Author: Alex Koma

School Board Nears Agreement on Plan to Add Some, But Not All, Amenities to Career Center Site

By Alex Koma
1/3

(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) The Arlington School Board is nearing consensus on a plan to build 1,050 new seats for high schoolers at the county’s Career Center by 2024, with some, but not all, of the features community members want to see at the site.

At a May 22 work session, the Board expressed broad agreement on changes to Superintendent Patrick Murphy’s proposed 10-year construction plan, known as the capital improvement plan. School leaders have yet to finalize these decisions, but Board members signaled an increased willingness to embrace a plan that costs roughly $64 million more than the one Murphy proposed.

The Board has spent the last few weeks grappling with how, exactly, they’d execute a plan members agreed to last summer calling for Arlington Public Schools to add more capacity yet avoid building a fourth comprehensive high school, by adding seats to the Career Center (816 S. Walter Reed Drive) and the “Education Center” site adjacent to Washington-Lee High School (1426 N. Quincy Street).

Murphy originally suggested that APS add space for 600 high school students at the Education Center site and 250 at the Career Center by 2021, then tack on 800 more seats at the Career Center in 2026. That construction would also involve the addition of a multi-use gym and “black box” performing arts theater at the Career Center, but would not include the addition of other amenities parents in the area have been demanding.

The Board was previously considering more ambitious plans to outfit the Career Center site with a full complement of athletic fields and performing arts space. But the increased cost of those options, when combined with how the spending would strain APS’ capacity for taking on debt, seems to be scaring off Board members.

“I wanted to know how we could fast track seats and get all the amenities,” said Board member Monique O’Grady. “I think it’s clear that would put us in a situation where it wasn’t affordable.”

The Board is moving closer to embracing a plan that would bump up the construction of 800 additional seats at the Career Center to 2024, but also calls for the addition of a performing arts wing, a synthetic athletic field and a parking garage to the site.

“It’s very important that we add seats, but also that our seats be high quality,” said Board Chair Barbara Kanninen. “This would be what almost all of our high school students want to see in their school day.”

The Career Center would still not include every possible amenity the community might want to see, like a swimming pool or additional athletic fields, a point the Board repeatedly acknowledged. But Kanninen stressed that students at other county high schools have to travel elsewhere to participate in some sports or specialty classes, and she does not feel that building the Career Center school without those amenities would be inequitable for South Arlington residents.

(more…)

Dudley’s Pushes Back Opening Once More, Eyes August Kickoff

By Alex Koma
1/3

(Updated at 5:10 p.m.) A long-delayed Shirlington sports bar could open in late summer, as its owner revises his timetable once more.

Reese Gardner has been hoping to open Dudley’s Sport & Ale in a 12,000-square-foot space at 2766 S. Arlington Mills Drive. The bar would replace the former The Bungalow Sports Grill, which closed in June 2015, and Gardner envisions it including a 3,000-square-foot rooftop bar as well.

Yet the project has encountered persistent delays over the last few years, related to both construction and Arlington County’s permitting process. But these days, Gardner tells ARLnow that he’s “getting close” to finally finishing the restaurant.

He’s eyeing an August opening for Dudley’s, and he hopes to be able to formally set a date by early July.

Dudley’s also posted on its Facebook page that it received its “final steel delivery” on May 15. The material is largely reserved for the rooftop, which Gardner says will hold up to 300 people when it’s finished.

https://www.facebook.com/415701441952034/videos/913611808827659/

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=913994225456084&id=415701441952034

Gardner’s company also owns Copperwood Tavern in Shirlington and Irish Whiskey Public House in D.C. He’s previously said that Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo joined his ownership team for his restaurants.

County Board Commends the ‘Tireless Dedication’ of Departing Nauck Pastor

By Alex Koma

The Arlington County Board paused Tuesday (May 22) to honor the legacy of longtime Nauck pastor the Rev. Dr. Leonard Hamlin Sr., as he heads to D.C. and ends his 22-year tenure at the Macedonia Baptist Church.

The Washington National Cathedral tapped Hamlin for a post working on social justice outreach in February, and he left the Nauck church, located at 3412 22nd Street S., in April.

But Board members didn’t want to see Hamlin go without presenting him with a resolution commending his extensive community engagement in Arlington, as well as a “key to the county.”

