Opinion

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organization or ARLnow.com.

Arlington has long been known for mastering smart infrastructure investments that have boosted the local economy, made Arlington an attractive place to live, and led to high levels of satisfaction in surveys of County residents.

Now, County leaders face a public that is cool to ambitious approaches to transportation, planning and infrastructure other than, perhaps, new and expanded schools.

For many, Arlington’s 2014 decision to cancel streetcars in Crystal City and Columbia Pike dealt not only a blow to transportation, but to community pride as well. What if, however, this gives us a timely, useful pause to consider improvements that are less capital-intensive? While I do not believe they can be the only solutions, it is important that we explore such alternatives.

Several fast-changing trends are converging to change how we live, work, shop, play – and get around. This is happening all over the world, but has special relevance for Arlington as we expand a planning focus from Metro station areas to other ways of delivering services, opportunity and quality of life.

These trends – technology, demographics, and shifts in work and workplaces – require new types of planning.

For transportation, Uber and Lyft are mainly known for disrupting the taxi industry, but it is really the smart phone platform that is transforming everything from biking to parking to travel.

So what are the opportunities in Arlington and what does it mean for planning?

Ride and Van Share – New companies like Bridj and Split are building new “microtransit” services that range from $2-$7 per trip. They fit a service level somewhere between solo driving and ART bus lines. They work by using algorithms to assign passenger pick-ups based on the most efficient origin-destination routes among several shuttle buses.

For example, residents living near the intersection of Columbia Pike and George Mason Drive can hail shuttles going to Seven Corners, Ashburn and other job centers not served by Metro (or that require multiple transit connections). These new transit companies are eager to work with localities to share data, incorporate services into formal transportation planning, and optimize public transit routes.

Paratransit – Arlington Transit offers on-demand rides for travelers with limited mobility. While costs have decreased (28% over the past three years to $27 per trip), these new services could reduce the costs of transportation further. As Arlington develops aging-in-place strategies throughout the County, these rides are incredibly important.

Car Owners – Yes, we have the Car-Free Diet, but what about support for drivers? Let’s face it, many Arlingtonians live in areas where a car is really the only practical travel option. However, many drivers want to reduce the hassles of driving, finding a parking space and car ownership. Fortunately, there are apps for all of these. The availability of these resources means that we should expand our transit programs to find ways to use our roads and parking resources in ways that help drivers — since reduced driving through efficiencies and easier route and parking navigation can result in less congestion for us all.

Locally Grown Transportation Companies – Arlington and DC are home to transportation companies like TransitScreen. Mobility Lab tracks new trends at the intersection of transportation, cities and technology. Arlington’s Economic Development chief Victor Hoskins wants to focus on tech for security, health and education. Given Arlington’s leadership in land use and transportation, and with the addition of 1776 to Crystal City, it makes sense to add smart cities to the list.

But there are also questions. How do public agencies incorporate private companies into transportation and infrastructure programs? For land use, what is Transit Oriented Development (TOD) when the transit comes to you through more individualized services? How do people without smart phones access broader mobility services? And finally, how will self-driving cars and transit ultimately disrupt the current disruptors?

Certainly tech-enabled ride sharing apps won’t exactly replicate the performance of a streetcar line. But they can provide immediate, cost-effective mobility options and supply the data needed to support the right kind of larger transportation and other infrastructure investments in the future.

In times such as these, the winning bet may not always be the big bet, but a series of strategic, iterative bets can help continue moving us forward.

Lisa Nisenson is a long-time civic advocate in Arlington and is founder of GreaterPlaces, a startup and member of the tech incubator 1776.

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organization or ARLnow.com.

How are we to understand the “gotcha” video attacks on Planned Parenthood – an organization serving low-income women nationwide with a network of family-oriented and community-strengthening health centers?

It started with a deceptively edited video a few weeks ago attacking Planned Parenthood’s health centers. The next step was a Republican push in Congress to gut funding for the centers, an outcome that would threaten lifesaving cancer screenings to countless low-income women, as well as critical access to contraception and reproductive education.

Then we saw an organization dedicated to criminalizing abortion hacking into the women’s health centers’ computer system.

These efforts go beyond bullying tactics we’re so used to from the right. When right wingers play “hard ball’ — as some of them put it — integrity becomes a lesser priority. What happened to the moral values of honesty and love of neighbor? They seem incompatible with today’s Republican and anti-abortion “me-only” ideologies.

Moreover, these latest attacks on women’s reproductive health advance a continuing right wing campaign to impose a radical “me-only” mindset on those who share the more common framework of “me-and-us.”

It is part of a multi-pronged effort by right wingers to rewrite our great nation’s history by asserting that the uniquely American idea of separation of church and state, which has served us well for over 200 years, was not really meant to be. This historic separation and the rich cultural-religious tapestry our nation has become conflicts with their “me-only” mindset.

This “me-only” mindset suggests that we should all accept as the only valid American morality their interpretation of the role of women and reproductive biology — fetuses, fertilized eggs, and sperm.

The right wingers want to protect fetuses no matter how much the women who carry them may be harmed. We cannot continue the historic neglect of women’s physical and mental health. Enough is enough! A woman should have the freedom to make her own health care decisions in consultation with her doctor and, for women of faith, her God.

