William Nicoson Newspaper Columns
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The William Nicoson Newspaper Columns are part of a larger collection of materials donated by William Nicoson to the University Libraries. His collection, in turn, is part of the Planned Community Archives, which includes voluminous materials on Reston, Virginia. Access to information about these collections is available from Planned Community Archives and William Nicoson Papers
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Item Newspaper Column: Cartoon Complacency(The Connection, 1996-02) Nicoson, RichardIn Jeff Stahler’s cartoon published by The Cincinnati Post and reprinted February 25th by The New York Times, Bill Clinton sits at his desk reading a paper with the headline, “GOP IDENTITY CRISIS”. The cartoon is entitled “ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?” and Clinton’s word-balloon cries “YEP!” It’s possible that some cartoonists and editors really believe that President Clinton believes he’s better off now than he was four years ago. But it’s a view difficult to reconcile with the facts. After all, whatever else Bill Clinton may be, he’s smart.Item Newspaper Column: Finding the Way to Dulles Airport(The Connection, 1998-08) Nicoson, William J.The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) designed its Metro system in 1968 with its western arm, the Orange Line, terminating in Vienna, thus bypassing the future growth corridor Tysons-Reston-Herndon-Dulles. If that wasn’t unfortunate enough, Vienna’s Town Council has consistently rejected mixed-use development regarded by planners as appropriate to complement an end-of-the-line terminal, thus sacrificing an important regional engine of economic growth. In 1991 WMATA added four “fast-track” extentions to its original design, none of them bringing Metro into the Dulles corridor.Item Newspaper Column: What The President Never Said at Herndon Elementary(The Connection, 1998-09) Nicoson, William J.Somebody threw over my transom an excerpt from the President’s Briefing Book preparing him to visit Herndon Elementary School. I can’t verify its authenticity, but here it is: Secretary Riley chose HES because it’s handy, fitting neatly into Monday morning’s ed-op slot before you skip to Moscow in the afternoon and because its diversity ratio is in heavy overdrive. Intelligence agencies confirm that in the last 3 years at HES minority student population has jumped from 14 to 50%, but caution that many of these students come from highly educated families steeped in strict moral codes of other cultures.Item Newspaper Column: Virginia and Maryland Get Close(The Connection, 1998-09) Nicoson, William J.Want a free express-bus excursion to Bethesda or Gaithersburg? Like to travel in uncrowded space? Like to lounge in high-backed, blue plush seats? Like to browse through free newspapers during the ride? Need a built-in power connection for your laptop? Like to whiz past beltway traffic tie-ups by veering to the shoulder? SmartMovers are for you. They leave Tysons Corner every 15 minutes during commuting hours and, during midday, to Bethesda on the hour. Tysons to Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, with a stop on the way at Montgomery Mall, takes about 50 minutes. The 5S Fairfax Connector buses from Herndon and Reston to Tysons connect with SmartMovers at Park Run Drive just South of West Park Drive. On return, catch the 5S by walking Southwest on the West side of West Park Drive to the first bus stop beyond Greensboro Drive.Item Newspaper Column: Passing the RCC Torch from Mother to Daughter(The Connection, 1998-09) Nicoson, William J.Though her name is Rose, she didn’t expect a rose garden when she joined the Board of Governors of the Reston Community Center. Jo Ann Rose for the last two years has steadfastly championed a North-side outreach of RCC’s activities, focusing on the Fresh Value space at Lake Anne. Combining the skills of a financial lawyer and artist, she served as RCC’s Treasurer and chaired its Finance Committee. But her advocacy for RCC expansion met bitter obstruction from naysayers who sought to cut back rather than expand RCC’s programs, even favoring the abolition of RCC entirely. She was personally attacked on reports of RCC accounts, which had been approved by Fairfax County, and viciously accused of a disqualifying conflict of interest in supporting activities involving the arts simply because she was an artist.Item Newspaper Column: Reston's Statehouse Clout(The Connection, 1998-09) Nicoson, William J.Last week the Northern Virginia Technology Council honored Senator Howell with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the first it has ever bestowed. She co-chairs two committees of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science (composed of both Senators and Delegates), the first charged with