| ARLnow.com - Part 20

Most of Arlington’s Traffic Cameras Are Unavailable

Published March 3, 2015 at 1:00PM

None of the traffic cameras on Arlington roads, save for interstate highways like I-66 and I-395, can currently be viewed by the public.

When trying to view the cameras on the website Trafficland.com, which the county’s own website links to, residents hoping to monitor traffic conditions on Wilson Blvd, Glebe Road and Columbia Pike are faced with a blue screen that reads “this image is temporarily unavailable.”

The feeds have been down, off and on, for months. In addition to residents trying to plan their commute, the cameras are also often used by members of the media for traffic reports and for reporting on crashes and road conditions during storms.

Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services says 90 percent of the county’s cameras are operational, and all the viewing issues lie with TrafficLand.

“Many cameras on TrafficLand can be down at any given time, and this is due to connectivity issues between functioning cameras and their website feed,” Baxter wrote in an email. “The county provides TrafficLand access to our video feeds. The connection between our feed and their server is up to them to maintain.”

There is no alternative place for the public to view these cameras, DES spokeswoman Jessica Baxter told ARLnow.com. A random sampling of other jurisdictions’ cameras revealed that most VDOT, D.C. and Montgomery County traffic cameras were working on Trafficland.

While the county maintains that the public’s inability to view the feeds is TrafficLand’s fault, it is currently undergoing a technological overhaul of the system. Starting next month, DES will begin to replace the copper wiring in its communication system with a fiber optic system as part of its ConnectArlington project, Baxter said. The project is expected to be completed in spring 2016.

“The new technology is expected to improve the connectivity and reliability of the County’s CCTV camera system,” she said. “It’s anticipated that the fiber upgrade will resolve the cameras that are down and improve reliability.”

Baxter could not say whether the fiber replacement would improve access to cameras via TrafficLand.

So far, TrafficLand has not responded to a request for comment.

Screenshot via TrafficLand

St. Patrick’s Day Bar Crawl Returns March 21

By Ethan Rothstein

Published March 2, 2015 at 3:30PM

The Shamrock Crawl, an annual bar crawl in Clarendon for the St. Patrick’s Day holiday, is back again this year, on March 21.

The Saturday following the annual celebration of the Irish spirit, thousands of carousers will be wearing green and holding commemorative mugs for the event hosted by Arlington’s Project DC Events.

To take part in the festivities, drinkers can register online for $15. After 11:59 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday), the price goes up to $20.

The crawl will start at 2:00 p.m., with participants registering at either the Clarendon Grill (1101 N. Highland Street) or Clarendon Ballroom (3185 Wilson Blvd) before 5:30 p.m. Crawlers will get a shamrock mug to be refilled at participating restaurants, party favors, St. Patrick’s Day beads and $2 slices at Bronx Pizza (3100 Clarendon Blvd).

The participating businesses are:

Clarendon Grill
Clarendon Ballroom
Mad Rose Tavern
Whitlow’s on Wilson
American Tap Room
Hard Times Cafe
Spider Kelly’s
Hunan One Restaurant
Mister Days
SoBe
IOTA Club & Cafe
Don Tito

Last year, thousands of revelers packed the streets all day, including one woman who allegedly tried to visit her husband in the Arlington County jail sans clothing.

@clarendonnights This is my favorite of Shamrock Bar Crawl 2014 pic.twitter.com/LTqb7dSeRB

— I Love Arlington VA (@ilovearlingtonv) March 17, 2014

Rosslyn Startup Creates Global Notification Platform

Published March 2, 2015 at 12:00PM

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

There are billions of people on the planet with no access to Internet. Ajay Maheshwari wants to connect to all of them.

Maheshwari is the founder and CEO of Notify Anywhere, a mobile platform that allows users to notify a list of contacts or subscribers in a wide range of ways, from social media to email to text or phone messages. It can be used for restaurants to tell customers about specials, coaches to tell players about practice cancellations or family members to reach out in case of emergency.

“There is a need of a platform to provide people with a unified notification medium,” Maheshwari said from Rosslyn, in his borrowed space from Notify Anywhere’s mentor company, Miracle Systems.

