Author: ARLnow.com Sponsor

Ask a Dentist: Can Sparkling Water Damage My Teeth?

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
1/5

Dr. Hartman and Dr. Morrow of Elite Dental in Clarendon address one of the rising topics of conversation in their office, eroding teeth and the impact of food and beverages on tooth breakdown. One surprising culprit — sparkling water!

Let’s back up a bit. Food and beverages have a pH value which indicates how damaging they can be to tooth structure. The pH scale ranges from 0-14 with a score of 7 being neutral, 0 – <7 as acidic and >7 – 14 as basic. In the dental world, we are most concerned with those in the acidic ranges.

An important factor to keep in mind is that as you move between whole numbers less than 7, the acidity multiplies by 10. For example, a pH of 6 is 10x more acidic than a pH of 7 and a pH of 5 is 100x more acidic than a pH of 7. The same holds true for the basic side of the scale.

Teeth have two main components that can be impacted by acidity. The first is enamel, the white outer portion of the tooth which is the hardest substance in the body. Enamel dissolves with a pH <5.5. Dentin is the softer tooth structure underneath enamel and on root surfaces, it dissolves with a pH of <6.5. When you start weakening that outer enamel, the teeth become more prone to cavities and fractures, can be more sensitive, and can appear more yellow.

Here’s a list of some common food and beverages with acidity ranked:

Neutral pH 7.0
Dentin dissolves below 6.5
Enamel dissolves below 5.5

  • Green tea: 7-10
  • Perrier Carbonated Mineral Water: 5.25
  • Black coffee: 5.0
  • Black tea: 4.5-5.5
  • Bud Light: 4.33
  • Apple Juice: 4.0
  • Carbonated waters: range 3-4, certain flavors will impact and lower the pH
  • Vitamin Water (Fruit Punch): 3.65
  • Red Bull: 3.37
  • Diet Coke: 3.28
  • Generic red wine: 3.28
  • Generic white wine: 3.17
  • Lemon tea: 3.0
  • Gatorade/Powerade/Propel: range 2.5-3.5
  • Kombucha: 2.5-3.5
  • Lemon: 2.29
  • Lime: 2.17

So what can you do? We do NOT recommend brushing your teeth right after drinking or eating things with acid. Your saliva is a natural buffer, and your teeth are weakest right after acid exposure. By brushing immediately, you are more likely to ‘brush’ away the tooth structure — wait 30 minutes before doing so. Rinsing with plain water is OK.

Enjoy these food and beverages in shorter time spans and more limited quantities. Sipping or grazing on acidic items (just like with sugar) increases the amount of time the tooth structure is exposed to a damaging environment and can cause more harm. Drinking the more acidic beverages with meals is best, and like everything, enjoy in moderation!

Dr. Hartman and Dr. Morrow practice at Elite Dental in Arlington and are currently accepting new patients. Call 703-988-6963, or email [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

Boring Title: Remote Online Notarization

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Title insurance is boring, but Allied Title & Escrow is here to decode the jargon and make it (somewhat) more interesting. This biweekly feature will explore the mundane (but very necessary!) world of title insurance while sharing interesting stories of two friends’ entrepreneurial careers.

There has been a lot of talk recently about Remote Online Notarization, which is the ability to close your real estate transaction completely online. To understand exactly how it works, here is a great commercial from our partner Notarize.

Check it out: 

Have questions related to title insurance? Email Latane and Matt at [email protected]. Want to use Allied Title & Escrow when you buy a home? Tell your agent when you buy a house to write in Allied Title & Escrow as your settlement company!

RSVP Catering Brings Experience, Fresh Meals to Your Door

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Those looking for something different for their self-isolating at-home dining will welcome the news that RSVP Catering, one of the region’s premier catering services, offers contactless home delivery.

The creative cuisine of RSVP Catering has delighted thousands for more than 20 years at elegant events large and small,  and they can bring the fresh flavors of their vast and varied menu to your door.

And what a menu! RSVP Catering will prepare for your family breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as desserts (from hand dipped truffles to mini gourmet poptarts), specialty items (a gallon of sangria, for instance), and special occasion fare (including a Father’s Day prix fixe that feeds four).

The home delivery menu also includes restaurant-worthy options for Date Night and Happy Hour and Snacks. Accommodations can be made for vegans, gluten-free and nut allergies.

Those who want to cook their own meals can take advantage of RSVP Catering’s grocery delivery, which includes, along with restaurant-quality essentials, vacuum sealed chicken, beef and salmon. (Insider tip: The Baker’s Box includes four ounces of active yeast.)

To learn how to order your first meals with RSVP Catering, see their website, email [email protected] or call 703-573-8700.