I do not expect that everyone should share my point of view. But I also do not expect that I must accept the “me-only” point of view as a divine destiny.

We must especially not allow government actions – pushed by the pro-criminalization forces – to make lesser citizens of women. When government does not trust women, we all suffer as result.

Being bicultural, originally from Latin America, I see what women experience in places that have strict prohibitions on termination of unwanted pregnancies and even on birth control. We see something like where we were before Roe v. Wade — botched illegal abortions, troubling suicides by young and desperate pregnant women, high juvenile hopelessness, violence in places with chronic unemployment and high fertility rates, and the prosecution and marginalization of women experiencing miscarriages.

What the “me-only” activists fail to see is the fundamental notion that we Americans are greater and stronger as a united people than we are in a nation of radical individualism. Our success depends on everyone – men and women – getting an equal opportunity to contribute to our society.

We want an economy that works for everyone and does not leave women behind with less reproductive health, justice and freedom. We want strong families and communities that can depend upon family wellness and access to quality and affordable health care by everyone. That’s how we will move forward together.

Over the years, Planned Parenthood’s lifesaving women’s health centers have contributed to the strength, structure and stability of the American family and communities. Instead of defunding Planned Parenthood, Republicans should support Medicaid expansion so that lower-income women are less dependent on the health centers for cancer screenings and other lifesaving health services.

In our country, we must value women’s lives and freedom. Women, who should be trusted as much as men, should have what they need — including Planned Parenthood’s lifesaving health centers — to avoid unwanted pregnancy and childbirth as well as unwanted forced marriages resulting from those pregnancies.

It is also vitally important to have wanted children. In a society valuing women’s lives and freedom, motherhood should be voluntary. As author Katha Pollitt writes, “motherhood should add to a women’s ability to lead a full life, not leave her on the sidelines, wondering how she got there.”

The recent attacks on Planned Parenthood’s network of women’s health centers reflects the “me-only” ideology that hurts women’s health, lives and freedom, and greatly weakens the American family.

Federico E. Cura is a strategic communication trainer, outreach specialist and grassroots organizer. He spent years as a K-12 educator teaching Spanish and ESOL, and served on the Arlington County Transportation Commission.

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organization or ARLnow.com.

For decades, Arlington residents have enjoyed outstanding schools, parks, recreation facilities, libraries, public safety enhancements, transportation options, and a strong social safety net. All of these attractive features and others as well have been heavily subsidized by a strong commercial sector.

The strength of that commercial sector was due in part to: Arlington’s ideal location close to the nation’s capital and close access to the Pentagon; the buildup in federal spending over decades; and Arlington’s ability to attract and retain highly educated residents prized by employers.

We have also benefited from wise planning decisions and infrastructure investments that included, for example, multiple Metro stops that have become increasingly attractive to employers. We have managed to have a transportation system that helps people move around in Arlington and through Arlington while largely preserving single family neighborhoods.

For much of that period of time, Arlington’s ideal location and the educational achievement of its residents made Arlington largely immune from competition from other area jurisdictions.

Unfortunately, those days are gone.

Federal cutbacks are here to stay.

One need only see the dramatic transformations taking place in the District and in Tysons Corner to see how the public sector – working closely with the private sector – can attract commercial tenants, help increase revenues to support valued services without depending more heavily on homeowner taxes, and through planning and zoning measures help create more public space and better transportation options as part of those redevelopments.

Our residents are more critical of County spending and more sensitive to tax increases than has been true in the past 20 years. Yet many individual residents want the County to increase spending on items that matter most to them – for some that is schools, for others parks or open space, for others better pay for public safety personnel, for others it is added transit capacity, others want to ensure that housing is more affordable to young people, lower-wage workers, and those want to age in place. Others want more spending on services for mental health services. And others want expanded recreational facilities and community centers to meet growing demand.

Are we as County residents prepared to make difficult choices among these competing priorities? Will the answer be that services important to me should be maintained or enhanced, but spending important to others should be cut? Will housing prices continue to escalate and the tax rate be maintained? If so, there will be more revenues for the County government to provide services favored by residents. But it will also mean current cash flow challenges for many homeowners who won’t realize the profits from home price increases until they sell their homes.

The best answer in the past has been to rely on a thriving commercial sector to pay 50 cents of every dollar spent by the County.

That can still happen in Arlington, but only with a strong economic development effort and a dedicated effort to reduce commercial vacancy rates in the County.

Our commercial vacancy rate is somewhat deceptive. With a few exceptions, vacancies are concentrated in older buildings and those with fewer amenities or floor plans that require major adjustments to accommodate the needs of today’s workplace.

If we want to reduce those vacancies and leave more money available for school capacity and other priorities desired by Arlington residents, we will need Arlington’s economic development experts working closely and creatively with the private sector to identify the types of companies and actual prospects that can make use of Arlington’s existing inventory or we will need to find ways to encourage redevelopment of those dated or lower quality structures that are not likely to be successful in today’s marketplace.

Arlington is taking steps along this path. Those efforts should be encouraged. It is our best chance to keep services that residents strongly support and enhance our quality of life without adding to the burdens of homeowners.

Larry Roberts is an attorney in private practice. He chaired two successful statewide campaigns and served as Counselor to the Governor in Richmond. During his term as Chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee, Democrats won every election in Arlington.