To the Editor:
Several months ago I wrote an article in this publication asking “Who are the constituents of our law making body, the City Council” I stated it was not the elderly who are leaving the city because they cannot afford to live here, nor the schools whose infrastructure and academics have been neglected nor the neighborhoods who have been stressed by city demands and broken promises but rather the developers who benefit and feed upon the city's insatiable appetite for development and revenue even if that development is at the expense of a neighborhood. The developers are the main and possibly the only constituent of the city. How clairvoyant that statement was as I watched the final vote of the Woodbine debacle play out.
The BRAC, the broken promises at T.C. Williams, the upheaval at the waterfront, the eminent domain at the boat club and the deception of the tennis lights at T.C. Williams shattered the sanctity of the neighborhood and the purpose of our votes. To be successful in the future, the neighborhoods must reinvent how we communicate. We must go beyond the civic associations. We need a unified body of citizens not individual civic associations if we are to stand up and influence the governing body of our city.
Civic associations are wonderful vehicles for uniting neighbors, dispensing local information, discussing local issues indigenous to the neighborhood but they bear no power, no clout for city-wide issues issue like the waterfront, the BRAC and zoning issues. While individual neighborhoods can be proactive, their value and opinions in a crisis are often considered self serving. My message to you is that civic associations need to unite for the common cause. If it affects Rosemont then it affects Seminary Hill, Old Towne and the West End as well. The idea of “not in my neighborhood” cannot apply any more — it will not win the vote. The City Council counts clicks — Yes/No; letters and speeches are informative but they register one click for a letter and zero clicks for a speech on the record. We are losing the battle. We are getting pushed around. You can have the greatest organized neighborhood, complete with attorneys, health professionals and eloquent speakers and you can still lose 6-1 as happened at Woodbine because in the end this was perceived as a neighborhood issue not a city issue.
I will not dare leave you without a solution. There are a group of talented and dedicated individuals developing a website that will bring the Alexandria community together like never before. The name of the website is AlexandriaCares. It will feature links to City Council and School Board — as well city-wide links and information, current issues will be one click away. It will be the most advanced citizen social media site in the city. Phone calls can be made to citizens and governing bodies concerning important issues. It is an attempt to inform, educate and unite our city as never before with just a click of your computer. We will take polls on city issues and send them to council and school board — as such they will have the opinions in numbers with no alternative but to vote for the sensible majority. We will be able to get the word out on projects and city issues; we can then discuss the issues and take a a unified stance on issues of importance.
I believe that this website will be a game changer for the citizens of Alexandria. It will serve to unite all communities, to open a constant forum for discussion, to share information and allow the citizens to voice their opinions on projects, so acceptance and rejection by the City Council can be fully realized with real numbers and not behind closed doors in the council chamber. There will be no more done deals before the vote. The council and school board will vote for the citizen majority as was their mandate upon election. The website is coming very soon; the exact date will be circulated to the citizens. Finally, we the citizens of Alexandria as a voting body will have leveled the playing field.
William A. Goff
Alexandria