The New Building at Broad & Washington

Editor,

I am appalled at the new building that is now taking shape on the corner of Broad and Washington.

This building should never have been allowed. It is completely out of scale with all the other buildings in the City, and certainly with the buildings in its immediate surroundings. It is too high, has too long an unbroken frontage, and is much too close to the road. It is also extremely ugly.

How was this hideous monstrosity ever permitted?

We need far stricter development controls, if our lovely City is not to end up looking like Ballston.

We need height restrictions, increased set back requirements, and limits on the frontage length of new biildings, as well as strict aesthetic controls. Otherwise, Broad Street, and other streets, will become ugly, soulless canyons.

Developers do not care about our City; they make their profits, and leave us to live with the consequences for many decades to come.

We must put a stop to this now.

Julia Liebeskind

The Electoral College: One Party, Not Both

Editor,

While I agree that the Electoral College is clearly undemocratic, it is not true “that both major political parties want it that way.”

The Democrats have been working to support presidential elections based on one-person-one-vote.

The National Popular Vote Compact is state legislation that would effectively provide for the election of the president based on the national popular vote.

The compact has been enacted in 29 states and the District of Columbia, which currently comprise 205 of the 538 Electoral College votes. The law comes into force once states and jurisdictions comprising 270 electoral votes, enough to win the presidency in the Electoral College, have enacted the compact. These states, when they meet the 270 electoral vote threshold, will award their electoral votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote.
The bill has been enacted into law in Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, California, Illinois, New York, and the District of Columbia (via nationalpopularvote.com/state-status).

In Virginia, the legislation was introduced in 2020 by Delegate Cia Price with our own Delegate Marcus Simon as chief co-sponsor, both Democrats. It passed the Virginia House of Delegates, but failed to pass in the Virginia State Senate.

Passing the legislation would be beneficial for all voters by focusing campaigns more broadly across the country, rather than in a few “swing” states.

This voter enfranchisement effort has been led by Democrats.

Joyce Migdall