Maheshwari’s example of a coach notifying a team is personal — his wife was taking his daughter to soccer practice in Ashburn one rainy morning. They hadn’t heard from the coach so they assumed practice was still happening. The Maheshwaris arrived to an empty practice field and, when they got the coach on the phone, were told that he had no way of contacting all the parents.

“I decided we needed to come up with an automated critical process, triggered at an event so users don’t feel like it’s a burden to notify people,” Maheshwari said. “People want a simple thing. They want to reach their audience, irrespective of the network.”

Seven months ago, Maheshwari formed the company with his cofounder, who goes by Shikha, applied for a patent and got to work. He brought on a developer, like many startups, but his is unique. Sahaj Sharda and Maheshwari met at a “hack-a-thon” in D.C. after Sharda’s team impressed with a quick-built app to “make children accessible to the education industry.” Maheshwari saw it, was impressed, and brought him on board.

Sharda is 16, and his team was a group of his classmates from Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County.

“I was excited about the idea,” Sharda said. “It was similar to what we had built. When you’re developing anything, you’re looking at your target audience. Ours don’t have Internet access, but they’re still in the community at large. It’s a big problem in terms of accessibility.”

That’s why one of Notify Anywhere’s key selling points is its partnership with global telecommunications providers. In more than 200 countries, the app can access the phone infrastructure, allowing users to send voice and text messages over a network instead of requiring both end-users to download the app.

The infrastructure access and ability to send “robo-calls” sets the app apart, Maheshwari says. It’s is cloud-based, syncs with the phone’s contacts

“We don’t have any direct competition,” he said. “I don’t see any other companies doing it.”

Notify Anywhere is currently in a beta test, and Maheshwari said the response is “overwhelming.” He expects to hit the open market by April.

To this point, Notify Anywhere has been bootstrapped by the former federal government employee, and funded with friends and family money. As the launch date approaches, the company is seeking angel investors and venture capitalists to inject funding for engineering, marketing and sales.

The app will be Android-only to start, but an iPhone app isn’t far behind. It will be free for most users, and, in less than two months, live and “fully-formed.”

#Startup Monday

European-Style Tavern Coming to Clarendon

By Ethan Rothstein

Published March 2, 2015 at 11:00AM

A tavern serving European dishes, European beers with imported European furniture and European lighting fixtures plans to open in Clarendon this summer.

Park Lane Tavern has leased space at 1200 N. Irving Street, in the new Beacon at Clarendon apartment building. Owner Greg Knox said the third location of his restaurant — following openings in Hampton and Fredericksburg farther south — will be 5,000 square feet and unlike anything else in the neighborhood.

“I think it’s going to be pretty unique in that area,” Knox said. “There are a lot of quality places up there, but we’re going to stand out a little bit.”

All of the décor is imported from Europe and the menu items read like a tour through a culinary travel magazine — there’s fish and chips, Jagerschnitzel, salmon beurré blanc, bangers and mash, florentine stuffed mushrooms and pizza. Park Lane will serve a variety of European craft beer and have a “very extensive, high-end scotch and bourbon section.”

“We don’t call it a gastropub, but that’s what most people would identify it as,” Knox said.

Knox said Park Lane Tavern plans to open by August or September.

Red Light Cameras Coming Soon to Crystal City, Columbia Pike

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 27, 2015 at 5:00PM

The Arlington County Police Department will soon be installing seven new red light cameras, scattered across various parts of the county.

ACPD announced the new cameras in a press release late Friday afternoon, saying they will be installed “in the near future” and, when installed, they would be operational 24 hours a day.

Plans have been in the works for the cameras since March 2012. The cameras were reported delayed in June 2013, “still delayed” in October 2013 and “still in the works” in August 2014. The police department’s press release said “construction is expected to start” at Columbia Pike and S. George Mason Drive.

