►
Description
Arlington County Board VIce-Chair Libby Garvey's New Year's remarks at the County Board's Organizational Meeting, held on Jan. 2 2019.
A
Thank
you
so
much
mr.
chair
and
first
I
want
to
give
a
few
words
to
my
board
colleagues,
for
congratulations
again
to
mr.
Dorsey
on
becoming
our
new
chair
Christian.
Thank
you.
I
know,
you're
gonna
do
a
great
job,
and
thank
you
to
our
past.
Here
is
crystal
Katie.
You
did
an
excellent
job
leading
to
us
us
through
our
sometimes
fairly
intense
year.
It
really
was
and
Thank
You
mr.
Gottschalk,
for
those
kind
words
nominating
me
Eric.
It
was
indeed
an
intense
year
for
a
first
year
and
you've
become
a
valued
member
of
this
team.
A
So
thank
you
and
finally,
our
newest
member,
mr.
dafonte
Matt
I,
know
you're
gonna,
be
a
good
member
of
this
team
and
I
look
forward
to
to
working
with
you
and
I
look
forward
to
working
with
all
my
colleagues
and
thank
you
all
for
your
confidence
in
electing
me,
your
vice
chair
for
this
year
now
to
our
manager
and
our
County
staff.
Thank
you
for
everything
you
do
day
in
and
day
out,
seen
and
unseen
to
make
Arlington
work.
A
You
are
the
backbone
of
this
county
and
I'm
so
pleased
to
be
able
to
start
my
remarks
by
saying
that
people
can
pay
for
permits
online
I've
been
promising
this
for
several
organizational
meetings
at
least
two,
and
we
finally
did
it
this
year.
It
took
long
that
any
of
us
wanted,
but
that's
because
it
was
difficult
and
I
really
appreciate
our
staff,
keeping
at
it
and
making
it
happen.
Thank
you
and
everyone
here
happy
new
year.
A
You
know
it's
great
to
be
starting
off
the
year
with
a
Civic
Federation,
again
really
pleased
to
do
that
and
2018
had
a
lot
of
successes
for
this
community
and
I
really
think
that
everyone
who
lives
in
works
in
Arlington
has
a
part
in
that
and
should
feel
proud
of
it.
So,
as
I
enter
my
23rd
year
of
elected
service,
I'd
like
to
reflect
just
a
little
on
where
we've
been
and
where
we're
going,
because,
while
new
years
are
always
a
time
of
transition,
this
is
a
more
obviously
a
transition.
A
A
Many
people
come
here
before
they
have
children,
and
then
they
stay
for
our
schools,
bike
lanes,
transit
and
now
scooters
and
bicycles
give
people
lots
of
new
ways
for
getting
around
and
we've
even
become
hip.
Just
a
few
years
ago,
I
was
on
an
airplane
looking
at
them.
Airplane
magazine
and
I
was
reading
this
little
art
nice
article
about
all
that
you
know
really
cool
places
to
go
around
the
world
and
one
of
them
was
Clarendon.
I
was
startled
it's
great.
During
those
transformational
years.
We
were
helped
by
our
location
right
next
to
Washington
DC.
A
At
a
time
the
federal
government
was
growing
and
attracting
businesses
to
the
area
we
had
a
strong
tax
base
and
that
made
everything
easier.
However,
when
I
arrived
on
the
board
seven
years
ago,
those
relatively
easy
times
were
ending
the
combined
effect
of
sequestration,
brac,
the
Oh
eight
recession
and
telecommuting
were
hitting
all
at
the
same
time,
and
suddenly
our
office
buildings
were
emptying
out.
Our
vacancy
rates
soared
over
20
percent,
which
meant
a
lot
of
reduced
revenue
for
Arlington,
and
this
is
a
situation
we
continue
to
face
today.
A
Less
quiet
bike
lanes
can
make
it
harder
to
drive
on
the
street,
are
harder
to
park
and
even
walking
can
be
a
dicey
proposition,
sometimes
with
scooters
and
bikes
whizzing
around
we
see
conflicts
when
beautiful
large
trees
are
cut
down
in
large
new
homes,
replace
modest
houses
or
when
people
clamor
for
more
land
for
parks,
while
at
the
same
time
people
clamor
for
more
land
for
schools,
and
almost
everyone
is
worried
about
the
soaring
cost
of
housing
and
of
just
living
here.
So
I
think
our
challenge
today
is
this.
A
Everyone
says
they
want
to
preserve
what
they
love
about
Arlington,
but
for
some
people
that
means
a
quiet,
tree-lined
Street
with
single-family
homes
and
for
others
it
means
a
bustling
urban
landscape
with
bikes,
scooters,
restaurants,
food
trucks
and
people
pretty
much
24/7
for
everyone.
It
means
affordability,
so
we're
changing,
and
we
want
to
preserve
what
we
love
best
about
our
community.
But
what
does
that
mean
for
us?
What
are
we
becoming?
Where
will
we
be
in
another
30
or
40
years,
or
to
put
it
in
a
better
way?
A
Where
do
we
want
to
be
what
goals
should
we
be
setting
for
ourselves
now
to
get
there?
I
read
an
article
recently
about
the
happiest
city
in
Finland,
which
sounded
nice.
Should
that
be
our
goal
to
make
our
residents
the
happiest
they
can
be
or
do
we
want
equity,
and/or
sustainability
and
or
what
perhaps
we
want
to
be
a
thriving
urban
community,
which
means
to
me
that
there
are
jobs
and
housing
available
up
and
down
the
income
scale
that
we
really
support
families
with
children
that
we
use
resources
sustainably
and
that
everyone
feels
welcome.
