Author: Jo DeVoe

A poster ribbing ARLnow commenters won a ribbon at the Arlington County Fair

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

A poster poking fun at the ARLnow commentariat won an award at the Arlington County Fair last week.

In white, upper case letters on a purple background, it reads, “You’ll see me in hell before you’ll see me in the ARLnow comments.”

ARLnow caught up with the creator ribbing the denizens of the comment section — who can be helpful, amusing and pugnacious, all in the course of a Monday morning — and he said the poster is a friendly jab.

“It’s true I don’t play pickleball but I do read ARLnow (subscribe actually) and I got nothing but love for the commenters,” he said.

The creator is also behind the volley of pro-pickleball posters in Penrose earlier this year: @ARLINGTONAF, who can be found on the platform X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as well as Threads. His posters likening pickleball to the Cold War popped up all around Columbia Pike earlier this year.

The account owner, who goes by Mac, says fair attendees who stopped by his art display got a kick out of the poster.

“Lots of people stopped and laughed and took their phones out for that one,” he told ARLnow, adding that he liked seeing it resonate with people.

The poster also made the rounds on social media.

For @ARLINGTONAF, the joke comes from a good place. It inhabits the simultaneously sarcastic and genuine Arlington subculture — also seen in the ARLnow comment section — that can rib and lionize civic leaders and find the humor in debates over pickleball, gondolas, housing and bicycle trails.

“It’s like the Jay Fisette trail: if you have to have the joke explained, then obviously you didn’t get it,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure everybody in the ARLnow comments gets ‘their’ joke.”

For the uninitiated, the words “Jay Fisette Memorial Trail” were found spray-painted onto a dirt “desire path” on the east side of N. Carlin Springs Road, north of 1st Street N. In 2015, the majority of Arlington County Board members, including avid cyclist Fisette, voted against a proposal to pave what which Fisette then called a “cow path.”

Mac, who documents his bicycle rides through Arlington on social media, says he submitted several “random” posters he made but never hung. This includes a stylized portrait of former Board member Katie Cristol, with the caption, “Here for the housing, not the convention,” a nod to her focus on increasing housing, including Missing Middle-type dwellings.

A few months ago, he was asked to frame the ARLnow poster for an interested buyer. He did — using garbage he found on the Pike — but the buyer never came through. This ended up being a stroke of luck for the poster pundit.

“I got hit by a car a few weeks ago and didn’t actually get to make any art this year, but wanted to enter something,” he said, noting he is feeling better after the crash.

While the poster received a ribbon, Mac demurred from too much recognition, saying most of his submitted work has been recognized one way or another.

“This year, I just went with my own Arlington theme,” he said.

Plans for DCA pedestrian bridge take shape, as more public input sought

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

Plans to build the future pedestrian bridge from Crystal City to National Airport are firming up.

A new report outlines the impact the bridge could have on the environment. It also details how the project will relate to separate plans to redo roadways and add more parking, new car rental facility and office space.

The environmental assessment says the impact on scenic views for drivers on the GW Parkway, as well as vegetation removal, is expected to be relatively minimal. Up to 146 trees could be removed for construction and the area would later be replanted.

Now through Oct. 3, community members can comment online on the report, Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Erin Potter tells ARLnow. They can also attend a public hearing on Sept. 19 at the Aurora Hills Recreation Center (735 18th Street S.).

Even with the pedestrian bridge, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which governs DCA and Dulles International Airport, says it does not project reduced vehicle traffic to and from the airport. As such, it is designing significant upgrades for drivers.

“The overall number of passengers and employees shifting to the multi-modal access would not have a notable effect on the forecast traffic demand on the Airport roadway network or the demand for on-Airport passenger and employee parking,” a report for the MWAA project says.

While MWAA is not leading the bridge project, it did have input on where the pedestrian bridge could go, the report says. It notes that where the bridge goes and what angle it is at will not alter the project’s environmental impacts.

MWAA asked Arlington County and the Virginia Dept. of Transportation to move the bridge to reduce impacts on existing parking and accommodate a proposed elevated ramp west of the West Entrance Road, the report says.

“Arlington County and the CC2DCA project team have been working closely with MWAA staff to coordinate delivery of the safety and access improvements provided by both projects,” says Potter.

