To the Editor:
With Mayor Euille and the City Council failing to distinguish between "needs" and "wants," they have pursued a relentless chase to generate additional tax revenue to finance a bloated city government and a top-heavy school bureaucracy. In most years, this has resulted in ever-higher property taxes. Of late, however, they have elected to pursue massive increases in development of Old Town's water front, Arlandria, and now Beauregard, which in most cases will result in a tripling of existing density levels. Besides destroying the existing character of the city, these developments, of course, will worsen already deteriorating traffic and slash affordable housing. Surprise, surprise ... our leaders proposed additional spending to alleviate these same problems that they are creating. I think most residents would agree that if we wanted to live in a Clarendon-like neighborhood, we would have moved there in the first place.
Up until this year, the local Democratic Party has protected the ruling political class by using a closed caucus selection process in which participants were required to sign a loyalty oath. As a result, our leaders - especially Mayor Euille and Vice Mayor Donley — have become increasingly arrogant in both their actions and speech when citizens challenge their unpopular decisions. Indeed, this arrogance has spread to key city employees such as City Attorney Jim Banks and Planning Director Faroll Hamer.
For the first time in my more than 25 years in Alexandria,
Independents will have a chance on June 12 to say "no" to those who also brought us the mess resulting from a poorly-informed decision on BRAC at Mark Center. This includes all of the slate endorsed by the PAC "Securing Alexandria's Future," a.k.a the Euille Machine. We need to elect a City Council which will be stewards of our taxes and not interested in building a monument to their time in political office.
Tom Slayton
Alexandria