poll

Morning Poll: Proposed Changes to Blue, Orange Lines

By ARLnow.com

On Thursday, Metro’s board will discuss a plan to divert some Blue Line trains across the Yellow Line bridge, thus freeing up capacity through the Rosslyn tunnel for additional Orange Line trains.

The plan, however, is a bit more complicated than it initially sounds.

The shift would only happen during rush hour. The affected Blue Line trains would travel from Franconia-Springfield, across the Yellow Line bridge and over to Greenbelt via the Green Line.

The move would allow Metro to add three trains per hour to the Orange Line. Those trains would travel from West Falls Church to Largo Town Center, at the end of the Blue Line.

In addition to alleviating some of the overcrowding on the Orange Line, the plan would free up capacity for future Silver Line trains, which are expected to start running in 2014.

The change would come at a price, of course. The Washington Post and Greater Greater Washington each have more details about the significant logistic and communication challenges involved in implementing the plan.

Obviously, any changes to the Orange and Blue Lines are going to have a large impact on Arlington commuters. Do you agree with the plan?


Flickr pool photo by BrianMKA

Poll: Tax Tobacco to Pay for Medicaid?

By ARLnow.com

Del. Patrick Hope (D), who represents part of Arlington in the Virginia House of Delegates, has proposed a bill that would raise taxes on tobacco products to fill several gaps in the state’s Medicaid budget.

The bill would raise the tax on cigarettes from the current $0.015 per cigarette to the national average of $0.0725 per cigarette, or $1.45 per pack. Virginia currently has the lowest cigarette tax in the U.S.

The bill would also raise the tax on snuff and other tobacco products. Cigars would be taxed at 50 percent of the wholesale price, up from 10 percent.

Hope’s legislation would direct 52 percent of the additional tax revenue (estimated at about $250 million) to fund Medicare waivers for intellectual and developmental disabilities. Forty percent of the revenue (about $150 million) would go to Medicaid reimbursement for physicians and hospitals. And 8 percent (about $30 million) would be split among the state tobacco quitline and a youth tobacco prevention program.

“Virginia’s Medicaid budget is on an unsustainable course,” Hope said in a statement. “Cuts to Medicaid only result in higher costs down the road. The sick end up in the hospital and ERs for costly medical procedures and avoidable hospitalizations; and individuals with disabilities wind up in institutions rather than being served in their communities for a fraction of the cost. This proposal will take a significant step in preserving and protecting the Medicaid program for future generations and will fulfill a promise to Virginia’s families.”

What do you think?


Virginia has traditionally been one of the more tobacco-friendly states in the country, making consideration and passage of such a bill an uphill battle. Hope has received public words of encouragement, however, from a number of influential health-related organizations, like the Medical Society of Virginia, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.

See the press release prepared by Hope’s office, after the jump.

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Verizon and Comcast Reps Respond to Poll

By ARLnow.com

One thing Comcast and Verizon certainly excel at it knowing when people are writing about them on the internet.

In a poll we conducted yesterday, nearly three quarters of respondents rated their overall experience with Comcast “poor” or “very, very bad.” The comments section generally reflected the same sentiment.

In the article that accompanied the poll, we also mentioned Verizon’s FiOS service, saying that it helps protect consumers by giving them a viable alternative to cable.

Within just a few hours of the article being published, representatives from both Comcast and Verizon called and emailed us and left notes in the comments section.

Comcast, to their credit, was solely concerned with looking into the frustrating personal experiences with customer service that were mentioned in the article and in the comments. Kudos to them for that.

Verizon, unsurprisingly, appreciated our words of support for the continued expansion of FiOS service into local apartment and condo buildings.

Local Verizon sales manager Mark Harrington said he personally agreed that “any service provider, including Verizon, has been shown to be more responsive where there is the real option of being fired by our customers.” He shared the following information and advice for anyone who would like to get FiOS service in their community.

We’re trying to get to as much of Arlington as quickly as we can with our Verizon FiOS service. If you live in a condo or apartment building… I generally advise residents to make their voices heard with their board or property manager and have those people contact us.

We’ve reached out to every property we can and have successfully built out many at Verizon’s expense, but with others we have not yet, either because the owners have not yet granted permission, we haven’t been able to contact them, or in some cases we are still working on the fiber build to reach a few areas of Arlington.

Our website with more information for property owners is here…

http://communities.verizon.com/default.aspx?page=ownmulti

Morning Poll: Rate Your Experience With Comcast

By Scott Brodbeck

Last night I had my most horrid Comcast customer service experience to date, and that’s really saying something. I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say that it was an hour and a half of my all-too-rare free time that I’m not getting back.

It’s not so much that the Comcast customer service agents themselves are that bad, it’s just that the customer service system in which they operate seems to be designed with the sole purpose of minimizing cost at the expense of producing meaningful solutions to customers’ problems and complaints.

Comcast has a partial monopoly in Arlington. Sure, Verizon FiOS and satellite TV are available to single family homes and certain apartment buildings and condos. But for many apartment and condo-dwellers, Comcast is the only game in town. The only option for those folks in the event of an unresolved grievance is to either grin and bear it, cancel service and forgo cable and/or internet altogether, or complain to the county’s cable administration office and hope for the best.

