Author: ARLnow.com

Launched in January 2010, ARLnow.com is the place for the latest news, views and things to do around Arlington, Virginia. Started by a Pentagon City resident who has spent the past several years working in local TV news, ARLnow.com seeks to distinguish itself with original, enterprising, up-to-the-minute local coverage.

ARLnow Weekend Discussion

By ARLnow.com

A busy news week, with a pair of County Board meetings to report on, is set to give way to a busy news weekend, with a snowstorm bearing down on the D.C. region.

As we await the storm, here are the most-read Arlington articles of the week:

  1. Here’s a Look at the Proposed Redevelopment that Would Replace Silver Diner in Clarendon
  2. Large Power Outage Reported in Arlington
  3. Police Release Surveillance Video of ‘Person of Interest’ in Ballston Murder
  4. Arlington County Adjusts to ‘Chaos’ of Vaccine Rollout
  5. Photos: Alpine Restaurant Being Torn Down on Lee Highway
  6. Coronavirus Cases Continue to Dip in Arlington, Amid Vaccine ‘Chaos’
  7. WeWork in Crystal City to Close
  8. Arlington Historical Society Fights to Save Dominion Hills Mansion from Demolition
  9. Here Are Some of the Common Items You Actually Can’t Recycle in Arlington
  10. Eight More Arlington Streets to Get an Additional $200 Speeding Fine

Feel free to discuss those or anything else of local interest in the comments. Stay warm!

Arlington Reports 200th Coronavirus Death

By ARLnow.com

Two hundred people have died from COVID-19 in Arlington, according to the latest figures from the Virginia Dept. of Health.

One new fatality was reported today. Four have been reported over the past week. In all, 725 people have been hospitalized in Arlington as a result of a COVID-19 infection, according to VDH, out of 11,555 total confirmed cases.

The seven-day trailing average of cases has been rising this week, after hitting a one-month low of just over 67 cases per day on Sunday. The trailing average current stands at 78 daily cases.

Older residents and people of color have been overrepresented among the coronavirus deaths in Arlington. A demographic analysis of VDH data is below.

  • Black: 21% of deaths, 9.6% of population
  • Latino: 18% of deaths, 15.1% of population
  • Asian: 10.5% of deaths, 9.6% of population
  • White: 46.5% of deaths, 64% of population

Three percent of deaths were among those of two or more races, or unknown race. Despite the grim milestone, the 200 reported coronavirus deaths represent less than 0.1% of the county’s population.

No deaths have been reported among Arlington residents under the age of 40. The ages of those who have died are below.

  • 40-49: 5% of deaths
  • 50-59: 5% of deaths
  • 60-69: 13% of deaths
  • 70-79: 26% of deaths
  • 80+: 52% of deaths

An additional 812 vaccine doses were reported as administered today, according to VDH, with 1,602 people now listed as fully vaccinated with two doses.

Arlington County officials have been urging state and federal authorities to speed up the distribution of additional doses, asserting that the county is prepared to administer up to 2,000 vaccine doses per day.

Image via VDH

National Landing, Ballston to Get New Streetlight Banners

By ARLnow.com
1/4

New signage is coming to National Landing and Ballston.

The business improvements districts that serve as boosters for the areas are planning to put hundreds of new banners on light poles. The County Board approved the use of such non-commercial signs in the public right-of-way at its meeting last weekend.

The National Landing signs will differentiate the BID’s three distinct neighborhoods — Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard — while highlighting the National Landing branding.

The Ballston BID banners, in the neighborhood’s orange, white and black colors, will include slogans like “Skill Full,” Taste Full,” “Power Full” and “Event Full.”

Photos via Arlington County

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Major Snow Storm Approaching — “At the low end, about 1 to 3 inches or so would fall on Sunday before precipitation changes to a light mix or even plain rain late Sunday into Monday. At the high end, at least 6 to 12 inches would accumulate, beginning Sunday and lasting into Monday night or Tuesday, perhaps mixed with sleet at times.” [Capital Weather Gang, Twitter]

Arlington GOP Eyes Comeback — “It took the election of Donald Trump in 2016 to re-energize and motivate Arlington’s dominant, but at that point somewhat moribund, Democrats. And the election result of 2020 may have had the same caffeinating impact on the Arlington County Republican Committee. ‘I’m super-pumped… by the number [of attendees] and the level of enthusiasm,’ party communications director Matthew Hurtt said at the Jan. 27 committee meeting, which attracted a crowd of about 80 to Zoom.” [InsideNova]

Bigger Comcast Bills Surprise Customers — “Dozens of Comcast Cable Communications customers in Maryland and Northern Virginia have been reaching out to FOX 5 saying, they’re concerned about their internet and WiFi bills going up as a result of hitting the new 1.2 terabyte data threshold.” [Fox 5]

Swooning Over a Woonerf — From WalkArlington: “While still early, we were excited by the idea of a woonerf in Arlington! Woonerf (pronounced VONE-erf) is a Dutch term that means ‘streets for living.’ It describes ‘common space created to be shared by pedestrians, bicyclists & low-speed motor vehicles.'” [Twitter]

Rosslyn CaBi Station Relocated — From Capital Bikeshare: “The 11-dock station at Quinn St & Key Blvd has been moved to Wilson & Quinn Blvd today. Happy riding!” [Twitter]

ARLnow’s 11th Anniversary — ARLnow started publishing 11 years ago today, just before a snowstorm. One year ago, we celebrated the anniversary with a big in-person event.

