be a correlation between contributions and positions on an issue. 2) The county's elected leadership. Unless you've only been in Loudoun since the last Supervisors' election or just haven't been paying attention, you'd know the back-and-forth, clear-the-decks feel of local elections has been going on for over a decade now. Implying that this Board received some sort of mandate because of decades-old voter frustration is at best naive and at worst disingenuous.
3) "[N]o one has shown that it will relieve congestion." Actually, they have. And, ironically, they have also shown it won't. Which just leads us back to the circuitous nature of "studies" and "plans." People tend not to believe studies that don't jibe with their entrenched beliefs. Sound familiar? 4) It "would certainly have an effect on development around Ashburn" plus "possibly to the detriment of other areas" doesn't equal "no net gain." There's a risk, certainly, of distributed impact. But that impact is all in the county, no? 5) Your public-transportation-doesn't-reduce-pollution argument is just plain wrong. There are plenty of studies to point that out, but I doubt you'd believe them.
http://hillwho.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=4&sobi2Id=2200 Jason Gleason CURRENT POSITION TITLE EMPLOYER LOCATION Chief of Staff Representative John P. Sarbanes Washington PREVIOUS POSITIONS TITLE EMPLOYER LOCATION Legislative Assistant John P. Sarbanes Washington Legislative Director John P. Sarbanes Washington
To say Mr. Reid is unattractive yet is vain about his personal appearance would be an an hominem attack. To say he has accepted multiple campaign contributions from anti-transit and even anti-low-cost effective modern transportation advocates which have influenced his positions is not. Also not ad hominem is that, like D.C. Mayor Barry's drug addiction, Rep. Weiner's underpants images, and Rep. Foley's Congressional page solicitations, his reckless driving behavior has been made a public issue by Ken Reid himself. This is a fellow who claims that "transportation is [his] thing"--and it has been, in multiple unfortunate ways. He fought against the low-cost, successful Route 50 coalition project that reduced delays at Gilberts' Corner at a low cost. He was invited by Rep. Frank Wolf to attend a learning session at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Safety Center on Route 15 improvements--and was a no-show. No one who has followed his public "career" would say that knowledge or public service drives his votes.
http://chantilly.patch.com/articles/nancy-pelosi-headlines-major-fundraiser-for-fairfax-democrats Is this 'Rail to Loudoun', or is it 'Funds for the Campaign'?
Actually, I do believe that Metro should be part of a comprehensive transportation infrastructure. I'm not advocating the elimination of buses and cars, am I? The key word is "comprehensive," and any comprehensive transportation infrastructure includes rail. Nobody, anywhere, at any time, has ever said, "rail is the only public transportation possible." Show me who said that. I'll bet you a Coke you can't do it. The other thing I'm curious about, since you brought it up, is the benchmark that must be reached before Metro becomes, as you say, "appropriate." Is it a population number? Is it a dollars per gallon of gas number? Is it a measurable pollutants in the atmosphere number? What do you need to see, exactly, for you to think Metro is "appropriate"? Because my instinct is no matter what the indicators are, you will always be against this kind of funding initiative on ideological grounds, pure and simple. I'd love to hear that I'm wrong. But if this is a debate about ideology, it's a waste of all our time.
What about population density, and cost distribution? What about the bus infrastructure to move people to and from stations on the east side of Loudoun County? How about the jobs within a half mile and a mile of the stations? Isn't rail premature? Shouldn't a backbone of BRT be established first? What about ridership? Is ridership important? If so, shouldn't we wait at least until November 2012, when WMATA says maybe they can get a ridership forecast to us? Strange that this was evidently not done after the years of planning. I had heard a 10,000 ridership forecast, but I think it was from 2002 or 2004, and that the forecast is being updated. (continued)
(continued)
Scott York, the Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, says that his BOS is not sure how they will pay for this rail extension. The Fairfax County BOS said the same thing in their deliberations. The money went into a “CNI” - what the heck is a CNI? Oh, it's a Capital Needs Inventory – meaning, well, “Uh, we'll get it somewhere, we think.” But after all of the years you cited, don't you think there should be more certainty before proceeding with a project of this size? (continued)
It's back in your court, Alex.
But you've still not answered either of my original questions; you've only drowned them out with an increasingly opaque deluge of your own. So, show me the Metro proponent who ever said, "rail is the only public transportation possible," and tell me, exactly, what will make it an "appropriate" time for Metro, and I'll consider playing with you. Otherwise, no thanks.
You shouldn't ask me for such rules - you should ask FTA, DOT and FRA - who not only will not fund this Dulles Rail Phase II project, who not only will not make a loan for it, but who won't even -undersign- a loan for it. Perhaps when you can actually meet any kind of standard for such jobs, or even actually -specify- your standards for such a huge job, we can talk. I wish that you recognized that bus is the right choice for the transit backbone in Loudoun County and Western Fairfax County now. You downplay the bus that would be needed to get people to and from stations on the east side of Loudoun County, and you deny the feasibility of extending that same bus as the backbone to provide the transit that you say is needed. My mistake was to exaggerate your position - you DO admit that bus should be PART of a solution. The thing is, out here around Loudoun County, bus is not just -part- of the solution, it is almost the -only- public transit solution. And that will remain true even if we get the full rail extension to Ashburn, because most people do not happen to live and work a quarter mile or less from the proposed rail stations. Now downplay the lack of need or justification for this stunningly expensive rail extension that should be BRT instead, and declare victory over an exaggeration. I regret having given you that straw to grasp, but one can only live and learn.
Well said Melvin! We can't wait to have better public transportation here!
I've asked you two simple questions: show me anyone who's made the ridiculous comments you attribute to Metro supporters, and provide even one simple benchmark that you'll accept as showing when Loudoun can use Metro. You've refused to provide either, which leads me to two, obvious, conclusions: one, you attribute things to people that they have never actually said simply to bolster your own arguments; and two, you will never accept a time as being right for Loudoun to have Metro even though you imply you will. You simply like to argue, you simply like to shout, and you simply like to point fingers. Once people realize the emperor is wearing no clothes, there's no need to grasp at anything at all.
Yes to Metro