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

Shirlington leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you’re celebrating with pints of Guinness, shots of Jameson or any other type of alcohol, you can get home safely and for free tonight via SoberRide’s new Lyft service.

The top five most-read articles this week were:

  1. Police Tase Suspect in Pikachu Onesie During Brawl Outside A-Town Bar & Grill
  2. Williamsburg Middle School Principal Gordon Laurie Resigns
  3. UPDATE: Winter Storm Warning Issued for Arlington, Region
  4. Police Investigating Reported Home Invasion Robbery in Shirlington Apartment Building
  5. Arlington Bar Named No. 1 Destination for St. Patrick’s Day

Feel free to discuss the news of the week, your favorite St. Patrick’s Day destination, or any other topic of local interest in the comments.

Randolph Street to Close in Ballston for Crane Assembly

By ARLnow.com

Ballston Quarter road closure (photo via Ballston BID)

A busy street in Ballston will be closed this weekend while crews work to erect a construction crane.

N. Randolph Street is set to be blocked off between Wilson Blvd and the Ballston mall parking garage starting at 9 a.m. Saturday. The massive crane will be assisting with the construction of the new residential tower, which is part of the Ballston Quarter project.

More from the Ballston BID:

Clark Construction Group and their subcontractors will be erecting the tower crane for the Ballston Quarter Residential Tower this weekend on Saturday (3/18) and Sunday (3/19).

They will be closing N. Randolph Street between Wilson Blvd. and the Arlington County Parking Garage starting Saturday, 3/18, at 9 AM. and will be reopened upon completion. Vehicles will be detoured from N. Randolph St. for the entire duration of the closure. (Note: The County parking garage entrance on N. Randolph St. will remain open.) You will find a diagram of this condition for your above.

Off-duty police officers will be present to help enforce the closures and field and questions.

Roti Modern Mediterranean Coming to Pentagon City

By ARLnow.com
1/3

A Roti Modern Mediterranean restaurant is opening in Pentagon City, permits show.

The fast casual rotisserie eatery is coming to the ground floor of the Met Arcadia apartment building, at 1211 S. Fern Street, between two recently opened businesses: a Starbucks and an Orangetheory Fitness.

Interior construction appears to be underway inside. So far there’s no word as to when the restaurant is expected to open.

This will be Roti’s second location in Arlington County. The first is located at 1501 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com

Looking for a new home? There are plenty of houses and condos to look around in Arlington this weekend.

Check out our real estate section for a full listing of open houses this weekend. Here are a few highlights:

4390 Lorcom Lane
2 Bed/1.5 Bath Condo
Agent: Conor Sullivan
Listed: $224,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

2100 Lee Highway
2 Bed/1.5 Bath Condo
Agent: Robert Kenney
Listed: $417,700
Open: Sunday 12-2 p.m.

 

1151 S. Edison Street
3 Bed/2 Bath Townhome
Agent: Donna Sehler
Listed: $639,000
Open: Sunday 1:30-4 p.m.

 

859 North Frederick Street
3 Bed/1 Bath Townhome
Agent: Richard Cutrera
Listed: $675,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

3219 5th Street S
4 Bed/2.5 Bath Single-Family Detached
Agent: Dina Gorrell
Listed: $849,500
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

2973 22nd Street S
4 Beds/3.5 Bath Single-Family Detached
Agent: Deborah Gorham
Listed: $924,900
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

2804 16th Street S
5 Bed/4.5 Bath Single-Family Detached
Agent: Inga Beermann
Listed: $1,249,900
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

Interested in getting your open house listed? Email us.

Arlington’s Planning Director Departs for New Job in Florida

By ARLnow.com

Director of Community Housing, Planning and Development Steven CoverArlington’s planning director has accepted a job with the city of Sarasota, Florida, a move seen by some as a blow to the local business community.

Steven Cover joined Arlington County as director of Community Planning, Housing and Development in March 2015. He won the respect of many in Arlington’s business community by trying to streamline processes in CPHD, which has gained a reputation for a heavy-handed, intransigent approach to enforcing county regulations, sources tell ARLnow.com.

The City of Sarasota announced Cover’s hiring yesterday.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Steven Cover to Sarasota,” said City Manager Tom Barwin. “Steve has extensive and highly successful experience in two of America’s great communities: Arlington, Virginia and Madison, Wisconsin. Steve’s experience and passion for walkable communities, cutting edge bicycle and transportation planning, appreciation for great architecture, innovative zoning codes, and commitment to affordable housing collaborations will serve our community well.”

In a statement released to ARLnow.com, Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz said the search for Cover’s replacement will be starting soon.

After more than two years of service as our Director of Community Planning, Housing and Development, Steve Cover is leaving to take another job. We wish him well. With the guidance of the County Board, Steve, together with our excellent staff of CPHD professionals, and in coordination with Arlington Economic Development, helped make improvements in service during his tenure. We will begin a search soon for a new director to lead this vital department.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Blooms on ice

Arlington’s Irish Bars on St. Patrick’s Day — Today is St. Patrick’s Day and that of course means that Guinness will be flowing like water at Arlington’s half dozen Irish pubs. Among them: The Celtic House on Columbia Pike (recently lauded by Yelp and Travel + Leisure), Samuel Beckett’s in Shirlington, Ireland’s Four Courts in Courthouse, O’Sullivan’s in Clarendon, P. Brennan’s on Columbia Pike and Sine Irish Pub on Pentagon Row.

