Author: James Jarvis

Weathered beyond repair, a concrete sculpture in Courthouse is set to be replaced with a bronze replica

By James Jarvis
Before and after photos of concrete sculpture Compassion by Una Hanbury, which has sat between Wilson and Clarendon Blvd since 1969 (via Arlington County and courtesy anonymous)

A concrete sculpture of an adult embracing a child has been moved from its home of nearly six decades, a planted median in Courthouse, and possibly damaged in the process.

This week, the statue — missing a chunk of concrete — could be seen on a pedestal of soil and flowers on a nearby sidewalk, surrounded by construction work.

A gift to Arlington County in 1969, the sculpture was decommissioned due to its age and significant damage it sustained from the elements, according to Arlington Cultural Affairs. The 54-year-old sculpture was moved as part of the decommissioning process and is set to be destroyed and replaced with a bronze replica.

“Over its nearly 55 years in the public realm, time and weather took their toll, eroding the surface and rendering the sculpture unrecognizable,” Arlington Cultural Affairs spokesman Jim Byers told ARLnow. “Due to the condition of the original sculpture, two independent conservators agreed that the sculpture could not be repaired.”

Una Hanbury, an England native, made the work — entitled Compassion — to pay tribute to Arlington’s values. It was one of several works she completed in the Mid-Atlantic, including large-scale commissions for the Medical Examiners Building in Baltimore and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Springfield, Virginia.

During discussions about what to do with the aging sculpture, Hanbury’s grandson, Colin Poole, recommended recreating Compassion in bronze to match its original likeness, says Byers.

Fittingly, Poole is set to take on the replica, as he is a professional artist who apprenticed under his grandmother.

When it was still in one piece, Poole had “digitally scanned the weathered concrete sculpture, milled a replica in foam, and enveloped it in clay,” Byers said.

“Using his grandmother’s sculpting tools and referencing other sculptures she had crafted during that era, Poole skillfully reproduced the surface textures, and the renewed form was cast in bronze for longevity,” he continued.

Some of the material of the original sculpture will be incorporated within the base of the new piece, but the rest will be destroyed. Byers said this is the industry standard when a work of art is decommissioned due to severe deterioration.

The recreated bronze statue is set to be installed later this fall, somewhere “close to its original location,” Byers said. He added that he expects the piece to be incorporated into the county’s Public Art collection — adding to the roughly 70 permanent public art projects in Arlington.

“A dedication event is being planned for some time after the installation of the artwork,” he said.

The recasting is being funded by Greystar, the developer overseeing two new apartment buildings and transportation upgrades to the neighborhood.

An Arlington Boy Scout carries on a mission to build a 9/11 memorial near fire station in Pentagon City

By James Jarvis
1/4

Two years after Eagle Scout Megan Mazel started building a memorial around a World Trade Center steel beam in Pentagon City, a fellow scout is finishing what she started.

In 2010, the New York City Fire Department gave a warped and rusted steel beam — salvaged from the wreckage of World Trade Center’s North Tower after 9/11 — to the Arlington County Fire Department. The county held a ceremony and pledged to build a memorial.

For more than a decade, however, the beam sat unadorned outside Arlington County Fire Station 5 in Pentagon City. Mazel, then a member of Boy Scout Troop 164, approached ACFD about giving the beam a more fitting tribute.

“Coming from a military family and first responder family, I was a little taken aback at the fact that they just dropped this significant piece of metal on the lawn near the fire department… and they didn’t do anything for the first 10 years of it being there,” Mazel told ARLnow.

In August 2020, Mazel began drafting a proposal. She envisioned a pentagon-shaped walking path surrounding the steel beam, with one point oriented north toward the Pentagon.

Since the beam was on county property, however, she encountered a lot of red tape. It took nearly a year for her designs to be approved, leaving Mazel three weeks to meet her deadline: the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

In that time, she managed to build railroad ties around the beam, add mulch and install three ground sleeves for flag poles.

“I think it turned out well for the time that I had in the situation that I was in,” she said. “But I wish that I could have done more to it.”

Now, Daniel Bode, a Wakefield High School student and scout with Troop 164, is adding to her vision.

