This and That: A Random Stagger Through Reston News
On the eve of a fascist "smoking ban" that was put into place in Virginia restaurants earlier this week, a group of protestors decided to have a "four stogie feast" at Morton's in Reston Town Center as a protest, of sorts, setting off the fire alarms in the process.
Reston Community Players former president Sue Pinkman was named citizen of the year by the Reston Citizens Association, the first time the award has gone to a leader of an arts group.
Democracy was definitely in action when folks from the impoverished village of "Great" Falls slummed it came to Reston to complain about a fancy turn lane on Rt. 7 that would allow more Loudoun County poors to shatter the bucolic beauty of its 7-11 and Safeway:
More than 150 people, most of them Great Falls residents, showed up for the meeting at Buzz Aldrin Elementary School in Reston, and they were not happy. However, the public comment period on the project closed six years ago, and it was approved in 2004. The purpose of the meeting was simply to explain that additional turn lane was necessary.
Heh. To be fair, maybe they just want to keep Loudoun's "serial smoocher" away.
Oracle is proposing to build a 203,000-square-foot office complex on its property in Reston.
A few weeks back, the Washington Post had an interesting feature about 13-year-old Smar Abuagla, a Langston Hughes middle school student who chose to wear a head scarf at school for the first time this year. Was there taunting and the throwing of items at Abuagla, including a zucchini? Oh, yes.
Palestinians are looking to build their first planned community. Guess what fancy beige real estate development they picked as a model?
These communities are patterned after American suburban development -- the new city, Rawabi, is specifically designed for upwardly mobile families of a sort that in the United States might gravitate to places such as Reston, Va. The developments are also relying on another American import, the home mortgage, including creation of a Fannie Mae-style institution for the West Bank.
Easy mortgages and confounding regulations. What could possibly go wrong?
Reston resident Dwayne Phillips, 50, is walking the length of U.S. 11, bit by bit. Last year, he and his wife walked from Reston to Chattanooga, Tenn., and in October he was in Mississippi, hoping to make it the full length of the highway, which ends in New Orleans. Beats sitting on the Toll Road at rush hour, is all we know.
Labels: "Great" Falls, 20190, Development, Meet Your Neighbors, Reston, Reston's vibrant economy, Road Rules, Schools
Per that last item about Dwayne Phillips walking from Reston to New Orleans: he'll probably get to the Big Easy faster than if he had tried instead to walk from Reston to Tysons Corner. On the down side, though, there will be no botoxed Krystal Koons waiting to wow him on Bourbon Street.
Joshua Davis December 3, 2009 at 4:13 PM
The county needs to stop letting all these buildings (thinking of Oracle here) go up without figuring who they will integrate with the future Metro stops.
I recently visited a place like Reston near Atlanta (Perimeter). It had tall office buildings, very suburban, and unlike our town had two subway stops. Unfortunately everything was still layed out like it was the suburbs and people did not use the subway to get there, the traffic was worst. If they keep putting up these suburban monstrosities near Metro, then the Metro certainly won't relieve traffic issues.
dvdmon December 3, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Can someone point me to where U.S. 11 is in Reston??? Google Maps has it getting as close as Winchester, VA, but no closer. I think maybe that article got it wrong and thought that since he was from Reston and maybe started walking from there, that U.S. 11 started there too. I followed it up via Google Maps and it seems to go all the way to Northern NY State - Rouses Point, NY, just south of the Canadian border...
The young girl at LHMS wearing the head scarf is NOT news. Young girls have been doing that there for a number of years. Same with the rest of the local middle and high schools. It would be nice for the Post to find a REAL issue to feature...like perhaps a runaway HOA!
Josh-- do you know if there are any renderings available for this Oracle property? A 200,000 square foot office on 17 acres doesn't sound like a very dense development. Will this be surrounded by acres of surface parking and large setbacks from the street. I completely agree that there needs to be better coordination with the coming metro stations. If this is built, it will be another 30 years before something more appropriate is constructed close to the metro station.