“He has been a community leader known for his strategic vision, tireless dedication and passion for providing for our most vulnerable residents,” said Board Vice Chair Christian Dorsey.

Dorsey lauded Hamlin’s work on a whole host of community initiatives, like his work to establish the Bonder and Amanda Johnson Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit helping people in Nauck get an education and find a job. Dorsey also commended Hamlin for helping to create the “Macedonian,” an affordable housing development across from the church “which has been in operation since 2011 and has since provided affordable homes for over 100 Arlington families.”

Hamlin also chaired the county’s Affordable Housing Study Working Group and its Diversity Dialogue Task Force, and even served as chaplain to Arlington’s Fire Department, a series of efforts that Dorsey believes left “a permanent impact on our county.”

“All of us want to live in gardens that are beautiful, but those who serve have a responsibility for taking care of the ground that the flowers may be able to come,” Hamlin said in a brief speech. “No matter where we’re placed, our responsibility is to bloom so that someone else might appreciate it. And you’ve given me that opportunity.”

Dorsey noted that Hamlin put down deep roots in Arlington without ever residing in the county — he currently lives in Maryland. Hamlin told ARLnow back in 2016 that he settled in the D.C. area after moving here for college from New York City.

“I’ve never been one to really see life along all of the dividing lines that we create, whether that be geographically, regionally, or by walls,” Hamlin said. “The real sense of us being together comes when we are reaching across lines and reaching out to one another.”

Photo via Arlington County

Cherrydale Day Care Dispute Exposes Deeper County Board Rift

By Alex Koma
1/2

A neighborhood dispute over a Cherrydale daycare facility laid bare some deeper disagreements about the proper role of the Arlington County Board at the body’s Tuesday (May 22) meeting.

The Dalbir family day care, located at a home on the 3900 block of 17th Street N., was asking the Board for a permit to make what might seem like a minor change — instead of supervising five children at the home, its owners wanted to care for up to nine.

Yet that request touched off fierce debate on the Board, which only approved the permit on a 3-2 vote. Board members Erik Gutshall and John Vihstadt cast the dissenting votes.

The dispute largely centered around the day care facility’s impact on parking and traffic on narrow 17th Street N., just off N. Quincy Street. Some neighbors complained to the Board that the day care’s customers and employees have already caused real problems in the area, even before adding capacity for more kids.

The Cherrydale Citizens Association opposed the permit, though the day care — which has been in business for more than two decades, according to the county staff report — is not technically located within the civic association’s boundaries.

Gutshall and Vihstadt argued that those complaints demonstrated that the day care’s owners hadn’t done enough to work with their neighbors, and they supported deferring a vote on the permit. But the other Board members strongly disagreed that it was up to the Board to step into a dispute among just a handful of households.

“This is an issue for the neighbors to resolve among themselves,” said Board Chair Katie Cristol. “Even very reasonable people can find themselves in disputes between neighbors. It happens across the county on a manner of issues, often related to parking and traffic. But that’s not the role of this Board.”

Vihstadt did acknowledge that it’s “difficult and awkward for us up here to be referees” on such parochial issues, particularly as the county looks to expand access to childcare. Cristol, in particular, has focused on the issue, though the Board has faced pushback from neighbors of other day care centers in recent months.

Gutshall and Vihstadt both urged their colleagues to take the complaints of people in the neighborhood seriously, noting that the Board previously deferred a vote on the permit in April to urge the owners to work with the community more closely to resolve these problems. (Between April and May the day care center made concessions that placated the first neighbor to contact the Board, but other households have since weighed in with their own complaints.)

“To add more density will only cause more trouble on an already troubled street,” Kathy Lash, who rents out a house next to the day care, told the Board.

Vihstadt also pointed to a letter from the Cherrydale Citizens Association echoing those concerns and lamenting that the day care’s owners have “a history of unpleasant interactions with affected residents concerning the operation of their day care.”

(more…)

Arlington Metro Ridership Drops in Early 2018, As Riders Fail to Return After SafeTrack

By Alex Koma

Nearly a year after Metro’s “SafeTrack” maintenance blitz wrapped up, Arlingtonians still haven’t returned to the transit system, new data show.

An ARLnow analysis of figures compiled by WMATA and released to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission shows that ridership at Arlington’s 11 Metro stations fell by about 4.1 percent in the first three months of 2018 when compared to the same time frame last year.

