U r b a n T r e k k e r

GreenIt Workshop

Arlington County's Department of Environmental Services is hosting a series of free workshops in the Spring to help you make environmentally-friendly choices for home, office and community.

Check this out. 

Download Calendar GreenIt Arlington

 

Online Fine Properties Fair Oct. 18-19

Shopping for your next second-home property? Here's an idea for you. The Economist's Online Fairs business just annouced that they will host an online event that showcase listings that represents a unique collection of the world's most exclusive properties. You can check these properties out from the comfort of your home. How cool is that?

From ski homes, to golf estates to urban luxury living, the Fine Properties Fair offers attendees access to important information about global vacation second-homes in top locations like the Carribean, Florida, Central America, Europe, Australia, Canada, and more. In addition to browsing real estate listings, visitors can also meet online with real estate experts participating in the event. Visitors can join webminars focused on trends on international real estate investment.

If you haven't attended virtual event, think of it like going to an exhibition except instead of real booths you have virtual booths, where you can participate in whatever activities they have on there.

Realtors can benefit from this kind of luxury properties Fair. Who knows your client is interested in buying their second, third homes - internationally?

"Purchasing high-end real estate is never an easy decision," said Isaac Showman, Vice-President and head of Online Fairs. "The Fine Properties Fair provides all of the information potential buyers might need to make an informed decision and does so in just one place."

Fine Properties Fair is going to be held on October 18-19.

Check it out. You can log in from anywhere in the world and register for FREE at Fine Properties Fair.

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Disclosure: Urban Trekker is partipating in the information network.

Streets of Arlington: Clarendon

When you have a camera and wandering around the neighborhood, this is what you get. Pictures of streets in Clarendon.

This BMW Comes with the House

By: Jeff Leighton

 

Here's your opportunity! The most recent renovation done by Fine Metro Homes is a massive 3 level almost 3000 square foot Wardman style row house that is priced under $500k. And a 2011 BMW 328i 2 year lease is included for an acceptable contract. 

The house has undergone substantial renovations to make the interior space more open as well as installing a new kitchen and bathrooms.  The living room alone is large enough to test drive your new BMW and the basement was even finished to provide another living area with a full bathroom and walkout.  

This property is located within a mile of 2 metro stops from Brookland-CUA and Rhode Island Ave- Brentwood.  It also includes a parking space in the back of the house as well as street parking.  

Walk score: 69.

Listing information

MRIS: DC7614426

17 Evarts St. NE, Washington DC

Price: $459,000

5BR, 3.5Ba, 3 levels

See the full gallery on Posterous

You can find more details on the property, here.

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Fine Metro Homes is a residential and commercial investment company founded by David Maier and Jeff Leighton who specialize in rehabbing DC area properties and acquiring commercial buildings. Please visit our website at www.finemetrohomes.com and drop us a line.

Posted via email from urbantrekker's streaming

Urban (City) vs. Suburban Living (in Pictures)

Images speak louder than words. Here are some pictures I took recently in DC and Arlington East Falls Church neighborhood. You can see the striking difference between urban (city) living and living in the DC suburb like Arlington. I took the pictures of the streets in Arlington's East Falls Church and Dupont Circle at the same day. 

At EFC streets, you don't see that many people as on the streets of Northwest DC in downtown, Dupont Circle and George Washington University. Living in the city have its advantage: people, walkability to stores, easy access to public transportation, etc. In the suburb of DC like Arlington, unless you're really close to the center of - along orange line metro in Arlington - there's practically not much going on around your neighborhood. People seldom walk. Walk means exercise. Other than that, they drive. (I'm guilty of it, too). 

What do we have here in our hood? The closest stores we have around our neighborhood in North Arlington (a mile from EFC metro), is CVS, 7/11, a Chinese restaurant, a deli and a few other mom and pop stores.. that offer basic services.

That's the suburb for you.

A side note: the pictures you see below are mixed with some old pictures I've taken from around Rosslyn neighborhood in Arlington. I have taken like thousands of neighborhoods pictures in Northern Virginia and Washington DC, but just haven't had the chance to upload them. I'll add more sets when I have time. 