formulating a Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Growth in Virginia, and the second with resolving the prospective year-2000 meltdown. In short, she’s not only responsible for attracting technology companies to the state but keeping them healthy after they get here.Item Newspaper Column: RA Joins the Bus Battle(The Connection, 1998-10) Nicoson, William J.In the beginning, there was the gleam in Karl Ingebritsen’s eye as he and fellow Restonians invented their own bus system. In those days riders usually walked a short distance from their homes to catch a bus that delivered them to downtown Washington. The bus was a hybrid feeder-express: from Reston’s boundaries to major employment zones downtown, it operated without stops as an express, but within Reston the bus circulated as a self-feeder to pick up riders in the morning and drop them off in the evening.Item Newspaper Column: The Final Solution for Deer(The Connection, 1998-10) Nicoson, William J.If you don’t watch out for deer while driving these days, you may sleep sooner than you think. In fact, a deer may help you dream eternally, as Hamlet feared, whether you’re watching or not. A year ago my brother-in-law visited Reston in his shiny, upscale new car. As the two of us were riding at dusk on Wiehle Avenue, a deer dashed across the lane of on-coming traffic, slammed into the driver’s side of the car and disappeared limping into underbrush. The car didn’t limp but needed body-work. Had the deer dashed a bit faster, we would have hit him head-on with unpredictable consequences to life and limb not only for us but for passengers in nearby cars as well.Item Newspaper Column: Reston's Special Quality at Risk(The Connection, 1998-11) Nicoson, William J.Among Reston’s most distinctive features, adding enormously to the life-style and property values of Restonians, is the Reston Community Center which offers performances by both professional and community groups in music, dance and theater, a 24-meter heated swimming pool and whirlpool, art exhibits and classes, and meeting space for community groups. These activities are managed by a local Board of Governors, assuring their quality and response to local needs. But because RCC activities are financed in part by a tax district, some local residents and businesses, infected with tax-cut fever, are calling for elimination of the district and its Board of Governors.Item Newspaper Column: Tom Davis Makes the Big Time(The Connection, 1998-11) Nicoson, William J.The Republican Conference of the House of Representatives meets today to chose its leaders for the next Congress. It’s likely that Tom Davis, representing more than 560,000 Northern Virginia citizens, including most residents of Reston and Herndon, will be elected one of 5 leaders among 220 GOP members. Not bad for a legislator first elected only four years ago. For the first time in recent Congressional history a legislator from Northern Virginia will participate in the House leadership.Item Newspaper Column: Putting Education to the Test(The Connection, 1998-11) Nicoson, William J.The days when Virginia public schools were populated by shambling slackers and notorious know-nothings are becoming history. Public education in high schools and grade schools has been revolutionized by a program begun in the Allen Administration and continued by Governor Gilmore. The purpose of the program is make both students and schools accountable for their performanceItem Newspaper Column: The Kain Mutiny(The Connection, 1998-12) Nicoson, William J.For poor George Kain it’s been out of the frying pan, into the fire, as his commitment to community service moved him from Treasurer of Reston Association to President of Reston Citizens Association. At RA Kain reported monthly to the Board of Directors on such matters as investment of RA reserve funds. On his watch, the Chief Financial Officer on the RA staff steered funds into highrisk debt obligations in violation of RA’s investment policy but, in monthly reports prepared for Kain to deliver to the Board, portrayed these investments falsely as consistent with RA policy. At one point Kain volunteered to perform an internal audit which would surely have exposed the CFO’s fraud, but a majority of the Board, including then-President Cynthia Warger, voted against the audit as constituting “micro-management”. Almost a year later, the fraud was exposed by outside auditors, causing a furor in the community and the firing of the CFO.Item Newspaper Column: Business Leaders Endorse RCC Outreach(The Connection, 1998-12) Nicoson, William J.Tomorrow an historic vote of enormous consequence will take place. No, I’m not talking about the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President Clinton. I’m talking about the vote by the Board of Governors of Reston Community Center to approve outreach of its programs to space