Comments At Arlington County Board Meeting, April 20, 2024.
On April 17 I was invited to participate in a County Board candidate forum organized by three Pentagon City civic organizations. I decided to walk the walk by taking transit to the event held at Amazon HQ2 on South 15th Street. The weather was balmy and my Metro connections at rush hour were excellent, if crowded. Biking through the throngs of workers and shoppers from Pentagon City Metro to HQ2 was thoroughly enjoyable. The well appointed community center at HQ2 was notable for its understatement. All six candidates showed up for the forum. The questions were on point, the hosts were gracious, and the audience was attentive.
On the return trip my connections were good, but I was tired by the time I got to East Falls Church Metro, where I boarded a 2A bus back to Westover. At the corner just outside my apartment building, I barely noticed that I was followed off the bus by a male hunched over in a maroon jacket. As I removed my bike from the rack, the bus operator, motioned to me, and said: “Watch out!” He waited a few minutes to see that I was safe before pulling away.
In a recent County Board work session, Police Chief Andy Penn revealed that assaults are up 9 percent since last year. But for the bus driver’s alertness, I might have been another statistic. While I’m happy that a Black bus driver’s street smarts got me safely off the bus, I wonder why the woke activists who have defunded the police think the lawlessness it inspires doesn’t throw other people under the bus.