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 Daily Debrief for Apr 21, 2023

By ARLnow.com

Good Friday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 12593 times… so far.

📈 Top stories

The following are the most-read articles for today — Apr 21, 2023.

  1. World of Beer has closed in Ballston
  2. DEVELOPING: A group of residents are suing the county over Missing Middle
  3. Arlington to buy two more homes for stormwater management
  4. Morning Notes

Since it’s Friday, we’ve also compiled a list of the most-read articles of the week, below.

  1. ‘Real Housewives’ appears to be filming again in Arlington (64734 views)
  2. Arlington Public Schools hits pause on overnight field trips after an ‘incident’ involving a student (35499 views)
  3. Woman and baby crossing the street struck by driver near Ballston (13911 views)
  4. A ruse to smuggle drugs into Arlington jail caught an employee of the Public Defender’s Office in its crosshairs (5506 views)
  5. World of Beer has closed in Ballston (4984 views)
  6. If someone nukes D.C., equipment in Arlington will help figure out who did it (4851 views)
  7. Car runs into house, another overturns in Sunday crash (4636 views)
  8. ACPD planning ‘high-visibility enforcement’ along several Arlington streets (4433 views)
  9. In Bill Schweigart’s new book, Arlington is the location for “deadly shenanigans” (4301 views)
  10. Good Company Doughnuts to fill a hole at Amazon’s HQ2 early this summer (4171 views)
  11. Office vacancy rates are in a ‘transition’ phase, analyst says (3887 views)
  12. ‘Fire Weather Watch’ issued for Arlington (2866 views)

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Saturday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

Here are the events planned for Sunday:

☔ Saturday’s forecast

Showers late. Overcast. Mild. High of 73 and low of 53. Sunrise at 6:22 am and sunset at 7:52 pm. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Haiku of the Day

Ocean waves crashing
Silent whispers in the night
Moonlit serenade

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

We hope you have a great weekend, Arlington! Feel free to discuss the most-read stories of the week, the upcoming weekend events or anything else of local interest in the comments. 👋

Arlington Pet of the Week: River

By ARLnow.com
1/5

Meet River, the newest Arlington Pet of the Week!

This furry girl was born in California, but now calls the Long Branch Creek neighborhood her home.

Here’s what her owners had to say about River:

As an indoor cat, she makes the most of her apartment kingdom. She enjoys chasing reflected light, laser pointers and is adept at catching flies.

On warm days, she’ll settle into a sunspot on the carpet until her fur is hot to the touch.

Although shy around strangers and unhappy in cars, she is vocal and playful with her people.

River loves stick toys, and pays close attention whenever someone ties their shoe laces. She enjoys burrowing under blankets to sleep for hours, and is happiest when snuggling on a lap.

River is particularly proud of her tuxedo coloring and symmetrical handlebar mustache.

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Please don’t send vertical photos — they don’t fit in our photo gallery!

World of Beer has closed in Ballston

By ARLnow.com
1/2

In Ballston’s battle of the beer bars, Crafthouse has emerged as the survivor.

World of Beer, in the Ballston Point building at 4300 Wilson Blvd, closed up shop earlier this week.

“We’re ceasing our business operations in Arlington, Virginia starting April 17,” a sign on the door says. “Thank you, Arlington, for allowing us to be a part of this community for the last 3 years.”

The watering hole opened in October 2020 in the former Ted’s Montana Grill space. It was a return to the neighborhood for the suds-centric national chain, after a World of Beer franchise up the road rebranded as Crafthouse.

From our article on the opening:

The restaurant is not far from Crafthouse (901 N. Glebe Road), which was Virginia’s first World of Beer location from 2012 until 2017, when the owner parted ways and rebranded locations in Ballston, Reston and Fairfax. […]

The split between then-owner Evan Matz and World of Beer took a bitter turn later in 2017, when the chain sued Matz for violating the terms of the franchise agreement. In October 2018, Matz sued back.

All three Crafthouse locations, including in Ballston, remain open. World of Beer has D.C. area locations in Bethesda and Rockville.

