DMV Serving Sterling

I don't know about your experiences but my personal experience with the DMV on Sterling Boulevard have been pretty good. They have a system which works much better than a few years ago and they have staff which seemed more understanding of my personal situation than the typical government employee. They did try harder and help me with my problem better. So, I don't know if anyone of them will read this but I want to say "Thanks".

Cattails

Somewhere in Loudoun County

Thinking of buying from Circuit City?

Want an honest retailer for electronics? Perhaps Circuit City isn't one of them.

Housing Market Levelling Off

Here's some news that the housing market is cooling off. Even then, I really hate to see my next property tax bill.

If you're thinking of buying, now seems to be a much more reasonable time than a year ago. You'll have more to choose from and not have to hurry. It is still winter so things are slower. If I could though, I'd consider moving to Clarke County but that is another story.

From a few winters ago

Get ready for a huge tax bill

If any of you have read any of the local newspapers of Loudoun county, you know that the next property tax bill is going to be huge. The one number I keep remembering is that if we lower the tax rate to $0.91 from the current $1.05 that our tax bill is STILL going to go up by 25% due to the huge assesments increase.

Now is the time to let your Board of Supervisors know that you can't afford this kind of tax bill. Can you imagine what it will be if it REMAINS at $1.05?

Elections Finally Over

Tuesday was the day for special elections for the 33rd District in Virginia which includes a good chunk of Loudoun, parts of western Fairfax and Leesburg. The end result was Democrat candidate Herring won by a large margin. For reasons that go beyond this blog, the Republicans were not successful. You can go to Too Conservative for more opinions on what went wrong for the Republicans.

The signs are starting to disappear so our sidewalks and medians should look more normal shortly. I suspect that the bumper stickers will stay around for a while.

Yet Another Loudoun County Growth Paper

I came across an interesting paper that talks about growth in Loudoun County. The one line that stood out for me was:

County officials contend that the costs of infrastructure required to serve the population inflow exceeds the revenues generated, thus threatening the county’s fiscal soundness.

That brings up the obvious question. If it is going to cost more to support new homes/families under your current fiscal model than you collect in taxes, why do you want to allow another house to be built when it drives you deeper into debt? Put another way, if you were in the business of making a product and selling them and your next one was going to cost more to make than you get selling it, why bother making it at all?

The paper is in PDF format and can be found as the first item in a google search.

Now you see them now you don't

Funny thing driving around in Loudoun county. It seems that the campaign signs for Mick Staton and Mark Herring appear almost like flowers blooming for a few days. Then a few disappear at some places and then the rest disappears in many other places. Too strange if you ask me.

Also, it is awfully cold weather too to be putting up those signs and taking them down. Those campaign workers sure do work awfully hard.

Political Calls

So what happened recently in Loudoun County. Simply put, two Republican candidates had a primary and one won. Mick Staton goes on to compete against Herring to represent the 33rd District in Richmond.

So, what is it like to make phone calls for a political candidate? Curiosity got the better of me so I got into it. Actually, someone else got me into it but that is another story. I made a couple of calls and managed to get an arrangement for my modest volunteer effort. A date and time and location were set and I turned up.

It was the typical one to two floor office/industrial mix area with a brick exterior. Campaign signs adored part of the outside and there were a few cars parked in front of the entrance. I knocked and someone came to open it. We introduced ourselves and talked a bit. The head honcho introduced me to a couple of other people and gave me a bit of orientation on the phone list, codes to write depending on the result of the call, the call script for interaction with a real human being as well as one for the answering machine. The last thing was a comparison table between their candidate and the other.

The scripts themselves were simplicity itself although I changed it a bit to suit the way I spoke. The rules were to try to find out if the callee would be turning up to vote and supporting their candidate or not. You write down the result code on the phone list and went on to the next number.

The first thing that struck me was that many phone numbers were wrong numbers. Some of the data was old and people move within Loudoun county a lot as well as move out of the district or the state. Well, obviously the database needs to be updated after all this is over so that things can be more efficient in the future. I hope they're listening...

The phones were kind of neat. They were brand new and were VoIP phones. They were connected by computer LAN cable to a network switch on the floor. The cables were all taped down by some type of duct tape to the carpet so we wouldn't trip over them. There were chips and soda if you wanted it. The atmosphere was basically relaxed since everyone was a volunteer. Nice people too.

So, what were the more interesting calls like?

Me: Hi, I am .... calling for _candidate_ for Senate for the 33rd district. _candidate_ is the _list of qualities_ candidate in this race.
Callee: Oh really! _CLICK_

Me: Will you be voting in this primary?
Callee: That's my business.
.....

Me: Hello, may I speak with _John Doe_ please?
Callee: _String of Spanish phrases_
Me: I see. Thank you.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience although as a geek I wish they were more efficient though. I also found out that not all callers were necessarily from this district or county. It seems that many volunteers may actually support someone not in their district if they agree with their positions.

