En español

 Good morning everyone, once again it is great to see you all. Thank you for coming out and supporting us this morning. I wish each of you a Happy New Year. Let us hope that 2007 will be a year full of cheer, harmony and health.

Muy buenos días, que gran gusto es verlos a todos. Gracias por apoyarnos esta mañana. Quiero desearles un Feliz Año Nuevo y ojala que el 2007 sea lleno de alegría, salud, y armonía.

Congratulations, Mr. Ferguson, on being elected County Board Chairman for 2007. I look forward to doing everything I can to help you realize your challenging vision for improving our environment. Arlington will benefit greatly once again from your commitment and dedication this year.

I also want to thank Chris Zimmerman for his solid leadership as Chairman during 2006. Your work, Mr. Zimmerman, has enhanced our community.

And of course I also look forward to continuing to work with my other colleagues, Ms. Barbara Favola and Mr. Jay Fisette, in the coming year.

I thank all my colleagues for electing me Vice Chairman. Indeed, it is a great honor and I appreciate your trust.

Now I would like to share my priorities for 2007.

As a Member of the Arlington County Board, I enjoy working to build a caring, inclusive community, to strive for social justice, and to build bridges connecting our diverse residents. A caring community is also a healthy community, and this year I will focus on three areas critical to our health.

The first promotes a healthy environment: an initiative to improve recycling opportunities for our local businesses.

The second promotes a healthy lifestyle: an initiative called FitArlington, promoting a culture of fitness.

The third promotes healthy civic participation: initiatives to better capitalize on our multicultural diversity and to help our immigrant residents integrate into our society.

Environmental Health: Small Business Recycling
To begin, a caring community promotes a healthy environment. As we work in line with Chairman Ferguson’s vision to make Arlington a model of environmental sustainability, we need the support of all segments of our community. Arlington businesses and multi-family properties generate 70-75% of our total waste stream. This sector represents the greatest opportunity to help reduce waste and recycle more. Arlingtonians are already familiar with home recycling. It is time to encourage our small businesses to do the same.

Small businesses form the heart of our community, and should be part of the recycling effort, but often lack the resources to participate. Fortunately, there are some small businesses already implementing successful recycling programs that others can emulate. Take the Potbelly Sandwich Works located in Willburn Square in Ballston. They have taken the simple but effective step of providing a small waste bin with special holes for glass bottles and cans, and participate in the recycling program of their building. We can encourage other small eateries to do the same.

This year I will launch efforts to work with small businesses to explore recycling options tailored to fit their needs and easy to implement.

Physical and Mental Health: Fit Arlington
Secondly, a caring community promotes a healthy lifestyle. Let’s all imagine for a moment a community in which children, their families and neighbors take time out to play, bike, or walk together through the parks and on playing fields. Imagine a community that cares to ensure elders, persons with physical and developmental disabilities, and young people have plenty of opportunities to engage in healthy and fun exercise. Imagine a community in which being healthy and fit is good business, where workplaces allow time for employees to exercise, jog and play a pickup game, where employees and families are recognized for getting and staying healthy.

I will lead the way to accomplish this vision of a healthy, fit community. This year we will be promoting a culture of fitness. To do otherwise invites costly consequences:

• America is suffering from an obesity epidemic, and it is getting worse
• 66% of Americans are overweight and 32% are obese
• In the past two decades, the number of overweight children nationwide has nearly doubled
• Chronic diseases such as hypertension and Type 2 diabetes are now showing up in overweight children as young as 8 years old
• Physically inactive people are twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. for African Americans, Latinos, whites, and American Indians

To combat this reality and promote a culture of healthy living in Arlington, I am spearheading an initiative called FitArlington. With community input through our FitArlington Cafes, we will create exciting, lively and innovative fitness activities for our community. Throughout the year, activities will be led by my colleagues, other community leaders, volunteers and county staff from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources, and others. In fact, FitArlington complements Governor Tim Kaine’s Healthy Virginians initiative, with similar goals. Of course, no county-wide fitness initiative can take place without the participation of our youth. Working together with Arlington Public Schools we will create activities suggested and led by young people.

And so my fellow Arlingtonians, let’s get ready to get in shape and have fun doing it in 2007 and beyond!

Civic Health: Multicultural Initiative
Civic health will be another area of focus for me this coming year. A caring community promotes civic health by valuing its multicultural richness and encouraging the civic participation of its diverse residents. Arlington has historically been a welcoming community. From housing Pentagon workers in the 1940s, to integrating our public schools in the 50s, to welcoming Southeast Asian refugees in the 70s, to East Africans, Central and South

Americans fleeing turmoil in the 80s and 90s, to the influx of young professionals today, we have led the way in accepting and valuing diversity.

To appreciate this diversity, we need only look around during important events in our community, such as Neighborhood Day and the County Fair. We are fortunate to reside within such multicultural richness, where about 43% of our residents are African-American, Latino, Asian or multi-racial. Our Arlington vision states that we are a “diverse and inclusive” community “in which each person is important.”

Yet, can we make our community even more inclusive? I think the answer is yes, and this year I will work closely with the county’s Multicultural Advisory Commission to devise strategies for increasing participation in county activities. Working together with the Commission, community organizations, community leaders, staff and volunteers, we will seek to create vehicles for meaningful interaction and connection among groups. We will also seek to promote a level of civic participation that will be more reflective of Arlington’s diverse population.

In addition, I am initiating a creative approach to assist our immigrant residents to integrate into our society. We will organize two citizenship workshops where immigrants who are permanent residents and who qualify to apply for citizenship will be assisted in completing their citizenship application. These efforts will help expedite their integration into our community. Working with volunteer immigration experts, community organizations, and anyone else who wants to help, we will assist our immigrant neighbors in becoming American citizens. In doing so, we will set the stage for including even more of our residents as part of “the Arlington Way.”

Unlike other jurisdictions that seek to exclude immigrants from their community, we in Arlington will proudly continue to uphold a tradition of welcoming and incorporating our hardworking neighbors into this community. That vision makes us an even better Arlington.

Finally, I will continue my relentless efforts to secure affordable housing—an enormous challenge. I will continue previous initiatives promoting the civic participation of young adults through our successful Community Role Models Program, and preventing youngsters from joining gangs by fully implementing our new program, “Attention to Prevention.” I also look forward to launching our new Non-Profit Center early this year. And of course, all of my efforts will continue to be guided by responsible fiscal decisions.

As we start a new year, I look forward to working with my colleagues and to assisting Chairman Ferguson achieve his vision for a healthier environment.

As we start a new year, I will continue to work towards building a caring, inclusive community, striving for social justice, and building bridges among our diverse residents; in short, creating a healthy community for all of Arlington.

Happy New Year! Feliz Año Nuevo!

Thank you very much. Muchísimas gracias!