Back in early 2017, WMATA was right in the midst of SafeTrack, with large sections of Metro lines closed temporarily and substantial headways for passengers, even at rush hour. But the ridership numbers suggest that any Arlington riders dissuaded from hopping on Metro during the heavy maintenance work have yet to embrace the rail service once more.

ARLnow’s analysis also shows Metro ridership in the county has dropped by about 13.4 percent compared to the same time frame in 2016, before SafeTrack work began.

Metro officials and county leaders say they’re not overly disturbed by these numbers, noting that WMATA ridership as a whole only fell by 1 percent when comparing the first three months of this year to 2017. Yet they also acknowledge that other transportation options are steadily luring riders away from Metro, and that these declining ridership numbers may be a symptom of problems in the county beyond WMATA’s woes.

“This really indicates how our transportation network is being disrupted in ways not just associated with Metro,” said Christian Dorsey, the vice chair of the Arlington County Board and a member of the Metro Board of Directors, while adding that “we’re not going to overreact to the numbers we see in one quarter.”

Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly wrote in an email that ridership in Arlington generally “reflects the ridership trends systemwide.” She says Metro has broadly found that “peak periods are performing less poorly, however off-peak (especially evening) ridership is down much more steeply,” after SafeTrack.

WMATA leaders “are confident that by providing safe, reliable service, Metro can win back riders who may have changed their travel patterns during SafeTrack,” Ly added. Yet she did acknowledge that a handful of different factors have prompted large ridership drops at several Arlington stations this year.

Metro observed one of the largest declines in riders at the Ballston station in the first three months of the year, with a more than 8 percent decline from the same period last year. Ballston also recorded a nearly 20 percent drop in ridership from 2016 to 2018, the largest of any Arlington station over the same time period.

Ly believes that’s largely due to ridership dropping on weekends, “when service is truncated from Wiehle-Reston East to Ballston for track work,” a frequent occurrence for Silver Line riders.

Along the Blue Line, however, there could be more systemic problems.

(more…)

Alexandria-Based Tex-Mex Restaurant Planning to Open in Crystal City

By Alex Koma
1/2

An Alexandria-based Tex-Mex restaurant is gearing up to move into the space once occupied by Cantina Mexicana in Crystal City.

The owner of Los Tios Grill is planning to open their third Northern Virginia location at the space at 515 23rd Street S., according to landlord Stratis Voutsas.

German Mejia, the owner of Los Tios, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on his plans for the location. But Voutsas expects that Mejia will have the new restaurant, which sits next to what was once Cafe Italia, open to customers within the next month or so.

Voutsas’ company controls many of the properties along 23rd Street S., and he says he and his wife, Georgia Papadopoulos, have been working for years to bring in more small businesses and “re-envision” his section of Crystal City.

“Bob and Edith’s was the first step to that,” Voutsas told ARLnow. “Los Tios is the second building block.”

Mejia currently runs two locations in Alexandria, and just opened a new restaurant in Leesburg, according to the Los Tios website. The restaurants specialize in fajitas, along with traditional Salvadoran dishes, and have extensive selections of margaritas and Mexican beer.

Los Tios will replace one of the area’s oldest restaurants. Cantina Mexicana closed its doors last December, after first opening under a different name in 1978.

Proposed 10-Year Capital Plan Rolls Back Transportation, Neighborhood Improvement Projects

By Alex Koma

With Metro expenses climbing and tax revenue growth slowing, the county’s top executive is calling for a rollback in new construction on some transportation improvements and other neighborhood infrastructure projects.

Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz unveiled his proposed Capital Improvement Plan in a presentation to the County Board Tuesday (May 22), detailing the $2.7 billion in construction projects he wants to see Arlington take on over the next 10 years, and he did not have much in the way of good news for county officials.

Schwartz’s proposal does not call for the county to stop work on any existing construction efforts, or cancel some of Arlington’s major new facilities projects. For instance, Schwartz noted that his CIP still has full funding for things like the Long Bridge Park Aquatics and Fitness Center, the new Lubber Run Community Center and a replacement for Fire Station 8 on Lee Highway.

However, he believes the roughly $90 million in additional bond funding the county will need to put towards Metro, under the terms of the dedicated funding deal hammered out by state lawmakers earlier this year, will seriously squeeze Arlington’s ability to take on major new projects over the next 10 years. When combined with rising school costs, and the Metro funding deal’s cuts to regional transportation funding available through the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, Schwartz feels there’s every reason to believe Arlington will be under some serious budget pressure for the next few years.