Arlington’s High-Earning Millennials — “Arlington has more millennials with a household income of $350,000 or more than any other jurisdiction in the country, with 8.7 percent of millennials among that wealthy cohort.” [Washington Post]

Donaldson Run Neighborhood Profiled — “Tracy and Jeremy Penfield bought their first house in Donaldson Run in Arlington County because they liked the location and the price. After living close to Metro for almost a decade, they welcomed the hilly, wooded neighborhood, which is largely car-oriented.” [Washington Post]

WeWork Creator’s Awards — WeWork, which has both co-working and co-living space at an office building in Crystal City, is giving out $20 million in grant awards to creators around the world, including here in the D.C. area. Applications to pitch an idea in D.C. are due this coming Monday. [WeWork]

Police: Apartment Resident Drew Gun After Maintenance Workers Knocked on Door

By ARLnow.com

Arlington police carA Cherrydale resident brandished a gun and threatened two maintenance workers who knocked on his door yesterday morning, according to Arlington County police.

The incident drew a big police response at the Horizons apartments (4300 Old Dominion Drive) around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The maintenance workers reportedly ran away after the gun was drawn and nobody was hurt.

More from an ACPD crime report:

BRANDISHING A FIREARM, 2017-03150073, 4300 block of Old Dominion Drive. At approximately 10:30 a.m. on March 15, officers responded to the report of a brandishing. Upon arrival, it was determined that a building’s management notified residents that routine maintenance would be conducted in the building. When two maintenance workers knocked on a male subject’s door, the subject answered while brandishing a firearm and threatening the victims. The victims then fled the scene and contacted police. Gin Chan, 71, of Arlington Va, was arrested and charged with brandishing a firearm.

Morning Poll: Community Journalism Project

By ARLnow.com

Crowds gather in Courthouse for same-sex marriage press conference on 10/6/14With a few exceptions — like breaking news — ARLnow does not publish on weekends.

We also only sparingly cover things like high school sports or do long human interest feature stories, things which readers have told us — in surveys and in their actions — are a lesser priority than news about core topics like crime, fire, local government, local businesses, weather and traffic. At the same time, readers frequently ask for us to “investigate” various topics, but true investigative journalism is time-consuming and expensive and hard to do while on the daily local news grind.

So what’s the solution to this for those readers who have emailed us and asked for more weekend coverage, more in-depth features and more investigative stories?

One possibility is for ARLnow to launch a membership program as part of a larger community journalism project.

Services like Patreon allow fans to support, with a small monthly contribution, the creators who are making content they’re passionate about. Similarly, we’re wondering if Arlingtonians would be interested in supporting local content that goes above and beyond ARLnow’s core news mission.

Those who sign up as members would get to weigh in on what kind of content their contribution should be funding — features, investigative pieces, coverage of local arts and nonprofits, etc. The new content would run as an ARLnow “weekend edition” — so as to not overwhelm readers who follow our weekday news coverage.

At the same time, members could get other benefits. We’re considering exclusive discounts from local businesses, access to exclusive ARLnow member events, access to a members-only online forum and perhaps the occasional ARLnow schwag (if NPR has totebags, we can have totebags).

That all said, maybe a $6 a month for local news isn’t something that people want to pay, or you’d rather we just stick with our core mission. Tell us what you think in the poll below and in the comments.

County Manager Proposes Cuts to Halve Proposed Tax Rate Increase

By ARLnow.com

County Manager Mark SchwartzArlington County Manager Mark Schwartz has proposed a series of budget cuts to halve his proposed two cent tax increase to one cent.

The cuts to Schwartz’s proposed budget total $11.1 million and include everything from a multi-million dollar reduction in school funding to a reduction of hours at the Glencarlyn library and the elimination of a management intern position in the parks department.

From a county press release:

The potential reductions would affect a range of County services, including Human Services, Libraries, Parks and Recreation, Community Planning and Housing and Economic Development. The options also include eliminating both planned service improvements in the streetlight program and additional staff for the County jail. Schwartz also recommended that, based on the principles of revenue sharing between County Government and Arlington Public Schools (APS), $3.5 million of the cuts from the on-going budget and $1.7 million of the cuts from the one-time budget come from the APS budget.

The Arlington County Board advertised Schwartz’s recommended two cent tax rate increase but also asked him to recommend some budget cuts, as an option to consider.

“Putting together budget reduction options is always difficult, particularly given the growing demands and potential impacts on our community,” Schwartz said in a statement. “The package makes no change to the additional resources committed to Metro. Since we presented our Proposed Budget on Feb. 25, jurisdictions are facing a Metro funding deficit that may grow even larger.”

Under the advertisement, the Board cannot raise the property tax rate more than two cents for every $100 in assessed value this year. (At last month’s meeting, Board members Libby Garvey and Christian Dorsey proposed, unsuccessfully, setting the advertised rate three cents higher than the current $0.991 for every $100.)

The Board will hold public hearings on the budget and the tax rate on March 28 and March 30, respectively. Final adoption of the budget is scheduled for April 22.

Podcast: ARLnow Associate Editor Chris Teale on Development, Soccer and the Oxford Comma

By ARLnow.com

ARLnow Assistant Managing Editor Chris Teale

Chris Teale recently joined ARLnow as our associate editor after nearly two years at the Alexandria Times.

You might see him out and about, reporting at meetings and community events, but if not this week’s 26 Square Miles podcast can serve as an introduction.

We chatted with Chris about development, Potomac Yard, Taco Bell, beer, soccer, the hated Oxford comma and about growing up in England (after being born in the U.S.). We also discussed other things in Alexandria — aside from the redevelopment of Potomac Yard and protests against a proposed Taco Bell — that may be of interest to Arlington residents.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or TuneIn.

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