Hello friends,
Last month’s newsletter was long. So, I’m going to keep things short this month. There are some very immediate opportunities in the community for the arts and historic preservation that I point out below. There is information about an opportunity for you to provide input on the Mirant power plant. And I spend the bulk of this newsletter discussing the proposed city-wide smoking ban.
See you soon,
Rob Krupicka
Historic Preservation Conference – This Weekend
Two of the nation’s leading experts on historic preservation issues have agreed to serve as keynote speakers for the upcoming two-day conference, the “Alexandria Historic Preservation Conference and Town Meeting,” scheduled for May 4 and 5 in Alexandria.
Architectural restorationist, White House historian and 25-year Alexandria resident William Seale will address conference attendees during the opening session on Friday evening, May 4, while noted preservation economist, appraiser and author Donovan Rypkema will speak during the luncheon on Saturday, May 5.
“Having two of the most notable experts on historic preservation address our conference is quite an honor and will allow our attendees to hear first-hand some of the latest and most up-to-date thinking on the issue,” said Morgan Delaney, M.D., president of the Historic Alexandria Foundation and co-chair of the event with Ellen Stanton, chair of the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission.
The conference is open to the public for a registration fee of $25 which includes admission to the opening event and reception on May 4 as well as the conference and Town Meeting on May 5. The fee also includes a box lunch for attendees. Pre-registration has been extended to April 27 to be assured a box lunch and conference packet. Registration will also be available at the door on a space available basis. To register, visit the Historic Alexandria Foundation’s Web site at www.historicalexandriafoundation.org or by calling the Foundation at 703-549-5811.
http://alexandriava.gov/town_meeting.html
http://www.historicalexandriafoundation.org
Art Walk in Old Town: All About Dogs -- Thursday, May 10, 2007
Art Exhibition & Book Signing
with special guests Leslie Young and Plaid the Scottie Dog
Leslie Young is the author of PLAID: A TALE OF JOY and PLAID: A TALE OF COMPASSION. Ms. Young and Plaid, both Alexandria residents, will be in the gallery to sign books and talk about the art.
Prints and books will be available for purchase.
Refreshments will be served and children are most welcome!!
"All About Dogs" is part of Old Town Alexandria's Second Thursday Gallery Walk for May.
Galleries, retail businesses and restaurants from Alfred Street to King Street Metro will be open and are offering special discounts and promotions.
Elizabeth Stone Gallery
1127 King Street, Suite 201, Alexandria, VA 22314
PHONE 703-706-0025 FAX 703-706-0027
elizabeth@elizabethstonegallery.com
Opportunity to Provide Input on the Mirant Power Plant
The Mirant power plant is presently operating under an interim federal order that will expire June 1, 2007. A replacement state order or permit is presently being considered by the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board.
Citizens may provide written input to the board by e-mail or regular mail.
Further information can be found at
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/air/permitting/Mirant.html.
Comments by others can be reviewed at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/air/permitting/Mirant2.html
THE INITIAL DEADLINE FOR INPUT IS MAY 4, 2007
The City of Alexandria has asked for three things as part of this review:
1)The establishment of a Local Air Pollution Control District for the plant.
2)An interim order or permit that is fully protective of our health and in full compliance with the law.
3)Ultimately, a comprehensive operating permit that limits all emissions from the plant to the greatest extent feasible.
Send e-mail to: maharvey@deq.virginia.gov
mail to: Ms. Monica Harvey
629 East Main Street
P. O. Box 1105
Richmond, VA 23218
The Board will also hold a PUBLIC HEARING MAY 22, 2007 HOLIDAY INN ALEXANDRIA 2460 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria, VA 4:00 pm to 9 pm
At this time ADDITIONAL CITIZEN VERBAL INPUT WILL BE ALLOWED. Citizens are also encouraged to contact the Department of Environmental Quality by e-mail and/or mail.
Smoking Ban Proposed in Alexandria – What do you think?
While the Governor’s efforts to ban smoking in restaurants across the state failed, Alexandria continues to move forward with consideration of the Mayor’s proposal that we use our zoning powers in order to respond to the health threats posed by second hand smoke as well as to encourage a competitive restaurant environment for our tourists, visitors and residents.
Health Concerns
While some dispute the health effects of smoking, the Federal Government has made a good case for the health risks.
- Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).2
- Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.3
- Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.4
- A study found that nonsmokers exposed to environmental smoke were 25 percent more likely to have coronary heart diseases compared to nonsmokers not exposed to smoke.5
- Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of ETS in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.6
- Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah to 48.7 percent in Nevada.7 Workplace productivity was increased and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared with current smokers.8
Click Here for More on the Health Impacts
Business & Economic Concerns
While the health issues related to this issue can’t be ignored, the economic development arguments are worth discussing. Some fear that a smoking ban will hurt business in Alexandria. With 21 state bans in place, some have suggested that many tourists coming to Alexandria expect restaurants that are smoke free. The smoking ban in Britian has been identified by some to be a benefit to their tourism industry. Commenting on the loss in a British paper, Local Glyndwr Jenkins, sitting with a pint of Guinness, accepted the change. "I don't smoke and if it means a better environment then so much the better," he said. "A bit of the soul has been lost from this place. But the tourism has helped our economic development and a smoke-free pub is a part of that."
After Boston’s smoking ban, restaurant business grew and some of that growth was attributed to the ban (click here for story).
Community Input
I have heard from many, many residents excited by the potential ban. I have also heard from tobacco industry lobbyists as well as residents that have concerns; they have voiced a strong feeling that they have the right to patron the restaurants they want and that people who don’t like smoke can go elsewhere.
I certainly know there are restaurants where I love the food, but I don’t patron them because bar smoke whiffs throughout the establishment. A few years ago, I had strong doubts about regulating smoking. I believed the businesses and patrons should be able to make up their own minds. I grew up with parents who smoked and saw it as a basic right. And the idea of more government regulation concerned me greatly. Since then, scientific health data as well as economic data have piled up. My concerns about the harm to business viability have been weakened by the ample evidence that the risk of economic harm is not there and the fact that there may be economic benefit.
While patrons do have a choice to go somewhere else, I am concerned about employees who must work in an environment that could literally give them cancer. The idea that people have endless choices about where to work does not hold sway with me. Somebody ultimately has to work in restaurants and bars. As somebody who has struggled to find summer jobs or work during college that accommodated my class schedule, I don’t believe that employment options as wide spread as some would say. And to quote one Alexandria resident and restaurant employee that contacted me recently,
” Sure, one could work some place else but why should one have to? If the office building or factory or courtroom other workers were working in were hazardous and it was proven that the workers were on a regular basis being exposed to something that was known to cause cancer and other health problems would one expect an accountant or a factory worker or a judge to just go work some place else? “
I have heard people express very legitimate concerns that stopping smoking in our restaurants will cause Old Town and other neighborhood streets to become crowded with smokers and cigarette butts. That is a fair concern that we have to look into as this proposal is considered.
Legal Issues
Even with the examples of other locations, and the clear national and international trends in this direction, I think concerns about the use of Alexandria’s zoning powers to implement this ban are worthy of close review. We use zoning laws to regulate health code compliance, noise, smells, hours of operation, alcohol sales, parking strategies, and to monitor the ownership of an establishment. Even so, the proposed approach to use zoning to force a ban has many people expecting Alexandria to end up in Court with very little opportunity to win. State law says indoor air quality is regulated by the State, not local government. While some lawyers believe the proposed zoning approach may get around that, many who support the idea of a ban, believe the proposal is destined to fail in court. Alexandria has recently lost a few high-profile state supreme court cases where we used our zoning powers in a way the Courts found to be inappropriate. The results in those cases certainly give me concerns that using the zoning law to ban smoking will ultimately lead to a few years of legal battles, legal costs and an eventual loss at the state supreme court.
As the Council prepares to look at the smoking ban, I’d be interested to hear your views. Send me an e-mail. The matter comes before City Council at our next public hearing.
A Poem
Councilman Gaines spearheaded an effort to establish a Poet Laureate for Alexandria. A Committee of residents selected Mary McElveen. She is a great choice. Below is her inaugural poem.
City of Songs
History wrote refrains here--
The rattle of carts, the chime of churchbells,
The muffled drum of famed footsteps
Reverberating on our cobbled streets;
Old rhymes writ with images
Glimpsed through a rippled mirror--
Songs of remembrance.
Today is an unwritten poem
Crackling in the nighttime air.
Rhythms ride the streets on Harleys
Staccato beat on “high”,
And couplets crowd the corners
With their conversations
In raucous bar-time voices.
Monuments punctuate the traffic
That flows in measured time,
Crawling in iambic meter
(Stop, start. Stop, start.)
Toward the beltway’s perpetual rondo
That repeats, repeats, repeats
Each day and night.
But the river remembers a slower song
Flowing like an eecummings poem
Unhindered and peaceful
Past lordly houses stacked
Like syllables in haiku formation,
Shouldering for space along its banks.
We are tomorrow’s unwritten poems:
Homeless and builder,
Tourist and truck driver,
Lawyer and artist-- all of us
Speaking our souls to cellphones
And singing to the empty air.
Who listens for our voices?
Who speaks the soul of the city?
Who is history’s troubadour, the future’s oracle?
Alexandria is an unwritten poem:
Pick up your pen.
It’s our turn now.
-Mary McElveen-
April 11, 2007
11:52:29 AM 
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
