Priorities

Working for Alexandria's Future…Krupicka Priorities

Core Priorities
In his first term on City Council, Rob's focus was on policies to help make Alexandria a great place to live, work and raise a family.  His priorities for our City's future include

• Supporting quality public schools and access to preschool for all children
• Creating and maintaining safe, walk-able, appealing neighborhoods for people with a mix of income levels
• Promoting long-term, creative solutions to regional transportation challenges
• An efficient, approachable and accountable government
• Support for small business development, the arts and environmental improvement
• Ensuring Alexandria is a city of opportunity for everybody.

Honoring Our Community Values – A City of Opportunity

Rob believes that Alexandria is a great city because

• We value and care for our community.
• We believe in fair, open government.
• We celebrate each other's differences and have a strong appreciation for the contributions of every individual.
• We respect our history and our environment.
• We work for better lives for our children.
• We believe that we can and will overcome the challenges before us. 

Enhancing Affordability and Quality of Life for All of Us

• Rob champions efforts to make our community safe and prepared for emergencies or disasters;
• Rob works for improved, more convenient mass transit and better transportation planning and will continue to fight for walk-able, safer neighborhoods;
• Rob supports anti-gang activities and efforts to help children and reduce neighborhood crime;
• Rob supports quality parks and playgrounds;
• Rob champions sustainable open-space policies and environment-friendly, resource-saving construction and land-use approaches -- He is pushing for a citywide Environmental Action Plan;
• Rob fights for cleaner water and air;
• Rob helped lead the charge for a new program to help teachers, police officers and other city staff afford down payments on homes in our community;
• Rob helped create a new tax rebate programs to help low- and moderate-income residents and expanded tax rebate programs for seniors and persons with disabilities;
• Rob fights for innovative affordable housing approaches to ensure Alexandria remains diverse community where our kids will be able to afford to live -- He is serving on the current Affordable Housing Policy Work Group.

Improving Education& Providing Opportunities for our Children

• Rob believes that quality schools are critical to our children's and our City's future, and his work on Council in his first term and in the future will support this core commitment;
• Rob is Alexandria's foremost advocate for the rights of all of our children to have access to pre-school, and was appointed by Governor Kaine to help draft his state-wide pre-school plan;
• Rob works for improved collaboration between the City and school district to improve services and save money;
• Rob's commitment to our City's public schools is personal and ongoing. His family has been active in the public schools and the PTA, and Rob serves on the Alexandria Youth Commission, the Campagna Center board of directors and works with other school-related organizations;
• Rob understands that getting parents involved in school is critical to improving student performance, and will work to encourage creative ways to increase this important aspect of education.

Working for Fiscal Responsibility and a Robust Economy

• Rob pushed and continues to work for a more efficient and open city government. He led the fight for performance audits and program reviews. He led the fight to consolidate city and school resources, which has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. He works to ensure that our government is predictable, accessible and fair, by easing the bureaucratic burden for small business and consumers, by seeking departmental audits and by developing a clear program performance benchmarks;
• Rob supported the creation of a new, more transparent city budget process to help our community set priorities and to ensure that city government follows those priorities. Rob believes it is important to set clear budget spending targets for city staff to follow;
• Rob understands the problems many Alexandria residents face caused by rising property taxes and will work for solutions to help people remain in their homes throughout their lives. He has pushed and will continue to push for tax relief for senior, low income and disabled residents;
• Rob is working to make it easier for small businesses to navigate City Hall. Small business are the heart of Alexandria's economy, and local businesses help make our city unique;
• Rob works to protect the City's AAA bond rating when we borrow, balancing all of the City's needs carefully.
• Rob pushed for a new tax system that encourages small businesses to make Alexandria their home by providing them tax relief in their first year of operation;
• Rob supports historic preservation and understands the critical role our unique history has in energizing our economic vitality and community character. Preserving our history and making it accessible to the public honors our past and encourages a robust and vigorous economic future.