Working around the county’s plans for the site, Bode said he secured approval to add flower beds and benches around the steel beam “to further enhance the experience” of the memorial.

“I wanted to add benches because there should be a seating area around the area, just so you’re not standing and looking down on it,” Bode told ARLnow.

Last weekend, Bode, Mazel, other scouts and Arlington firefighters started installing the flower beds and laying the concrete for the benches. This Saturday, Bode and his fellow scouts intend to install the benches.

He aims to have the site ready for a commemoration ceremony by military personnel on Sept. 9.

“We will come back and even out the mulch a bit. Clean up the concrete pillars. Make the area look nice and bolt in the benches. And then that should be it,” he said.

Capt. Joshua Milfeit, who assisted both scouts with their individual projects, said he is excited to see Bode finish what Mazel started.

“There is a plan of some sort from the county to make it a more permanent memorial,” he said. “Until there is a permanent memorial, we can still make it something nicer than it used to be, which was two wood stanchions with a piece of steel.”

For Bode, the project honors those who lost their lives on 9/11 and holds personal significance for him.

“I didn’t have any family members that were lost,” he said. “But, of course, having military parents and a lot of friends and family who are in EMT service, or police officers, or the fire department, it just touches close to home,” he said.

As for Mazel, she said she hopes that other scouts will continue carrying out what she and Bode have done so far.

“If people keep adding to it, and it keeps being an Eagle Scout project that keeps getting bigger and more generation of kids get to do research about 9/11, I’ll be perfectly fine with that,” Mazel said.

New Mezeh location ‘coming soon’ to Pentagon City mall

By James Jarvis
Mezeh sign at Fashion Centre in Pentagon City (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Mezeh seems to be proceeding with its plans to open a new location at Fashion Centre at Pentagon City.

The fast-casual Mediterranean grill had originally announced plans to open in 2020, but the opening was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Coming soon” signs are now up for the restaurant, on the same level as the food court and across from the Fast Fix Jewelry and Watch Repairs. That’s the former location of Harry’s Tap Room, which a bloggier iteration of ARLnow once dubbed “Arlington’s favorite watering hole for midwestern tourists.”

A spokesperson for the mall said they “do not have an update on timing.”

Mezeh previously opened a location at Ballston Quarter mall in February 2020. The company’s first stand-alone restaurant opened in Crystal City (2450 Crystal Drive) in 2015 and a National Airport outpost opened in 2021.

Mezeh, which draws comparisons to assembly-line-style Mediterranean eateries like Roti and Cava, now has more than 50 locations up and down the Eastern Seaboard that are either open or coming soon.

Hat Tip @CartChaos22202

Makers Union pub slated to open this fall in Pentagon City

By James Jarvis
1/5

(Updated at 4:40 p.m.) Get ready to raise your forks and pint glasses.

Makers Union, a gastropub known for its upscale menu, is coming to Amazon’s second headquarters in Pentagon City this fall.

Alex Brown, the restaurant’s director of operations, tells ARLnow doors will open by mid-October, though a specific opening date has yet to be confirmed.

“I’ll put it at 90% — unless something comes up,” he told ARLnow.

This will be the third location for Makers Union, which first opened in Reston three years ago and is planning to open a second location in D.C. at the Wharf in September.

Makers Union joins a variety of new businesses and dining establishments slated to get in on the ground floor of the first phase of Amazon’s HQ2, known as Metropolitan Park, which opened earlier this summer.

“[Makers Union] is all about having fun with different events and just being that place where guests can celebrate any of life’s occasions,” Brown said.

Guests can “grab wings and a beer at the bar,” partake in bottomless brunch or celebrate a birthday or anniversary with “elevated options” such as crab cakes and ribeye steaks, he added.

The pub’s owner, Thompson Hospitality, also operates Matchbox, Big Buns Damn Good Burgers and Wiseguy Pizza, among several other local restaurant concepts.

Thompson Hospitality launched three decades ago with the purchase of several Bob’s Big Boys. It has since become a nearly billion-dollar company, with most of its restaurants still in the D.C. area., including Matchbox and Wise Guys Pizza.

