To the editor: I originally had no dog in the fight on whether to build a new sports arena at Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
However, my neutrality on this issue changed the other day as I was driving to PetSmart at the Potomac Yard Shopping Center to buy a dog leash.
You might ask, what do PetSmart and a dog leash have anything to do with the proposed sports arena?
It occurred to me as I approached PetSmart that I was practically at the doorstep to where the controversial proposed 20,000-seat arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals, as part of a 70-acre, $2 billion sports and entertainment campus, is supposed to be built by 2028. So I drove past PetSmart to temporarily forgo buying the dog leash to see for myself what the dogfight raging in this Northern Virginia area was all about.
I turned left from the shopping center and parked across from the new Potomac Yard Metro station. My question was whether the surrounding neighborhood could accommodate the new megacomplex.
I live in the Crystal City part of Arlington, only several miles away from where all this construction is being planned at Potomac Yard. On the plus side, I’m a big sports fan and having the arena so close by would make it easy to go watch the Wizards and Caps in person instead of having to schlep to downtown D.C. for games at Capital One Arena, as is the case now. On nice days, I could walk from my place in Crystal City to catch a basketball or hockey game at Potomac Yard.
It was a blustery cold winter’s day, but that didn’t stop me from braving the elements to get out of my car to do my version of a one-man consulting firm to conduct an admittedly unscientific measurement on whether this plan could work. The one thing not making me feel if I were doing an official on-site inspection was that I wore a ski cap instead of a hard hat.
By my count, I took 30 footsteps with my size 11 ½-inch feet between the boundaries of where the new megaplex is supposed to fit – from the Metro station at adjacent Potomac Avenue to the CSX railroad tracks running parallel to the site. My 30 footsteps, I figured, would equal about 75 feet.
Skeptics will undoubtedly say that the width between Potomac Avenue and the railroad tracks for the entertainment district is way larger than 75 feet, and they may be right. But from my on-site inspection, they would have to push Potomac Avenue further back or pay for a very expensive move of the train tracks to somewhere else, or the whole development would go off track. I’m no commercial-building engineer, but the way it looks now, I don’t see how the megaplex could squeeze into such a sliver of land.
Another crucial issue regarding building this arena was the almost certainty of adding more traffic congestion to the area that would further harm air quality. Traffic in these parts is terrible and getting worse by the day, which isn’t helped by all the construction of new buildings for the Amazon HQ2 corporate headquarters project in Crystal City.
When I ventured out that cold non-rush-hour noontime toward PetSmart, it took me almost 15 minutes to drive the few miles from Crystal City down to Potomac Yard. Even knowing a short cut to the arena site, I had to stop for at least five (non-synchronized) red lights that prolonged the trip.
The worst traffic light was at the intersection of 23rd Street and Route 1 in Arlington, where it can take up to 3 to 4 minutes before the light turns green with all the adjoining city streets and service roads at this juncture. I know traffic officials say Route 1 at that light will be fixed to make driving through the intersection easier, but they’ve been saying that for years. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Another issue on my inspection tour was watching all the airplanes descend into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is practically in the flight path of the arena.
You have to wonder whether, on game nights, the bright lights from the arena might cause airline pilots to fly blind into their approach. Or how it might affect pilots using instrument controls. I wouldn’t want to be on a plane flying into National when the Wizards or Caps are playing.
I also ask how residents living in the Del Rey community next door to Potomac Yard would be affected by sports fans and other visitors trying to find a parking space there to avoid paying for garage parking underneath the new arena.
After finishing my inspection, I returned to PetSmart hopefully smarter about the issues regarding Potomac Yard. I wasn’t buying that leash at PetSmart for any dog – I don’t own one, even if I do like dogs. I was buying it on the recommendation of my physical therapist, who says I could use it for stretching exercises for relieving pain in my lower body.
Talking about PetSmart leads me to say I do now have a dog in this fight, in the figurative sense, and that it’s barking loud and clear. Its warning: Please cancel the plan for a new sports arena and megaplex that might result in the surrounding Potomac Yard neighborhood, metaphorically speaking, going to the dogs.
Eric Green, Arlington
