Tag Archives: Ken Reid

May 09 2012
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Ken looks to the future

Poor publicity-starved Loudoun Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) can always be counted on to make a beeline for the Washington Post reporter in the room, and today he was right there following the meeting of the state’s Transportation Secretary with the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce to discuss the Metro extension to Dulles and Loudoun.

By the way, it is apparently now the standard M.O. in Loudoun County that if you want to be a part of high-level discussions about transportation, you need to join the Chamber; this is the second time that the all-Republican cast of  supervisors, since taking office in January, has decided that the fair and open way to have an important meeting in which state officials discuss Loudoun transportation issues is to do it at a Chamber meeting, where you either can pay to attend or be a member. This has nothing to do with all of the help that key Chamber people gave Chairman Scott York (R) in the way of organizing fundraisers, making campaign contributions, being his buddy on an official trip to Germany, etc etc etc.

Anyway, Ken explained to the Post this morning why he is (apparently) going to vote against Metro, offering yet another fine specimen of his keen logical mind at work:

Ken Reid, a Loudoun County supervisor from Leesburg, said he isn’t sure how the Loudoun board will vote on whether to support helping to pay for the second phase of the Silver Line.

He said the new rail line doesn’t relieve traffic congestion in the area because it is expected that there will be more people driving in the future.

Actually, this reasoning offers all sorts of cost-cutting possibilities. We assume Ken will also from now on oppose all road projects, since they too will fail to relieve traffic congestion — since there will be more people driving in the future. Likewise, hiring new teachers will not reduce overcrowding of classrooms since there are expected to be more students in the future; and hiring more deputies will not reduce crime as there are expected to be more criminals in the future.

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May 01 2012
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Spray first, tell lies about it later

Having blundered ahead and quickly ordered up $20,000 worth of pesticides to hose down 9 county parks as part of its very publicity-oriented campaign to pretend to be doing something about Lyme disease, our all-Republican Board of Supervisors is now trying to cover its tracks by throwing up a smokescreen of half truths and misinformation. Continue reading →

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Apr 19 2012
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Board hails failure as success in sign cleanup effort

As one of its very first gifts to the real estate development industry that put them in office, the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted back in January to eliminate the very successful volunteer program that had been cleaning up illegal signs along Loudoun’s roadsides.

A small sample of the fruits of the board's Keep Loudoun Ugly campaign.

At that time, Ken “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) provided a classic Orwellian rationale for the board’s action: he explained that the very success of the program was its failure—since the 50,000 illegal signs the volunteers had cleaned up had added to the stream of paper, wood, and “paint chemicals” choking the county landfill.

In place of the 100 or so volunteers who were able to attack the problem all across the county and do so on weekends when the developers blanket the roadsides with hundreds of their illegal eyesores, the new “program” the board adopted to replace it consists of a single county employee who devotes one weekday a week (with a break for lunch).

Having defined success as failure, it’s probably no surprise that Ken’s fellow board members have now added the nicely symmetrical argument that failure is success.

County staff reported to the board’s land use committee last week that the new sign cleanup effort had so far bagged a mere 300 signs, versus 1,800 collected under the volunteer program during the same period last year. Continue reading →

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Apr 10 2012
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Ken discovers the terrible truth about politics

Proud new Loudoun supervisor Ken Reid (R-Leesburg) is shocked to discover that politicians “tell only one side of the story,” as he writes this week in a very upset letter to Leesburg Today.

Ken complains that Democratic state senator Mark Herring is trying to “make political hay” by—get ready for this—”criticizing specific GOP delegates, by name” who voted against $300 million in state funding for rail to Dulles. Ken says this is very unfair, since some Republicans voted for the funding (that is, before GOP Gov McDonnell reneged on his previous promise of support and the GOP-controlled legislature obediently axed it).

Ken also mentions his recent discoveries that used car salesmen are not always scrupulously honest, that his cell phone bill contains many questionable fees, and that Hollywood movies do not always completely reflect reality.

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Apr 10 2012
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More Lyme hysteria from the board (better-living-through-chemistry department)

As it has become increasingly and embarrassingly evident that our intrepid Loudoun Board of Supervisors permitted itself to be used by a group of fringe fear-mongers to spread misinformation and pseudoscientific alarmism about Lyme disease, the supervisors have reacted by  . . . digging a deeper hole for themselves.

“Did Loudoun overreact on Lyme disease?” the Washington Post asks in a post on in its local politics blog highlighting realloudoun’s first account of the matter. Continue reading →

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