Arlington couple sounds alarm on internet rental scam

By James Jarvis
1/3

When Penrose resident Pete Giannino answered his doorbell one day this March, he was surprised to see his neighbors standing there, looking concerned.

“They said, ‘Hey, are you guys planning on renting your home?’ And I said, ‘No. Why do you ask?’ And they pointed out there was a listing on Zillow or Redfin for our home that we own,” Giannino told ARLnow.

Now, the local couple is sounding the alarm on an internet rental scam falsely advertising that their 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home on the 600 block of S. Wayne Street is on the market. They say the scam appears to target people who are lower-income or who speak limited English and has defrauded several people and families.

In the last six months, Giannino and his wife, Kate Colwell, said upwards of 20 people have come to their door asking to tour the house while another half-dozen have contacted them via social media. They say the home is listed as available for rent, for $2,400 a month, on real estate and social media platforms, including Zillow and Facebook.

Giannino and his wife have gotten many fraudulent listings removed from mainstream real estate websites. Despite seeking help from law enforcement, they’ve struggled to eliminate listings on Facebook Marketplace, where scammers continue messaging potential renters.

“We’re just really angry that this person on the internet is cheating people, stealing from people,” Colwell said. “There’s no accountability and we really want them to be stopped.”

Rental scam depicting house on S. Wayne Street on Facebook Marketplace (courtesy Kate Colwell)

Giannino and Colwell are convinced they are not the only ones to whom this is happening. When Giannino filed a police report in late March, an Arlington County Police Department detective told the couple he had heard of similar scams happening to other newer homeowners in the area.

On April 5, Giannino said he got his hopes up after the detective said the department’s financial crimes unit would handle the case. About a month later, he got a letter in the mail from the police department stating that their case was closed.

The department did not immediately respond to ARLnow’s request for comment.

“In a rage, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’And just like, I threw it away because I was just so upset by the fact that they were turning a blind eye to this,” he said.

Meanwhile, strangers asking to tour their home continue knocking on their door. So far, Giannino and Colwell say most do not speak English as their first language and there will typically be a translator with them.

Colwell noted that one Hispanic couple who came to their door in early April said they paid a $1,800 security deposit.

“She had like text conversations with the scammer. She had phone conversations with the scammer… and they showed up for the tour. And we’re like, ‘Oh, we’re here for the tour,” Colwell said.

While it’s been emotionally draining to keep turning away hopeful renters, Colwell said that any “annoyance or discomfort we feel with people wanting a tour of the house… pales in comparison to how it feels actually to lose your hard-earned savings.”

Giannino said he had filed an addendum to the initial police report to try and get ACPD to reopen the case.

But, just in case, the couple has also filed a complaint with the FBI.

In the interim, Giannino and Colwell have posted signs in front of their house and spreading the word to prevent more people from falling victim.

“It’s a good thing to shine a light on it, too, because it’s harder for an internet criminal to operate [than in the] darkness,” Colwell said.

Hat tip John Antonelli

Fifty Arlingtonians become U.S. citizens in first in-person naturalization ceremony since 2019

By James Jarvis
1/7

With mini American flags in hand and camera phones at the ready, friends and family gathered at Arlington Central Library on Thursday to witness loved ones take the final step in their years-long journey to becoming U.S. citizens.

For the first time since 2019, Arlington Public Library hosted an in-person U.S. citizen induction ceremony at Central Library in Virginia Square. Fifty former green card holders from 29 different countries recited the Oath of Allegiance, marking the completion of their naturalization process.

“Many of you embarked on a journey from somewhere else. You left behind families and friends, cities and villages, farms and businesses, happy times, and challenging times, making sacrifices to begin your minds a new in this great country of ours,” Diane Kresh, director of Arlington Public Library, told candidates before they took their oaths.

For many candidates, the ceremony was a milestone they had waited over a decade to achieve.

Aparna, who asked ARLnow not to use her last name, said she immigrated to the United States from India in 2007 on a student visa. She eventually received a work visa and married her husband Piyush — who was naturalized in 2011 in Wisconsin before he met Aparna — in 2012. Although eligible for citizenship years ago, Aparna waited to apply, noting it was not an easy decision.

