RESTON MAGAZINE

Looked back on the first couple of blog entries, I was surprised at how negative my take on life in paradise has been.  I actually like many aspects of life in paradise.   That said, there's one more irritant I feel the need to address and then I'll try to come up with something more uplifting for my next entry.

 A long time personal gripe has been the Reston Association's magazine.  This high gloss publication comes out quarterly and, if my cluster is any indication, almost immediately gets dumped in the recycle bin.



I understand the RA feels the need to communicate with all residents and showcase what a special place we all live in.  I mean, who wouldn't want to read about Reston Homes through the Decades or Giving Yourself a Perfect Smile At Any Age?  

 I also know the magazine is available on-line.  So why are they spending RA assessments to mail a copy to every family in the community.  STOP !!!  Publicize the fact it is available on line and use the publication savings to do something useful, like cleaning up trails, yanking English Ivy out of a nature area, or planting more trees to make up for the seemingly accelerating loss of tree canopy in the community.   

 Speaking of which; what are we paying for the magazine?  I tried to figure it out by looking at the 2017 budget materials, but it appears to be buried in their communications budget, or somewhere.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ONE OF THE SMALL PLEASURES OF LIFE IN PARADISE

Image
Held on Saturday mornings, Lake Anne's Farmers' Market is one of those things I really enjoy about living in Reston.  Nah, I seldom feel the need to rush out to buy bags full of heirloom tomatoes, fresh goat cheese, or any of the other farm fresh items available for sale.  That said, I have bought fresh produce from time to time and certain enjoy walking through the stalls, sampling fruits and other products and just listening to folks socialize.  And the market isn't limited to food.  There are vendors selling all sorts of arts and crafts materials.  
Read more

WHO NEEDS AN OBSTACLE COURSE?

Image
The Reston Association has a decent sized budget for what they categorize as maintenance and environmental management. Obviously the folks running the RA would like more resources, while many of us Restonians would like to keep such costs under control.    Anyhow, the l ast time I looked, the maintenance and environmental budget was about $3.9M out of a total budget of $15.4M.  Of that $3.9M, $0.9M was earmarked for pathways.  As I recall, Reston claims to maintain 55 miles of pathways.  I'm guessing that includes sidewalks ...  If so, then that breaks down to a budget of $16K per mile.  Obviously it just takes one or two major repair jobs to consume that kind of money, so I'm in no position to judge whether they budget  too much, or too little in this area. What I can tell you is none of that budget seems to be going to maintain this  part of the path/sidewalk network.  The photo shows a section of the pathway along Wiehle Bouleva...
Read more