Editorial

It's time for New Year's resolutions, and for the City of Falls Church, and we've got a few ideas. Aside from aspiring for good health, most good resolutions have to do with "becoming better who one is," as life is an evolving process in that way. That includes things like becoming more generous, spending more time with the kids and self-actualizing through traveling more or mastering poker.

Falls Church would do well to resolve to become itself more fully in 2005. The city is still small, but it is no longer the ugly stepsister to anyone. In the past, Falls Church was guilty of a kind of "we're better than you" arrogance that stemmed, in a painfully obvious way to outsiders, from insecurity and a whopping inferiority complex.

Two major developments in recent years have thrust Falls Church into the regional limelight, as a shiny sparkling diamond, potentially the brightest in the neighborhood. The first was the declaration by education reporter Jay Matthews, writing in the Washington Post and Newsweek, that Falls Church's George Mason High School, by his "challenge index," is perhaps the finest public school in the land. That late 1990s pronouncement led to a virtual population explosion in Falls Church and in its school system.

The second development came this year with the declaration by the Washington Business Journal that Falls Church is now on the short list of "hottest of the hot" places primed for major development in the entire metropolitan area. This was followed by a bold, banner headline on the front of the Business Journal, parroting one on the front page of the News-Press a week earlier, noting that the city had the wherewithal to "nix" its deal with Akridge in favor of a more competitive approach to downtown redevelopment. Big things are happening and big things are in store for Falls Church largely because, due to a lot of effort over years here, the city is now cutting the profile of zaftig 747 on the regional development community's radar screen.

So, taken together, these developments mean the city is now way overdue for a self-esteem makeover. No petty, pouty foot-stamping or smug "I'm better than you's" are called for any longer. You're big girl now, Falls Church! With this comes some much-needed liberation, too. No more cowering or cow-towing to the self-centered bluster of petty tyrants over itty-bitty slices of land no one otherwise cares about. Bullies pick on the weak, not the strong. You must stand up to such triviality and make adult decisions about land use, demonstrating that you can cope with the tough downtown redevelopment choices that are in store. You must show you're strong enough to make such difficult decisions. Reasonable discourse with citizens on important and viable issues associated with development is both respectable and valuable. But not retreating over a 20-foot strip of underbrush or any more self-effacing downsizing to appease unreasonably selfish homeowners.

Happy New Year, and no breaking your resolutions in the first week.