“It was an emotional change,” she said. “You can still be Indian, but you owe your allegiance to the United States.”

Loren Aka said she immigrated from the Ivory Coast to the U.S. in 2017 on a student visa to pursue higher education at George Mason University in Fairfax County.

Now married with a child, Aka told ARLnow she applied for citizenship this year after she received her green card, adding that it was a “smooth” process.

“I applied in January for the citizenship… And a couple of months later, they called me for an interview. I was interviewed in July. One month later, when I passed the interview. I was called here for the naturalization,” she said.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website, eligibility for naturalization requires an individual to be at least 18 years old and to read, write and speak basic English. Candidates must also reside continuously in the United States for at least five years, or three if married to a U.S. citizen, and maintain “good moral character.”

After having their biometrics taken and being interviewed by a USCIS officer, the final step for the candidates was reciting the oath. USCIS Washington District Director Ron Rosenberg administered Aka and Aparna’s oath.

“I’m feeling good because I’ve started to be a part of the community of country since I’ve been in the United States. So, I feel like I want to keep going with what I was doing and I feel a part of the country,” Aka said.

(more…)

Arlington County offers free ‘life-saving’ courses to the public

By James Jarvis
Participants learning how to stop bleeding in “Until Help Arrives” before the pandemic (via Arlington County)

Want to learn how to handle a life-threatening situation?

The Arlington Community Response Team plans to offer free emergency response training sessions over the next several months for those who live, work, or volunteer in Arlington. It’s part of the national “Until Help Arrives” program to teach the public how to help during emergencies, from car accidents to active shooter situations.

Locals can sign up for two courses, including a 3.5-hour full emergency response training course or a 2-hour hands-on course.

According to the county website, course graduates learn the following life-saving skills:

  • Maintaining situational awareness
  • Identifying key life threats
  • Stopping bleeding
  • Moving and positioning the injured
  • Providing psychological support and comfort to the wounded
  • Relaying essential information to 9-1-1

The full course, which includes “classroom instruction and hands-on practice of live-saving skills,” will be offered on Wednesday, Nov. 29, from 5:30-8:45 p.m. at Arlington Mill Community Center.

Residents are not required to do any preparation work in advance. Certificates will be presented following the completion of the course.

People can also register for a 2-hour hands-on course, in which they just learn hands-on techniques, such as how to use a tourniquet and stop bleeding.

This option requires participants to take an online course in lieu of a classroom session.

The 2-hour course is offered once this month and once in October:

  • Thursday, Aug. 31, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Walter Reed Community Center
  • Thursday, Oct. 19, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Walter Reed Community Center

Online registration is available for both the 3.5-hour and the 2-hour classes.

‘Vampire Diaries’ cast resurrected for Arlington convention

By James Jarvis
1/2

Vampires will be descending on Crystal City next month.

It won’t be self-professed real vampires, known to haunt New Orleans and Atlanta, but rather the cast of the hit TV show “Vampire Diaries.”

Members of the cast will journey to Arlington for a three-day convention next month, offering fans a deep dive into its supernatural world. The “Vampire Fan Weekend” by Creation Entertainment is set to take place at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, at 1700 Richmond Hwy, from Friday, Sept. 15 to Sunday, Sept. 17.

“Vampire Diaries” is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia and follows Elena Gilbert, portrayed by Nina Dobrev, who falls in love with 162-year-old vampire Stefan Salvatore, played by Paul Wesley.

The plot thickens when Stefan’s mysterious older brother, Damon Salvatore, portrayed by Ian Somerhalder, returns to town. His mission? To resurrect Katherine Pierce, whom both brothers loved and who bears an uncanny resemblance to Elena.

After 171 episodes spanning eight seasons on The CW network, the show concluded on March 10, 2017, cultivating a passionate fan base along the way.

During the conference, fans can nab autographs and photo opportunities and attend a celebration concert and panel with the actors.

General admission tickets start at $60, while the Gold Weekend Package is priced at $1,350.