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Energy Plan for Arlington County Community

This post has been entered into tcktcktck's (a coalition of 300 NGO's working towards real progress in climate change) contest: send a blogger to cover Rio+20 Earth Summit to join the tcktcktck's team. For me, covering the Summit and become part of the movement - is a dream! Please head off to tcktcktck's Facebook page and "like" this post there. Thank you - Dewita

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I attended a townhall meeting last Saturday in the county where I live, Arlington county, Virginia. For those not familiar where it is, Arlington it's a throw stone from Washington DC. We're just across the Potomac river. 

Jay Fisette, Chairman of Arlington County Board hosted the first ever townhall meeting for community energy plan. "No communities that I know of - virtually none - have created a community energy plan, and this is now coming into the forefront," says Jay. 

Arlington county definitely has a competitive advantage. Unlike other counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the county started early in the game (30 years ago) with its smart growth that links transportation with land use planning. 

To kick off the community energy plan, the county has created a task force made up of its stakeholders, from utilities, property owners, citizens, to conservationistas. The purpose of this task force, Jay said is, "to draft and recommend to the county board a community energy plan that will reshape where we get our energy from, whether it's from cogeneration, renewable energy, energy efficiency, that will ultimately reduce our energy use and make ourselves more sustainable and help the environment."

The community energy plan is a holistic approach that can paved the way for the county's transformation to move away from a fossil-fuel economy towards a clean energy economy. The idea is to look into how energy is being used - from neighborhood to neighborhood - then comparing scenarios between business as usual with efficiency.

Energy use in the county is divided into heating, cooling, lighting and other type. The types of buildings stock for the county includes hotels, offices, retails, homes (condominium, single family, townhouse) and other. For that, the county has identified its biggest energy sucker: the big buildings. That's why, they have property owners, landlords sit on the task force. For the county to move on with their plan, they need everybody's buy-in (which is a smart strategy).

 

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image: citizens discussing the plan at the meeting.
 

The primary driver for this community energy plan is to make Arlington competitive. 

This image below shows the baseline of county's energy use. You'll see here how countywide, big buildings consumed 45% of its energy use vs. residential 23% and transportation 28%.  So if energy use can be efficient, just by reducing the use from this sector alone, the move could save businesses' money that in return would be good for bottom line.

Furthermore, more than half (56%) of its energy comes from electricity (coal-fired plants). Knock this off (or reduce it), will make the air cleaner.

   

After the preliminary presentation, we then break up into groups. Listening to inputs from the residents, one of the things mentioned was the language in condominium document that couldn't make assessment when they tried to something for newer more efficient, that the language of the doc says ".. improvement has to be in-kind." It has something to do with Virginia Condominium Act. It is a universal language, at this moment. Only Virginia assembly can change this. 

What do I say, this is just the beginning. We obviously have some work to do. This will be a work-in-progress. However, I applaud the county board, for leading the change.

Making the case

While at the meeting, I caught up with Jay about Arlington's energy plan. Listen to what he has to say about the plan..

 

 

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Are We There Yet? DC's Transportation Blueprint

This show is part of PBS' Blueprint America series about U.S. infrastructure, where Kojo Nnamdi hosts a panel of transportation experts to talk about the metro Washington DC transportation blueprint and where's taking us. The first 5 minutes or so is the most important part of the whole discussions. It lays out all kinds of transportation projects each jurisdiction - District of Columbia, Maryland, Baltimore, and Virginia - are working on. (yours truly was among the audience.)

“Its not about getting people from point A to point B, but more about building better communities,” said Robert Thomson aka “Dr. Gridlock” of The Washington Post, one of three guests panelists along with Ron Kirby, Director of Transportation for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; and Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Greater Washington Research at the Brookings Institute. [via Blueprint America]

Building better communities, that's the challenges we have...

Are We There Yet? D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

Are We There Yet, D.C.'s Transportation Blueprint (2) from WHUT-TV on Vimeo.

Green Bicycle Lanes in Copenhagen

I was at a meeting yesterday, when one of the presenters speak so highly about Copenhagen clean energy economy, this and that. So, it prompted me to explore more what else does the Danes have? Something that we can learn from them in addition to their clean energy economy. The answer is: their life style. For example, biking.

