Loudoun home sales, foreclosures pick up

418 homes were sold while 401 home loans went into foreclosure in March keeping industry experts wary of what amounted to a 67% increase in sales over February. Most observers attribute the increase to pent up demand accumulated during snowmaggedon 2010.

While not scientific we’ve noticed a high rate of SOLD signs in the South Riding neighborhood so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it isn’t simply Ron Rush placing SOLD signs in yards to create the illusion things are popping. Either way, it’s nice to see SOLD signs… reminds us of the good ole days.

Virginia General Election is One Week Away

The Virginia general election is one week away. Whether you’re going to vote for McConnell or Deeds, I thought you might find a new Google widget useful. You simply type your address in and it will display your polling station. Someday you’ll be able to click on your choice to cast your vote, but for now you still need to show up in person. So get up off your backside and vote peeps. I don’t care if you’re supporting the best candidate for Virginia or the loser, just vote.

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Washington Post Closing Loudoun Extra Site

The Washington Post closed down Loudoun Extra yesterday (8-21-09) which featured news and covered events from throughout Loudoun County. The site’s content, such as local news, announcements and a community calendar, will be moved over to a new page at: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/loudoun/. It will appear at the same web address as the current site. The site’s editor explained the move, “We want to be able to serve our Loudoun readers in the best way possible, and we believe we can do that more efficiently on washingtonpost.com”.

We say nice effort WP! Sorry it didn’t work out better financially for you.

Makes me wonder how local news publishers survive if the Washington Post can’t make the numbers work with a very small budget dedicated to covering the Loudoun scene. The internet truly is changing the news landscape at every level.

Route 50 to Get Widened

After driving Route 50 for the last 20 years it’s with mixed emotions that I post this news: Beginning in 2010 construction to widen the highway will commence. The stretch of road between Avion Parkway and Poland Road that will become 6 lanes. (Source: Loudoun Times)

My emotions that are mixed? Exasperation and disappointment….. Why? Because it didn’t take rocket science to predict the horrendous traffic we encounter on Route 50 every weekday yet nothing was done for over a decade. While the widening of Route 50 will be helpful it’s a little like pouring a bucket of water on the head of a thirsty person… it’ll feel good and they may get a few sips of water, but the problem will remain.

There are too many people driving on Route 50 during rush hour today and with population growth expected to continue, it will only get worse. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an anti-sprawl loon, but Northern Virginia has been screwing it’s residents since I’ve lived here (over 40 years now) and the state and local governments continue to get away with it. BUILD SOME INFRASTRUCTURE!!!

When we moved out here in the late 80′s Route 50 was 4 lanes all the way from Gum Spring to Route 28. It took me all of 13 minutes to get from our home south of Route 50 on Gum Spring Rd to Sullyfield Circle in Chantilly.

The good old days…

Now after the population has exploded by over 1000% they’re going to widen one small stretch of highway by 50%. Sheesh.

Loudoun County to waste taxpayer money for Website for Eastern Loudoun

The headline in Leesburg Today reads ‘County To Create Web Site For Eastern Loudoun’

What?

THIS is why governments eventually drain their citizens and cause their own collapse. They have no sense for what is NEEDED versus WANTED and just keep on spending.

Read the article yourself here: County To Create Web Site For Eastern Loudoun

They admit that the main Loudoun County Website has the information residents in eastern Loudoun might want access to, but apparently they haven’t heard that a Website resides on something called the World Wide Web, which means even residents in eastern Loudoun, or residents down here in Dulles South, can actually get to the main Website just as quickly as they could to a special new site just for them.

Of course, they’ll spend a lot more then a typical organization to create the site and surely they’ll need a full-time Webmaster to copy paste all of the info on the main site over to the new site. Then someone will need to be responsible for the maintenance of the site. And don’t forget about the additional office space these eastern Loudoun Website staffers will need to perform their duties.

Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) said he was pleased to see the county moving forward on addressing the needs of eastern Loudoun residents.