The Gold package guarantees reserved front-row seats in the main theater throughout the event, an exclusive panel on Sunday, priority for autographs, special credentials, and complimentary autographs from stars including Somerhalder and Wesley.

Otherwise, autographs range from $30 to $85, photos cost $45 to $149 and the celebration concert is $35.

Autographs and photo opportunities with Somerhalder have sold out, according to Creation Entertainment’s website.

In addition to Somerhalder and Wesley, cast members set to attend include: Daniel Gillies, Candice King, Michael Malarkey, Riley Voelkel, Nathaniel Buzolic, Chris Lee, Quincy Fouse, Ben Levin, Chase Coleman, Zane Phillips and Micah Parker.

Dobrev, who left the cast after the show’s sixth season, is not currently listed as expected to attend.

Local pie shop serves up musical feast on Columbia Pike this Saturday

By James Jarvis
1/6

(Updated at 08/29/23) Get ready for a symphony of local sounds and savory pies.

ACME Pie Company in Penrose is set to host its third annual music event, featuring musicians from across Northern Virginia, this Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 2803 Columbia Pike.

Admission is free, but Sol Schott — a former fine-dining pastry chef turned pie shop owner — says he’s asking for a $10 donation. This will be divided between the bands at the show’s end.

“It’s been a difficult time for musicians,” Schott told ARLnow, adding that several musicians performing at the event rely on music as their primary source of income.

“There’s a lot of different ways people can make money with music, and it just seems like over the last four years or so, since the pandemic, a lot of those options have kind of gone away,” he said. “I also want to do something nice for South Arlington.”

Of course, attendees will also be able to enjoy Schott’s assortment of pies, including quiche and pot pies, as well as seasonal fruit pies such as blackberry, peach and blueberry.

Schott said the show — held in the parking lot behind the pie shop — starts out “more blues and jazz,” then as the evening progresses, “it will become more rock and roll.”

The pie maker will also make an appearance on stage as the drummer for the act MF Grumbler.

Here is the lineup:

  • 2 p.m. — Rick Franklin and guests
  • 3 p.m. — Swingamajig
  • 4 p.m. — Coronal Josh & Paisley Tonk
  • 5 p.m. — Ex Motorcycle Couriers
  • 6 p.m. — Karl Straub Quartet
  • 7 p.m. — Delicate Whip
  • 8 p.m. — MF Grumbler
  • 9 p.m. — Jackie & the Tree Horns
The event poster for this Saturday’s music event at Acme Pie Company on Columbia Pike (via Acme Pie Co./Instagram)

Arlington actor bids farewell to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Broadway tour

By James Jarvis
1/2

(Updated 08/25/23) This week will be the audience’s last chance to see former local pandemic response volunteer and Broadway actor Joey Collins star in “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the Kennedy Center.

After 18 months on the road and nearly 600 performances, Collins said he plans to leave the production following the tour’s last performance in D.C. at the Kennedy Center on Sunday.

While the rest of the cast continues on the tour, he will cross the river into Arlington to be reunited with his family and the community he formed doing voter and Covid vaccine outreach.

“I just have to pull the plug,” he told ARLnow. “And it’s not because of the people. I love my cast, crew, and team. I’m going to miss them tremendously. But, obviously, I miss my family too.”

Collins portrays the main villain, Bob Ewell, in Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The play animates the book, which follows Scout Finch as she grows up in Alabama, observing her father, Atticus, defend a Black man who Ewell falsely accused of raping his daughter.

Collins described performing in the play as an “amazing” experience and a “privilege.” Still, he found it difficult to be away from his wife, two high school children, and their Maltese-Shih Tzu mix, Shakespeare — all of whom moved to Arlington from New York in 2019.

“I feel like I’ve missed so much by being on the road,” he said. “And so I really would love to, at least for the next four years, really strive to find work here. So, it’s more about the time and my family than it is about any other aspects of my acting career.”

Collins says he does not have any work lined up. If he returns to live, local theater, partial credit would go toward the type of vaccine outreach he did — which helped regional theaters reopen their doors during the pandemic.

Shortly after moving to Arlington, Collins said he felt a loss of “purpose.” He joined a volunteer effort to register people to vote ahead of the 2020 elections, an experience he noted that “filled my cup.”

