Robert McCartney (00:35):

Welcome to Think Regionally. I'm your host, Robert McCartney. As I stressed in our last episode, I want this podcast to focus on solutions for the region. In this episode, instead of addressing a single issue like hunger, we're stepping back and looking at the entire broad spectrum of goals that the region has set for the future. And instead of interviewing multiple leaders and experts, I'll interview just one. That would be Dorsey, Vice Chair of the Arlington County Board.

Robert McCartney (01:06):

He was next up in the annual rotation among the three jurisdictions, Virginia, Maryland, and the District, to serve as chair of COG. Remember COG, which sponsors this podcast, brings local leaders together from around the region to work on its various challenges. I began by asking Dorsey about the pandemic. Of course, COVID is still very much on listener's minds. Tell us briefly what the region is doing collectively right now to fight the disease and what more could be done.

Christian Dorsey (01:40):

Well, as many people probably don't know, the region actually came together in a concerted basis from the beginning of the pandemic. We put levels of coordination together early on to make sure that we were having epidemiologists, getting together with the public health officials, as well as the city administrators and executives, in addition to the public officials to figure out what we needed to do from a messaging standpoint, from a public health policy standpoint.

Robert McCartney (02:12):

Are you frustrated, Christian, that the mandates are different in the different jurisdictions?

Christian Dorsey (02:18):

Well, it's not ideal for sure. We've long had to deal with the fact that different parts of our region have different authorities. I certainly don't begrudge the district for pursuing their vaccine mandate, but it means that we will have to take a different approach in Virginia.

Robert McCartney (02:36):

Moving on, we talked about four pressing challenges that the region has committed to address over the coming decade. These are housing affordability, access to transit, climate change, and racial equity. The four are all interconnected. For instance, you can't reduce vehicle pollution without getting more people onto transit, which also means putting more houses near rail and bus lines.

Robert McCartney (02:59):

We started with housing where the region has set a goal of building at least 320,000 more housing units by 2030, with at least 75 percent affordable to low- and middle-income households and 75 percent in locations targeted for growth because of transit access or other reasons. I asked Dorsey what he hoped to see this year to move toward that objective.

Christian Dorsey (03:24):

In many cases, housing is difficult. There is a matter of figuring out how you encourage it, what incentives you have on the table. There's figuring out where it should be located. There's figuring out how do you affect the markets so that you can create levels of affordability. One of the things that I'd like to do this year is to spotlight areas that are making that commitment to follow through with the necessary will.

Christian Dorsey (03:53):

I'll tout my own jurisdiction, which is really stepping up to make sure that we increase a production of units, that they be close to transit, and that they be available at affordable levels.

Robert McCartney (04:08):

Let me ask a follow-up related to that. How are you dealing with the political pushback there? I mean, in some other jurisdictions, neighborhoods that are single family predominantly or exclusively single family neighborhoods, there's resistance—grassroots resistance—to multifamily housing, to more density.

Christian Dorsey (04:28):

I think the first thing we can really do if we're going to be leaders in this region is to understand where that resistance comes from and not always characterize it in the worst possible terms. You hear frequently when folks organize and resist or question changes in density, there's an immediate push to call them NIMBYs and to dismiss their concerns.

Robert McCartney (04:53):

NIMBY meaning not in my backyard.

Christian Dorsey (04:56):

Yes. I'd like to take a different approach and realize that people who are concerned about changes to their neighborhood are first expressing something that's quite positive. They like their communities. They like how they work, and there's a concern that change will produce a result that will make them worse off. The good news is that increased density is often the vehicle for the kind of change that's really inclusive that people want.

Christian Dorsey (05:30):

People want to be able to walk to shops and to have amenities in their neighborhood, not necessarily possible if you restrict the number of people who can live in those areas.

Robert McCartney (05:46):

Next, I asked Dorsey about transit and specifically about the region's goal to target future growth around 225 locations called High-Capacity Transit Station Areas. Those are areas centered around the metro rail, commuter rail, street car, or bus rapid transit,

Christian Dorsey (06:06):

As you well know, the region has made significant transit investments over the years, and we have a lot of assets that exist on the ground. Very few of them, or really none of them at this point especially given the challenges that COVID has brought with people moving in public transportation, are anywhere near capacity. I know that a lot of times people like shiny new things, but we've got a lot of well-functioning or can be made well-functioning old things that need to be optimized, if you will.