“This is not one of the better CIPs I’ve ever worked on,” Schwartz told reporters Tuesday. “You’re not going to find anything new in here… but I’ve proposed a CIP that sticks to what we’re committed to doing. Even still, I think there are things we should be doing that will have to be postponed.”

One of the largest changes Schwartz is proposing is to the county’s Neighborhood Conservation program, which funds modest community improvements like sidewalks, signs and landscaping. The county originally planned to spend $60 million on the program over the next 10 years; the new CIP would slash that to $36 million.

“We’ll be able to catch up on our backlog of projects already in the pipeline, and do some planning for future programs, but not much else,” said Michelle Cowan, the deputy county manager.

Schwartz’s plan also does not include any money for buying land for new parks; the county’s last CIP two years ago included $15 million for that purpose. However, his proposal does include $18 million for the first phase of redevelopment at Jennie Dean Park in Nauck, after the County Board just approved a new policy framework for the Four Mile Run valley.

Transportation projects on “arterial roads,” such as S. Walter Reed Drive or S. George Mason Drive, could also get pushed back under Schwartz’s proposal. He noted that the county still will devote $91 million over 10 years to improvements along Columbia Pike, largely aimed at beefing up bus service in the corridor to help compensate for the death of the controversial streetcar, but he also emphasized that Arlington’s “number one priority” with its transportation money is meeting its Metro obligation.

(more…)

Arlington Parks Ranked Fourth Nationally, Just Behind D.C. in Third

By Alex Koma

Arlington has the fourth-best park system in the entire country, just behind our neighbors across the Potomac, according to a new set of rankings from the Trust for Public Land.

The county climbed two spots in the California-based group’s rankings from a year ago, earning a “ParkScore” of 81.6 out of 100. D.C. was just slightly ahead of Arlington at 81.6. Minneapolis took the top spot nationally with a score of 84.2, with its twin city St. Paul, Minnesota placing second with 82.4.

The Trust for Public Land compiles the rankings based on four factors: the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, the percentage of a locality’s total area dedicated to parks, park spending per resident and the availability of popular park features.

Arlington scored well on all of those factors, according to Ali Hiple, program coordinator at the trust’s Center for City Park Excellence. She noted that the county ranked fourth overall two years ago as well, and she believes Arlington’s parks system should be a “point of pride” for the county.

“Parks contribute so much to a great quality of life,” Hiple told ARLnow. “They both help a city overall in beautifying the city and managing its stormwater, but they also offer chances for recreation. It’s about neighbors getting to spend time together.”

Hiple’s group found that 98 percent of Arlington residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, compared to the 70 percent average nationally. Hiple noted that researchers use mapping software to study distances not simply “as the crow flies,” but they take into account potential obstacles between people and nearby parks as well.

“We’re measuring if it’s 10 minutes on foot, so that means it’s about walkability as well, which Arlington is certainly doing well on,” Hiple said.

Arlington also performed particularly well in the group’s survey of access to park amenities, with lots of restrooms and playgrounds available for residents, she added. The county also earned full marks from Hiple’s group for its spending on parks; the trust found that Arlington spends about $240 per resident on the park system.

Yet where the county fell the most behind D.C. is in the sheer acreage of park land available. The group found that 22 percent of D.C.’s land is reserved for parks, compared to 11 percent for Arlington.

“Arlington has semi-small parks well distributed throughout the county, but not those big chunks of park land,” Hiple said. “D.C. has things like Rock Creek Park that contribute to the acreage.”

But Hiple said the county has nothing to be ashamed of in falling behind D.C., another frequent top performer in the group’s annual rankings.

“They’re basically neck and neck, so we’re giving kudos to both systems,” Hiple said.

Flickr pool photo by Erinn Shirley

With Budget Cuts on the Way, Arlington Libraries Looking for Feedback on Services to Save

By Alex Koma

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) Arlington’s public libraries are bracing for impending budget cuts — including a 17 percent cut to its collections budget — and they’re asking for your input on what services staff should protect from those spending slashes.

The county’s public library system is currently running a survey on its website, looking for feedback on “what collections we will provide and maintain” moving forward. The survey will stay open through June 8, and staff wrote that the results will help guide their decision-making on how library services change going forward.

