G&D got the DC scoop from City Council member Charles Allen Thursday on the drama surrounding the Wizards and Capitals’ move to Alexandria – so why not the perspective of someone from the VA side?
Fear not, for Alexandria City Council member Canek Aguirre, who was on the scene at Potomac Yard Wednesday morning, gave them the NoVa scoop…and yeah, they’re happy, even if this is only the first step in the journey.
“I’m ecstatic. This is something we've been envisioning for the Potomac Yard area for decades. Amazon and Virginia Tech came here, we got our Metro station built, and this is exactly the type of economic development that we were looking for,” Aguirre said. “But, I know it’s a lot for our community all at onc, so we want to remind folks that this is just the first phase. This is still just a proposal and we have to go through our public process here. We're gonna have probably about eight to 10 months of public engagement, multiple opportunities for folks to voice their opinions and concerns, and try and address as much as we can. We can't think of everything, so that's what we rely on our residents to bring those concerns to bring those questions, and we're gonna try and compile all that put together something that folks could potentially put their arms around and embrace and then see where we go from there, because we still have to vote on this as a Council and then we still have to get the okay from the General Assembly in Richmond as well.”
Quite a long answer to say ‘cautious optimism,’ but it has to be cautious because, as Grant has noted many times, the Redskins were in this very same spot 30 years ago, but Raljon is in Landover, Maryland, and not Virginia, so things can still change.
“The proposal for the then-Redskins stadium and this one are two vastly different proposals – that was eight games a year versus a venue that will have constant economic activity year-round,” Aguirre said. “There’s gonna be a lot of job creation, but again, we have to hear from our community to address concerns, because I understand there are real concerns about traffic and parking – but again, this is a huge, huge difference from what was being proposed back in the 1990s.”
Parking and traffic was especially big as a concern for Aguirre to address in Danny’s mind, knowing what that area already looks like,
“Part of it is we're a victim of our location, right? We have folks commuting in and out of the region going through Alexandria, so rush hour is rush hour, and that will always be packed,” Aguirre said. “I used to live in Auburn Village and travel that corridor daily, so I understand that – but this proposal will have a lot of transportation funding, not just for a Metro station but also for a VRE stop and expanding our own DASH bus routes, or perhaps water taxis to see what capacity is there. We’re definitely looking at a multi-modal approach when it comes to transportation to try and alleviate as much as possible.”
At the end of the day, Aguirre is confident the city council, and the residents, will find this is worth it.
“I'm looking forward to being in the community and getting input and talking with folks. I want to hear from everyone all the different impacts that we're gonna see,” Aguirre said. “From my perspective, this is a $12 billion economic boom over the next couple of decades, and 30,000 jobs that will be here in Alexandria. We’re also going to benefit the community by expanding our transportation opportunities, and we’re going to get some money out of this that can go to help make road improvements and education, and help look at housing affordability in our area. And, on top of that, you know, we're not putting any upfront money in this, and the way the bond financing is gonna happen, it's gonna be paid back through the taxes that are created and generated in the future.”
Danny of course brought up his “why not Virginians, who have traveled forever” point, but what would Aguirre say to Maryland residents who now have to travel, or will want the teams to change the geographic part of their name?
“I mean, the New York Giants and Jets play in New Jersey, and the San Francisco 49ers play in Santa Clara, but they’re still maintaining their name. Heck, the Commanders play in Maryland, right?” Aguirre said. “So, I think it's still fine. We’re in the capital, and as a region, I think we still have the ability to share. And again, we're trying to make the investments in transportation, and this includes working with friends in DC and Maryland, to make sure that we get folks to this venue because we want everybody from the region to come here.”
