Author: Jo DeVoe

How protecting ‘outstanding’ private trees figures into Arlington’s conservation goals

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

Four privately owned trees of “outstanding size” in Arlington could be protected from future removal or injury.

The owners, who live in the Williamsburg, Cherrydale and Glencarlyn neighborhoods, nominated these trees to be recognized as “specimens” worthy of protection, the county says in a report.

The trees meet criteria for this designation “by virtue of their outstanding size and quality for their particular species,” the report says. The Arlington County Board is set to grant this protection at its meeting this coming Saturday.

Over two decades ago, the Board approved a tree preservation ordinance that provides a four designations — “Heritage, Memorial, Specimen and Street Trees” — through which trees on public or private property can be protected from removal or injury. Some 17 trees are highlighted on the county’s website for their size, condition and heritage.

There are approximately 755,000 trees in Arlington, according to a draft of an update to the county Forestry and Natural Resources plan. The county controls about 120,000 trees, including those in parks and about 19,500 street trees. The remainder grow on private property or on public institutions that are not directly managed by Arlington County.

Protecting private trees is one strategy the county has for maintaining its canopy. For about as long as this ordinance has been in place, and despite redevelopment on private property, tree canopy has covered about 41% of land area in Arlington.

“This level of canopy has remained constant for the past 20 years, largely because significant losses on private property were offset by tree planting and preservation on parks and other public lands,” the plan says.

Arlington will have to rely more on designating and preserving trees, like the four going before the County Board this weekend, going forward, per the plan.

“With little ‘plantable space’ remaining on existing county-owned land, opportunities to offset future losses will be limited by the need to conserve natural areas,” it says.

Trees play an important role in reducing carbon, energy use and runoff.

Tree branches, roots and trunks remove and store about 9,360 tons a year of carbon in Arlington, but that represents “only a fraction of the County’s greenhouse gas emissions,” the plan says.

Tree canopy provides shade, reducing energy use in buildings and transportation and preventing the radiation of heat back into the environment. A recent study found leafier — and often wealthier — Arlington neighborhoods are cooler than its Metro corridors and lower-income areas, a disparity a local nonprofit is working to address.

Tree roots hold soil in place, reducing runoff during rain storms. Since a deluge in 2019 caused extreme flooding, there has been increasing focus on county stormwater infrastructure, as well as concern that trees are lost due to the redevelopment of older homes into larger homes that cover more of a given lot.

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Ballston-based Motor works with utility companies to make it easier to buy electric vehicles

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that highlights Arlington-based startups, founders, and local tech news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

Motor, a startup incubated by Arlington-based energy company AES Corporation, has raised $7 million in Series A funding.

The company is trying to smooth the “fragmented” experience of buying an electric car. It works with utility companies to create a utility-managed charging program that makes it easier for customers to start driving electric, the Washington Business Journal first reported.

Currently, the process of buying an electric vehicle and connecting it to the grid can deter many customers, Motor said in a press release. That makes it harder for the auto industry to achieve President Joe Biden’s goal of boosting electric vehicles sales so they account for half of all U.S. car sales by 2030.

Motor says it removes those barriers by partnering with utility companies.

“Motor has redesigned the EV customer journey to provide utilities with the tools they need to maximize electrification outcomes — both accelerating adoption and driving high enrollment in utilities’ managed charging programs,” per the press release.

A promotional photo from Motor (via Motor/Facebook)

“When a utility hires Motor, its customers get an easy, low-commitment, and all-in-one experience that includes a car, home delivery, EV onboarding, charging installation, and utility program enrollment,” it adds.

More from WBJ:

For individual car owners, Motor offers a $749 month-to-month lease package that for what it lacks in cost-savings it wants to make up for in convenience and low-risk commitment. It wraps up the whole process of leasing a car, getting insurance, installing a charging station and maintenance in one application and pricing model that can be canceled at anytime.

Electric utility companies, meanwhile, have their own motives for getting more people in EVs, it says. Companies can meet their own decarbonization goals while increasing demand for electricity and maintaining affordable utility rates.

The new funding will “accelerate its growth into new geographies, refine its digital EV adoption experience, and expand its industry partnerships,” per the press release.

Motor is registered at AES Corporation’s Ballston headquarters at 4300 Wilson Blvd but it also operates in Indianapolis. AES, a Fortune 500 energy company that owns and operates regional utilities and develops energy projects, led the fundraising round along with Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan’s largest trading company, with businesses spanning industries such as machinery and metals.

“Our partnership with Motor has contributed significantly to EV adoption in our market, with an increase of more than 20% in Motor’s launch year in the Indianapolis area,” said Kristina Lund, the president and CEO of two subsidiaries of AES that provide electric services to parts of Indiana and Ohio.