Construction on the CC2DCA bridge is expected to begin construction in late 2027 and last for two years, Potter said. Since MWAA is still finalizing a timeline for its road improvements, VDOT and Arlington are blocking off an area where the bridge could go and deciding on a final alignment later.

The new report describes how the preferred option marries two other alternatives: one that crossed the GW Parkway and Mount Vernon Trail at a significant angle and another that provided a straight shot. The new renderings also show that, of the two Mount Vernon Trail link options, a more curved path was chosen.

CC2DCA pedestrian bridge alternatives (by ARLnow)

As planning efforts continue for projects at DCA, the surrounding area is set to see changes, too.

An airport access road is set to be removed to make way for a redevelopment project proposed by JBG Smith. Near the Crystal City-side of the bridge, a second entrance to the Crystal City Metro station and a new Virginia Railway Express station and Amtrak platform are being built.

Meanwhile, the Mount Vernon Trail is set to be widened to 11 feet, a planned Crystal City bicycle network could be completed next year and the bus rapid transit network will be extended to Pentagon City.

An acoustic fence is coming to Walter Reed pickleball courts — a couple of years ahead of schedule

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

Those living near Walter Reed Community Center may soon get a reprieve from the pickleball pop.

Next week, a 10-foot-tall acoustic fence will be installed at the multi-use pickleball and tennis courts at 2909 16th Street S., south of Columbia Pike.

It is set to go up between Monday, Aug. 28 and Friday, Sept. 1, weather permitting, per a county press release.

The fence caps off months of escalating tensions and comes more than a month after a splashy New York Times article about the neighborhood and its pickleball plight.

Already a pickleball hub, the community center is set to become home to dedicated pickleball courts as part of the Walter Reed Outdoor Pickleball Court project. After hearing from disgruntled neighbors, some of whom considered pursuing legal action, the county decided to add noise-mitigating features — including acoustic fencing.

Some residents welcomed these changes but pointed out they would take a couple of years — leaving them to deal with the noise until then. The fencing going up next week could reduce noises some two years ahead of schedule.

The fencing will be up until construction starts, says Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Jerry Solomon. It will be properly stored and reused when more acoustic fencing goes up as part of the pickleball project.

Beyond acoustic fencing, other elements of DPR’s plans to add dedicated pickleball facilities to Walter Reed have changed in response to public feedback. The department intends to add sound walls and landscaping, build six courts rather than nine and locate them further from neighbors.

Since the noise complaints began, DPR has taken other steps to reduce the incessant “pock” sound.

Last fall, the parks department reduced the court’s operating hours to open from sunrise or 7 a.m., whichever is later, to close at 10 p.m. This spring, it again reduced playing hours to match those of the community center. DPR added locks to the gates at close to ensure people do not sneak for after-hours play.

The biggest noise reduction, however, could be a temporary ban on play next Monday through Friday for the fence installation.

“Play will not be allowed on these days between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m.,” the county said in a release. “If you are looking for alternative locations to play while Walter Reed courts are closed, please check out the County’s pickleball and tennis webpages.”

Nottingham parents claim plan to make the school a ‘swing space’ is based on flawed assumptions

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

Two months after Arlington Public Schools floated plans to turn Nottingham Elementary School into a “swing space,” parents returned to the School Board with a message.

The assumptions the school system relied on for this plan are flawed, they said.

Arlington Public Schools is planning how to use its buildings in the coming decade. The goal is to balance enrollment among schools with empty seats in North Arlington and over-capacity schools in South Arlington, while keeping costs down. It aims to do so by improving how it uses existing schools with a surplus of seats.

One solution could be closing Nottingham Elementary School, in the Williamsburg neighborhood at 5900 Little Falls Road, and turning it into a “swing space.” For $5 million, it could become home to any school community temporarily displaced by renovations. Reaction to this idea, proposed in June, was swift. Several parents mobilized, forming a Facebook group and circulating a petition, which had nearly 750 signatures as of publication.

After receiving a charge from the School Board in June to “poke holes” in the data, a group of Nottingham parents told ARLnow they did just that.

“We found, in a bunch of ways, the forecasts are critically flawed… The main issue is that APS used pandemic enrollment to project future enrollment,” one parent, Aaron Beytin, said. “At the beginning, I was upset about Nottingham. Now, I’m worried about the direction of the overall county. We’re looking at a probable capacity crisis.”

