In the larger scheme of things, it is not really important whether or not the Potomac Yard Metro Station Alternative B south entrance is deleted or restored, given the alarming level of environmental destruction that has already taken place in constructing this ill-sited project. (The Jan. 9, 2020 Alexandria Gazette Packet shows a protester with a sign calling for the restoration of the south entrance.)
What is astounding, especially compared to higher ethical standards of yesteryear, are the many documented counts of ethical breaches committed by the City of Alexandria and its partners in building the station, blithely accommodated by federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, Metro, and proponents of the project.
Less prominent perhaps at the moment but equally important is Metro board chairman Paul Smedberg's statements, judged by us to be untrue, about the deletion of the Potomac Yard Metro Station's south entrance and furthering Alexandria's bogus Metro confidentiality directive in May 2018 by way of cover-up, made while he was a Metro board member and to the present as board chairman via guilty knowledge and upholding the falsehood by not publicly dispelling it. Such actions are highly unethical and indicative of public gaslighting by elected officials.
It is hard to understand why WMATA condones this behavior from its new chairman (since June 2019) - especially because WMATA knows perfectly well that there was no confidentiality directive regarding the deletion of the south entrance and cost escalation.
Knowing all of this - and probably much more - why did Metro welcome Smedberg as chairman to succeed Evans, especially after it censured Evans for misconduct and breach of ethics? It further shows that more housecleaning is in order - as an op ed in the Jan. 8, 2020 edition of The Washington Post op ed urges.
C. Dara, Alexandria 22304
Hal Hardaway, Alexandria 22314
Jimm Roberts, Alexandria 22314