The current City Council is continually building monuments to itself, whether the infrastructure is needed or not, at exorbitant costs (considerably higher cost per square foot than other comparable local government projects). I’ve said it before, this Council has never seen an expenditure it didn’t like…as long as it doesn’t come out of their pocket. The people of Manassas Park are going to be paying for this for generations.

I’ve thought about adding lane control signals and making the center turn lane a reversible lane. (It would continue to function as a center turn lane during non-peak hours). I’ve seen this done elsewhere; I believe it could work here. That, at least, solves the problem inside PW county…for the Fairfax side there is plenty of median to make 28 six lanes till the PW County line.

Sorry, but that is not true. Many problems cross jurisdictional boundaries and it is in our best interest to work together with other jurisdictions to solve them. Pooling resources to solve problems and share information helps to avoid duplication of effort, and is ultimately more cost effective for everyone. The Northern Virginia Regional Gang Taskforce an example of such a program.

“I agree there needs to be fiscal responsibility but I live in MP and want fully staffed and equipped Fire. Police and EMT’s.”

As does everyone.

“I also want to be able to sell my house someday and retire and I cant do that with overcrowded schools with poor performance.”

You can’t do that with a bunch of empty, foreclosed, decaying houses next door either. (On the other hand you can’t do it either with a house that has 20 people living in it next door) This is a big problem facing Manassas Park, as well as other jurisdictions.

“An old adage- you get what you pay for…very true when it comes to local services…”

That’s simplistic at best. What you get for the money depends on how effectively that money is utilized. Expenditures need to be scrutinized to ensure that they are really needed and that they will provide value commensurate with the amount of money spent.

VDOT has no immediate plans (I think by 2025 there will be a bike plan - but I wouldn’t count on it and I shouldn’t have to wait 17 years to use it). MP doesn’t seem to have any input/pull to the surrounding county areas.

Anyone running who would get the rule of law resolution enacted in Manassas Park would get my vote. (Republican or Democrat) I noticed MS13 (MSX3 as they spray it now, I guess it looks classier that way kind of like one of those luxury suv’s mkz, cts, ect…) is spray painting there logo on the 7-11 right outside of the new police station. I guess they are testing their limits. These politicians and gang members need to go.

I believe it was 2002 when they raised the sales tax.

How about letting employees work at home? The Federal Government needs to do more along these lines–they are the MAJOR employer in this area. I remember back in 1996 when the FedGov shut down because they didn’t pass a budget–traffic on I66 was much lighter than normal those days.

How about tax incentives for bringing broadband internet access to areas that don’t have it, so that those who live in those areas can work from home? I can’t work at home from a dialup connection, yet there are many places in the far DC suburbs that can’t get anything better! And these are the people who have the worst commutes, too.

No. I’d personally like to see VDOT and other agencies responsible for our roads operate more effectively. That does NOT require more money; that requires them to more effectively use what they have. In other words, we should be getting better results for the money we spend.

For example, how long has the traffic signal at Yorkshire Lane and 28 been malfunctioning? I’ll bet you didn’t even know it was. Most people don’t. I, however, happen to know how they’re supposed to work and this one isn’t. The specific problem is that it detects vehicles on Yorkshire Lane when there aren’t any, and needlessly stops traffic on 28. I complained about it to VDOT over a year ago and whatever they did to fix the problem, if anything, didn’t work. I complained about it again and again nothing was done.

You can drive on route 7 at any time past midnight and see the same thing. Half the signals on that road have malfunctioning loop detectors, which is painfully evident when it’s 1am, you’re one of the few cars on the road, and you’re getting stopped at every single traffic signal for non-existent side-street traffic.

If I as a casual observer can see the problem, what it’s VDOT’s excuse when they have technical visibility into the workings of these traffic controllers (their so-called “Smart Signal System” which appears to be pretty dumb to me) and they are either unaware of the problem or unwilling to fix it?

Needless to say, a malfunctioning traffic signal has a detrimental effect on traffic.

That’s just one specific example, but the one that is the most obvious because it’s easy enough to observe the workings of a traffic signal.

If the things that are obvious aren’t working right, what about the things that are not so obvious…?

Traffic issues are obviously multi-dimensional.

Throwing money into a traffic pool won’t fix things. Comprehensive reforms need to take place.

Business needs to be encouraged to move into non-traditional areas such as the suburbs. Maybe tax incentives for such a move.

Building additional roads or other traffic control devices will not help things and may seek to just hinder them.

Now, I have a question for you LL&P. How has the republican party (or any politican or party) robbed your life or deprived you of years of life? Do you not choose where to work, where to live and where to recreate? It would seem reasonable to me that if you have such an issue with traffic that you’d either move to be closer to work or go out less to do your part to lessen traffic for everyone else. After all, that’s the same as asking others to pay more in terms of taxes to make your trips shorter.

As I said above, services need to be slashed and cut or outright be ridden of. School budgets are full of fat. As well as emergency services. Social services are obviously the big target.

You state that “whomever is elected into office [in Manassas Park] needs to concentrate on slashing services and bringing back fiscal responsibility.”

Why?

Some folks may be willing to pay more to get more. Part of the wrecking of the Republican brand at the local level has to do with the perverted obsession with low/lower/lowest taxes at the expense of quality of life, with example (a) being the refusal of Republicans at the state level to do anything about transportation because it will actually cost us something (i.e. taxes and/or fees).

Republicans love the sound bites about family values and low taxes, but the Republican leadership would be happy to see you waste years of your life sitting in traffic rather than asking/allowing us to spend one penny of new/bad taxes to actually make our lives better. It is the ultimate arrogance for these so-called leaders to rob us our lives in service of their party dogma.

Republican leaders have basically abandoned us, and not the other way around.

Now, having said that. Whomever is elected into office needs to concentrate on slashing services and bringing back fiscal responsibility.

I hope that the residents of MP take that position seriously.

That’s one approach. The folks that moved out of Manassas Park exercised their free choice. They were neither right nor wrong. Likewise, I have no desire to change the Republican Party. In fact, I’m disenchanted with the entire “two party” system that forces Americans to take sides. Life is short… I plan to spend it as an independent voting for the folks that I consider best qualified regardless of party affiliation.

I am under no obligation to “work to change” something so (IMHO) fundamentally flawed by its nature and have no compulsion to do so. Revolution generally occurs from outside the system as those inside are too vested in the status quo.

So, why don’t you run for something, MP Resident? If your values fundamentally reflect mine (or offer the closest fit when compared to the other candidates), I’ll be happy to vote for you.

Insofar as political expediency of the current council is concerned, THEY were the ones who took the Republican Party in Manassas Park down…with a little help from their friends. Now that they have made “Republican” virtually a dirty word in the Park, they’ve GOT to bail!

My view is that if you don’t like something, work to change it. What you’ve done vis-a-vis the Republican party is akin to those who move out of Manassas Park because they don’t like the current government instead of working to change it.

As far as the MP city council members who are running as independents, it is my belief that they are doing so not out of any ideological idealism but purely for political expediency.