Enrollment had been increasing by 3% on average in the decade prior to the pandemic, statistician and parent Paul Winters said last night (Thursday) during a School Board meeting. Rather than assume this trend would continue, he says APS assumes Covid-induced falling enrollment would continue.

“Ignoring these concerns will lead to overcrowded schools and a worse educational experience for our children,” he said. “A more reasonable approach would be to discard the Covid data and use the pre-pandemic years, or even APS’s own projections from 2019.”

The school system maintains that its staff are in lockstep with county counterparts on these projections.

“APS and Arlington County demographers collaborate to ensure the longer-term projections are using the same factors,” it said.

APS says it used the three most recent school years — which the parents consider pandemic years — to project enrollment for grades 1-12. The school system projected kindergarten rates with actual births going back to 2018-2019, using addresses associated with births to map where new students are located.

The parents say the strongest sign that projections relied on pandemic years is how APS weighted the ratio of births to kindergarten enrollments.

The school system says it placed more weight on birth-to-kindergarten ratios for 2016-21 and 2017-22 than 2015-20 because “of the impacts of the pandemic on that cohort that year.”

The birth-to-kindergarten ratio in these years had fallen as a result of the pandemic, the parents say. They argue APS gives 2020, 2021 and 2022 outsized influence compared to the 2015-2019 school years, when the birth-to-kindergarten ratio was higher.

APS counters that birth rates are in fact declining in Arlington, like the region and nationwide.

(more…)

Another segment of Columbia Pike to see construction and road closures next month

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

For years, parts of Columbia Pike have been under construction, resulting in wider sidewalks, newly-planted trees and underground utilities, among other changes.

Now, work on the penultimate phase of the years-long Columbia Pike Multimodal Street Improvements project is slated to begin in September, according to the county. Work could begin on the final phase early next year.

Starting in September, the county will upgrade the Pike’s streetscape, enhance transit infrastructure, replace aging water and sewer mains and bury utility lines between S. Garfield Street and S. Courthouse Road.

The final segment, from S. Courthouse Road to S. Quinn Street, could begin in early 2024 and wrap up in late 2025, according to Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors.

A contract for this phase was approved earlier this summer, the Gazette Leader reported.

Streetscape improvements to the Pike have been ongoing for nearly two decades.

The first segment was completed back in 2009, Pors said. The next two segments were completed in 2015, one by the county and the other by the Virginia Dept. of Transportation.

Concurrently, the county also created “bike boulevards” parallel to the Pike, diverting cyclists from car-heavy corridor in advance of the planned, but never built, streetcar.

Last year, the county started working on improvements between S. Wakefield Street and S. Oakland Street and S. Orme Street and S. Oak Street. The federal government is handling similar upgrades east of S. Oak Street as part of its project to realign the road to accommodate the expansion of Arlington National Cemetery.

Columbia Pike Multimodal Street Improvement Project overview (via Arlington County)

Before getting started on the S. Garfield Street to S. Courthouse Road segment, county staff will hold pop-ups and open houses in the area to inform community members of the changes, Pors said.

She added that the team has not yet come up with a final work schedule, though work will likely be less intense than the currently under construction portion of the Pike between S. Quincy Street and S. Oakland Street.

Work hours will be Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the county website.

“Residents should expect to see and hear dust, mud, noise, debris, and temporary traffic and parking restrictions,” the website says. “In locations where parking will be prohibited during work, no parking signs will be posted.”

“These roadway changes are essential for the contractors to construct a safer and more accessible Columbia Pike in an efficient and safe manner while maintaining access to residences and businesses along the corridor,” Arlington County says on its website.

This work has previously closed lanes on other stretches of the Pike and even resulted on the occasional rogue utility pole.

Arlington County buys electric buses for its fleet

By Jo DeVoe
The Gillig bus rolls through Ballston (courtesy Dept. of Environmental Services)

(Updated at 9:30 a.m. on 8/23/23) Arlington County’s efforts to electrify transit just jolted forward.

Arlington’s transit system, ART, is getting its first batch of battery electric buses, or BEB, as it pursues carbon neutrality by 2050, according to a press release. The vehicles will be deployed in late 2024 after work wraps up on the new Operations and Maintenance Facility on Shirlington Road.

With $3.3 million in state and $1.2 million in local funds, the county is buying four American-made buses by the company Gillig, which drivers and riders tested out along with other options over the last year.

