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Vaccine distribution planning, Arlington's green building incentive policy, our residential permit parking program, changing Lee Highway's name, our logo and a renaming process, and stormwater work have been our focus this month. Good news on LGBTQ+ issues and opportunities to help below as well.
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Last Tuesday, the 22nd, the County Board held a work session on Vaccines and COVID 19. Starts at 7 min. 15 secs. & runs for an hour with Dr. Varghese providing key information early in that hour.
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First, COVID response. As I mentioned last week, we are receiving vaccines. For a presentation from our Public Health Director and from 10 minutes to an hour of discussion of Arlington's COVID response, click on the video above. For a shorter, five minute summary of our vaccine work in December, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQHJY8IRAWs&feature=youtu.be
For Arlington County's website on vaccines, go here:
https://www.arlingtonva.us/covid-19/vaccines/
The process for deciding who receives the vaccine involves the federal, Virginia, and Arlington County governments. I described much of it in my email last week, but in summary, health care workers and nursing home residents are receiving the vaccine first. Then it looks as though essential workers and individuals 75 year old and above are next in line. For more about the process and the big picture from the NYT, read this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/health/covid-vaccine-first-elderly-workers.html
Decisions are not all final, but go here for the local story and links to the Virginia Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAARLINGTON/bulletins/2b22517
We also are setting up additional testing as we work to get out vaccines. Go here for our main COVID 19 https://www.arlingtonva.us/covid-19/ or here for testing sites: https://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2020/10/Testing-Site-Handout_2020.10.14.pdf
What does it all mean? We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we don't know how long the tunnel will be--6 months, 8 months, longer? So, in the meantime, to get to the light and to get everyone we possibly can there, we must mask, distance, and wash:
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The Board also took action on Arlington's Green Building Incentive Policy, which fits well with our shared goal of getting to 100% renewable electricity in Arlington by 2035. I helped with an amendment to push forward revisions every three years to the policy: we made progress now and signaled that we will come back to this sooner rather than later: https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/arlington-updates-green-building-incentive-policy/ For a short discussion of the work, go here:
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5 minutes on the Green Building Policy.
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The Board also took interim steps on residential parking, by advertising consideration of changes to residential parking that we will return to in February. Overall the revisions to parking are meant to better serve Arlington residents as a whole--currently only single family homeowners are eligible for residential parking permit zones.
The purpose of the zones is partially to prevent commuters, and in some cases metro commuters in particular, from parking on Arlington streets. Currently there are less than 9,000 households of the 110,000 households in Arlington who benefit from the program. The rest of us pay taxes to help support the program. I believe the neighborhoods and homeowners who benefit should shoulder more of the $360K in costs of the program each year.
My amendment allowed 3rd and 4th permits for higher costs, allowing for more flexibility for single family homeowners who want to pay for the program. I also pushed for reconsideration of the program to be deferred to a February hearing. I will be seeking additional changes before February. This issue has the potential to be contentious--I will seek to find an equitable solution that helps the most Arlington residents while also trying to be fair to all. For a short video discussion of this issue, go here:
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8 minute discussion of Residential Permit Parking.
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The County also has been busy this month working to move forward the renaming of Lee Highway, replacing our logo as we promised, and initiating a process for the renaming of streets and places in Arlington. All of this is about aligning our community with the work we must do to become a more racially equitable place. I am proud of our work on all three of these important priorities:
- On renaming Lee Highway, go here: https://www.leehighwayalliance.com/working-group-meetings.html I reported on this issue at the Board meeting this month and we will be engaging regionally and with our delegation to the General Assembly on this.
- On replacing the Logo and renaming, go here: https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/county-board-approves-process-to-choose-new-logo/
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APS and the County are partnering to help address stormwater infrastructure and schools.
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When I ran, I promised you I would work with our schools, and I am doing so on several levels, even if I know we all wish schools could be open now safely. There is plenty for me to do be a good partner on funding our schools and supporting educational equity. (I am very pleased schools--including APS--are receiving funding in the stimulus Mr. Trump finally signed Sunday.) I also have been working hard to help JFAC--the Joint Facilities Advisory Commission--find a path forward. Both are behind the scenes work. The video above is a more tangible example of the partnership on stormwater that our staff's are leading with full Board supporting.
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Watch this 1 minute 32 second video on the $56 million deficit we face for the County's next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
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The last video I want to share is above: it concerns the budget deficit we face for next year. Many of you supported me because I am inclined to invest in our community. I want you to know I am still so inclined, but I understand the challenges we are facing, even after the Federal stimulus was signed into law yesterday.
We face a $56 million deficit that is a far cry from the budget I expected this year. I will not become a deficit hawk, but I will keep the fiscal restraint we must have. Go here for a budget forum that can help provide more information. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAARLINGTON/bulletins/2b091ea
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As far as County actions, here's a quick list of good news and resources from December:
- Arlington County received a $383K grant to help pay off delinquent utility bills. https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/state-funding-available-to-pay-customers-overdue-county-utility-bills/
- At long last, Arlington has received the highest score from the Human Rights Campaign as an LGBTQ+ friendly place. So proud of this, which took flipping the legislature to accomplish: https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/arlington-awarded-top-rating-for-lgbtq-protections/
- I've endorsed Mark Herring for Attorney General. Attorney General Herring has been an outstanding Attorney General on civil rights, the environment, Dreamers, checking President Trump and you name it. I hope you will come to an event we are holding for him on Wednesday. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mark4ag.arlington?utm_source=Team%20BK&utm_campaign=a29460b4fb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_12_16_09_52&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3357df100d-a29460b4fb-184151913
- The County Manager, consistent with the County Board's focus on eviction prevention, put more funding ($1.6 million on top of the $5.3 million we have spent already) into eviction prevention in December. Go here for more information: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAARLINGTON/bulletins/2b0e6dc
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Finally, I want to ask you to help in three ways:
1. Make phone calls into Georgia. There is nothing that will happen over the next 14 days that is more important to Arlington's future than winning this election: https://arlingtondemocrats.org/start-making-difference-now/election-volunteering/
2. Please offer your thoughts on the Forestry and Natural Resources Plan, which will help us build a more biophillic, nature friendly Arlington: https://engage.arlingtonva.us/collections/forestry-and-natural-resources-plan
3. Take Arlington's Dialogue on Race and Equity Survey by December 31. We are now over 2800 on the way to 3500. Please engage: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G9YWWP9
4. Give as you are able to the Arlington Community Foundation's effort to meet the specific needs of Arlington: https://arlcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant We are working our way toward the goal of $50K and have made $2K in progress from last week.
Thanks again for reading this. Please enjoy these last few days of 2020 and let's push back together to make 2021 better than 2020.
Matt
P.S. If you have a question about this email, this month, you'll have to reach out to my facebook page and direct message me or email me at [email protected]. My Matt for Arlington email continues to be down for a couple more days.
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