at Lake Anne. Last Thursday the RCC Long Range Planning Committee, composed of all RCC governors, reviewed the business plan prepared by Executive Director Ed Grillo for the Lake Anne facility, and unanimously voted to consider it for final approval at the board meeting tomorrow evening. That approval now seems even more certain than impeachment of the President.Item Newspaper Column: High Occupancy on the Toll Road(The Connection, 1998-12) Nicoson, William J.Commuting home to Reston last Tuesday afternoon on the Dulles Toll Road, I was amazed at the ease in traffic flow. I was naturally driving in the fast lane, and could in fact drive fast. (Don’t ask how fast. My President has taught me never to admit my crimes.) When I expressed surprise to my wife, she stifled scorn for my obtuse delight and replied, “we’re a high-occupancy couple.” Of course! HOV privileges had been inaugurated that very day on the toll road. The fast lane was a new lane reserved during commuting hours for couples or larger clans. I saw an emblematic diamond on the lane slide rapidly under our car. The Virginia Department of Transportation had given us a Christmas gift of precious asphalt.Item Newspaper Column: Is There a Geriatric Cure for RA(The Connection, 1999-01) Nicoson, William J.In terms of longevity, the human condition is vastly inferior to the indefinite and pristine term of most companies and other institutions to which humans give birth on paper. But there’s an exception: under a deed amendment, the Reston Association has been bequeathed an almost human future of advancing decrepitude as it ages. Now the wrinkles are beginning to show. RA at 35 faces the prospect of accelerating repair and replacement of deteriorating facilities. Not until 1996 did its board put in place a capital funding policy mandating allocation to capital reserves of a minimum portion of annual assessments and, by 2000, all investment income. Over the past three years, capital reserves have increased by 86%.Item Newspaper Column: Coming to Lake Anne(The Connection, 1999-01) Nicoson, William J.The building of Reston started there with a seamless match of residential and commercial structures opening upon pathways and a plaza on the shores of a man-made lake, free of automobiles, overhead cables, and platitudinous architecture. In defiance of economic rules, founder Bob Simon erected in his newly-acquired wilderness a residential tower named Heron House, thrusting upward above his lake to mark then and now the site of an audacious new discipline in community building which joined aesthetics to the traditional planning goals of residential convenience and economic feasibility.Item Newspaper Column: A Walk in Tomorrow's Park(The Connection, 1999-01) Nicoson, William J.The concept of Town Center has been high-intensity use of land, consistent with creation of a regional commercial and residential complex as the final project in Reston’s development as a mixed-use community. Many planners and community activists were disappointed that no residential space was programed into Phase I of Town Center. Retail and office uses weren’t much of a mix. Just wait, was the answer: wait for the high-rise apartments of Phase II.Item Newspaper Column: Another Nixon is Precedential(The Connection, 1999-01) Nicoson, William J.Lawyers and journalists have speculated that at some early point in the Senate trial the president’s counsel will introduce a motion to dismiss the proceedings on the grounds that, if true, the articles of impeachment adopted by the House fail to state an impeachable offense. Senators of both parties might find this a convenient means of ending an unpopular trial. If all 45 Senate Democrats vote to dismiss, only 6 Republicans need join them to prevail.Item Newspaper Column: Metrorail to Tyson's Corner...And Beyond?(The Connection, 1999-01) Nicoson, William J.After years of endless meetings, futile talk and vacant hopes, it now seems certain that rail will begin its march through the Dulles corridor. Long proclaimed by CEOs, planners and civic activists as the last, best hope to combat the traffic congestion and air pollution born of phenomenal economic growth, rail remained an evanescent vision, forever glimmering on the horizon but forever out of reach. After all, the estimated price tag was $2 billion.Item Newspaper Column: Amenities Behind the Employee Surge: Who Pays?(The Connection, 1999-02) Nicoson, William J.A common theme of discussions at a breakfast forum last Thursday on “Hi-Tech Employee Surge” was reliance on community amenities needed or appreciated by employees of major companies choosing to locate in Reston. In fact speakers at the forum, sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, made it clear that the critical choice of location (“location, location, location”) was motivated in large part by the existence of community amenities.