BC7RC relaunched as the Crossroads & Corners Coalition
The Bailey’s Crossroads/Seven Corners Revitalization Corporation has a new name: It’s now the Crossroads & Corners Coalition (C3).
The group plans to roll out a new logo and website within the next couple of weeks, says C3 President Mike Van Atta.
“The old name was cumbersome,” Van Atta says. “It was a mouthful; people couldn’t get it right.”
The group was planning to update the website as part of a rebranding exercise to increase community engagement, so this was a good opportunity for changing the name, he says.
The nonprofit C3 is an alliance of residents, businesses, and community organizations interested in revitalizing Bailey’s Crossroads and Seven Corners by promoting economic development, community resilience, and neighborhood improvements.
As stated on the BC7RC website, “Together, we seek to reinforce Bailey’s Crossroads and Seven Corners as an eclectic and authentic community bound together by innovation, entrepreneurship, and opportunity for all.”
By rebranding the organization as a coalition, “it’s a little more inclusive,” Van Atta says. “We are a business community, but we also serve many residents and we have increased our relationships with local nonprofits.”
C3 is currently focused on how to better market the community and how to support Bailey’s Crossroads and Seven Corners as the cultural hub of Fairfax County, which is one of the goals of Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez.
In one effort underway, C3 is working with county staff on developing new gateway signage.
Another project in the works is a Bailey’s Crossroads/Seven Corners restaurant week, potentially slated for late summer 2024.
Related story: Economic pilot program can spur revitalization of Bailey’s Crossroads
To improve placemaking, Van Atta would like to establish small “parklets” on excess pavement in shopping center parking lots.
C3 is also looking into ways to promote retail retention and marketing and plans to work with the Department of Code Compliance to address the vacant commercial spaces.
Van Atta anticipates the promise of a new bus rapid transit line along Leesburg Pike, which will eventually extend from Tysons to the Mark Center in Alexandria, will spur redevelopment.
All residents and business owners are invited to C3 meetings. The next one – April 25 at 7 p.m. – will feature a presentation on Alta Crossroads, the apartment building under construction on Columbia Pike at Moncure Avenue. The meeting will be virtual; access details will be available soon.
C3 is hosting a roadside cleanup on April 27, 8:30-10 a.m., in Seven Corners as part of VDOT’s Adopt-a-Highway program. If you would like to volunteer, contact [email protected].
The organization is participating in Culmore Community Day on May 4, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., at Woodrow Wilson Library, and is joining forces with other community partners on Bailey’s Beautification Day on May 18.
Related story: Supervisor Jimenez wants to make Mason District a cultural hub
“During the past year, we’ve had lots of in-depth conversations with Fairfax County leadership on ways to enhance revitalization areas,” Van Atta says. “Bailey’s Crossroads could be a good poster child as the incubator of those ideas.”
“Those discussion have been extremely productive. The Board of Supervisors and county executive are taking this very seriously,” he says.
“We want to maintain the community’s vibrancy and diversity,” Van Atta says. “We want to see crime go down, more pedestrian improvements, and more investment in the area.”
More inclusive, or less crime? Pick one. Anything and everything associated with inclusivity has spiked crime, and these businessmen know it.
Enforcing codes and laws will decrease inclusivity. It is not the middle age home owner with the nice family who is speeding up and down highway 7, selling drugs, gang banging, living in section 8 housing, shoplifting, stealing cars, running flophouses with generations of people living there, pulling atms out of 7-11s with trucks and chains, raping women on John Marr Drive and in parks, shooting up the mall, throwing corona bottles and swisher sweet packages on my lawn.
If you want community support from 90% of the tax base, speak plainly and truthfully.
Sigh…
I just googled “how to be a more inclusive person?” and you are absolutely right, every single hit was about how to spike crime and create rapists from things like “think about how you communicate.” Hooo boy if doing that doesn’t immediately result in folks selling drugs, I don’t know what will! There was also this garbage, “explore your own beliefs.” As a test case, I started talking to one of my friends about how my own experiences growing up with a college education really was quite an advantage. He responded by stealing a car and promptly went off to a gang bang. I’m with you man, anything and everything associated with inclusivity is just a direct result in more crime.
Nah, most of us aren’t horrible racists spewing hate and misinformation hiding behind a keyboard. Also, please clean up your yard. Some of us like living here. Thanks!
Where does Mr. Cross say anything racist? It seems your assumptions are racist!
Seems pretty obvious where he’s being racist, maybe you’re just dense…
What an ignorant comment. I’m rooting for your imagined hellscape to drive people like you out of Fairfax County.
Hit the bricks already. Fairfax will never go back to what you clearly want it to be. Moving forward, we are gonna be overrun by the others you hate so much, you should just bite the bullet and go. I’d suggest Winchester, but they are getting to have some of those undesirables too. Maybe another hour down I-81?
I really hope C3 is able to kick things into high gear and make an impact to this area. I’m hopeful change will come slowly but surely.
Mike Van Atta grew up in this area, holds a degree that fits well with improving this area’s Community/Quality of Life elements and IMO has a keen sense of how C3 can deliver best bang for the County buck. While many area residents may shout out “Do Something!!” at the FFX BoS…here’s a resident leader with a drive to do something WITH the FFX BoS.
Can anything top the ugliness of Alta Crossing? A big box store with windows. Once a developer adios a plan to build they seem to find the ugliest plan they can. Added to the ugliness the 50’ utility poles erected by VA Power. Why? Go across the FFC Arlington count boundary and what do you see Buried utilities. Landscaping. Street scaping. Millions being spent on beautifying Columbia pike from the Pentagon to the above mentioned border. Where does Arlington get the money?
Alta Crossing is better than what was there though.