Follow County Board Meetings on Twitter

Arlington Young Democrats have started Twittering this year's County Board meetings. You can track the Tweets here. You can also watch meetings online at the County Board website.

Arlington Republicans have also joined Twitter, you can follow their feed here.

Arlington County Board's Annual New Year's Day Meeting

The Arlington County Board has a tradition unlike any other in the entire country, holding its first meeting of the year on the first day of the year. Yes, you can tell what a bunch of political nerds we are in Arlington that we can't even wait one day to listen to our elected officials make speeches.

It's actually the most entertaining, concise board meeting of the year. They swear in the chair and vice chair, then each member lays out their priorities for the year ahead. Here are the details:

What: Arlington County Board's Annual New Year's Day Meeting
Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009
Time: 11:00am - 12:15pm
Location: County Board Meeting Room (3rd floor), 2100 Clarendon Blvd

In addition to receiving a greater sense of civic pride, they usually also put out free coffee and donuts. Hope to see you there!

Tonight: State of the County

Just a quick heads up that Arlington County Board Chair Walter Tejada will be delivering the State of the County address tonight at 6:30pm at the Arlington County Board Room, Room 307, 2100 Clarendon Blvd (Courthouse Metro).

Is Lee Gardens Shopping Center Worth Preserving?

From the Arlington Connection comes news that the County Board has approved a redevelopment plan for a site at the corner of Route 50 and Pershing Drive:

The new development will be a mixed-use building that will feature residences, office space and stores. More than 180 apartments will be on the site, with 18 of them being sold at below-market, affordable rates. It will also feature more than 33,000 square feet of retail and office space.

[M]any historical preservation activists opposed the project. The Lee Gardens Shopping Center, they said, is a historic building that shouldn’t be renovated.

“It’s a remarkable and wonderful design,” said Robert Dudka, chair of the County’s Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board. “If we don’t preserve the recent past what will we be doing in the future?”

I used to live right behind the Lee Gardens Shopping Center in Sheffield Court apartments. I only went to Lee Gardens a few times, to get pizza at Armand's, for an emergency grocery item at the market, or for karaoke at the Royal Lee.

Really, there wasn't much reason to. "Remarkable and wonderful" are the last words I would use to describe Lee Gardens. There's no foot traffic in that area and the Lee Garden stores that remain open look like they're barely scraping by.

I'll miss the Royal Lee if it can't find a new home. Especially after the closing of Whitey's and Dr. Dremo's, it's one of Arlington's few remaining neighborhood dives. But is that enough reason to oppose redevelopment that could revitalize that area? Definitely not.

So why would anyone fight to keep Lee Gardens the way it is? The Recent Past Preservation Network details the history and architecture of Lee Gardens, but the case for preservation seems thinner than Armand's pepperoni slices. The architect who designed the building "was involved in about 900 other projects" and I can't imagine this strip mall would rank among his top achievements.

I'm not saying this redevelopment plan is the perfect one. But if historic preservation advocates would argue Lee Gardens deserves protection, is there any site at which they wouldn't fight redevelopment?

Walter Tejada Chat Recap

Check out the transcript of new Arlington County Board Chairman Walter Tejada's chat on WashingtonPost.com!

Spend New Year's Day with the County Board

While it may not sound terribly exciting, the Arlington County Board's traditional New Year's Day meeting is actually the best meeting of the year. The County Board officially selects its chair, which will be Walter Tejada this year. Each member then lays out his or her priorities for the year, keeping the speeches fairly short (sort of a thank you to the crowd for coming out on a holiday). It's over in an hour or so and you've learned a ton about your community. Plus, free coffee and donuts, which is nice.

If you're interested in learning more, check out the Arlington County website or the Facebook event page!