Creating a Healthy Environment & Sensible Development

• Regional growth continues to stress every aspect of our City and the region. Rob believes that careful management of land use, paired with better ways for citizens to provide ideas and feedback to the city will serve the community now and in the future.
• Rob has pushed for economic impact statements for development projects. As one of his first acts on Council, Rob and Councilman Smedberg asked the City to develop economic impact statements for development projects reviewed by City Council. These statements look at the costs and benefits of development projects and aid the Council in ensuring all development is closely and carefully evaluated.
• Rob champions energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly technologies - and changes are happening as a result of this advocacy. He has worked for new planning approaches to make sure this happens and worked with City staff to ensure the City utilizes energy efficient and sustainable techniques in all City buildings. As a result, the City has adopted a policy spelling out its plans to use these new technologies, many of which save the City money in lower energy bills and improve our health through better air quality. The City is also working with Arlington to identify ways to increase the use of sustainable building approaches throughout the entire region.

Supporting Small Business and Economic Development

• Rob believes that Alexandria must be much more user-friendly for small businesses considering the City as a home, and for businesses already established here.
• Rob has supported a new tax program to give small businesses a break during their first year of life, when they are most vulnerable to cash flow challenges;
• Rob supported outdoor dining in Old Town, which has increased restaurant business success;
• Rob continues support for the small business development center and works to create opportunities to help local businesses market themselves in our competitive region.
• Rob will work to have the small business Special Use permit and general business application process reviewed for ways to help small businesses work more effectively with neighborhoods and reduce the length of the present permitting process. The present system discourages some unique small businesses from making Alexandria home and seems to favor larger businesses that can afford lawyers and time.

Better Transportation & Alternatives to Cars

• Rob led the fight for a new city-wide transportation plan so that development and transportation planning could go hand-in-hand.
• Rob worked for better signal timing and road-way improvements to help residents travel through the city.
• Rob is a strong proponent of mass transit, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
• Rob supports expanded DASH bus service that will serve our neighborhoods and business districts.
• Traffic and mass transit are regional as well as local problems for all of us, and Rob will continue to work for a strong, reliable regional transportation system.
• Rob co-wrote the community pathways program and supports convenient pedestrian access so we can walk to core services like restaurants, grocery stores and schools, and decrease the time we spend in cars;
• Rob understands that neighborhoods are for the people who live in them - not to be thoroughfares for cut-through traffic. The City must continue to develop policies that keep our neighborhoods intact and safe;
• Rob supports new mass transit technologies like bus rapid transit or light rail to improve the convenience of transit in our city and region.
• Rob supports and worked for more convenient bus use by working for improved bus shelters so people can be comfortable waiting for busses no matter what the weather.

Open Space, Our Waterfront and The Green Crescent

• Rob supports the City's Open Space Plan which spells out the vision of a "green crescent" throughout the City than will enable residents to walk, bike, and enjoy recreational opportunities across the City in one continuous expanse from the west to the east, from the south to the north.  Improving the openness and connectivity of the City waterfront is a critical piece of this ambitious vision. 
• Rob supports using some of the City’s dedicated open space funding stream to borrow money for present-day open space purchases. Increasing property values and low interest rates make spending money now sensible.
• Rob believes our top open space priority is to turn Alexandria's waterfront into a world class destination.  Rob is working with the city staff and waterfront property owners to do just that.
• Rob understands how small parks and open space contribute to neighborhood quality of life, and will continue to support these activities.

Community Safety

• Rob has worked with Councilman Gaines to make Alexandria safer for any emergency. Together they worked to ensure that the City has a strong program to train residents for emergencies and have worked to create a permanent commission dedicated to helping Alexandria residents prepare for any type of emergency.
• Rob continues to co-lead the effort for better gang prevention efforts in Alexandria and has worked to increase neighborhood policing throughout our community.

First Term Record