While you’ll no longer be able to get an obscure beer from halfway around the world at World of Beer, a new beverage option recently opened in the same building: D.C.-based coffee shop Slipstream opened within the past month or so.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
A flock of birds migrate past the National Mall, viewed from Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Amazon HQ2 Opening Nears — “The en masse, in-person return of Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 employees under the company’s new three-day-a-week mandate is unlikely to occur before the opening of the Pentagon City campus’ first towers at Metropolitan Park. But that may come sooner than you think. The twin, 22-story towers are just weeks away from being move-in ready, an Amazon representative said, with a grand opening still expected in June.” [Washington Business Journal, Washington Post]

Robbery on a Bus — “The juvenile victim was on a public transit bus when the two juvenile suspects approached him and demanded his sweatshirt. The victim refused and attempted to exit the bus during which the suspects allegedly pushed him, prevented him from leaving and made threatening statements towards him. The victim then removed the sweatshirt and ran off the bus. Medics responded and evaluated the victim on scene. Petitions were obtained for the two juvenile suspects.” [ACPD]

Temporary Closure of I-395 Ramp — “The southbound South Glebe Road (Route 120) ramp to northbound I-395 will be closed, weather permitting, between 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 25 and 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 26 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday to 4:30 a.m. Thursday, April 27 for traffic camera pole replacement work.” [VDOT]

GW Parkway Lanes Closing — “D.C.-area drivers should expect to prepare for some considerable delays on the northern end of the George Washington Parkway. As part of a $161 million restoration project, the National Park Service said it will be closing the southbound lanes between Interstate 495 and Virginia Route 123 on Saturday. The work was supposed to start last week but was postponed due to inclement weather. This traffic pattern could stick around until late 2025.” [WTOP]

Courthouse Cantina Now Serving — “Very important breaking news. Taco Bell Cantina now serving alcohol.” [Twitter]

Unhealthy Air Today — “The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) has forecast a Code Orange air day for the metropolitan Washington region tomorrow: Friday, April 21. Code Orange levels mean the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups. The region recorded its first Code Orange for the year on April 13.” [Press Release]

It’s Friday — Sunny. High of 88 and low of 58. Sunrise at 6:23 am and sunset at 7:51 pm. [Weather.gov]

Listing of the Day: 5604 4th Street S.

By ARLnow.com
1/6

Address: 5604 4th Street S.
Neighborhood: Glen Carlin
Type: 5 BR, 4 (+1 half) BA single-family detached — 4,800 sq. ft.
Listed: $1,895,000

Open House this Sunday, April 23, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Noteworthy: Quality built by A&N in the popular Glen Carlin neighborhood bordering two parks

A&N Homes presents a light-filled new home with these quality details: *Energy efficient Pella Low-E windows; low maintenance HardiPlank siding, stone water table, and MiraTEC trim; 30 year architectural shingle roof; extensive insulation and two zone heating and cooling; Shrock cabinets, Quartz countertops, JennAir kitchen appliances including gas range and rangehood vented to the outside; finished and stained-in-place 4 inch oak floors on main and upper levels; LFV floors for comfort and endurance on the lower level; stone floored front porch; vented gas fireplace in the family room; screened in porch with wood decking and steps to level rear yard; sodded and landscaped lot.

Blocks to 94 acre Glencaryln park with play areas and wooded trails, Arlington County Library and community garden, Carlin Hall, and the Ball Sellers historic home. Easy commute to Washington, business and government centers, and from the primary bedroom to the main level office.

With 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and an open, airy floorplan, there is exceptional space for everyone and everything.

Listed by:
Betsy Twigg — McEnearney Associates
[email protected]
(703) 967-4391

ARLnow Daily Debrief for Apr 20, 2023

By ARLnow.com

Good Thursday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 2501 times… so far.

📈 Top stories

The following are the most-read articles for today — Apr 20, 2023.

  1. A ruse to smuggle drugs into Arlington jail caught an employee of the Public Defender’s Office in its crosshairs
  2. Morning Notes
  3. W-L athletes and fans get royal treatment with new temporary toilets from Maryland startup Throne
  4. Conte’s Bike Shop gearing up to open in the next few weeks at Amazon HQ2

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Friday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

☔ Friday’s forecast

Sunny and quite warm. High of 88 and low of 58. Sunrise at 6:23 am and sunset at 7:51 pm. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Haiku of the Day

Autumn leaves descend
A symphony of colors
Nature’s curtain call

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.

