Linda Smyth Doesn't Bite Peoples' Heads Off After All

As you may recall, back in May 2007, Providence District (Fairfax County) Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth bragged, "I'm my own person. Gerry [Connolly] has never told me what to do, and he doesn't now. If he did, I'd bite off his head." With that in mind, I wrote a diary on February 23 asking whether Smyth would stand up to pressure from current Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova to switch her "no" vote on I-66 widening to a "yes." Or, to put it in her own words, would Smyth really "bite her head off?" Well, we now have our answer:

A regional transportation panel reversed itself yesterday, approving funding to widen the first 1.5-mile stretch of westbound Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway.

The action, which came as two Fairfax County supervisors [Catherine Hudgins and Linda Q. Smyth] switched their votes, clears the way to use a federal earmark for the first of three widening projects on I-66...

No matter what you think of I-66 widening -- and I oppose it because I believe widening highways simply encourages more sprawl -- I hope you'll agree that switching one's vote because of intense political pressure, and not because you honestly changed your mind, is really weak. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened here. Pitiful.

P.S. It's exactly this type of thing that made me so strongly for Charlie Hall against Linda Smyth in 2007. I just wish that Charlie could have pulled off that victory, instead of just coming close. Sigh.

Will Linda Smyth "Bite Her Head Off?"

Apparently, this thank you may have been premature.

What's particularly interesting about the votes by Smyth and Hudgins is that I-66 expansion has often been pitted as an "inner suburb" (e.g., Arlington) vs. "outer suburb" (or even, horror of horrors, "exurb") issue. In this case, however, the "outer suburb" people joined the closer-in folks in voting against widening I-66. So, despite our past differences, today I want to say THANK YOU to Linda Q. Smyth (and also to Cathy Hudgins) for voting "no" on this ill-advised idea.

Now, I see that the situation may have changed:

Sharon S. Bulova, chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said that the county is strongly in favor of widening Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway and that the county's representatives to a regional panel have been told to change their votes on the issue.

[...]

The vote by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's Transportation Planning Board on Wednesday stripped the $75 million project from the region's transportation plan. The swing votes were cast by two Fairfax supervisors, Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) and Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence), who voted against the project. Because the panel's voting system is weighted by population, the project would not have been stopped if the Fairfax representatives had switched votes.

So, when I thanked Linda Smyth for her vote against widening I-66 inside the Beltway, it turns out it MAY have been premature. Today, following the Washington Post story, the question is, will Linda Smyth stick to her guns and stand up to orders from above? Back in May 2007, Smyth told the Washington Post, "I'm my own person. Gerry [Connolly] has never told me what to do, and he doesn't now. If he did, I'd bite off his head." Well, I hope that Linda Smyth meant it then, and I hope she does it now with a new Board of Supervisors chairman. The question is, will Linda Smyth "bite her head off" and stand up for what she thinks is right, or will she given in and do as she's been "told?" We'll find out soon enough.

Thank You Linda Q. Smyth (and Cathy Hudgins)!

For those of you that know me, you're probably aware that I strongly supported Charlie Hall against Linda Q. Smyth in the 2007 Providence District Supervisors' race. Unfortunately, Hall - the smart growth, transit-oriented-development candidate, lost to Smyth, who many smart growth and environmentalist voters saw as more beholden to developers and less transit-friendy (particularly, but not exclusively, on the Tysons Tunnel issue). Two years later, credit needs to go where credit is due. Check this out.

The decision this week to abandon plans to widen Interstate 66 inside the Capitol Beltway inflamed tensions between transit-friendly inner jurisdictions and auto-dependent outer counties and jeopardized $30 million in federal funds.

The vote by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's Transportation Planning Board caught many by surprise. The $75 million project was approved 23 to 4 in May 2007. The turnabout reflected perceived foot-dragging by the Virginia Department of Transportation on a study of all transportation alternatives in the I-66 corridor, board members and staff said.

[...]

...the swing votes during Wednesday's meeting turned out to be Fairfax County's. Both of Fairfax's representatives on the panel, county supervisors Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) and Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence), voted against the project and for Zimmerman's amendment. If they had switched votes, the project would have proceeded.

What's particularly interesting about the votes by Smyth and Hudgins is that I-66 expansion has often been pitted as an "inner suburb" (e.g., Arlington) vs. "outer suburb" (or even, horror of horrors, "exurb") issue. In this case, however, the "outer suburb" people joined the closer-in folks in voting against widening I-66. So, despite our past differences, today I want to say THANK YOU to Linda Q. Smyth (and also to Cathy Hudgins) for voting "no" on this ill-advised idea.

At this point, let me clarify something as strongly as I possibly can. This is NOT a "NIMBY" ("not in my backyard") issue for me at all. To the contrary, I oppose expansion of roads and highways (as opposed to maintenance of existing infrastructure) pretty much everywhere, including the "inter-county connector" in Maryland for example. My belief is that we need to rapidly get ourselves off of our "oil addiction" for environmental, national security, and economic reasons, and we are NOT going to do this by continuing to explicitly and implicitly subsidize sprawl and automobile travel. Instead, what I want to see is investment in high-quality transit - Metro, trolley, bullet trains, high-density development, etc. I want to see us revitalize our cities (and inner suburbs) and stop pouring money into an environmentally and economically unsustainable sprawl model that pretty much anyone who knows anything believes is the wrong way to go. It is in THAT context that my opposition to this relatively minor project in the grand scheme of things, I-66 expansion by one outbound lane inside the Beltway, needs to be placed. And it is in THAT context that my "thank you" to Linda Q. Smyth (and Cathy Hudgins) should be viewed.