Competition is a customer’s best friend — a point of leverage in disputes. With any luck, FiOS will continue making inroads and internet-based TV will continue evolving into a viable alternative. Until that time, however, Comcast will continue to exasperate and frustrate those for whom going without internet or cable television service is not an option.

Rate your Comcast experience below, and feel free to vent in the comments. Who knows, maybe someone in a regulatory position will be listening.


Morning Poll: New Year’s Resolutions

By ARLnow.com

It’s fun to make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not as fun, however, to keep New Year’s resolutions.

If you’ve made a resolution, what are the chances that you’ll keep it? Approximately 360 days from now, we’ll check back and compare our personal predictions with the actual resolution success rate.


Morning Poll: Are You Working Over Christmas?

By ARLnow.com

We just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everybody who will be working over the Christmas holiday.

From emergency personnel to military service members to media workers to retail and service employees, here’s to the dedicated men and women who will be protecting, informing and serving us while much of the community is opening presents and spending time with family.

Also, here’s to everybody who is forgoing a holiday trip or skipping a family gathering in order to be “on call” for their job this weekend.

Are you working over Christmas? Or did you start your holiday break days ago?


Morning Poll: Rising Rents

By ARLnow.com

This morning the Washington Post quantified what many people have observed in the past year: rents in the area are going up, fast.

According to a Delta Associates study cited by the Post, local apartment rents have increased 8.2 percent this year, to an average of $1,643. Rents in the Washington area are at 20-year highs, as people flee the housing market for rentals. Only New York City has a lower vacancy rate.

Earlier this year, we reported on the red-hot rental market in Pentagon City, where the average rent at the beginning of the year was $1,902 and rising. And Pentagon City certainly wasn’t alone in terms of rent hikes in the county.

Just how fast have rents been increasing in Arlington in the past year? Let’s find out.


Morning Poll: Dreams of a Winter Wonderland

By ARLnow.com

The snow storm once seen as a possibility for this weekend never came to pass. Instead of a cold, snowy weekend, we were left with, well, just a cold weekend.

Now, instead of a blast of snow on Tuesday, as once predicted, snow lovers are being told to wait until Christmas.

Surely, snow fans must be getting a bit frustrated. If there’s one time of year when it would be nice to have some more white stuff on the ground, it’s the holiday season.

Now, we know there are plenty of people around here who would swap climates with South Florida in a second, if given the choice. But if the temperature outside is going to be freezing cold anyway, would you rather have some snow?


Morning Poll: Chinese Food in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

I have yet to encounter anyone who thinks the quality of Chinese food in Arlington is better than average.

Sure, there are some who will testify that the Chinese restaurants here are no different than anywhere else. But there are also plenty of people who have said emphatically that Chinese food was soooo much better wherever they lived before Arlington (New York City, for instance). For them, finding one — just one — comparable restaurant in Arlington remains a challenge.

What do you think? Feel free to share your restaurant recommendations in the comments.


Morning Poll: Metrorail Replacements?

By ARLnow.com

For all the complaining about Metro, one thing’s for certain: plenty of people still use it.

After all, if yesterday morning’s Orange Line problems demonstrated anything, it’s that for all the suckage, the people you saw jammed onto the platforms still, at that point, considered Metro to be their best transportation option. (Same applies to today’s Blue, Orange and Yellow Line delays.)

But perhaps some are changing their minds.

We heard stories about people yesterday leaving the stations and walking to work, taking cabs, hopping on the bus, or just going home. Maybe a few of those people will permanently change their commuting habits as a result.

With that we ask: have you switched from commuting on Metro to another form of transportation? Or, if you’re very seriously considering making a switch, which form of transportation are you likely to go with?

If you’re likely to continue riding Metro, select “none.”


Morning Poll: Expand the Snowblower Loan Program?

By ARLnow.com

Now that Arlington County has on its books an official snow removal ordinance, which makes failure to clear the sidewalk in front of your property a civil offense punishable by fines, demand for the county’s snowblower loan program is apparently skyrocketing.

County Manager Barbara Donnellan told the board on Saturday that the county has received requests for 50-60 snowblowers so far this winter. Arlington only has about ten snowblowers available to loan to local civic associations.

Faced with that news, the board seemed willing to expand the snowblower loan program, the goal of which is to allow citizens to clear publicly-owned sidewalks in their neighborhoods. The program also allows civic associations to clear sidewalks for elderly or disabled neighbors who aren’t capable of doing so themselves.

“The goal has to be to get the sidewalk shoveled,” said board member Barbara Favola. “This, in my mind, is a tool to get us there.”

“The snowblower program… allows those area that are the county’s responsibility to get done earlier than if we waited for county employees to get done with their snow clearing responsibilities on the roads,” noted board member Mary Hynes. The board asked Donnellan to report back on the program, but did not take any concrete action.

While the board was unanimous in its praise of the program, at least one local civic association leader cautioned that the program could “grow out of control.”

“The county lacks storage space, and buying snowblowers or snow shovels for us is not your role,” said Chick Walter, president of the Arlington Ridge Civic Association. He said the program has been “glaringly unsuccessful” in terms of only benefiting a few county neighborhoods.

Walter urged the county to end the program and donate the existing snowblowers to local civic associations.

If you were sitting on the board, what would you do?

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