“I didn’t really have a community here, and I love helping people,” he said. “I’ve loved volunteering my whole life, but this particular [experience] gave me something that I really needed because we were all isolated.”

Then, a colleague from the voter registration effort told him the county was looking for volunteers to help distribute vaccines in Arlington. He jumped at the chance, seeing it as a way to get theaters up and running again.

“Then I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be the beginning of getting performative arts back to the public because once enough people are vaccinated, maybe they’ll open up the theatres,’” Collins said.

And open up, they did. Collins got word that the show he initially auditioned for in November 2019 was finally ready to hit the road.

When the tour came to the Kennedy Center last summer, Collins said several fellow vaccine workers came to one of his performances. On another occasion, a vaccine worker approached him after a show during his tour in the Midwest.

“It was a surreal experience, but it was also like a reminder of the impact one might be able to have on the world simply by donating some time,” he said.

While Collins said he is sad to be leaving the tour, he added he believes he will be ending on a fitting note. The actor has now completed a “trifecta” by performing on the Kennedy Center’s three most prominent stages: the Concert Hall, Opera House and Eisenhower Theater.

“I feel very lucky to have checked those boxes, and I hope I can go back through all of them at some point in my career,” he said.

Dominion Energy says burying power lines in Arlington complex and costly

By James Jarvis
Fallen power line caused by July 29 storm in Arlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated on 8/18/23) After a late July tempest plunged roughly 35,000 Arlington residents into darkness, ARLnow posed a pressing question to Virginia’s largest electric utility: Why not move all power lines underground?

The short answer is red tape and price.

Local elected officials have been interested in burying power lines since the 1980s, as doing so can reduce power outages and restoration times after storm-induced outages. The trade-offs, however, include cost, customer buy-in and longer repair times.

Historically, cost has been the biggest deterrent. Virginia, Dominion and Arlington County have balked at spearheading efforts at their respective levels, citing costs. This has left the utility company and Arlington County to piece together a patchwork approach prioritizing vulnerable lines, willing property owners and deep-pocketed developers.

Whenever a storm blows through, however, causing power disruptions and requiring maintenance work, the question of a broader effort resurfaces.

In an interview, Dominion spokeswoman Peggy Fox underscored two obstacles.

First, the utility company needs permission from property owners, also known as an easement, to access their land. People do not always grant that permission because, Fox said, “not everybody wants the construction that goes along with it.”

“We can’t just come in and do what we want. These are people’s properties, and we want to work with them,” she said in a phone interview.

Second, burying power lines would cost billions of dollars.

After Hurricane Isabel devastated Virginia’s electrical grid in 2003, the Virginia General Assembly tasked the State Corporation Commission — which regulates utilities in Virginia — with studying the feasibility of relocating the state’s overhead distribution power lines underground.

The study says the project aimed to decrease weather-related utility interruptions, reduce maintenance costs and lessen “visual pollution.”

Elected officials scrapped the project after learning it could cost around $83 billion, to be borne by utility customers via higher taxes or rates, and could cause “significant disruptions.”

“The potential benefits, both to the utilities and to the economy, resulting from the elimination of tree trimming maintenance, vehicle accidents, post-storm restoration, and lost sales during outages, do not appear to be sufficient to offset the initial construction costs associated with a comprehensive program to relocate the currently existing overhead utility distribution lines to underground,” the report stated.

Fox said she cannot “pinpoint” how much it would cost to underground all overhead power lines in Arlington, let alone the state. Adjusted for inflation, $83 billion would be roughly $130 billion today.

Arlington County has also shied away from taking on this work over costs. In 2015, then-Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes said a local effort to bury electrical and telecommunication wires would cost billions of dollars the county did not have, the Sun Gazette reported at the time.

Nevertheless, Dominion and the county have taken steps to move underground several miles of power lines in Arlington.

In 2014, Dominion embarked on its Strategic Underground Plan (SUP) to bury 4,000 miles of vulnerable overhead lines throughout the state. So far, it has buried around 1,907 miles — nearly the halfway point.

(more…)

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