Most Supervisors care about improving their District such as Caddigan is doing for Dumfries and Triangle. She is not interested in the high density along Rt. One. You can be sure she will get the right mix for her area.

Neighborhood Services could go a long way in citing all the properties along Rt. One. This is called a sweep. Barg never would ask for a sweep and Principi really doesn’t either.

WELT, tried for years to improve Rt. One and we had many business that went out of their way to cooperate,but when they see others not doing or helping they give up. Again Barg never helped WELT. She finally worked around us in any case coming up. She was the boss.

Well guess what?Principi will be the same.He had that meeting on the development on Horner down at the Ferlazzo Bldg. Far from the Senior Citizens who live in Mar. Village,Summerland and the Hills. He will run this the way he wants to and I am sure he is getting his advice from Hilda.

more recent rankings for SAT scores.

I would never suggest you should be embarrassed growing up on the corridor. I have grown up and have had a good time for the most part along the corridor to the south of you.

As for the stats well I stand corrected I defiantly need a new prescription on the old eye glasses as I swore I was hitting the 2007 numbers oooppps

I still stand by what I said that the BOCS can most assuredly focus existing resources from Neighborhood Services –Property Code Enforcement to cleaning up the blatant violations along the RT 1 corridor through Woodbridge however they DO NOT. And that is why they and they alone are to blame….

Obviously my education is lacking. After all, I attended Groveton High School which is now called West Potomac (after combining with Ft Hunt). But I followed your link despite my educational shortfall. It seems that the last free ranking data is from 1998. Since I grew up on Rt 1 you can assume that I am too poor to pay for the ranking data - so 1998 it will have to be. The cover list is a bit deceiving. It looks like Mt Vernon is doing pretty well. But if you go past the cover ranking into the details - there is trouble. I looked at this page:

http://www.psk12.com/rating/USthreeRsphp/STATE_VA_level_High_CountyID_29_year_1998_start_1_HiLite_23.html

This has Mt Vernon as 23 out of 26. Stuart, Bryant Alternative and Mountain View are ranked lower. But even this is deceiving. Stuart is a high school under the normal definition. But I believe that Bryant Alternative is an alternate school as is Mountain View. And even this is deceiving since Bryant Alternative is basically a Rt 1 school too.

Your argument is that I haven’t been down Rt 1 in years. You are wrong. I travel down Rt 1 from the Beltway to Mt Vernon Avenue about once a month. Usually to meet my friend who grew up with me around Rt 1 and still lives near Rt 1. I am not sure how to prove this but it’s a silly argument anyway.

Rt 1 in Fairfax County has improved. But it moves in cycles and never seems to close the gap with the rest of Fairfax County (usually the richest county in America). The only thing that really counts is results. And the Rt 1 corridor has been at or near the bottom in Fairfax County in wealth, crime (or lack thereof), education, etc. for a long time. The buildings may be prettier but the people who live there are still getting the short end of the Fairfax County stick.

BTW - If I didn’t like the Rt 1 corridor or if I were embarrased by growing up there I wouldn’t use Groveton as a blog name.

Let us not forget that Mt Vernon Square was previously owned by Wills and Van Metre and they sold the crumbling and decaying community and Van Metre is the great and grand builder that was to have built the hundreds of units on York Drive that Ms Hilda says we could trust as a developer. Maybe as a developer but not as a Management Company.

Why don’t we move into more modern times on the improvements on Rt 1 through Fairfax:

Widening of Rt 1 from Lorton to the Tulley gate of Ft Belvoir, multiple shopping centers being revitalized with new layouts and modern shops, convenient pedestrian shopping in front of the Square as well as the upgrades that continue at Beacon Mall, continuing North you have the Rt 1 improvements leading to the new interchange along with additional shopping centers and up and coming is the new development of the old depressed Chuckey Cheese shopping center that will soon be turned into a town center style development.

Granted you still have the cheap motels by the interchange however you can also note that the prior obvious prostitution in that area has been drying up as the crack down in that area continues.

In reference to trailer parks are you denying people affordable housing? Not one complaint from me on the trailer parks in Woodbridge, nor in Fairfax. They for the most part are neatly maintained.

All this redevelopment has happened in the last 5 years and prior to that SEFDC worked closely with all the business to maintain their appearances and assist in getting grant money for much needed façade improvements.

As far as the schools you mentioned yes they are not the top nor are they the bottom. West Potomac ranks in the division in the teens to twenties out of 30 for testing and Mt Vernon ranks in the low twenties out of 30 in the division.
http://www.psk12.com/rating/USindivphp/STATE_VA_level_High_countybycounty_1_CID_29_year_2007.html

Lets not mix education and affordable housing with economic redevelopment of a previously poorly laid out and developed corridor as well as maintaining the neatness in appearance of existing business and not allowing them to illegally expand.

The BOCS can most assuredly focus existing resources from Neighborhood Services –Property Code Enforcement to cleaning up the blatant violations along the RT 1 corridor through Woodbridge however they DO NOT. And that is why they and they alone are to blame….

http://www.burgersub.org/murders2k7.htm

Here the “murder map” for the area. Look at the clump of 5 along Rt 1. And that’s for one year - 2007.

I knew some of the people from MetroCall (now USA Mobility I believe). They built a number of offices along Rt 1. They also complained that Fairfax County wasn’t doing enough for Rt 1. They were right. Again, the question isn’t whether there’s been improvement - the question is whether the gap between the Rt 1 corridor and the rest of Fairfax County has narrowed.

Just when is the last time you were on Rt 1. through Fairfax? I worked there for nearly 20 years and it has made incredible improvements in recent years.

That place has improved leaps and bounds above anything and it continues to improve. Take a drive wont you please before you say how bad it is there!

