As Doug Koelemay does not participate in this blog, I feel compelled to plug his e-zine contribution this week, “Flash the Lights and Blow the Sirens,” about the imminent demise of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, whose $500 million list of regional transportation projects no longer has a funding source.
Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the NVTA’s mission or how it is run, the slow unwinding of a key player in the Northern Virginia transportation debate is an important story. So is the frustration felt by many of its members. One particularly choice quote:
“It is one thing to be a donor region,” Loudoun County Board Chairman Scott York commented, “but through its inaction, the state is rendering it impossible for local governments to deliver the public safety, economic support and quality of life our residents and businesses expect.”
York suggested that rather than turn out the lights, the authority should consider reconstituting itself as a “Northern Virginia Statehood Commission.”
(Groveton: You can be the very first to donate!)
Doug was there, and he provides solid reporting (with just a teeny, weeny bit of an editorial slant) on a session that, to the best of his knowledge, none of Northern Virginia’s newspapers wrote about.
(Can anyone guess the derivation of the headline? The illustration above is a clue. For the answer, read Doug’s column.)