James DeVita

Healthcare Expand Mental Health Counseling. This will help troubled kids and, hopefully, head off problems before they become tragedies. Education Reduce Class Sizes. Smaller class sizes allow teachers to give students more individualized attention which will lead to higher achievement. Housing Covert Vacant Office Space to Affordable Housing. Economy Change zoning laws to permit new uses in commercial areas. Guns Let's Ban Assault Weapons. Abortion / Contraception I'm Pro-Choice. Infrastructure / Transportation Get Our Kids out of Trailers. Arlington is one of the richest counties in the nation. Why are our schoolchildren sitting in trailers? Economy Encourage mixed use development - Offices above shops and restaurants to entice workers to stop working from home and return to the office. Civil Rights LGBTQ Rights - Gay Rights Are Human Rights. Housing The Missing Middle will NOT create affordable housing. Prices for the new units exceed 1,000,000.00. What the Missing Middle WILL do is increase traffic, make parking impossible, overwhelm our sewer and stormwater drainage systems, obliterate the tree canopy, create overcrowding in local schools, and irrevocably change the character of our neighborhoods. Infrastructure / Transportation We need to reduce the use of gasoline powered cars and fossil fuels in order to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment. I would, therefore, advocate that we encourage people to ride bicycles for transportation by creating more bike lanes. I would also like to see the County create more charging stations for electric vehicles. We also need more rail service in this area, so, I will advocate that a new subway line be created to run underneath Columbia Pike. Housing Require Developers to Set Aside Units for Low Income Housing. Education Expand Internship Programs. This will help students find jobs when they graduate. Expand Afterschool Programs. This will help working parents and give children additional opportunities to learn and have fun. Wages / Job Benefits Raise Teacher Salaries. We pay our teachers less than Fairfax does. We need to raise teacher salaries to retain good teachers. Housing Fight for a bill of rights for renters and condo owners! Housing Government Subsidies For Low Income Housing. Immigration Immigration - I Support More Immigration. Taxes / Budget Temporarily cut the business license tax and the business property tax for new businesses who are willing to commit to moving to Arlington and staying for five years. Housing Don't let renters and condo owners be treated like second class citizens!