"Cycling, is like brushing your teeth," they say. Because they just don't think about it. It's part of their daily life. About 37% of its residents bike to work, school or university. What's good about the traffic system, is this.

Cyclists have priority over cars and pedestrians at many major junctions and traffic lights.

Maybe this is why Copenhagen is voted as the world's best bike city.

Arlington Community Energy Plan

Image via Wikipedia

Arlington is leading the way to progressive change in community energy plan. This is probably the first community energy plan in Virginia aimed to get everyone from the community to participate in setting the direction for the future of the county's energy use.

The community energy plan is part of the initiative from Energy Planning and Management. 

Arlington County is embarking on a community energy planning process to address the  burdens and opportunities of energy supply, delivery, and use in our community.  Energy planning and management is needed to minimize the economic costs and environmental harm from energy use.  Smart energy planning can produce opportunities for economic growth and sustainability.

The process of developing the Community Energy Plan is divided into two elements:

1. Community dialogue, where Arlington will host 2 community town hall meetings in 2010 and want participation from the community to share their thoughts on energy challenges and opportunities for the community.
2. Community Sustainability Task Force. This is where County Board Chairman, Jay Fisette, convened a group of local energy and business leaders to form this task force.

Got voice? 

Come to their energy townhall meeting, which is going to be held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 2-5pm at Washington Lee High School Commons Room, 1301 N. Stafford Road, Arlington, VA 22201. The info for the invite to the townhall meeting is here.

Going Green? Here are the 10 Tax Breaks for 2010

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Looking to fix up your house? Here are the 10 tax breaks for going green, via Forbes.

1. If you fix up your house. $1,500 off your tax bill - a 30% credit for the first $5,000 you spend in 2009 or 2010 for improvements to your house energy efficiency. (for further reading: Energy Efficiency Home and Vehicle Tax Credits)
2. Buy a new refrigerator. States are rolling out $300 million worth of rebates for home owners who replaced their clunker apps with new energy-efficient models. (check out Department of Energy approved Energy Efficiency Rebates)
3. Get hot water from the sun. Solar hot water system to heat your shower or radiators (not hot tub or pool) qualify for a 30% federal credit with no dollar cap. 
4. Install a solar energy system. Uncle Sam will give you a tax credit equal to 30% of the price of a solar system you install to generate electricity in your home. For a $60,000 system, that's a whopping $18,000 off your taxes.
5. Take the bus. Bus, train, subway, and van-pool commuters can now get equal tax benefits with those who drive solo to work an pay to park. (up to pre-tax $230 for employers sponsor plans).
6. Buy a Ford hybrid. Taxpayers stuck paying the AMT can finally claim the credit for hybrid cars purchased in 2009 or 2010, but only if they buy Ford motor hybrids. (FYI: Honda and Toyota no longer qualify). Check out Alliance to Save Energy for Vehicle Tax Credits for more info.
7. Plug In a Chevy Volt... slated later for showrooms in November with projected price of $40,000, qualifies for federal tax credit of $7,500. Nissan Leaf coming out in December, should also qualify for the credit.
8. Bike to work. A new law lets your employer reimburse you $20 a month for bicyle commuting as tax-free fringe benefits. Can't take both with train, it's one of the other.
9. Dig for heat. Uncle Sam will give you a tax credit for 30% of the cost of geothermal heat pump system that feeds off the warmth in the ground to heat your home.
10. Put a windmill in your yard. A basic residential windmill runs $40,000, but you can get a federal tax credit equal to a full 30% of your windmill cost.

More on tax tips "How to Save Money on Going Green" and watch video on 'Tax Tips for 2010.'

For further reading you can check out few sites:

• Alliance to Save Energy: Energy Efficiency Home and Vehicle Tax Credits 
• Energy Savers Rebates, Tax Credits, Financing: Approved Energy Efficient Appliance Rebates
• Virginia Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program
• Maryland: Residential Incentives and FY 2010 Comprehensive Program Guide
• Green DC: Energy Star Appliance Rebates
• DSIRE: Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency

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