“Delivering transit service is at the core of who we are and what we do, when it comes to realizing our vision of smart growth that is environmentally conscious and sustainable,” Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said in a statement.

Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers said in a statement that this purchase is the county’s second step toward a “greener, healthier future for Arlington Transit.”

“The first step began with our public vehicle demonstrations of BEB technology,” she said. “The partnership with Gillig points us in the right direction for a reliable and resilient zero-emission transit fleet that contributes to a cleaner, healthier County.”

The release says the battery electric buses are part of an effort to test out new technologies while maintaining current reliable levels of service.

Arlington’s Transit Bureau could also be testing out advances in fuel technology for 15 buses it is buying to replace aging vehicles within ART’s 78-bus fleet.

Unlike the four electric buses, these 15 will be powered by compressed natural gas — essentially compressed methane — like the rest of the ART fleet. While compressed natural gas produces fewer emissions than petrol, is still considered nonrenewable because underground reservoirs make up its largest source.

For the 15 new buses, the transit bureau is looking at using renewable natural gas, or methane that has already been used or captured from landfill emissions, Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors told ARLnow.

Meanwhile, the county is outfitting its forthcoming bus operations and maintenance facility with electric charging capabilities.

Initially, the county aimed to get electric buses operating from the facility in 2025, but the 2024 deployment date means it is ahead of schedule.

“The facility is projected to reach substantial completion in 2024 — a little faster than initially expected, and we are expecting to receive revisions of the 100% design for BEB infrastructure in the fall of this year,” Pors said.

DCA to change its roads, add parking and build a new rental car facility

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

National Airport is set to get some sweeping changes intended to make it easier to get around, park and rent a car.

DCA’s convenience for Arlington residents is a major selling point but the airport has its downsides, including traffic jams of sometimes epic proportions.

Prompted by such issues, and a projected increase in travelers, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which operates National Airport and Dulles International Airport, has spent several years mulling how to reduce traffic and meet future demand.

It proposes to realign roads and improve signage, while building a new public parking lot. Immediately south would be a new multi-use facility for a rental car center, with more parking and corporate office space.

“The proposed improvements are needed to address congestion along the Airport roadway network that affects safety, while also addressing space constraints for employee and public parking, rental car facilities, and the Airports Authority administrative offices,” a report says.

The proposed new multi-use center and roadway configurations at National Airport (courtesy MWAA)

MWAA proposes changes to several roads and ramps that unfurl from the airport access road connecting drivers to Crystal City and Route 1.

This includes realigning West Entrance Road to “allow for clear, concise wayfinding that would help reduce the need for drivers to make quick decisions and maneuvers in short periods of time,” the report said.

Another change includes widening a ramp for northbound traffic traveling onto the GW Parkway so drivers have more merging distance. Rapid-flashing beacons and other signage would be added to improve safety for those crossing the onramp via the Mount Vernon Trail.

A new pedestrian path from the Mount Vernon Trail to the airport would replace an existing tunnel that will be displaced during the work.

One road would connect to the future public parking lot in what MWAA calls a “connector garage and ground transportation center.” This is sandwiched between existing garages and the future proposed multi-use center. Just south of the building, there will be a new staging area for ride-share cars.

The airports authority projects it will take some nine years to make all these changes. It underscored, however, the need for them in a presentation during a meeting last night (Tuesday).

The litany of issues at DCA in need of addressing (courtesy MWAA)

Despite the Covid-era drop in travel rates, the airports authority says travel is rebounding and passenger rates may exceed pre-2020 levels by this year or next year.

It predicts current public and employee parking will not meet this future demand. Currently, its 8,909 public parking spaces across three facilities and 3,200 employee spaces across several lots are at capacity or hard to access.

The rental car center, meanwhile, is small, “operationally inefficient” and also projected not to meet future demand. By building a new center, with room for corporate offices, MWAA can move out of leased space in Crystal City and into a rent-free facility.

MWAA nixxed two other alternatives before landing on its current proposal. One would have relocated the multi-use center farther south.

One other option would relocate the multi-use center farther south (courtesy MWAA)

Another option would not have included any parking in the multi-use center. MWAA concluded neither would reduce traffic congestion, enhance safety or improve wayfinding.

(more…)

One year after fiery crash, Ireland’s Four Courts now aims to open in early September

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

One year and three days ago, a rideshare vehicle plowed into Ireland’s Four Courts, seriously injuring several patrons and sparking a devastating fire.

