Politics & Government

Gross and Feld Spar at Candidate Forum

The two candidates for the Mason District Supervisor seat disagreed on several topics

Transportation issues, the Columbia Pike Streetcar, and the importance of fiscal responsibility are just a handful of topics Mason District Supervisor and Republican challenger disagreed on at a candidate forum at Bren Mark Park Elementary School on Wednesday night.

Touting her experience and endorsement from the Washington Post, Gross told residents of the Edsall Park and Bren Mar Park communities Mason District has come very far as a community during her 16 years in office while Feld questioned her leadership ability record of progress in Mason District

Of the topics discussed, the two candidates disagreed most when it came to issues of transportation. Both expressed different views on the benefit of the Pike Project, better known as the proposed Columbia Pike Streetcar.

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“There’s a lot of excitement and energy going forward with this particular project because we don’t have a streetcar,” said Gross, who supports the project. Feld argued there was no need for the streetcar because the county already has buses and the money would be better invested elsewhere.

“[A bus] can look just as attractive as a streetcar. They don’t require rail line to be put in [or] a maintenance yard. There’s no advantage of a trolley, but there’s a lot of disadvantages,” said Feld.

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For Feld, the resources and money being spent on projects like the streetcar and the , which he said should be shelved for future years, would be better put to use to solve transportation issues inside the beltway. “We need to unclog the middle because that’s what’s getting people into town,” Feld said, calling transportation a “self-inflicted wound.”

“I believe it is a reckless approach for someone to say get rid of rail to Dulles. We are in the midst of constructing it, the funding agreements are there,” said Gross, in response.

The impact of BRAC-133, or the Mark Center in Alexandria, in Mason District was another point of contention during the forum as Feld called the site selection a “failure of leadership” on the part of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

“The idea that Fairfax County could have stopped the Department of Defense from putting BRAC where they wanted to put it is ludicrous. We could not stop it. That was a deal that was already made,” said Gross, who told the audience her BRAC task force is working on solutions to the parking and traffic issues expressed by residents.

The benefit of BRAC, said Feld, is the potential business it could bring to Mason District, but he argued that businesses couldn’t take advantage of the traffic without municipal parking in the area and a better transportation infrastructure.

Gross said Feld would have a hard time being fiscally responsible with his ideas for municipal parking and community centers, but Feld disagreed, arguing the need to balance a budget appropriately so that it benefits the community.

“I imagine anybody could balance a budget, it’s how you balance a budget,” said Feld about fiscal responsibility. “What you do and how you balance it is critical because it’s going to cost us a lot more money in the future,” said Feld.

When it came to community issues such as revitalization, Feld told the audience he would create a public/private partnership with landscapers and gardeners in the area to help remove overgrown grass along medians down Columbia Pike and throughout Mason District.

“If we want a beautiful community, we have to chip in and make it happen and that’s a leadership imperative to make it happen,” said Feld.

To make communities look better, residents need incentives, said Feld, who also argued that libraries should be open on weekends and nature centers and athletic fields in Mason District should be free of charge to the public. While the parks are free, Feld believes , , and similar venues should not charge for programs. Gross agreed with Feld that parks should be open and accessible to all, but said there were many opportunities available to residents in the parks that are already free.

“Leadership should look into the community to see what the community is willing to add to what the government cannot do,” said Feld. Feld also mentioned he would propose making community clean-ups a regular activity in the neighborhoods.

When asked what she would do about the aging neighborhoods in Mason District, Gross said the influx of families to the neighborhood would help inject life back into those communities.

“We have housing that’s affordable, that’s selling, that’s bringing new families in all the time… but the fact that we have children in our neighborhoods now is revitalization at its basis,” said Gross.

To counter the loss of recreational pools and clubs in neighborhoods, Gross said cell towers in communities on pool properties are helpful because they defray the costs of operation for the pool. She added that she’d also be interested in looking into private uses for the land to help provide funding for pools. Feld took a different approach, saying he’d create a group that would coordinate the expenses and purchases for the pools.

The candidates also differed when it came to ideas for innovating cultural differences of Annandale, Falls Church, and Springfield, Gross said her group Kaleidoscope is one way residents have learned to embrace the diversity in Mason District.

“The more we talk to one another about the differences, the more we find our similarities,” said Gross.

Feld’s suggested building an arts and culture center where residents could develop and work on projects together. “The culture here is talking about culture and not doing it,” said Feld. “After 16 years of getting to know each other, I think it’s time to do some projects and work together.”


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