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Description
Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol's Jan 2 remarks at the Board's Organizational Meeting on January 2 2018.
A
Tell
the
old
story
for
our
modern
times
find
the
beginning.
This
lovely
phrase
is
from
Homer's
The
Odyssey,
as
interpreted
this
past
year
by
the
first
woman
to
publish
a
translation
in
that
epic
columns
long
history,
this
narrators
command
the
muse.
It's
traditionally
been
translated
more
like
relate
some
part
of
this
to
me
or
tell
me
about
these
things
in
Emily
Wilson's
hands
in
2017,
it
became
no
less
spare
but
considerably
more
meaningful.
Tell
the
old
story
for
our
modern
times
find
the
beginning.
A
In
addition
to
breathing
new
life
and
accessibility
into
an
ancient
story,
Wilson
invites
reflection
on
the
purpose
of
translation
itself,
translating
examining
our
mythologies
and
history
through
a
contemporary
dialect.
It
makes
us
more
critical
thinkers.
It
makes
us
less
accepting
of
tradition
for
tradition,
sakes,
less
reliant
on
the
way
it's
always
been.
It
also
leaves
us
less
vulnerable
to
the
fallacy
that
our
thoughts
and
innovations
are
entirely
original,
that
we
have
nothing
to
learn
from
transition
tradition
to
translate,
as
Wilson
describes.
A
A
In
our
current
national
moment,
Arlington
Ian's
have
risen
to
affirm
that
history
and
those
values
again
and
again,
and
this
old
story.
It's
why
housing,
affordability
issue
given
structure
and
policy
agendas
in
the
2015,
affordable,
housing
master
plan?
It's
why
that
continues
to
be
such
a
bedrock
issue.
A
The
way
their
grandparents
could
in
the
1960s
seniors
find
few
options
when
they
seek
neighbors,
seek
new
homes
in
the
very
neighborhoods
that
they
shaped
and
built
that
are
less
expensive
and
less
demanding
than
the
ones
in
which
they
raise
their
family.
When
we
talk
about
neighborhood
character,
we
are
talking
about
the
very
important
attributes
of
human
scale,
of
breathing
room
trees
and
green
space.
A
neighborhood
character
also
means
the
characteristics
of
our
neighbors.
Last
year.
A
At
this
time,
I
described
my
hope
that
our
2017
zoning
ordinance
amendments
regarding
accessory
dwellings
could
be
a
springboard
to
a
broader
community
discussion
about
these
themes.
Thanks
to
the
leadership
of
community
groups
like
affordable
housing
solutions
and
the
Lee
Highway
Alliance.
That
conversation
has
now
begun.
One
concrete
approach
for
exploration
for
us
this
year
in
the
year
ahead.
It
lies
in
to
another
in
another
principle
that
is
woven
into
Arlington's
old
story.
A
The
idea,
the
development
tapers
that
it
transitions
from
denser
transit,
rich
areas
into
single-family
neighborhoods
and
these
edges
of
the
county
can
be
home
to
mixes
of
forms
and
ownership
options
that
support
a
diversity
of
neighbors,
but
to
meaningfully
inform
this
community
conversation
and
to
help
us
all
understand
the
economics
and
the
relationship
between
what
our
policies
allow
and
the
price
and
size
of
housing
we
get.
We
need
further
technical
analysis.
We
need
examples
from
other
communities
like
ours
and
we
need
examples
from
the
community
that
is
ours.
A
A
recent
where
we
live
column
in
the
Washington
Post
about
one
Lee
Highway
neighborhoods
mix
of
1930s
townhouses
in
1960s
duplexes.
It
offered
a
sort
of
and
statement
for
this
effort.
Glee
wood
has
a
mix
of
housing
and
people
at
different
ages
and
stages
of
life,
as
well
as
different
backgrounds,
their
neighbors
say,
and
they
like
it.
That
way.
A
My
goal,
building
on
and
with
the
ideas
advanced
by
our
new
colleague,
Erica
Chow
and
other
community
leaders,
is
to
more
substantively
and
specifically
engage
in
this
missing
middle
conversation
in
2018,
producing
maybe
a
few
examples
of
what
it
could
mean
in
Arlington
County,
the
Lee
Highway
planning
effort
and
the
development
of
housing.
Conservation
District
tools
in
the
year
ahead
both
represent
opportunities
to
explore
these
forms
and
to
translate
our
values
of
inclusion
to
housing
policy.
A
Childcare
accessibility
similarly
speaks
to
the
foundational
values
of
Arlington
County.
The
idea
that
this
place
is
a
place
for
families.
It's
part
of
our
old
story,
at
least
since
the
influx
of
veteran
families
in
the
post-war
years
made
Arlington
ground
zero
for
the
baby
boom
and
the
value
of
investing
in
children
of
breaking
the
cycle
of
intergenerational
disadvantaged
by
foking,
focusing
on
our
youngest
learners.
That's
been
championed
by
leaders
like
Ellen,
Bosman
and
Evelyn
syphax
for
years.
A
So
what
does
it
mean
to
translate
these
values
along
with
the
more
contemporary
values
like
economic
competitiveness,
into
action
on
child
care
access
in
the
year
2018?