Small Biz Focus: Arlington Announces Small Business Emergency GRANT Recipients

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
1/4

This column is sponsored by BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

The GRANT provides immediate financial assistance to Arlington’s small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arlington County today announced 394 businesses are receiving the Small Business Emergency GRANT (Giving Resiliency Assets Near Term).

The GRANT program provides financial assistance to Arlington’s small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The GRANT funds were designed to bridge the gap to provide near-term relief for businesses and nonprofits, some of whom have experienced delays or limitations with federal relief initiatives.

Businesses and nonprofits considered for the GRANT had to be located in Arlington County, have fewer than 50 employees, and demonstrate revenue losses of 35 percent or more as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The GRANT is being made on behalf of Arlington County, the Arlington Industrial Development Authority and the Ballston, Crystal City and Rosslyn Business Improvement Districts (BID). The GRANT will provide a total of $2.8 million in funding.

This amount includes an increase of $1.6 million from CARES Act funding that the Arlington County Board approved yesterday — more than doubling the funding available for applicants. Based on the available funding, 394 businesses (53 percent of eligible applicants) will receive a financial grant. Businesses across the County, in a wide variety of industry sectors and geographic locations, received grants.

Award amounts varied, up to $10,000 per business. More than 37 percent are restaurant and food service businesses and nearly 26 percent are personal service businesses, approximately 10% are health and medical businesses and 10 percent are retail businesses. Recommended grantees are concentrated along the major commercial corridors. Nearly 44% of awarded businesses are in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor (Zip Codes 22201, 22203 and 22209) and 20% are along the Route 1 Corridor (Zip Code 22202). Approximately 13% are in the Columbia Pike Zip Code area.

“With our small businesses among those most affected by the pandemic, the Board thought it was important to provide more funding for GRANT,” Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey said. “This new funding will make it possible to provide much-needed funding to more than 50 percent of the eligible applicants. For those that do not receive funding, we still offer business and financial planning assistance. We hope that our small businesses will seek our advice if they would like, and will continue to pursue other avenues of support. We want all our businesses to be able to recover and thrive again as we continue our phased reopening.”

“Throughout the pandemic, we heard over and over again that financial assistance was what our business community needed most,” said Telly Tucker, Director of Arlington Economic Development. “And we’ve kept in constant contact with all our businesses to provide a variety of resources to help, from these GRANT funds to individual meetings to sessions on how to effectively pivot operations in order to continue through the last few months. As we now look forward and begin to reopen, we’re hopeful these GRANT funds will help those businesses hit the hardest — those that would be unable to continue operations without this financial aid.”

Applications were evaluated through a competitive process. More than 1,100 applications were received for consideration. Applications were evaluated based on criteria that considers the impact to employees, business operations and the Arlington business community.

GRANT funds must be used for employee salary and benefits and other business capital and operating expenses directly related to the immediate impacts of COVID-19. Recipients are required to submit a final report to Arlington Economic Development and provide documentation of grant use.

A list of the GRANT recipients is available on the Arlington Economic Development website.

Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by Arlington Realty, Inc. Maximize your real estate investment with the team by visiting www.arlingtonrealtyinc.com or calling 703-836-6000 today!

Please note: While Arlington Realty, Inc. provides this information for the community, it may not be the listing company of these homes.

And just like that, spring 2020 is officially in the books.

This Saturday, June 20, marks the first day of summer. Hopefully amid the COVID-19 lockdown, you’ve been able to enjoy some of the springtime temps while they’ve lasted?

If not, it looks like we’re hovering in the 70s for a couple days here before hitting the 90s (eeeek!) this weekend.

Speaking of cranking it up, now is the time to optimize your AC system for the sweltering days ahead, if you haven’t already. In addition to an annual tune-up, make sure to change your air filter if it’s been a few months, check your door and window sealings to ensure AC isn’t seeping out and take a look at your lightbulbs to see if there are cooler/more sustainable options.

Stay cool out there, friends. And, if your summer journey calls for a real estate pit stop, the team at Arlington Realty, Inc. is here for you.

Now, on to this week’s Just Reduced figures.

As of June 15, there are 161 detached homes, 29 townhouses and 139 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 19 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Arlington Realty, Inc.

Crystal City Underground Challenge

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
1/10

Crystal City, Aurora Highlands and Arlington Ridge community leaders are looking for ideas and insights for the storied Crystal City Underground and have launched the Underground Challenge to gather creative ideas for the future of this unique community asset.

Constructed in several stages during the 1970’s, the Underground contains more than a mile of interior pathways that connect many of Crystal City’s residents, office workers, shops, restaurants and visitors together, in an enclosed circulation network.

