Regionalism, politics, and Prince William County, Virginia

Won't you be my neighbor?

I like to think of this weblog as covering issues in a way that has resonance nationally, but it happens that I write mostly about how the issues of rebuilding place and urban revitalization work in the Washington, DC region. And I write more about Washington, DC than "the region." In any case I try to write in a way that people can draw out meta-lessons and apply them to other situations in other places.

I've said before that when I started writing, I never expected to write about Virginia and Maryland so much. Maryland comes up a lot because it possesses another traditional center city, Baltimore, which makes for a good comparison to DC. Plus, the State of Maryland is physically connected to DC, so it comes up more often maybe.

But since I write so much about transit, because great transit defines great and economically viable center cities, it ends up that I write a lot about Maryland AND Virginia, partly because the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is a three-jurisdiction hydra that links the State of Maryland, Montgomery, and Prince George's Counties, Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria Counties in Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

So when Northern Virginia legislators vote against the imposition of a local sales tax in counties not their own (see "Virginia House Panel Rejects Metro Financing Bill" from the Post) it turns out to affect us miles away, in the District of Columbia and other places, and it makes me more conscious of the necessity of regionalism. From the article:

Three Republicans from Northern Virginia whose constituents would not have been taxed voted against it, as did two GOP lawmakers from the Richmond suburbs. In discussing their opposition, delegates from the Washington suburbs said that they believed there were other ways to raise the money, though they did not cite any specific alternatives. One delegate cited Metro's operational and staff problems as reasons the General Assembly should not pour more money into it.

"Metro is a mess," said L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William), an anti-tax delegate who noted the recent dismissal of Richard A. White, the system's longtime chief executive, as an example of how the system's management needs to be overhauled. "Some of us are hesitant at throwing more money at Metro until we have some assurance that internal reforms are going to take place."

While I understand the concern about WMATA's operational competence, given the likelihood that Prince William residents use the system without the County paying anything towards the system (the local jurisdiction funding formula is based on the physical presence of stations within specific jurisdictions) why do people like this get to f* with a transit system that they ignore, use, underfund, and disrespect?

We need better information from WMATA on where riders come from. We know that Virginia Railway Express, which serves counties such as Prince William brings riders to the WMATA system, and many VRE riders finish their trips on the subway system. (We can probably get results of such survey data from VRE.)

There are five VRE stations at subway stops within the WMATA geographic area.

Clearly, if Washington area transit is held hostage by outlying legislators in Virginia (and sometimes Maryland) then a broader transit advocacy and marketing campaign must be devised to make the case throughout the States of Virginia and Maryland, to all legislators, whether they are from counties that have WMATA stations or not.

And, each of the legislators that voted against this bill need to be targeted for defeat in the next election.

Voting Against the Bill: Dels. Harry J. Parrish (R-Manassas), L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William), William R. Janis (R-Goochland), R. Lee Ware Jr. (R-Powhatan) and Robert D. "Bobby" Orrock Sr. (R-Caroline). (From Post article "Tie Vote Kills Effort to Raise Sales Tax.")

And, I've added the Potomac News (Prince William County), the Manassas Journal-Messenger, and the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star to the "Some Area Media" section of links in the right sidebar.

The region keeps getting bigger.

Virginia Railway Express station map.

Index Keywords: transit