It
means
fully
launching
to
the
public
the
2017
work
of
a
multi-agency
partnership,
On
January
21st
25th
at
5
p.m.
at
Central
Library.
It
means
analyzing
with
parents
with
providers
with
neighbors
the
research-based
action
plan
that
this
group
has
developed,
determining
the
projects
and
the
policy
changes
that
are
likeliest
to
achieve
our
identified
goals
of
accessibility,
affordability
and
quality.
A
To
tell
the
story
of
Arlington.
As
we
know,
it
is
also
to
tell
the
story
of
Metro,
which
is
itself
to
tell
the
story
of
how
a
community
refused
to
settle
for
a
fete
as
a
pass-through
from
Fairfax,
County
and
Washington
DC,
and
instead
bound
together
its
future
with
out
of
its
neighbors
to
aspire
towards
a
rapid
transit
system
and
a
higher
quality
of
life
and
economic
development.
For
all
of
us,
this
value
was
regionalism
and
its
legacies,
the
founding
of
the
Council
of
Governments,
the
creation
of
a
Northern
Virginia,
Transportation
Commission.
A
They
provide
us
the
tools
that
we
need
to
take
on
the
difficult
but
essential
work
of
restoring
and
supporting
the
metro
system
in
2018.
Doing
so
is
among
our
most
critical
priorities,
as
Metro
provides
the
backbone
for
economy,
our
property
values
and
our
quality
of
life.
Whether
you
ride
the
rail
system
or
just
benefit
from
the
decreased
traffic
of
other
people.
A
Returning
Metro
to
sound
footing
is
a
necessary,
but
not
sufficient
step
and
turning
around
our
commercial
vacancy
rate,
which
will
continue
to
be
a
priority
in
2018,
the
county
manager
and
the
county
board,
and
our
counterparts
on
the
school
board
we're
wrestling
with
anticipated
budget
gap,
significant
and
fiscal
19
and
growing
even
larger
in
the
out-years.
The
only
way
that
we
get
out
of
the
box
of
choices
that
pit
our
priorities,
moderate
tax
rate,
quality
schools,
transportation
parks
against
one
another
is
growth
in
the
commercial
sector
this
year.
A
None
of
these
objectives
will
be
without
controversy,
and
when
we
tell
the
old
story
of
Arlington,
we
forget
sometimes
to
note
that
we've
never
been
without
controversy,
our
tensions
about
how
and
whether
our
neighborhoods
are
changing
about
how
to
welcome
new
neighbors
about
how
to
prioritize
resources.
These
have
always
been
with
us.
A
Looking
forward
to
working
with
our
communications
and
Public
Engagement
team
in
2018,
as
they
start,
training
more
citizen
facilitators
and,
in
particular,
is
John.
Vice
at
and
I
convene
our
commission
chairs
in
the
first
quarter
of
the
year,
we're
aiming
to
identify
Commission's
interested
in
partnering
with
one
another
to
host
a
series
of
Big
Idea
roundtables.
That
will
provide
constructive
venues
for
residents
to
discuss
the
big
questions
about
the
county's
future
with
each
other.
A
And
while
we
focus
on
this
big
picture
of
public
engagement,
we,
the
county
board
and
county
government,
have
to
redouble
our
efforts
to
nail
the
daily
stuff
and
did
add
in
I'm,
looking
forward
to
the
implementation
of
both
new
constituent
correspondence
practices
in
the
county
board
office
and
to
the
continued
rollout
of
the
one-stop
Arlen
initiative.
The
county
manager.
Both
of
these
are
designed
to
improve
the
customer
service.
Experience
of
those
interacting
with
their
local
government
in
2018.
A
In
her
translators,
note
to
the
Odyssey,
Emily
Wilson
describes
her
aspirations
for
her
endeavor,
hoping
that
the
original
Perl
poem
grows
inside.
My
translation,
like
Athena's
olive
tree
inside
the
bed
made
by
Odysseus
with
delicate
long,
leaves
full
grown
and
green
as
sturdy
as
a
pillar.
I
hope
this
for
our
own
translation
work
in
Arlington
that
a
strong
foundation
interpreted
for
our
current
era
will
strengthen
us
as
we
grow
and
in
2018
we
will
indeed
need
to
be
sturdy
as
a
pillar
in
the
face
of
outside
forces.
A
We
were
concerned
about
turmoil
in
the
Trump
era
and
we
got
it
in
2017
fear
among
our
undocumented
residents
and
mixed-status
families.
Upheaval
in
the
tax
credit
markets
that
financed
our
affordable
housing
projects,
a
paroxysm
of
hate,
a
hundred
miles
south
that
left
us
like
other
Virginia
cities
grieving
and
questioning
our
ability
to
protect
each
other
2018
will
offer
its
own
concerns
originating
across
the
river
still
unknown.
A
Implications
of
the
new
tax
reform
law
continue
deportation
threats
to
our
young
people
if
an
as
daca
expires
and
threatened
cuts
to
the
funding
streams
that
our
safety
nets
depend
on,
but
through
it
all
Arlington
will
be
made
sturdier
by
our
history
and
by
are
striving
to
constantly
live
and
evolve
our
values.
And
so
let
us
tell
the
old
story
for
our
modern
times
to
those
who
helped
build
the
Arlington.
We
have
today
help
this
generation.