Public Policy Matters

Riding the Mount Vernon Trail

Much as it’s the stepchild of bureaucrats and politicians, public policy matters.

The powers that be in the Big Apple still pay allegiance to the power of unions and borough chiefs–god bless–whereas in the Commonwealth of Virginia (a so-called right to work state), power flows from Richmond. In the tradition of Jefferson, whose legacy shadows the Commonwealth, how decisions affecting our communities are made do have an impact.

Take the two tales of Amazon–with apologies to Charles Dickens.

Last year NYC and Arlington were the beauty queens announced for Amazon’s 2nd Headquarters.
Immediately New York began to set about arguing to eat its own. Newly minted congresswoman, newish mayor, governor from the same party all yelling, dividing borough leaders and union bosses and so on, whereas Virginia apparently took an alternate route.

One might argue in this instance king’s rule was superior to self-rule–much as that pains an Irishman to admit.

However, lest Virginians clap for their superior wisdom to New York, not too long ago the powers in Richmond spited their own underprivileged by declining the federal funding for expanded Medicare.
Which is to say, just like Representative Ocasio-Cortez opposed Amazon for the sake of underprivileged folk in Queens, a few years previously Virginia’s Republicans failed to see how helping their poor might be a risk worth taking.

My take is Queens could have used the jobs–gentrification or not–and Virginia’s Republican majority was tone deft.

One could call public policy a whimsy the way we colonials decide things; no wonder there’s skepticism in the Dakotas and further north.

Back to the story at hand.

When the Base Realignment withdrew the Navy from Crystal City, it left Arlington County with a large hole in its tax base, not to mention acres of ugly 60s era development with no financial incentive to rebuild.

“… the Naval Air Systems Command left in 2000, and the patent office in 2002. The base realignment announcement came in 2005. Over all, Crystal City lost 17,000 jobs; the move of the Office of the Inspector General of the Army alone amounted to 6,400 jobs lost. In total, 4.2 million square feet of office space became vacant.”

NY Times, Eugene L. Meyer April 19, 2016

Finding a way to both update the dreary architecture and reoccupy the area had begun several years before Amazon sought its ballyhooed 2nd Headquarters. Crystal City Reboots Itself. However, given Amazon’s redevelopment of Seattle’s South Union former industrial area, the hope is that Crystal City–re-branded as National Landing–will become a second story of renewal.

And a mile or so south, there is a 25 acre waterfront site hoping to be reclaimed. The coal-fired power plant was shut down seven years ago, and it’s time. It’s been time.

Virginia Tech in Northern Virginia

I admit to mixed feelings about Amazon, The Story Thus Far. Like someone admiring the lion’s teeth, yet nervous about standing in the beast’s field of vision. I’ll even admit to ordering books on Prime, and thus far none have been dropped on my head by drone. Our local Borders store is now a discount furniture store. “So it goes.”

Amazon’s technological prowess is as impressive as the long term outcome for smaller businesses is concerning. Field of vision.

However, what stands out most about the Amazon story–and what Richmond deserves credit for–ah, he finally gets to his point—is what Virginia is doing in support of the deal. Instead of investing just in tax incentives and pavement, er “transportation improvements”–the state is actually laying groundwork for a new technology campus for Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is rumored to to be an investment of $1 billion. Something shy of that still wouldn’t be chump change for a state known for its impecunious pretend.

Since Virginia is my adopted home, this feels personal.

There’s much to admire about Virginia Tech’s investments in advanced technology. Tech had a virtual reality studio dubbed “The Cave” before the term had moved too far from science fiction. I’ve watched the growing national stature of its School of Architecture and Urban Studies and tried to overlook the size of the football stadium in Blacksburg. (I kid the footballers–they don’t paint orange tiger paws on the Interstate like my alma mater does.)

And Virginia Tech has been a presence in the Northern Virginia architectural community for a while. In its nearly 40 years’ history, the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center has grown roots in the community. Once, it might have seemed an outpost from Blacksburg, but no longer.

“The College of Architecture and Urban Studies established the WAAC in 1980 with a straightforward mission: to use the city as a laboratory, offering upper-level architecture students an opportunity to study in an urban location away from their home campus.”

Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Director - from WAAC's website

Virginia Tech’s Center for Power Electronic Systems  

When you’re planning to execute the design of a compact, low-inductance, 1200 V 6.5 MΩ SiC half-bridge power module with flexible printed circuit board gate-loop connection–the way we all would expect–I’m not your man. Go talk to these guys.

There is perfect symbolism in repurposing a 1949 legacy power plant for research on the future of energy.

I don’t know why architects love to renovate these hulking monsters born from an industrial past, but we do—we all do. If you’ve ever been to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, you get the idea of a large space emptied of its iron machinery—or not—crowded with researchers and a Starbuck’s situated in the corner for the tourists…

“The Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), with annual research expenditures of $6-7 million dollars, is dedicated to improving electrical power processing and distribution that impact systems of all sizes – from battery-operated electronics to vehicles to regional and national electrical distribution systems.”

From CPES’s website.

A while back, the Tech’s School of Architecture and Urban Studies began collaborating with geeks so into esoteric physics it made my head hurt. Double E majors–they the man! er woman… I saw an early project where one could charge ubiquitous cell phones by merely placing them on a duly powered table.

Sonofagun!

My old Blackberry wouldn’t have worked–the battery died. And, OK, charging cell phones so you can twitter probably doesn’t stretch important boundaries, but think about all the cool points: inviting acquaintances to place their phones in the middle of the guacamole dip before sitting down.

More seriously, so much of the debate about global warming assumes we’ll somehow find energy substitutions for carbon-based sources; CPES is a singular organization doing the research.

The Mount Vernon Trail

Panorama on the Mount Vernon Trail looking north

The Mount Vernon Trail runs the river from Washington’s plantation through Alexandria on past the airport that locals still call National Airport. Officially the trail peters out heading into Alexandria, where you run/walk/bike through the riverside part of the city. Then resumes north of Old Town.

Riding north past the power plant prepares the uninitiated for National Airport, that stub of a landing strip for senators and congress folk so important they have reserved parking. God bless their minor political deviancies. Just south of National–and within view of the landing strip–lies the shuttered power plant.
Back in the 1990s a campaign to close down the midsize (by electrical plant standards) coal-fired power plant began to gather steam so the speak. What had been particularly galling to the citizens of Alexandria was that the plant supplied none of the city’s power–only DC’s.

The plant struggled coming into the present day; it was unable to meet with clean air standards. Its caretakers shut it down in 2005 for ‘environmental violations.’ In 2012 the populists’ campaign succeeded: Washington Post: Power Plant Closing

Originally owned by PEPCO (aka Potomac Electric Power Company–oh how we like acronyms), though later during the deregulation of utility companies, PEPCO took the opportunity to unload it. Through successive mergers, the plant became part of GenOn. [1] What’s a genon, you might ask? By no means a genome.

Alexandria recognizes the city has the proverbial albatross on its hands. Fortunately the power plant no longer spews nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide into the air, however the PEPCO substation on the site remains active, an integral part of the electrical grid, and the heating oil spill onsite has only recently been decontaminated. The two 25,000 gallon tanks produced 12,000 square feet of contamination.

25 acres of riverfront adjacent to the City’s north end, with an inactive rail line running north to the future Amazon campus. Prime real estate, provided a deal can be struck to share space with an electrical power substation, twin buried high voltage lines running out under the Potomac, and a community skeptical about a facility that sits directly next to the Potomac River.

Approaching the power plant on the bike trail

Beside the Potomac River, water laps against the 80 year-old power plant.

So that’s some of the backstory. Next week’s blog (I hope) will get deeper into what the Virginia Tech architectural group envisions. And more about Tech’s Center for Power Electronics Systems.

Geeks and dreamers, what could be more interesting? Please stay tuned.

Closing thought: tracks running from Old Town north to the power plant — though I don’t understand the fence…

[1] Wikipedia: “Merger to create GenOn Energy On April 11, 2010, RRI Energy and Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. announced an agreement to merge in a $1.6 billion all-stock deal, which created one of the largest independent power plant operators in the country. The new company, named GenOn Energy, would be based in Houston … The new company had a market capitalization of about $3 billion, owning or operating 47 plants in 12 states capable of generating more than 24,650 megawatts of power. The merger was completed on December 3, 2010.” In 2017, GenOn Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.