As the area transforms with the arrival of Amazon HQ2, a new Metro entrance, enhanced VRE service and significant redevelopment, community leaders are working together to envision how best to utilize and sustain the Underground into the future.

The Underground Challenge is open to all, and offers three different creative opportunities for entrants, including a writing element, a visual media element and the chance to offer a new “business plan” for the Underground. The Underground Challenge runs from June 12 through July 5, offers generous prizes to winning entries (and has some notable talent to help with judging).

The challenge organizers stress they are “looking for community input through stories, photos, or videos that capture a vision for what the Underground could be in the future!” All entries are welcome.

Submittal requirements and guidelines can be found here.

Ask Eli: COVID-19 Market Impact Update

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: What impact is Coronavirus having on the regional and local real estate market?

Answer: COVID-19 has had a similar impact on new listings in Arlington as it has across Northern Virginia and the D.C. metro area with each market dealing with a ~30-35% year-over-year drop in April and May. However, demand in Arlington has tapered off from 2019 highs, while demand in Northern Virginia and the D.C. metro area is steadily increasing, despite everything we’ve gone through with Coronavirus.

The tapering of Arlington demand, which is still very strong relative to historical numbers, is bringing the Arlington market more in-line with supply/demand readings of the Northern Virginia and D.C. metro markets.

The below chart shows Months of Supply (a good supply/demand ratio) for each market. Months of Supply calculates how long it would take for the existing housing inventory to sell out, if no additional inventory was supplied.

Prices Up Regionally

Year-over-year prices for May sales and year-to-date sales are up significantly across the region. Across all of the counties/regions listed below, Arlington’s year-over-year growth is the lowest, which is almost certainly due to the significant appreciation in Arlington last year, after the Amazon announcement.

Keep in mind that sales data lags actual market activity because it usually takes 30-45 days for a property to close, so May sales are more reflective of March and April activity than what we’re currently seeing. This is particularly interesting because March and April were the peak of Coronavirus concerns/lockdowns. Barring any major shifts in the D.C. area economy, I expect year-over-year prices to show even more growth as we get further into the year and sales reflect an even stronger buyer market.

Arlington New Listings Down

We’re used to seeing new listing supply peak from March-June, after November-February lows, with April and May almost always exceeding March’s supply. Unfortunately for many home buyers, new inventory tumbled in April and continued dropping further in May.

The May 2020 drop in new inventory represents a 32.1% decline compared to May 2019, which is particularly concerning when you consider that new inventory in May 2019 was already down 21.3% from May 2018, giving us a 47% decline in new inventory from May 2018 to May 2020.

The decline in new inventory was distributed pretty evenly across property type (single-family vs condo) and price point.

(more…)

Legal Insider: Employers and Employees Prepare for COVID-19 Lawsuits

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.

By John V. Berry, Esq.

Given the pandemic, and the current state of the economy, many employment lawyers for businesses and employees are preparing for a number of lawsuits related to COVID-19. There are many different types of potential employee civil claims that will ultimately arise as a result of the pandemic, the economy, layoffs and terminations.

The following are just a few examples of the type of litigation that may be on the horizon.

Negligence Claims Against Employers

One of the first types of claims that we expect to see in the near future are lawsuits filed by employees related to them getting sick from COVID-19.

It is likely that we will see some employees claim that they were subjected to work-related risks and were infected by COVID-19 as a result. It is too early to see whether or not Virginia, different states or the federal government will enact legislation limiting liability for these employers. Some of these claims may likely be based on employers that did not follow the letter of Executive Orders from the Governor or other relevant government medical authorities.

Some states may decide to make employers immune from such liability by expanding workers’ compensation coverage to make it easier to claim injuries without proof that it occurred at work. This would essentially shift liability from businesses to the state or create a hybrid solution. Businesses are likely to need this type of relief from the state.

Discrimination Claims Against Employers

One of the other types of claims that we are likely to see by employees involves discrimination claims with respect to pandemic-related terminations and layoffs. These are likely to be claims arguing that some employees were retained or terminated in a discriminatory fashion. For instance, we may see arguments that retention of employees was illegally based on race or sex.

Claims for Unpaid Wages

Another area that we are likely to see employee lawsuits filed over involve unpaid wage claims related to the pandemic.  Many employers have been adversely affected and became insolvent immediately, unable to pay employees. Other employers may have thought that they could delay payment of wages to employees during the pandemic, which is illegal.  In either case, a number of employees are likely to file such claims in the coming weeks and months.