A
It
seems
to
me
a
thriving
urban
community
would,
by
definition,
be
one
that's
sustainable,
equitable
and
where
our
residents
are
happy,
but
that's
just
my
view.
I
believe
we
need
to
figure
out
together
as
a
community.
What
we
want
Arlington's
future
to
be,
and
the
only
way
to
get
to
where
we
want
to
be
in
the
future
is
to
know
now
where
we
want
to
go
planning.
Our
future
is
an
important
exercise
for
all
of
us,
but
the
first
step
to
our
future
is
to
deal
with
our
present
town.
A
As
has
been
mentioned
already,
we've
got
some
tough
budget
years
to
get
through,
and
these
will
force
us
to
focus
on
efficiencies
and
priorities
in
a
way
that
I,
don't
remember
us
ever
doing
figuring
out
our
priorities,
making
them
explicit
and
finding
efficiencies
that
align
with
those
priorities
will
be
hard,
but
this
difficult
work
can
be
the
start
of
figuring
out
where
it
is
we
want
to
go.
Our
new
guide
on
civic
engagement
will
be
helpful.
A
It's
a
work
in
progress,
sticking
to
our
communication
and
engagement
processes,
knowing
when
we
did
not
get
it
right
and
we
need
to
do
something
over
or
when
we
did
get
it
right
and
we
really
just
need
to
move
on.
We'll
continue
to
be
a
challenge,
but
I'm
sure
we
in
Arlington
will
all
get
better
at
it.
With
time,
we've
also
been
working
on
providing
smaller,
more
intimate
settings
for
our
discussions.
A
Last
year,
as
we
mentioned,
our
chair
led
several
Big
Idea
roundtables
I
continued
my
series,
informal
book
discussions
and
I
do
plan
to
continue
those
this
year
and
there
have
been
other
efforts
to
engage
differently.
We've
had
some
good
starts,
but
I
believe
we
can
better
focus
discussions
on
our
future
if
we
provide
more
information
to
participants
in
advance.
A
So
maybe
we
can
invite
experts
in
various
fields
to
come
and
talk
about
what
they
see
for
the
future
and
what
the
possibilities
are.
We
could
read
some
of
their
books.
I
do
welcome
book
suggestions
by
the
way
we
could
then
collectively
start
to
focus
more
and
more
on
what
we
want
Arlington
to
be,
and
we
could
do
it
from
a
more
informed
position.
No
one
can
predict
the
future,
but
some
people
spent
a
lot
more
time.
A
Thinking
about
it,
then
those
of
us
who
have
regular
deadlines
to
meet
projects
to
complete
and
people
who
need
our
attention
right
now.
It
would
be
good
to
get
the
perspectives
of
those
who
think
regularly
about
what
is
coming
as
we
try
to
look
into
the
future
and
decide
what
we
want
as
a
community.
A
Finally,
I
also
plan
to
focus
this
year
on
improving
civic
dialogue
and
general
civility
I
realized.
This
is
something
I
said:
I
do
last
January
as
well.
Everyone
struggles
with
this
people
can
be
so
passionate
that
they
forget
decorum
and
how
we
should
treat
each
other.
It
pains
me
when
I
read
emails
that
say:
staff
residents
are
lying
when
it's
pretty
clear
to
me
that
what
we
have
is
a
difference
of
opinion
or
a
breakdown
in
communication.
This
gotten
blown
way
out
of
proportion.
A
People
sometimes
jump
to
the
assumption
that
intent
is
nefarious
and
they're
all
too
quick
to
take
offense
where
no
offense
was
intended.
This
behavior
drives
people
away.
There
is
a
reason
that
civility
has
the
same
root
as
the
word
civilization
books
on
etiquette
have
been
around
forever.
Last
year.
Looking
for
models,
I
found
a
little
booklet
by
George
Washington
110
rules
for
civility
it
was
a
writing
exercise
derived
from
a
much
older,
1595,
French
version.
We
have
been
working
on
this
for
a
while.
The
first
rule
is
essentially
be
respectful,
be
respectful.
A
This
is
not
rocket
science
wooden
things
be
better
if
everyone
was
respectful.
So
how
do
we
encourage
that?
Can
we
define
what
being
respectful
means?
I
will
submit
that
it
is
in
part
disagreeing
with
someone's
statement
without
calling
them
a
liar
or
other
personal
attacks.
I
think
each
of
us
needs
to
figure
out
how
to
be
a
leader
in
this.
A
I
welcome
suggestions
from
anyone
on
this
and
how
to
go
about
it,
especially
from
our
civic
groups,
like
the
Civic
Federation
that
are
with
us
tonight,
so
in
some
clearly
we're
in
a
time
of
transition
we're
starting
from
a
good
place,
but
we
need
to
decide
as
a
community
where
we
want
to
be
in
the
next
30
to
40
years.
To
do
that,
we
need
to
address
our
current
challenges
and
also
to
look
beyond
the
day
to
day
in
the
next
few
years.
A
We
need
to
inform
ourselves
of
the
possibilities
for
our
future
and
decide
what
we
want
Arlington
to
be
to
do
that.
We
need
to
talk
to
each
other
effectively
and
to
do
that,
we've
got
to
be
civil
in
our
discussion.
The
Arlington
way
has
gotten
a
little
frayed
around
the
edges.
Perhaps
we
could
set
a
new
model
for
how
to
engage
in
civil
community
discussions.
Heaven
knows
our
country
in
the
world
need
it.