Smallest and largest homes sold in Arlington (Mar-Apr 2023)

By ARLnow.com

This past week saw 46 homes sold in Arlington.

The least expensive condo, single-family home or townhouse sale over the past seven days was $172,500 while the most expensive was $2,500,000.

Over the past month, meanwhile, a total of 210 homes were sold. Let’s take a look at some of the smallest and largest homes sold over the past month.

Largest homes sold

  1. 1200 Crystal Drive #PH18 — $2,500,000 (4 Beds | Baths | 7,300 SQ FT)
  2. 4220 23rd Street N — $1,950,000 (5 Beds | 5.5 Baths | 6,700 SQ FT)
  3. 1801 N Herndon Street — $2,787,500 (5 Beds | 5.5 Baths | 6,582 SQ FT)

Smallest homes sold

  1. 4141 N Henderson Road #1116 — $365,000 (1 Bed | 1 Bath | 916 SQ FT)
  2. 4531 28th Road S #E — $471,500 (2 Beds | 1 Bath | 935 SQ FT)
  3. 4710 30th Street S #B2 — $351,000 (2 Beds | 1 Bath | 960 SQ FT)

Readers can now sign up for ARLnow’s AI-written email newsletter

By ARLnow.com
AI-written newsletter screenshot

For the past few weeks, ARLnow has been experimenting with an automated email newsletter that’s written almost entirely by AI.

The “ARLnow AM” newsletter sends at 8 a.m. each weekday morning and summarizes that day’s Morning Notes and the past day’s local news articles.

Aside from the headlines, the intro and the article summaries are all written by the GPT-4 generative AI model. Further, the email’s design was mostly coded by GPT-4 and the creation and sending of the email each morning requires no human intervention.

The idea behind the email was to give readers a morning alternative to our venerable Afternoon Update email without needing to use scarce additional staff resources.

The newsletter is admittedly not perfect. Let’s list the ways:

  • We’re still working to refine the design. Coding an email newsletter that’s compatible with all email clients is much harder than it sounds.
  • Sometimes the AI-written article blurbs miss factual nuances in stories.
  • The AI-written intros are, for lack of a better term, corny. They’re also a bit repetitive. We’re trying to figure out ways to improve it.
  • At this point, we have not included any local advertising. (According to our polling, at least, the ads from local businesses on ARLnow are seen as a generally positive feature of the site.)

So, the bottom line is that this is experimental and the blurbs should not be entirely relied upon for decision-making purposes. But, if you want a front seat to seeing how AI can be applied in local media, we’re offering a chance for readers to sign up and check it out.
 

Subscribe to ARLnow’s AI newsletter (beta)

* indicates required







Note that this is on a separate mailing list, so signing up will not affect an existing Afternoon Update or ARLnow Press Club subscription.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Riding a bike along the Bluemont Junction Trail on a warm spring day (Flickr pool photo by Tom Mockler)

More New Stuff Coming to DCA — “Today, Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport announced a new slate of concessions… At DCA, you’ll soon be able to fuel up on coffee at Compass or Zeke’s, or grab a pint from Atlas Brew Works.” [Washingtonian, Twitter]

High Speed Chase on I-66 — “Watch: Tonight’s @VSPPIO chase was from Sycamore to DC (where chase was called off) on I-66E just before 10p. Infiniti with expired tags. Speeds 110 mph.” [Twitter]

Ungentlemanly Conduct Near Crystal City Restaurant — “400 block of 23rd Street S. At approximately 4:22 p.m. on April 18… The suspect became involved in a dispute with an employee of a business regarding payment, during which the suspect allegedly implied he had a weapon before exiting the business. The suspect then returned to the business, stole a beverage, exited and threw it against the window. No injuries were reported.” [ACPD]

Beyer Warns of Passport Delays — “‘The D.C. passport office, where we channel passport requests for Northern Virginians, has a significant backlog in passport renewals,’ U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th) said in a recent missive to constituents. ‘They are not accepting casework requests from congressional offices at this time, which means that my office is not able to request assistance with passport renewals.'” [GazetteLeader]