Residence Inn on Amazon’s Future HQ2 Site Is Being Torn Down

By ARLnow.com
1/5

The former Residence Inn hotel in Pentagon City is being deconstructed.

While the demolition is not as dramatic as that of the Holiday Inn implosion in Rosslyn, it will similarly make a mark on a portion of the county’s skyline.

The demolition is taking place after the hotel, located at the corner of Army Navy Drive and S. Fern Street, was purchased by Amazon for nearly $150 million in September.

The tech giant plans to use the property to expand the second phase of its second headquarters campus. The first HQ2 phase is currently under construction, with an anticipated opening in 2023, while the county approval process for the second phase is expected to start later this year.

A company representative tells ARLnow that demolition of the hotel is scheduled to wrap up this summer. The extra space will be used for extra amenities for Amazon employees and local residents, we’re told.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Cell Service Now Available in All Metro Tunnels — “The nation’s major wireless carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — and Metro today officially announced the final milestone, more than a decade in the making, to provide wireless service for those who use the Metrorail system… The latest activation brings the final three segments online between Dupont Circle in Downtown DC and White Flint in Maryland, the Yellow Line from L’Enfant Plaza to the Pentagon, and Silver Line in Tysons Corner.” [WMATA]

More on Amazon’s Affordable Housing Commitment — “‘The biggest housing challenge Arlington faces is preserving and building affordable housing, and Amazon is helping by creating a lot of affordable housing,’ said Matt de Ferranti, Arlington County Board chair via email. ‘Our budget is hurting as we feel the pandemic economically, but our housing prices for homes and condos and any place to live in the area is still increasing as people think we are a good long term place to live in part due to Amazon. We need the housing right now to avoid displacement.'” [GGWash]

Arlington Scores Well for Fiscal Health — “A new report on the financial condition of the 75 most populous cities ranked Arlington no. 16 in the nation for fiscal health. The report is based on the cities’ 2019 comprehensive annual financial reports, which are not analyzed on this scale by any other organization.” [Patch]

New Book Set in Arlington — There’s a new book, set in Arlington during the COVID era, that “tells the story of a sportswriter and baseball pitcher who decide to enjoy a one-night stand, only to discover that their relationship is something more.” [Mindy Klasky]

Inside Virginia’s Vaccine Struggles — “The state is now apportioning vaccines to local health districts based on their share of the state’s population. Previously, allocations were based on district requests, which often depended on demand and how many doses local health departments thought they’d be able to administer.” [Virginia Mercury]

Nearby: Transportation Changes for Seven Corners — “The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) will hold two ‘virtual’ meetings next month to seek public input on planned transportation improvements at the Seven Corners interchange and nearby roads.” [InsideNova]

BREAKING: Large Power Outage Reported in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

A widespread power outage is currently affecting parts of Arlington.

More than 3,500 Dominion customers were without power in the county as of 9:30 p.m. Affected neighborhoods include Ballston, Bluemont, Buckingham, Ashton Heights and Lyon Park, according to the power company’s outage map.

Residents near those neighborhoods might have seen their power flicker around 9 p.m.

The outage happened after a driver in a Toyota Prius slammed into a utility pole in the Buckingham area. On social media, the Arlington County Fire Department said it is “unknown” when power will be restored.

Update at 10:15 p.m. — Power has been restored to most customers, but about 500 in the Buckingham area, near the crash, remain in the dark.

Photos: Alpine Restaurant Being Torn Down on Lee Highway

By ARLnow.com
1/4

The day has arrived: the former Alpine Restaurant is currently being demolished along Lee Highway.

The long-time local restaurant at 4770 Lee Highway is being torn down to make way for The Children’s School, a three-story daycare facility for the kids of Arlington Public Schools employees. The facility will also be home to Integration Station, a program for kids with developmental or other disabilities that intermingles with The Children’s School.

The new building is expected to house more than 200 children and will have both underground parking and a small amount of surface parking.

Alpine Restaurant served Italian cuisine and was in business for 44 years before closing in 2010 upon the owner’s retirement. It was acquired by the owners of the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, which ultimately decided against opening a new restaurant there.