Robert McCartney (06:42):

What does that mean to optimize the land use around those locations?

Christian Dorsey (06:47):

We are very much looking to enhance our bus connections in our Columbia Pike corridor to make sure they service the emerging job centers in Pentagon City and Crystal City, for example. How do we make that bus service more useful, more premium? It's not just about the look of the vehicles that are traveling on the corridor. It's the frequency of service and making sure that service is going to the connections that it needs.

Robert McCartney (07:16):

I asked Dorsey to offer are some friendly advice to his colleagues across the river about how to prevent gentrification and displacement when the purple line opens.

Christian Dorsey (07:25):

Without question, if there are not very proactive steps taken to ensure that there are either inclusionary zoning regimes or structured frameworks where you're not going to see development without mitigating for displacement, you are going to have the market lead to an outcome where people are displaced.

Robert McCartney (07:50):

One big plus for transit in the region in 2022 and beyond is the influx of billions of federal dollars approved in last year's historic bipartisan infrastructure package. That means there should be money to complete and even accelerate major projects, such as rebuilding the long bridge rail span that carries Amtrak and commuter rail between Arlington and the district.

Robert McCartney (08:12):

Other beneficiaries could be the American Legion Bridge, carrying the beltway between Montgomery and Fairfax Counties, and upgrading commuter rail in both Virginia's VRE and Maryland's MARC systems.

Christian Dorsey (08:25):

The money is staggering. I think we're talking about probably in upwards of $20 billion that we're expecting in the relative near term. There can be the sort of imperative or the impulse. When you've got new money, it's to think about new things that you'd like to spend that money on. I think we would be well-served if we looked at our existing plans and make sure that we're pursuing those projects that really produce multiple levels of benefit.

Robert McCartney (08:57):

To fight climate change, the region has committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005. That's part of what's called the 2030 Climate and Energy Action Plan, which the region developed with COG's help. Now, Dorsey sees COG providing technical assistance to help governments reach those goals.

Christian Dorsey (09:21):

What we need to make sure we do this year is to really provide that skill support, because very few communities in our region have the built-in offices or agencies that can truly do the innovative work on climate change. The greatest area I think that we can do this is with electric vehicles. It's difficult to figure out how you plan for the infrastructure to deliver an electric bus fleet, for example. Hopefully we can provide ways forward for each individual jurisdiction to crib off of that work so that they don't have to study it from the ground up on their own.

Christian Dorsey (10:05):

And then when it comes to thinking about the power grid necessary to deliver on a more electrified regional infrastructure, we absolutely have to get the right entities at the table from not only the power companies, but the executives of the three areas of our region to really come together to make some inroads. While it's not sexy, technical assistance is key.

Robert McCartney (10:35):

In advancing all these goals, the region has also pledged to promote racial and economic equity. Last year, it identified and endorsed 350 geographical communities, census tracks with large populations of communities of color and low income families. These are known as Equity Emphasis Areas and are another place where COG wants to focus its planning efforts.

Christian Dorsey (11:00):

We now have sort of not only a planning tool, but an accountability tool. So we can ask ourselves, what are we doing that's improving the outcomes and the quality of life for people in these 350 areas who have been either historically denied it or had been disadvantaged by the way we currently do business? For me, success in this particular year are going to be cross-checking where are the improvements that we are investing in and committing to. I want to see that those are linked to the Equity Emphasis Areas that we will already identified.

Robert McCartney (11:42):

As we come to the end, I share some of my own thoughts on the issues we've been discussing. A lot of elected officials when they take on a new job strike out on an entirely new path in order to create a so-called signature issue for themselves. Dorsey is doing the opposite. When he took over from the District's Robert White as COG chair, he said he wanted to basically double down on work the region was already doing.

Robert McCartney (12:09):

That meant that in addition to continuing the battle against COVID, he wanted to see "follow through" on regional goals to achieve what he called "transformative outcomes." I think that's a good approach, as these are formidable challenges that will take years to overcome, building enough affordable housing and transit, reducing greenhouse gases, and narrowing the racial socioeconomic gaps.

Robert McCartney (12:37):

We should hope that Dorsey and the region deliver substantive progress in these areas in 2022 and commit to continue to do so in the years beyond. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Look for the next one in February. This podcast is produced by Megan Goodman and Janelle Parkman. We welcome your feedback. Please email comments to thinkregionally, one word, @mwcog.org. This is your host Robert McCartney urging everyone to think regionally.