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.
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road (Photo courtesy @LAGATAF1NA/Twitter)
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road (Photo courtesy @LAGATAF1NA/Twitter)
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road
Crash at Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road
(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) Police and firefighters are on scene of a major crash at the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road.
The westbound lanes of Columbia Pike and at least one northbound lane of Glebe are blocked by the crash and the emergency activity. Drivers should expect significant evening rush hour traffic impacts in the area.
Initial reports suggest three vehicles were involved and at least two people were injured, one of whom suffered serious injuries and was rushed to a local trauma center.
The former Long and Foster offices in Fairlington may become a preschool.
The real estate company vacated the building at 4800 31st Street S. last year. Now, the Fairlington Villages condo association says the building’s owner has interest from a preschool operator to move in.
The association is holding a special Board of Directors meeting on Monday (June 17) at 7 p.m. to discuss the proposal.
The demand for childcare in Fairlington is high. An existing preschool a block away, the STEM Preschool at 3120 S. Abingdon Street, is planning a significant expansion.
There will be a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors on Monday, June 17, 2019 at 7:00 pm.
Realty Fair General Partnership will present its proposal to build a preschool in the building previously occupied by Long and Foster.
— Fairlington Villages (@NFairlington) June 13, 2019
Ribbon Cutting for Revamped Rosslyn Safeway — “Safeway will unveil renovations to its Rosslyn store at 1525 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, VA, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for 10 am on Friday, July 12.” [Press Release]
More on Real Estate Boom Forecast — “Real estate agents and local economists said inventories are so sparse that some popular Zip codes in Arlington and Alexandria show no homes for sale at all. They added that investors are pouring into the market, looking to turn homes into rental properties.” [Washington Post, InsideNova]
Acosta Signs Books in Clarendon — CNN correspondent Jim Acosta showed up to an sparsely-populated Barnes and Noble store in Clarendon for a “surprise signing” of his book “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America.” [Twitter]
Workers Vote for Strike at DCA — “On June 12, airline food workers who prepare, pack, and deliver food and beverages served onboard American Airlines flights departing from Reagan National Airport voted 100% to strike when released by the National Mediation Board.” [Press Release]
New Local Store at DCA — “The District of Columbia Department of Small & Local Business Development (DSLBD) and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) today celebrated the grand opening of the Made in DC retail pop-up at Reagan National Airport, providing a new national and international presence for local makers and small business owners.” [Press Release]
ARLnow’s Press Release Section — For the next week, we’re experimenting with posting press releases directly on a special section of our site. Let us know what you think. [ARLnow]
Parts of Arlington are under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning through 5:30 p.m. due to an incoming line of storms.
The storms may pack damaging wind gusts, according to forecasters.
More from the National Weather Service:
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
447 PM EDT THU JUN 13 2019
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR… SOUTH CENTRAL LOUDOUN COUNTY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… THE CITY OF FAIRFAX IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… WEST CENTRAL ARLINGTON COUNTY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… CENTRAL FAIRFAX COUNTY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… EAST CENTRAL FAUQUIER COUNTY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… THE CITY OF MANASSAS PARK IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… NORTHWESTERN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA… THE CITY OF MANASSAS IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA…
* UNTIL 530 PM EDT.
* AT 447 PM EDT, A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED OVER LINTON HALL, OR 10 MILES EAST OF WARRENTON, MOVING NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH.
HAZARD…60 MPH WIND GUSTS.
SOURCE…RADAR INDICATED.
IMPACT…DAMAGING WINDS WILL CAUSE SOME TREES AND LARGE BRANCHES TO FALL. THIS COULD INJURE THOSE OUTDOORS, AS WELL AS DAMAGE HOMES AND VEHICLES. ROADWAYS MAY BECOME BLOCKED BY DOWNED TREES. LOCALIZED POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE. UNSECURED LIGHT OBJECTS MAY BECOME PROJECTILES.
* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE… CENTREVILLE, RESTON, ANNANDALE, SOUTH RIDING, HERNDON, FAIRFAX, VIENNA, FALLS CHURCH, MANTUA, PIMMIT HILLS, BURKE, LINTON HALL, OAKTON, CHANTILLY, LINCOLNIA, TYSONS CORNER, WOLF TRAP, GREAT FALLS, MERRIFIELD AND BULL RUN.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
FOR YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A BUILDING.
Arlington County Police are looking for a man they say sexually assaulted a woman in Crystal City this morning.
The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, in a commercial building on the 1500 block of Jefferson Davis Highway, police said. A man followed a woman inside and elevator and “then inappropriately touched and sexually assaulted the victim before witnesses entered the area, causing the suspect to flee the scene on foot,” per a police press release.
Police are now looking for the suspect and asking for the public’s help in locating him. They released surveillance video of him in a nearby underground walkway (below).
WATCH: Video capturing the suspect. The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 6’0” tall with an athletic build. He was wearing a black shirt, dark pants, and sneakers at the time of the incident.https://t.co/yfbj4YcOaQ
The Arlington County Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is seeking the public’s assistance identifying and locating a suspect involved in the sexual assault of a female victim in the Crystal City neighborhood.
At approximately 8:39 a.m. on June 13, police were dispatched to the report of an assault. Upon arrival, it was determined that an unknown male suspect followed the female victim into a commercial building in the 1500 block of Jefferson Davis Highway. The suspect cornered the victim inside an open elevator, preventing her from leaving. The suspect then inappropriately touched and sexually assaulted the victim before witnesses entered the area, causing the suspect to flee the scene on foot.
The suspect, who was captured on surveillance video, is described as a black male, approximately 6’0″ tall with an athletic build. He was wearing a black shirt, dark pants, and sneakers at the time of the incident.