Six months after the crash, the pub began to rebuild and has since targeted reopening in August. With construction still in progress as of mid-August, managing partner Dave Cahill tells ARLnow he aims to throw open the doors in early September.

Cahill says the interior is getting its final finishes. Photos he shared show a cozy interior with a large stone fireplace, dark wood paneling and brass light fixtures. A large wood fireplace and some stained glass survived the fire and are prominently featured as well.

A greenish-blue and gold exterior will replace the old red-and-black façade. Inside, the layout of the pub will be more or less the same, though there will be some new features, including a new draft beer system.

The pub marked the anniversary of the crash in a Facebook post on Saturday.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the accident which closed the pub. In that time the level of support that we have received from our local community in Arlington and our friends across the country has been heartwarming.

We want to thank all of you. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the pub soon. Please continue to follow our social media pages for updates on our reopening date.

The driver, who was reportedly suffering a medical emergency, was not charged. All three pub-goers who suffered serious, potentially life-threatening injuries in the August crash were released from the hospital by the next month.

A number of first responders who responded to the chaotic scene were recently recognized for their heroism.

Amazon is vacating temporary office space, teeing up at least one redevelopment project

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

(Updated at 10:20 a.m.) With half of its planned HQ2 now open in Pentagon City, Amazon is planning to leave most of its leased spaces in Crystal City.

Once the leases expire for temporary Amazon offices at 1800 S. Bell Street and 2100 Crystal Drive, in 2023 and 2024, respectively, JBG Smith intends to “take off-line and entitle [them] for alternate uses,” per a new report.

One of the buildings, 1800 S. Bell Street, could get the redevelopment treatment as early as 2026, the report says. JBG Smith included the property at the tail end of its near-term development pipeline for National Landing, the area composed of Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard. It appears slated to remain for office use.

JBG Smith’s development pipeline in National Landing (via JBG Smith)

Amazon has always planned to consolidate its office space and move employees to its permanent HQ2, the first phase of which — Metropolitan Park — opened in June. There is still no word from the company on when the stalled second phase, Pen Place, could begin, though the delay may only be a year or so.

The tech company’s departure from two of its three leased offices will pile on more vacancies in JBG Smith’s portfolio, according to the real estate company’s report.

By the end of 2024, the company anticipates 1.2 million square feet of office space in National Landing will be vacated. Amazon currently occupies about half that square footage.

Amazon plans to continue to occupy 1770 Crystal Drive, located near the Alamo Cinema Drafthouse, the taqueria Tacombi and the proposed second entrance to the Crystal City Metro station, at the northwest corner of Crystal Drive and 18th Street S.

Excluding Amazon, JBG Smith says its current retention rate between now and the end of 2024 is about 50%, versus an annual average of about 70%. To bring the rate up, the company will focus on filling more up-to-date buildings going forward.

“Our efforts to re-lease certain spaces will be targeted toward buildings with long-term viability,” wrote Matthew Kelly in the report. “We expect to repurpose older, obsolete, and vacant buildings for redevelopment, conversion to multifamily, or another specialty use, ultimately reducing our competitive inventory in National Landing.”

JBG Smith declined to elaborate on what other specialty uses it envisions as well as properties it plans to either retain for tenants or develop.

Its report, however, outlines when each of its commercial holdings in Crystal City was built and when it was last renovated.

Of the four built in the late 1960s, three have not been updated since the mid-2000s. Another 10 were built in the 1980s and were renovated over the course of 15 years starting in 2006.

The report also provides a timeline for forthcoming redevelopment plans. It says Crystal City is slated to get new apartments in the following places:

A new office building is slated to come to 101 12th Street S. and either offices or apartments could come to 2525 Crystal Drive. JBG Smith has studied both at the site and the report currently lists its estimated residential redevelopment potential.

A map of JBG Smith’s commercial holdings in the area, as well as its pipeline of commercial and residential development opportunities, is below. Click on the window in the top left corner to see a description of the map, the different colors, and individual addresses.

Payment issues continue for some residents who registered for DPR fall classes

By Jo DeVoe
A credit card sits on a laptop (via CardMapr.nl/Unsplash)

Some Arlington residents may have hit another pitfall while registering for fall classes with the parks department.

