What
Allison’s Victory Could Do for Alexandria
Hank Savitch[*]
A new face at the mayor’s helm
could eventually do wonders for Alexandria, but at the moment this can only be
an early step. Lots of people have
pounced on Allison Silberberg, accusing her of seeking to “paralyze”
construction and hinder business. Nothing
could be further from reality and to prove it she has come up with a stack of pro-business
bona fides (supporting development at Potomac Yards, re-making Landmark Mall,
and taking a stand against eminent domain to oust a private boat club). Allison seems to be saying, build and build
intensely, but pay attention to what is built and where it goes up.
These statements alone will not give her a solid platform
from which to govern. Our new mayor
will need to play a new development game and demonstrate how she differs from
her predecessor. Allison must recapture a vision of Alexandria
that is both inspirational and practical––not only because it is a mark of honesty
but because it runs to her political core.
She would do well to consider “smart growth” as a benchmark for assessing
our city’s future. “Smart growth” is about
strategic development that weighs long term benefits against short term
considerations; it means that cities must position themselves within a larger
environment so they can make optimal choices, and it requires outcomes that are
balanced, sustainable and equitable.
The best cities do “smart growth” neighborhood by
neighborhood. Healthy neighborhoods keep
the rest of the city alive by providing alternating streams of pedestrians,
patrons, students, workers and other users.
They keep Main Streets from lapsing into cyclical ups and downs that
boom at one time and fall dead at another.
The path to sound development lies in respecting the scale and diversity
of our neighborhoods (sustainability), distributing movement so that narrow
streets are not choked by swarms of motor vehicles while others are empty (equitability)
and resisting mindless development that
will turn us all into a single industry town (balance). While hotels and restaurants are good things for
Alexandria, an overreliance can only make us more vulnerable to economic swings
(as well as produce alternating periods of hyperactivity and dormancy).
Allison will have to
work on a different kind of development that takes better account of varying
scales and densities. She will have to
invigorate our commercial thoroughfares in a different way—by introducing incentives
for bringing needed uses into our commercial centers. In order to reduce the threat of more
restaurant rows this city should offer tax abatements for businesses that
qualify as “needed uses”. High end uses
for tourists should not drive out ordinary uses for residents. Hardware shops, shoe repair stores, green
grocers, newspaper/magazine kiosks can be encouraged through targeted fiscal
relief and land use incentives. A
viable theater/movie house on King Street would go a long way toward joining
both residential and tourist trades. It
would also generate an innovative, multiplier effect for other land uses. The trick is to bring in talented management
that will reproduce the success of theaters in other small cities.
There is a pragmatic and indeed a pro-business side to “smart
growth”. For one, it will temper an
oversupply of buildings, thereby avoiding local market depressions. Second, it will assure that Alexandria does
not fall into the trap of a race to the bottom, where cities compete with each
other to attract the same tourists and chase the same industry––often to their
own detriment. Third, it will keep
Alexandria whole, with an array of mixed land uses, reasonable traffic
conditions and a healthy mix of residence, commerce and leisure.
How to do this is no easy task, but there are both short and
long term paths. The results of next November’s
general election can either leverage Allison’s victory into a larger movement
for “smart growth” or keep the June primary result as a one shot affair. We will have an opportunity to opt for a new
politics by voting in a new city council.
Yes, these are Republicans, who have already spoken up for supporting
preservation with growth, who are fiscally responsible and who are likely to work
with our new mayor despite party differences.
A longer term path lies in changing our council from its
present selection as an at-large system (citywide) to voting by districts (neighborhoods) At-large elections are a vestige of the
1920s and have been found to create more distance between citizens and their
representatives. Voting by districts
shortens that distance and increases accountability. Alexandrians would do themselves a favor by choosing
to balance an at-large mayor with council members from smaller districts. That is the kind of balance commensurate with
“smart growth” and deserving of our attention.
[*] Hank Savitch is a Visiting Fellow at the
Metropolitan Institute, Virginia Tech, NCR.
He has written extensively on urban issues through more than a dozen
books and 100 articles. He been a
former consultant to mayors and international organizations and currently
resides in Alexandria. Contact at hvsavi01@vt.edu