Contact Us

It is too soon to tell all the ways in which the pandemic will affect employer-employee claims, but they are likely coming in the near future. If you are in need of employment law representation or advice, please contact our office at 703-668-0070 or through our contact page to schedule a consultation. Please also visit and like us on Facebook or Twitter.

Rethink Energy: June Virtual Solar Co-Op Info Sessions

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored column is written by the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy team (AIRE). This county program helps you make smart energy decisions that save you money and leaves a lighter footprint on the environment.

As we move into Phase 2 opening, we will continue our virtual solar and electric vehicle (EV) co-op sessions.

More than 200 homeowners have already installed solar panels as part of our Solar and Electric Vehicle Charger Co-op.

This spring, we’ve already had more than 280 homeowners attend virtual co-op sessions. Sixty-nine families have already had their roofs screened, verified as viable for solar, and they have joined the Co-op.

This June, we’ll continue with 3 additional information sessions. Please RSVP and join us to learn more:

  • June 23 — 6 p.m. Info Session link
  • June 26 — 12 p.m. Info Session link
  • June 30 — 12 p.m. Battery Storage 101 link

For those who  may not be familiar, the Co-op  helps Arlingtonians buy solar panels and EV chargers at a discounted price through bulk purchasing. The Co-op also provides support to participants to make the purchasing process easy. This year we will also provide information about storing your solar power at home in battery systems.

You can also take advantage of one of the last big federal solar tax credits. This year the solar tax credit will be 26 percent. In 2021, it will be 22 percent and in 2022 and beyond, it won’t be available for homeowners at all.

As you quarantine at home, use this opportunity to learn more about solar power, electric vehicle charging and solar battery storage. Take action today to help our community be carbon neutral by 2050.

Listing of the Day: 2107 N. Taft Street #16

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
1/10

Address: 2107 N. Taft Street #16 
Neighborhood: Palisade Gardens
Listed: $365,000

Imagine yourself putting the key in the front door of your very own charming condo. Opportunity awaits in this 2 bedroom/1 bath bright and sunny top floor unit located in lovely Palisade Gardens.

Walking into the home you are greeted with an open, light-filled room featuring vaulted, beamed ceilings, skylights and a wood-burning fireplace. The kitchen has wood floors and plenty of room for stools at the granite-counter breakfast nook. Down the hall from the kitchen and living room you will find two bedrooms and the full bathroom. The master bedroom has a bonus attic storage space with finished flooring. The second bedroom includes a stacked in-unit washer and dryer. Fob access to the secure building, off-street community parking lot, LOW condo fee, PLUS an additional storage unit.

Palisade Gardens offers a park-like setting with garden-style buildings surrounded by courtyards and landscaping with benches for sitting. Located under a mile walking distance to both Rosslyn and Courthouse Metro or jump on the Circulator bus to D.C. Located in front of Dawson Terrace Park and the historic Dawson-Bailey House. Dawson Terrace Park contains a playground, picnic areas (one with a charcoal grill), a lighted, multi-use court that incorporates a high school-sized basketball court that is also suitable for volleyball and other court games, rectangular field and connection to the Fort Bennett Park & Palisades Trail… an amazing 11 acres of space to explore!

Walk to MOMs Organic Market down the street, stroll to all the shops and restaurants in the Courthouse area, or even walk across Key Bridge to Georgetown! So convenient to so much!

Listed by:
Donna Hamaker
Buck & Associates
703-582-7779
[email protected]
www.DonnaHamaker.com

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

1313 N. Herndon Street
7 BD/7 BA single-family home
Agent: William G. Buck & Associates, Inc.
Listed: $2,478,000
Open: Virtual Tour/Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

3114 N. Pershing Drive
5 BD/5 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Re/Max Allegiance
Listed: $1,499,000
Open: Virtual Tour/Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

3405 N. Peary Street
4 BD/3 BA single-family home
Agent: Re/Max Allegiance
Listed: $1,150,000
Open: Virtual Tour/Sunday 1-5 p.m.

 

1207 N. Livingston Street
3 BD/3 BA single-family home
Agent: McEnearney Associates, Inc.
Listed: $889,900
Open: Virtual Tour

 

1101 S. Arlington Ridge Road #309
2 BD/2 BA, 1 half bath condo
Agent: Samson Properties
Listed: $735,000
Open: Virtual Tour/Saturday 1-3 p.m.

 

3625 10th Street N. #203
2 BD/1 BA condo
Agent: Keller Williams Realty
Listed: $615,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

1016 S. Wayne Street #612
2 BD/ 2 BA, 1 half bath condo
Agent: Compass
Listed: $499,900
Open: Virtual Tour/Sunday 1-4 p.m.

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