The cameras will be placed at the following intersections, according to ACPD:

Eastbound on Columbia Pike at S. Glebe Road
Westbound on Columbia Pike at S. Glebe Road
Eastbound on Columbia Pike at S. George Mason Drive
Northbound on N. Glebe Road at Washington Boulevard
Westbound on Lee Highway at N. George Mason Drive
Northbound on 23rd Street S. at US Route 1
Southbound on 23rd Street S. at US Route 1

The intersections were chosen, police said, based on accident rate, pedestrian safety, the rate of red light violations and the “ability of police to apprehend violators safely within a reasonable distance from the violation.”

Motorists photographed running a red light get a written warning for 30 days after the cameras are installed. After the month-long grace period, violators will receive a $50 citation, but not be assessed points on their driving records. There are already four red light cameras in Arlington — two on Lee Highway in Rosslyn, one at N. Glebe Road and Fairfax Drive in Ballston and one at Lee Highway and Washington Blvd in East Falls Church.

Those four cameras have issued almost 35,000 citations since they were installed in 2010. Per Virginia State Code, police are only allowed to place cameras at 10 intersections in the county at one time.

File photo

Pentagon City Mall Hosts Lunar New Year Celebration

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 27, 2015 at 2:30PM | Updated February 27, 2015 at 4:28PM

The Lunar New Year celebration in Asia is fully underway, and the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City is hosting a lineup of events tomorrow to celebrate.

From noon to 6:00 p.m. at the mall (1100 S. Hayes Street), there will be dancers from a range of Asian countries, an “Asian fashion show” and goodie bags from stores like Aveda and LUSH.

Starting at noon, the first 100 shoppers on the Metro level will get goodie bags. At 1:00 p.m., the Asian American Chamber of Commerce will make a presentation, after which the performances begin.

There will be Chinese and Indian musical performances and forms of traditional Lion Dance and Dragon Dance and dancers organized by Filipino-American group Mabuhay, Inc. All the while, visitors can meet with Miss Vietnam D.C., Loney Nguyen and make a traditional paper lantern and spin a wheel for prizes.

Stores throughout the mall will be offering specials in honor of the holiday, which started on Feb. 19 and will last until March 5.

File photo

#Pentagon City mall

Is Arlington Falling Short on Maintaining Its Trees?

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 27, 2015 at 1:40PM | Updated November 22, 2016 at 2:49PM

Residents of the Cherrydale neighborhood say there’s “no excuse” for the county to fall behind as much as it has with maintaining trees.

In a presentation to the Arlington County Board on Tuesday night, Cherrydale Citizens Association representative Maureen Ross went over several issues during her Neighborhood Conservation plan update, including the upkeep of the North Arlington neighborhood’s street trees.

“Our trees are a huge issue in Cherrydale,” R0ss said. “They’re not in good shape.”

Arlington is spending about $1.2 million on tree maintenance, removal and planting this fiscal year, according to county Landscape and Tree Supervisor Jamie Bartalon. Bartalon said the county has regular tree maintenance programs, but most of the funds are spent on safety-related pruning and removal of hazardous trees.

In county staff’s response to Cherrydale’s tree concerns, the Department of Parks and Recreation said it has recently established new practices for planting urban trees, but said funding is simply insufficient to accomplish all of Cherrydale’s requests.

“DPR’s baseline budget for tree planting is barely sufficient to replace the average number of trees that are removed each year,” the staff report reads. “DPR does not recommend reallocating tree planting funding towards tree maintenance when such reallocation may result in fewer trees being planted than removed from County property.”

Bartalon said the budget for tree planting in FY 2015 is $206,388, and the county has added a net total of 175 trees this year, based on an annual projection of 650 trees removed because they have died or were taken down for development. The majority of trees are removed because they are “dead, dying, hazardous or downed/damaged by storms.”

“Arlington loves its trees as do most residents so we always look for options before removing a tree,” Bartalon told ARLnow.com in an email. “If there is a safety issues… can it just be pruned? If it is diseased, can we cure it? Our last option is to remove a tree.”

Ross and her neighbors contend that the county could avoid removing many of its trees if it simply kept a regular watering schedule. Ross showed examples of other trees, like the one pictured at right. She said the tree on the left in the image was planted by the Safeway 10 years ago.

