To the Editor:
If there was ever a time to refresh our City Council, it’s now. Regardless of your political preferences, be bold. Replace the same-think, city congesting mayor and council incumbents; bring in Silberberg, Wood, Van Fleet, Miles and Torrez. We need their experience, vigor, knowledge and especially their respect for citizen concerns. And courage.
We’ll get courage in spades by voting into office Wood, Van Fleet, Torrez, Miles and Silberberg. The first three are wartime veterans of whom Wood and Van Fleet are West Point graduates. Along with attorney Miles, the daughter of a veteran, and administrator Silberberg, electing them will give us badly needed fresh perspectives unsullied by the density-loving, pro-developer bias that afflicts our current mayor and his rubber-stamping council.
Voting for Silberberg, Wood, Van Fleet, Miles and Torrez will also guarantee a more thoughtful consideration of future citizens, many of whom have not been born and who have no advocate. These are the souls who will have to pay the debts being rapidly incurred by our fleckless current city council and mayor.
Make no mistake: the debts I’m talking about are the frothy borrowings that occur when the elected are disconnected from the electorate. Of course, we need good schools, well maintained streets and superior safety, but we do not need public palaces, seldom used bike paths and gutters over-engineered to withstand falling asteroids. And it’s the schools, streets and safety that must be foremost; not a new metro station or a waterfront walkway for a half a billion dollars the pair.
Another benefit of electing sensible change agents will be a more vigorous outreach to the entities that create wealth and the fresh tax revenue this new wealth engenders: the risk taking, job creating entrepreneurs. Arlington vigorously courts these wealth makers. We don’t.
Jimm Roberts