“These are safety issues; these are quality of life issues,” he said. “Here our goal is to respond to the hundreds and hundreds of people who have filled out their forms. I have pushed for this. It has gotten to this point because of a lot of work on behalf of supervisors.”

Now I realize this isn’t quite like the bridge to nowhere in Alaska, but it is a lot like a Website for no reason at all. Just add a section for the Eastern Loudoun residents on the main site and while you’re at it add one for us folks down here in Dulles South as well! Quality of life!!!???

9-11 Remembered 7 Years Later

My cousin Kenny and his wife Jennifer were flight attendants on Flight 77, the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon 7 years ago today, and the memory of that day is still raw. Despite the painful memories from that day and the aftermath I watched the memorial services and especially the dedication of the Pentagon 9-11 Memorial with appreciation and gratitude. Appreciation for the respect shown for the victims and their families who still grieve today as if it happened last week. And appreciation for the men and women who serve us all by serving in our military.

The memorial dedicated earlier this morning at the Pentagon will serve as a reminder to all that our loved ones are precious and irreplacable. That when someone harms them they harm all of us. That when someone harms our loved ones they must be held acccountable whatever the cost. Seven years after 9-11 I am grateful that our country has not forgotten and that we continue to hunt for those responsible and fight those who still mean us harm.

If you are in the Leesburg area be sure to attend the 9-11 Leesburg ceremony this evening at 7 p.m. on the Town Green. The ceremony will include remarks by the mayor and police chief. The ceremony will be held at the Freedom Memorial, at 101 Granada Circle and will be open today from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Assistant Principal at Freedom Arrested

On Tuesday an Assistant Principal at Freedom High School, Ting-Yi Oei, was arrested at the school and charged with possession of child pornography.

According to reports a student sent a picture of a fellow student to Mr. Oei in March of this year. We asked one of our 2 sons that attends Freedom what he knew knew about Mr. Oei and he said of the incident in March, “everyone heard about it and shrugged it off as just a prank”. He added, “he is one of the strict guys at school and not likely to be involved in anything like this”.

The mistakes Mr. Oei apparently made that led to his arrest include; not reporting the original incident to police, not deleting the photograph off of his computer, and finally, not showing up for a recent court hearing.

We hope there’s nothing more to the story… we’ll keep you posted.

For more information visit Loudoun Extra.

Crime Reports Now Available in Loudoun

I’m proud of our Loudoun County Sheriff’s office! Like most every government they’ve made their “bureaucracy -brained” mistakes, but the Sheriff’s office has just wowed this resident! Loudoun has become the first county in Virginia to take advantage of a great new resource that let’s the average folk (non-average folks are welcome too!) keep track of all crimes reported on a daily basis (if desired) within the immediate area surrounding their homes, or anywhere else that local law enforcement is participating for that matter.

It’s as easy to use as Mapquest so anyone with an internet connection can take advantage of this powerful tool. Here’s how it works:

1. You register on CrimeReports.com (it’s FREE thanks to us taxpayers!)
2. Enter in your address
3. Select the radius around your home that you want crime reports for (5 miles or less)
4. Select the type of crimes you want reported (not sure why you wouldn’t want them all)
5. You can even choose to identify the home addresses of convicted sex offenders
6. Hit save and that’s it!

I received my first alert this morning and I’m happy to say that there were only three crimes reported since I registered yesterday within 5 miles of the midway point on Gum Spring Road: Two thefts and one assault all reported up in the big city of South Riding.

Here’s a short blurb from Crime Report’s Website about why they brought this crime reporting tool to life:

“CrimeReports.com was created to help law enforcement agencies put crime data in the hands of those who care about it most—citizens. While crime statistics in a specific city may be available, they may not be accessible. CrimeReports.com standardizes the way law enforcement agencies communicate crime data to the public, down to the specific neighborhood or block they live on.”

The Gum Spring Road Website is Born!

With well over 10,000 people driving Gum Spring Road each weekday it seemed only appropriate that Gum Spring should have it’s very own Website.

Stay tuned in by subscribing via email. (Top right corner…)

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Drive happy,

David Coakley

Gum Spring Road

Chantilly, Virginia, USA