This should have happened here years ago.

Look at who Principi contributors to his campaign were 16,000 from Hilda and thousands and thousands from the dealerships…..Wonder why it’s not changing…Keep drinking you Kool-Aid! I for one am not so foolish as to think he has nothing to do with cleaning things up. Try vpap.org and let you fingers do the walking to find the truth!

The decline on the Rt. 1 corridor has continued for 20 years and will continue until SOMEONE gets off their collective butts and ALLOWS the County to do its job.

That development was just part of a larger one that didn’t go through a number of months ago. Are you upset because you didn’t get your way and get another load of unsellable units in an already depressed and flooded market? Remember there are already 600 units already approved to go in just ½ mile from there.

We have lived in this community when that area just behind was a dump that brought massive amounts of cock roaches through the sewer systems. We use to go as groups through the woods collecting the samples of the roaches leading right to the dump. We had boxes and boxes of specimen samples.

The plan did not improve traffic conditions, it did not put in needed side walks, it added to an already overloaded fire and rescue resources

Cry me a river that for once a development in Woodbridge was denied. Were you the one that fussed at the elderly man when he was leaving the Board Meeting when this was presented?

And by the way the development was NOT on Rt. 1 it was 2 miles off of RT 1. in a dead end section of Horner Rd that boarders I-95 in an extremely congested part of town.

As for blaming the PWC BoS for the conditions around Rt 1 in Woodbridge - think again. I grew up on the Fairfax side of Rt 1 - it’s no better there. I don’t know why the Rt 1 corridor remains blighted compared with the rest of Northern Virginia. However, the blight seems to be inter-jurisdictional.

I would laugh too if it wasn’t so sad. The county chased the Globe and Laurel restraunt out of Quantico because it condemed the property for Rt.1 improvements.

The Globe and Laurel is now located on Rt1 in Stafford county. PW’s loss!!!
It looks like forcing it out of a location it had resided at for many years was a “blessing in disguise.” How many more businesses along the RT1 corridor have to be closed and abandoned to make it look more like a scene from a class “B” movie?

Principi is developing a civic group. Wondering if this is just a dog and pony show or will it be along the lines of WELT. I believe that was in its time the Woodbridge Environmental Land Transportation group.

The problem with the new group will be if it is a patsy to push through what Principi wants and that would be the same old same old.

What this area needs is redevelopment of existing properties. Taking every vacant parcel and building it thinking build it and it will come has gotten us NO WHERE for the last 20 years nor will it.

Until redevelopment comes we have to DEMAND that existing laws and ordinances be enforced and that existing business be expected to tow the line.

What can get done to improve RT 1 that NO ONE has done anything with well…..lets get started listing from the North end of Rt 1. where VDOT has taken over parcels and the area is allowed to be overgrown and littered with trash and signs, traveling south past the shopping center where CVS is with the illegal signs and vehicles to Easy Street becoming a heavy industrial compound to the business fronting Easy St also being allowed to be a heavy industrial parking lot, to all the illegal signs along the Corridor the 7-11 at the parkway that has all the trash and denuding of the soil causing runoff issues, to the Color Tile building that should have been taken down years ago it is a heath hazard with all the heavy mold growing inside and the TREES growing up through the middle of the building to across the street with the gas station that has the illegal car lifts out side the bays, to the multiple car dealerships that continued to have their lots overflowing into the landscaping perimeters (although recently it hasn’t been as bad as I believe the economy is the issue here not Principi) to the salvage yard on the right that continues to allow broken down pieces of junk to be parked outside the fenced area, to the overflow of storage of a business into a closed access road, to another heavy industrial parking lot being formed behind the strip business near what use to be DeRay’s Market, to the graffiti filled strip mall on the left just past another dealership and all the outside storage of sheds and gazebos along with all the illegal signs littering the area, to the abandoned gas station at RT 1 and Opitz that has become an overgrown parking lot.

One has to wonder WHY these simple improvements have not taken place one has to wonder WHY the County has done NOTHING to enforce its own laws in this area when RT 1 has been the black eye of the county for 20 years they cant figure out how to clean up what is there already?

Build it and it will come, yes it will and it will continue to get worse because NO ONE is enforcing the existing laws, NOT now nor for the past 20 years.

The ONLY business along R1 1 is the one that has Kilroys in it they have painted improved the parking lot and planted landscaping buffers and Kudos to them.

I watched the replay of the meeting over the weekend and I thank you for coming out to state your opinions along with the rest of the men and women who came out to stop this unnecessary developement from takng place.

The Rezoning was for 10 Acres for high Dev. Which would be condos for sale or Apartments for rent.Of which we need none of that and especially in Woodbridge.

To really make matters worse Principi lied as he said 10-15 people was at his meeting and they were in favor of this.3 of the people were there at the meeting and spoke as they also had been at Principi’s meeting.Then he tried to say that Tues. PM, he had the people called again and they were in favor of this. He then made a motion to send it back to the Planning Commission and thats the vote that was 3 to go back and 5 said no. Corey gave a nice speech and said that he wanted this denied and he felt the majority did also.
Stirrup made a motion to deny and Nohe 2nd. it.That vote was 7 yes and 1 NO.That being Jenkins. Principi was either confused or wanted to look good to those there. But he didn’t.He acts just like Hilda and we are not letting him get away with this crap.
There was 7 of us there against this ReZoning and some of us are disabled and hard to get out,but I know I felt really great to be there. No one spoke in favor of this mess.
They can take their Potomac Communities elsewhere as these small isolated tracks of land doesn’t need this density.
That church property on York is and was a joke.
They need to give it to the County for Soccer Fields. We need them.