Arlington’s Department of Libraries has a roughly $14.5 million budget in fiscal year 2019, and county budget documents show that the department is set to lose out on $250,000 in one-time funding for library materials in the new budget year. The department is also set to lose one full-time library assistant, as the county grapples with an increasingly tight budget overall.

“We’re really just trying to get feedback from the community and hear what they value,” Peter Petruski, the department’s division chief for materials management, told ARLnow.

The survey’s questions say that some library collections — including bestselling books, DVDs and children’s books — will remain unchanged, even with the new budget pressure. However, the survey does ask respondents to rank how much they value some categories of materials that the department could roll back, like online encyclopedias or new CD audiobooks.

The questionnaire also asks participants to rank how much they value online resources county libraries currently offer, such as access to Ancestry.com or ConsumerReports.org, as well as how much they might be interested in services the department is considering offering, but has yet to provide to patrons.

Henrik Sundqvist, a spokesman for the library, added that no decisions have been made yet on what to cut. He added that the library system has already received more than 11,000 responses to the survey.

“It just really speaks to the library department being at the heart of this community,” Sundqvist said.

The department is also set to lose $19,000 in funding to run a “pop-up” library in Crystal City, which opened in 2016. Sundqvist said the County Board has yet to make that change official, or decide what it will mean for the location, and plans to review the matter at its June 16 meeting.

File photo

VDOT to Discuss Widening Work on Eastbound I-66

By Alex Koma
1/2

Workers are about to kick off construction on one of the most congested sections of eastbound I-66, and VDOT is rolling out its plans to widen the highway early next month.

State transportation officials are holding a community meeting to discuss the project on Tuesday, June 5 at Yorktown High School (5200 Yorktown Blvd). The event will run from 6:30-8:30 p.m., with a presentation from VDOT set to start at 7 p.m.

VDOT is adding another lane to eastbound I-66 between the Dulles Connector Road and Fairfax Drive (Exit 71), which is routinely ranked as one of the most intensely jammed locations in all of Northern Virginia. The work is taking place within the existing I-66 right of way.

The $85.7 million project will also connect two existing ramps at the I-66 and Route 7 interchange to connect I-66 eastbound directly to the West Falls Church Metro station. Additionally, plans call for a new bridge for the W&OD Trail over Lee Highway.

VDOT is hoping to start construction this year and open the new lane on I-66 by the fall of 2020.

Photo (1) via Google Maps

 

Goody’s Back Open in Clarendon, Under New Owner

By Alex Koma
1/3

A little more than a month after closing up shop, popular Clarendon pizzeria Goody’s is back open, with some big changes on the way.

New owner Glenda Alvarez says the shop reopened its doors for the first time last Monday (May 15) and is ready for customers once more. Nick and Vanessa Reisis ran the pizzeria since 2006, but decided to retire and sell the store to Alvarez in early April.

Alvarez says she won’t be changing the restaurant’s name, or much about its menu: pizza and subs are still the main things on offer. She added that Goody’s will still be open late at night on the weekends to cater to bar-goers and even Arlington County police officers.

However, Alvarez has recently completed a full renovation of the restaurant’s interior, replacing its well-worn floors and furniture, with more changes on the way.

“Little by little, we’re adding on to it,” Alvarez told ARLnow. “It’s a friendly atmosphere. It’s welcoming, it’s run by a family. We want to make it a family-oriented place.”

Alvarez says she went to culinary school in Paris and used to own a Mediterranean restaurant before moving to Arlington. She says she spent years as an Arlington County government employee, but had long been interested in getting back into the restaurant business.

Alvarez says she’d repeatedly spoken with the Reisis’s about taking over Goody’s someday, and they approached Alvarez and her husband (who works at the small jewelry store next door to Goody’s) when they decided to retire.

“My husband and I talked it over, and it just seemed like a new opportunity for us,” Alvarez said. “So we thought, ‘Let’s go ahead buy it.'”

Though Goody’s may have a different owner running things, Alvarez says patrons shouldn’t expect the food to be too different — she kept on two of the same cooks and plans to leave their pizza and sauce recipes untouched.

However, she is planning on hiring a new chef and perhaps expanding Goody’s breakfast offerings, and even starting up a catering service.

“We’ll just try it all out, and see what works,” Alvarez said.

View More Stories