Well, the election will be on the 31st. I hope that all of you in the 33rd district will go out to vote regardless of your party affiliation and enjoy your rights as American citizens. There are too many people in this world that can't even voice an opinion without being afraid for their lives.

More news on Loudoun County development on WaPo

Here it is. A pretty good overview of sorts in the WaPo
about more proposed development in Loudoun County. Thanks to Virginia Centrist for blogging about this. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it is good or bad. On the other hand, there is this other article about how Americans feel about more real estate development in their home areas.

Are You a Republican in 33rd District?

For those of you that just recently returned home from your vacation to Mars, there is a Republican firehouse primary on the 16th this month for Bill Mim's senate seat in Richmond. The two competing for the Republican nomination are Mick Staton and Randy Minchew.

Mick Statson's website is www.mickstaton.com

Randy Minchew's is at www.minchew.org

This not being a political blog, I'll stay away from commenting. There are tons of VA political blogs around.

All the Kings Horses... could not fix Independence Air

You can see some of their offices on Shaw Road in Sterling near Herndon. I always did think that their work trucks with the big T-tail fins with the words "FLYi" on them were a great marketing concept but I wondered how the vehicles would drive in high winds. In a twisted sense, I guess on the freeway when there were no winds, that they stayed pretty straight.

Too bad that today's news was that Independence Air was shutting down. Customer satisfaction was great but the financial numbers were in the dumps. They thought they could go it alone without United but they were wrong. Great ideas, great spirit, great motivation but lousy numbers on the load factors and cash flow. It was only a matter of time.

I'm going to miss them.

Go over to my other blog at Rational Politics for my opinions on the actual root cause for this happening.

Growth Related Controversy in Loudoun

Just in case you missed this one in the Washington Post a few months ago, there is a proposal to build a university campus of 100+ acres in Loudoun. Along with it comes a request to build 15,000 homes.

With 15,000 homes comes the traffic and kids and therefore requires more roads and schools and according to the article, 10 more schools. Tell you what Greenvest (the developer), you pay for the schools and roads first and on completion of all required roads and schools, then you can start building OK?

Everytime it comes to new houses, they go up faster than lightning. When it comes to schools and roads, it takes at least a few local elections. So why don't we shortcut the whole process by having the developer donate all the money and labor necessary to build the infrastructure first to completion before starting on the houses. That's one way to get everything built quickly and efficiently.

Of course, such a college campus here would be nice for all those that have kids that are going to be going to college around 2009 or 2010 - should save quite a few bucks having the kids staying at home instead of eating junk food and chugging beers all the time. College is expensive enough as it is - or will be.

Christmas Lights

Just a sample of some of the decorations in my neck of the woods in Sterling, VA.

Christmas Tree Recycling

Ok folks, I know Christmas isn't here yet but I thought you might like to know where to recycle your Christmas tree.... The county government has a page here for your convenience. Plan ahead and get rid of it in a useful way folks.

Traffic Challenges

This is why I tend to stay in Northern VA and try not to go much further. Rules of the road in Washington, D.C.

The Storm Cometh - Are You Ready to Survive?

OK, so Virginia is ready with salt trucks and whatnot. The question is, are you? Some of the things you might want to remember to do:

Gas Tanks full?
Bread and Milk?
Winter snow/ice footware?
Got your ice scraper - still not too late you know.
Car battery OK? IF you want to change, go get an Interstate battery. Also, if you want a good mechanic, go to Harding Automotive (703-437-5522) in Sterling if you live in or near Sterling.

Most important of all....

SLOW DOWN WHEN DRIVING!!! Here's advice.

OK, I drive an SUV and so do lots of people but I will repeat the following:

A 4 wheel drive option on your SUV ONLY means that it gives you more traction to get going.
Four wheel drive does not mean you will stop better than 2 wheel drive. In fact, most SUVs outweigh cars and so will take more distance to stop on snow and ice.
Anti-lock breaks does not mean you will stop shorter than a vehicle without ABS. It just means that you will probably stop shorter with it than without it.

Employment in Loudoun

Just a quick link to the Washington Post article that talks about the unemployment rate here in this county. Good news I always enjoy sharing.

Loudoun has maintained low unemployment rates this year "despite rapid population growth that continuously increases Loudoun's labor force," the county's economic development department said in its fourth-quarter economic review.

Here's another short one that calls it a worker shortage.

Housing Bubble in Loudoun?

If you were part of the feeding frenzy that was the Spring and Summer of 2005 then I do not envy you. If you bought a house here in Loudoun county, welcome and I hope you enjoy the area.

Here's a link to a blog that talks about the housing bubble in this county. For those that are yet to move into Loudoun, it is well worth a read so that you take full advantage of the market conditions.