It appears some may have been charged more than once for the same purchase, according to social media posts and receipts reviewed by ARLnow. The Arlington County Dept. of Parks and Recreation confirmed this afternoon that it has heard from registrants who have been inadvertently charged multiple times.

After registration opened last week for fall ENJOY classes, DPR said its credit card system was malfunctioning. It asked those who were attempting to register on Thursday to pay using an electronic check until the issue was resolved.

One parent reported he was charged three times for one purchase and knows others who faced similar problems.

The parks department confirmed the issue could be related to the malfunction from Thursday.

“We’ve been alerted of the issue and have staff working on diagnosing the problem,” spokesman Jerry Solomon told ARLnow. “At this moment, we are unable to identify the specific cause, but believe that it is related to the issue experienced with the third-party processor last Thursday. Staff is actively reconciling and processing the refunds for those who have been double charged.”

“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to resolve this issue and will continue to look for ways to improve the process moving forward,” she added.

Last week, Solomon said the snafu only affected registration on Thursday and was resolved within an hour. By 1:20 p.m., more than 3,600 people were able to successfully register for classes. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the system logged more than 8,000 total registrations, including more than 7,000 completed online.

“We will have a better sense of what occurred today once our payment processor has diagnosed the issue,” she said at the time.

Resident walk-in registration for the fall classes began on Friday. Starting this Wednesday, those who live outside the county will be able to start registering, according to the 2023 ENJOY booklet.

The parks department has been battling technical problems during the class and camp registration processes for the past few years, at least in part due to the high volume of parents trying to register their kids for classes at the same time.

Photo by CardMapr.nl/Unsplash

From olive oil to ‘House of Gucci,’ this mother-daughter duo is giving Arlington an Italian flair

By Jo DeVoe
1/2

Julia Franchi Scarselli announced her return home from high school one day calling out to her mom, or mamma, in a thick Italian accent.

She had just transferred from a class of 50 kids in a small British private school in Milan to the much larger Washington-Lee High School, now Washington-Liberty.

“I remember driving up to the school thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an airport? Like, where did I land? I don’t know anybody,” Scarselli tells ARLnow.

Scarselli grew up in Milan with her father and Sara Gay Forden, who had spent two decades covering the fashion industry and luxury goods. This became fodder for her 2001 book “House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed” and the basis for the eponymous 2021 movie starring Jared Leto, Adam Driver and Lady Gaga.

Forden moved to Arlington to cover antitrust for Bloomberg in D.C., bringing Scarselli with her. The two clung to stateside vestiges of Italy when they were homesick, frequenting the Italian Store for wine and cheese and an Italian church in D.C. just to hear the language.

Scarselli struggled with her Italian and American halves, says Forden, but was quick to pick up cultural differences. Forden recalls that when her daughter burst home, saying mamma, she made the following observation:

“Americans, when they get an idea in their head, they just go for it in a straight line, bound and determined. Nothing will dissuade them until they reach their goal. Italians really know how to live.”

“Julia,” Forden replied, “if you figure out how to bring those two things into balance, you will figure out how to live.”

This balancing act has animated Scarselli’s career path and life since. It lead her to start an organic extra virgin olive oil company, Libellula, which bridges her American and Italian roots and maintains her Arlington ties.

Libellula olive oil bottle (courtesy photo)

Going to the roots

Libellula sells organic extra virgin olive oil produced by six Italian family farms, which use sustainable methods to preserve ancient olive groves threatened by climate change.

Customers can purchase gifts and subscriptions, adopt groves and take retreats where they can participate in the harvest, taste fresh-pressed olive oils and learn how to pair them.

Scarselli has been working on Libellula since she was a student at Smith College, though the brand officially launched a year and a half ago. Its U.S. warehouse, in Maine, has been a boon for the local economy, leading the Maine International Trade Center to recently name the company the Foreign Direct Investor of the Year.

Today, Scarselli oversees bringing oil to fine-food retail partners around the U.S. when not at her day job with the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Her father, who lives in a medieval town outside Rome, works with the farmers. She travels between Italy and the U.S. for work, taking time to visit her mom in Arlington.

“It’s like bringing together the best of both worlds: the Italian love for food and community and appreciation for culture and nature.. and the American desire to to seek those out,” she said. “I think there is no one like an American that can like pragmatically get stuff done, right?”

(more…)

View More Stories