“We planted our trees 20 years ago, but replaced them two or three times,” Ross said. “Why is Safeway able to do it and we can’t?”

There are more than 19,000 street trees in Arlington, according to DPR, and the county “cannot begin to cover the cost to implement a Countywide regular pruning cycle.”

When trees are damaged or hazardous, residents can report them to parks staff, which will respond. But Ross said she looks at Falls Church’s Willow Oak trees, planted 20 years ago at the same time of many of Cherrydale’s street trees, and wonders what could have been.

“[Those trees] look magnificent,” she said. “Why doesn’t Cherrydale look like that? No excuses.”

Photo, top, via Google Maps. Image, bottom, via Cherrydale Citizens Association

Girl Scout Cookies Are Back

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 27, 2015 at 11:00AM

Lovers of treats rejoice: it’s Girl Scout cookie season.

Scouts in sashes will be selling scores of sweets around the county, and it’s already underway. This afternoon, scouts will be posted up at the 1800 N. Oak Street Apartments in Rosslyn from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Ft. Myer Commissary (523 Carpenter Road) from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., at the Giant Foods at 3115 Lee Highway, 2501 9th Road S. and 3450 Washington Blvd from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. and at the Metro stations in Courthouse, Virginia Square, Ballston, East Falls Church, Pentagon City and Crystal City during the evening rush hours.

The Girl Scouts will be stationed at various places around the county until Sunday, March 22. That means you have less than a month to buy Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs or any other of the scouts’ cookie options.

Here’s the complete list of locations scouts in Arlington will be selling. You can go to the Girl Scouts’ cookie locator website to see when they will be stationed at each post.

1800 N. Oak Street
Safeway (1525 Wilson Blvd)
Courthouse Metro Station (2100 Wilson Blvd)
Ballston Metro Station (901 N. Stuart Street)
Pentagon City Metro Station (1200 S. Hayes Street)
Crystal City Metro Station (1750 S. Clark Street)
East Falls Church Metro Station (2001 N. Sycamore Street)
Kettler Capitals Iceplex (627 N. Glebe Road)
Safeway (5101 Wilson Blvd)
Ft. Myer Commissary (523 Carpenter Road)
Ft. Myer Post Exchange (2nd and McNair Streets)
Waterview Office Building (1919 N. Lynn Street)
1555 Wilson Blvd
Arlington Central Library (1015 N. Quincy Street)
Nicecream Factory (2831 Clarendon Blvd)
Whitlow’s on Wilson (2854 Wilson Blvd)
Westover Market (5863 Washington Blvd)
Giant Food (3115 Lee Highway)
Giant Food (3450 Washington Blvd)
Giant Food (2501 9th Road S.)
St. Ann Church (5300 10th Street N.)
Safeway (5101 Wilson Blvd)
Safeway (2500 N. Harrison Street)
Lebanese Taverna (4400 Old Dominion Drive)
Tutti Frutti (2499 N. Harrison Street)
Safeway (3717 Lee Highway)
Giant Food (2901 S. Glebe Road)
Fairlington Community Center (3308 S. Stafford Street)
Marymount University Lee Center (2807 N. Glebe Road)
Goodwill Industries (10 S. Glebe Road)
Congregation Etz Hayim (2920 Arlington Blvd)
Mt. Olive Baptist Church (1601 13th Road S.)
Arlington Mill Community Center (909 S. Dinwiddie Street)
Pentagon Center Mall (1201 S. Hayes Street)
Meridian at Pentagon (1221 S. Eads Street)

#Girl Scout cookies

Century-Old House in Ballston to be Demolished

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 26, 2015 at 5:30PM | Updated February 26, 2015 at 6:24PM

4210 Washington Blvd, to be demolished this spring

(Updated at 6:30 p.m.) In a matter of months, a Washington Boulevard house thought to have been built in the 1800s will be torn down.

The two-story shingle and frame house at 4210 Washington Blvd will be replaced with a four-story duplex with a rooftop patio. It was built sometime between 1895 and 1910, according to Arlington County records, but little, if anything, is going to be preserved.