Anyone with information on the identity of this individual or details surrounding this incident is asked to contact Detective S. Gomez of the Arlington County Police Department’s Special Victims Unit at 703.228.4173 or at [email protected]. To report information anonymously, contact the Arlington County Crime Solvers at 866.411.TIPS (8477).
A man in a car exposed himself to girls who were walking down the street in the Lyon Park neighborhood, south of Clarendon.
The incident happened last Wednesday around 7 a.m.
More from an Arlington County Police Department crime report:
INDECENT EXPOSURE, 2019-06050059, 2800 block of 4th Street N. At approximately 7:01 a.m. on June 5, the juvenile female victims were walking in the area when an unknown male suspect pulled alongside them in a vehicle and exposed his genitals. The victims ran from the area and sought assistance. The suspect is described as a white male driving a black vehicle. The investigation is ongoing.
Other crime reports of note from the past week are below, after the jump.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was in Arlington last night, speaking at a private fundraiser.
The mayor of South Bend, Indiana fielded questions from donors in the backyard of a supporter’s home in the Waverly Hills neighborhood, near the Lee Heights Shopping Center.
We’re told Buttigieg confidently answered questions ranging from labor relations to how he would campaign against President Trump to “whether the American Dream was still alive.” Former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was also in attendance, we’re told.
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new pizza restaurant and beer hall is coming to Ballston next year, according to a set of mustachioed storefront wrappings.
Window dressing on 4001 Fairfax Drive Pizza announced that “Quincy Hall” is slated to open in the ground floor of the Quincy Street Station in early 2020. The pizza and beer joint is slated to open in the same space once occupied by Thai restaurant Tara Temple, which closed two years ago.
Tara Temple’s distinctive red metal awning still decorates the suite’s front doors, but the windows are now blocked with polka-dotted paper with the new eatery’s name and mustachioed characters.
Information on the new eatery is scarce. As of Wednesday, the website on the storefront wrapping was listed as a parked domain and did not contain any information except for an animated GIF of a sleepy kitten falling over.
The restaurant is slated to open next to the new Bright Horizons daycare, which is coming to the adjoining suite of the building that the County Board approved over some neighborhood objections in January. Bright Horizons plans to care for 145 children and build a 4,700-square-foot playground in the courtyard near the side entrance of Quincy Hall.
Local nightlife, fitness and tonsorial mogul Scott Parker, who is working to open a new German beer hall called Bronson nearby in the former A-Town space, said he welcomed the addition to the increasingly crowded Ballston nightlife and restaurant scene. More going-out options could help previously workaday Ballston establish itself as an after-hours destination like Clarendon, he said.
“That’s the hope, that the neighborhood will become such a draw that it will help everyone,” Parker told ARLnow, adding that he isn’t worried about the competition.
Parker said Quincy Hall was being opened by Tin Shop, the same company that’s behind Penn Social and the popular Franklin Hall beer hall in D.C., as well as Highline RxR in Crystal City, though thus far that could not be independently confirmed by ARLnow.
(Updated at 1:50 p.m.) Arlington County and Ft. Myer firefighters are on scene of a fire at the Courthouse Crossings condo complex in the Courthouse neighborhood.
Firefighters were dispatched to the condo building, at 1410 N. Scott Street, around 1:15 p.m. Initial reports suggest that a fire broke out in a resident’s kitchen but was extinguished by a sprinkler system before it could spread.
No injuries were reported.
Unattended cooking is the leading factor in home cooking fires. Always watch what you’re cooking and keep your stove top clear of combustible items. #FireSafety#cookingsafety
— Arlington Fire & EMS (@ArlingtonVaFD) June 12, 2019
Update at 2 p.m. — All lanes of Columbia Pike have reopened.
Earlier: Police and firefighters are on scene of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle on Columbia Pike.
The crash happened just before 9:30 a.m. at the intersection of the Pike and Four Mile Run Drive. The pedestrian was rushed to a local trauma center with critical injuries, said Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ben O’Bryant.
All westbound lanes of the Pike are closed in the area while police investigate the incident.
The striking vehicle and its driver remained on scene after the crash. Police could be seen using spray paint to mark the place where the SUV stopped, after striking the pedestrian.
Witnesses told ARLnow the pedestrian was struck from behind and the driver didn’t appear to slow down before the crash. They were not sure whether the traffic signal at the intersection was green at the time.
“I didn’t see her [the driver] decelerate until after the impact,” one witness said. “I couldn’t believe it. The right front of the tire was basically on [the pedestrian].”
Police said the victim is in surgery at a local hospital.
Police were dispatched to the scene at 9:27 A.M. The department’s Critical Accident Team is on scene investigating.
Throughout her Democratic primary campaign for commonwealth’s attorney, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti pledged to stop the prosecution of simple marijuana possession cases.
Now that she has defeated incumbent Theo Stamos, Tafti is likely to have the opportunity to keep her campaign promise while in the prosecutor’s office.
Between 2013 and 2018, the current Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office prosecuted over 3200 cases of simple marijuana possession. African-Americans are at least 8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, despite the fact that studies show that different racial groups use marijuana at about the same rates. Marijuana should be the subject of civil regulation, but we should put our limited prosecutorial resources to better use focusing on serious crimes. Parisa will not prosecute simple possession of marijuana and support decriminalization and legalization, with appropriate government regulation.
The Arlington Green Party supports that stance, penning an open letter just before primary day calling for Stamos to “stop prosecuting people caught with small amounts of marijuana in Arlington.”
“Arlington police and prosecutors should concentrate on crimes of violence and significant felonies, and not waste our public dollars jailing and prosecuting mostly youth caught with a marijuana cigarette,” the party said in an email.