Hat tip to Betsy Twigg

Here Are Some of the Common Items You Actually Can’t Recycle in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 10:50 p.m.) Arlington County is trying to make its recycling service more efficient, and that means keeping items that don’t get recycled out of the stream.

In a pamphlet that’s being left for those served by the county’s waste collection contractor — mostly those in single-family homes — residents are urged to avoid putting “contaminants” in the blue recycling cart, even if they have a recycling logo.

What can be recycled can be simplified down to: (1) uncontaminated paper products, and (2) plastic and metal containers enclosed by bottle caps, lids or tabs.

A number of common materials are not usable by the company that processes Arlington’s recycling, and clutter the recycling stream before ultimately going to a landfill. According to pamphlet and other county guidance, those include:

  • Glass
  • Paper towels and greasy pizza boxes
  • Plastic bags including garbage bags (recyclables should be placed directly in the cart)
  • Plastic and padded envelopes, including those used by Amazon
  • To-go paper coffee cups, including Starbuck cups
  • Wrappers and single-use plastics like coffee lids, Solo cups and small yogurt containers
  • Foam containers and packing materials
  • Pots and pans

According to the pamphlet, the vast majority of what is recycled in Arlington — about 75% of material collected — is paper and cardboard. Metal items make up 5% and recyclable plastics are about 7%. The rest, as determined by a waste stream sort in the last quarter of 2020, is glass and other non-recyclable material.

Non-recyclable material in the recycling stream reduces the revenue the county receives from its recycling processor per ton of collected material, resulting in higher waste collection fees for residents, the pamphlet says. This spring the processor will examine a sample of the materials coming from Arlington to determine the rate the county will receive going forward.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Still No Back to School Date Set — From Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Durán: “Return dates for additional student groups have not been set yet… I am committed to making these transitions as soon as it is safe enough to do so — looking not only at the health metrics, but all available information regarding health and safety, mitigation, instruction and operations — knowing that there are risks in every scenario.” [Arlington Public Schools]

N. Va. Leaders Call for Vaccine Changes — “A coalition of local governments in Northern Virginia is calling on Gov. Ralph Northam to streamline the release of COVID-19 vaccine doses and provide more transparency and equity into the process. The letter signed by 14 local government leaders was sent by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission to Northam on Sunday.” [InsideNova, Twitter]

More Buzz for Local Fried Chicken Sandwich — “A local chef is getting a lot of attention for his fried chicken sandwich… Rock Harper is the owner and chef of Queen Mother’s restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. ‘To fry chicken better than me you gotta be a woman, at least 67, and have a lace apron, if you don’t at least meet that criteria you can’t deal with me,’ Harper says.” [WJLA]

Car Flips on GW Parkway — From Tuesday afternoon: “ACFD is on scene with a crash involving an overturned vehicle on the northbound GW Parkway near Key Bridge. An additional ambulance has been requested to the scene.” [Twitter]

New Arlington Police Recruit Class — “ACPD’s 23 recruit officers in Session 144 at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy started their journey to become police officers today with the commencement of classes. Best of luck Session 144!” [Twitter]

Preservation of Rouse Estate Still a Long Shot — “Even if Arlington government leaders get behind the effort – and that remains a big ‘if’ – efforts by preservationists to save the Rouse estate on Wilson Boulevard from the wrecking ball may simply run out of time. ‘What you have going on is a race,’ County Attorney Stephen MacIsaac told County Board members on Jan. 23, a race between owners of the estate demanding the county government approve a demolition permit on the one hand, and preservationists seeking to have the site designated a local historic district on the other.” [InsideNova]

JUST IN: Internet Outages Affecting Arlington Public Schools

By ARLnow.com

A widespread East Coast internet outage may cause delays for teachers and students accessing Arlington Public Schools systems during remote learning.

“Some users may be experiencing issues with their internet, or applications such as Canvas, Google Classroom or Teams,” APS spokesman Frank Bellavia tells ARLnow.

In an email to families, the school system said that those accessing services through MyAccess@APS may experience delays, but those delays will vary by user.

A reported fiber optic cable cut in Brooklyn is at least one factor causing internet-related problems up and down the East Coast today.

“It’s not clear if that issue is responsible for the entire outage,” the Associated Press reported. “The internet service provider didn’t have any estimate when the problem spot would be fixed.”

“The outage is affecting major internet and cloud providers as well as major sites such as Google and Facebook,” the AP added.

More from Arlington Public Schools:

The Department of Information Services is sending the message to families to notify you that we have become aware of an Internet outage that is affecting most major Internet providers on the east coast because of a fiber cut in New York. This outage is affecting Verizon, Comcast and others that provide Internet service to staff and students in our area.

This outage may cause delays in applications and services accessed via MyAccess@APS and will be different for each user.

We will continue to monitor the outage and notify you with any pertinent information that becomes available.

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