American Signature Properties owns the house, and Virginia Division Manager Mark Benas told ARLnow.com that the Arlington Historical Society combed the house for artifacts and he’s offered materials to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The AHS found nothing of value, Benas said, and all the ReStore wanted were some newer small appliances.

“It is literally just an old house,” county Preservation Planner Rebeccah Ballo wrote in an email. “Nothing particularly noteworthy about it.”

Former AHS President Tom Dickinson toured the house, and said it’s “pretty trashed inside.” It has been divided into apartments and there’s nothing “visible” that was in place around the turn of the 20th century.

“All of the radiators have frozen and exploded, spewing black goo everywhere,” Dickinson said via email. “The only interesting ‘original’ part is the exterior furnace room, with old T-111 walls, and old piping. It’s a place everyone has seen, and the new duplex going in there will be markedly different. I even climbed up into the attic.. It was interesting to see how the house has had various additions and expansions tied in over the years, i.e, a roof over a roof, rafters, splicing, etc.”

Falls Church News-Press columnist Charlie Clark first reported on the planned demolition, writing the house “is now deserted — save for some reported homeless squatters.”

The house, which became infamous for the giant flag that used to hang in the window, was approved for redevelopment in 2013 by the Arlington County Board, and sold to American Signature Properties last December for $827,500. Benas has applied for construction and demolition permits, and expects to tear down the house this spring.

“It’s a landmark in Arlington, for sure,” Dickinson said. “Wish there was more history as to its provenance around.”

African-American Heritage Festival Returns Saturday

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 26, 2015 at 1:00PM

Arlington’s 23rd annual “Feel the Heritage Festival,” celebrating Black History Month, returns on Saturday to the Charles Drew Community Center in Nauck.

From 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. at 3500 23rd Street S., attendees can come to the free event to enjoy live music and dancing, a display of Arlington’s black history with photos and artifacts and food from Buck’s BBQ and Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Performing throughout the festival will be an assortment of musical acts: N2N Band, an eight-member R&B and Motown cover group; Anansegromma of Ghana, performing traditional West African drumming, storytelling and dance; and the Ebony Day Dance Company.

There will be children’s activities like face painting, balloon animals and hands-on craft-making for kids to make their own souvenirs. The community will host a bake sale and there will be dozens artisan and nonprofit vendor booths.

For history buffs, the highlight will be the “Hall of History,” with artifacts from nine different black churches and organization, including relics from the Civil War and segregation.

Photo via Arlington County

Virginia Square Family Builds Igloo With Room for Two on Their Front Yard

By Ethan Rothstein

Published February 26, 2015 at 12:05PM

Record low temperatures and several snowstorms have some in Arlington feeling like they live in the Arctic, but one local family is taking it to the next level.

Graeme Lee, his wife and two children built an igloo on the front yard of their home on the 3500 block of 14th Street N., near Virginia Square. The structure with room for two adults serves as a play space for the family’s children, and Lee even drank a beer there with a neighbor.

Anyone passing through the igloo’s small entrance — which is key for keeping out the cold and wind — has to drag themselves through the snow, belly down. Inside, Lee’s family keeps a flashlight and a small Frisbee they use to rearrange the snow.

“Once you get in there, it’s remarkably warm and quiet,” he said.

The Lees built the igloo — which is topped with a nutcracker ornament with continually swinging arms — after the year’s first snow. First, they heaped snow into a mound to build a snowman. Noticing the mound looked like a dome, they opted to make an igloo.

“My wife took a snow-survival course, and learned how to make an emergency snow shelter,” Lee told ARLnow.com this morning as more snow fell. “I thought ‘Maybe we could do that in our yard.'”

The Australian natives, who both work for the federal government, let the snow settle on the dome for four days. Then, they spent an hour shaping its outside and its entrance, and another hour to carve out the inside with shovels.

The igloo survived rain and warmer weather on Saturday, which melted plenty of snow in the area. The igloo will remain on the Lees’ front yard until it melts.