Earth Day Events in Arlington — “There are plenty of ways to observe Earth Day, from parades and parties to cleanups, rallies and workshops. Here’s what’s going on in Arlington.” [Patch]

Millennial Homeownership Stats — “Washington’s home-ownership rate among Millennials stands at 45 percent  compared to the national average of 51.5 percent, according to the data. Millennials trail Generation X (69.7 percent of whom own homes), while both Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation that preceded them each have rates of more than 75 percent.” [GazetteLeader]

New Restaurant in F.C. — “A new restaurant has taken flight in Falls Church City, and it’s got instant cred. Ellie Bird opens at Founders Row on April 14 with a whimsical dining room, inventive entrees, kid-friendly cuisine and cleverly named cocktails. It’s the second venture for Falls Church residents Carey and Yuan Tang, who also own the Michelin-starred fine dining establishment Rooster & Owl on 14th Street in the District.” [Arlington Magazine]

Potomac Yard Station Opening Soon — “After more than a year of delays, the Potomac Yard Metro Station will open on Friday, May 19… The $370 million project has seen its share of delays. It was initially scheduled to open in April 2022.” [ALXnow]

It’s Thursday — Mostly sunny. Pleasantly warm. High of 87 and low of 50. Sunrise at 6:25 am and sunset at 7:50 pm. [Weather.gov]

Flickr pool photo by Tom Mockler

ARLnow Daily Debrief for Apr 19, 2023

By ARLnow.com

Good Wednesday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 5558 times… so far.

📈 Top stories

The following are the most-read articles for today — Apr 19, 2023.

  1. VSP: Two arrested trying to swim to freedom after car chase, crash and foot chase
  2. Morning Notes
  3. If someone nukes D.C., equipment in Arlington will help figure out who did it
  4. Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

🌥 Thursday’s forecast

Cloudy. Pleasantly warm. High of 86 and low of 60. Sunrise at 6:25 am and sunset at 7:50 pm. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Haiku of the Day

In the falling rain
Even tranquil mountain streams
Wind instead curve.

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.

If someone nukes D.C., equipment in Arlington will help figure out who did it

By ARLnow.com
D.C. skyline view from the rooftop of the Bartlett in Pentagon City (staff photo)

The prospect of a nuclear bomb going off in the D.C. area is something that will hopefully remain in the realm of fiction.

Should the proverbial sum of all fears play out, however, equipment in Arlington will help the federal government manage the response.

A broad overview of the system — installed on county-owned property since 2016 — is included in an item on the Arlington County Board’s meeting agenda for this coming Saturday.

Details are not provided, and are said to be exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act, but a letter from an Air Force official included in a Board report says the system will aid in the investigation and the emergency response after any such explosion.

This system is designed to characterize nuclear explosions in urban environments. In the event of an intentional detonation such as a terrorist attack, information generated by the system is critical for the Federal Government’s efforts to determine who was responsible for and how to respond to the event. The information will be used to support law enforcement prosecution efforts and will be shared with the consequence management community as applicable (e.g. to contribute to damage assessments). However, the full disclosure of the location of our equipment, and information regarding its components and operations, would jeopardize the ability for the system to provide valuable information in a timely fashion to the law enforcement and consequence management communities, by giving insight into the system’s design and coverage, and possibly how to defeat the system.

Therefore, we request that our work with Arlington County on this project, including the Agreement and supporting documentation, be exempted from public disclosure under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act per Va. Code Section 2-2.3705.2, subsection 14 (plans and information to prevent or respond to terrorist activity or cyber-attacks, the disclosure of which would jeopardize the safety of any person). Supporting documentation includes, but is not limited to: program descriptions, what equipment is sited on Arlington County property and where, and details about the equipment (e.g. function, operations, engineering drawings).

The item is on the Board’s agenda this weekend because management of the system is being transferred from the Fort Belvoir-based Defense Threat Reduction Agency to the Florida-based Air Force Technical Applications Center.

Both military agencies have responsibilities related to nuclear deterrence and monitoring.

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