After the Streetcar: What Next for Arlington Affordable Housing, Transit?

Writing for the Washingtonian, Benjamin Freed describes the streetcar's political failure as the result of a "series of expensive misfires [that] spoiled the model suburb’s appetite for big, important projects." Freed, however, argues that due to the expected growth of residents in the county, Arlington "can’t afford to lose its nerve for big projects."

In a separate article for Leesburg Today, Owen Britton provides a dispatch from a November 19 forum on the future of Columbia Pike, in which two County Board members who voted to rescind the streetcar project, Jay Fisette and Libby Garvey, were on hand to begin the work of picking up the pieces from the failed plan. Britton's coverage quotes Mary Rouleau, who heads the Alliance for Housing Solutions, who "voiced concern that demise of the streetcar plan, and the economic development that had been anticipated with its arrival, could cause a crushing blow to efforts to retain affordable housing in the Columbia Pike corridor." Britton explains that "Arlington officials are aiming to retain the net 6,200 units of affordable housing on the Pike, largely through incentives to developers to provide additional affordable units in place of those that are sure to be razed."

Writing for CityLab, Eric Jaffe expresses optimism about the potential for a bus rapid transit line down Columbia Pike. In fact, reports Jaffe, Arlington already evaluated an "enhanced-bus line" as an alternative to the streetcar back in 2012. Jaffe details the differences in service and cost between the two proposals.