“Motor’s seamless signup process enrolls more than 75% of eligible drivers into managed charging programs, an outcome that benefits all customers,” she added.

Those not ready to buy an electric car, but who are willing to test one out, can take advantage of Motor’s monthly subscription service and drive certain models of Tesla, Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan and Ford.

“We are also introducing an online car buying service,” Motor’s website says. “The future is assuredly electric.”

Motor was founded in 2019 and has under 50 employees, per LinkedIn.

County seeks federal funding for new trail around part of Arlington National Cemetery for third time

By Jo DeVoe
Scooting along near Arlington National Cemetery (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The third time could be the charm for Arlington County, which is applying for federal funding to improve cycling and walking connections around Arlington National Cemetery.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board is scheduled to review the county’s third application for funding from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Program.

The money would partially fund the construction of a long-proposed Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) Wall Trail along Washington Blvd, which would connect Columbia Pike and the Pentagon City area with Memorial Avenue and the Arlington Memorial Bridge into D.C.

“Connectivity for bike-ped users across this part of the County is complicated by the combined barrier effects of secured federal facilities such as ANC, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, and the Pentagon Reservation” and “a high-volume roadway network” comprised of Arlington Boulevard, Washington Blvd, Route 1 as it runs through Pentagon City, I-395 and the GW Parkway, the county notes in a report.

The new trail would run along the western side of Washington Blvd. An existing trail on the opposite side gets dicey near Memorial Circle for pedestrians and cyclists looking to connect to the Mt. Vernon Trail or cross into D.C.

The Federal Highway Administration is designing this multi-use trail in conjunction with the realignment of Columbia Pike. This work is being done to accommodate the 50-acre southern expansion of the ANC, which will add about 80,000 burial sites, allowing burials through the 2050s.

Arlington County has unsuccessfully applied for RAISE funding in the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years. This fiscal year, the federal program has nearly $2.3 billion to dole out “for investments in surface transportation that will have a significant local or regional impact,” per the notice of funding opportunity.

“RAISE is a cost reimbursement program and not a lump sum grant award,” the county report notes. “Previous programs have been highly competitive.”

The Arlington Memorial Trail will run west along Washington Blvd and Richmond Hwy, starting at the eastern end of a realigned Columbia Pike to Memorial Avenue, immediately adjacent to the Arlington Cemetery Metro station.

It will link up to an existing trail along the west side of Richmond Hwy, which provides a connection to the Iwo Jima Memorial, to Rosslyn and to the larger network of bicycle and pedestrian trails along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Renderings of Arlington National Cemetery expansion and Columbia Pike reconfiguration project (via National Capital Planning Commission)

The estimated cost of the Arlington Memorial Trail in the approved 10-year capital improvement plan is $25 million. If the federal government green lights the full $15 million, the county would cover the remaining $10 million through a mix of the commercial and industrial tax and funding it receives from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for local projects.

Projects can receive $5 million to $25 million. A single state cannot receive more than $225 million and awards must be split evenly between urban and rural areas.

Selected projects will be announced by the end of June.

Arlington gets $1.2M grant to help people living in shelters or outdoors move into apartments

By Jo DeVoe
Man sleeping on a bench outside Arlington Central Library (file photo)

Arlington County has received a $1.2 million federal grant to move people experiencing homelessness into permanent or temporary apartment housing.

Approximately 55% of the grant will be for housing — mostly one- and two-bedroom affordable rental units — and the remainder “is for supportive services and staffing,” says Dept. of Human Services spokesman Kurt Larrick.

This project provides permanent housing in existing, but unoccupied, committed affordable units in Arlington to people either living outside or in one of the county’s four emergency shelters, operated by Bridges to Independence, Doorways, New Hope and PathForward.

In federal government speak, this is known as “rapid rehousing,” says Larrick.

It is part of Arlington County’s “housing first” approach — one in which people are housed without stipulations, says Adele McClure, a candidate for the second district of the House of Delegates, who has worked for many years in Arlington tackling homelessness after experiencing it herself in Fairfax County.

“It’s breaking down the barrier to housing,” she said. “I am a product of those stipulations growing up. When I was in transitional housing, we didn’t have ‘housing first’ model, it was really, really tough for our family. I am thankful Arlington and all of Virginia engages in that.”

The funds will also pay for master-lease agreements with nonprofits to move people into apartments temporarily before moving to permanent housing, Larrick said.

This grant has a three-year term. It is a new funding source and a new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) project type for Arlington.

“But the work is not new to Arlington and will be a mix of non-congregate shelter and Rapid Rehousing services for people experiencing homelessness,” Larrick said. “Arlington has a long history of winning competitive HUD funding opportunities across a range of programming areas though.”

McClure says Arlington is well-positioned to address homelessness because of its “continuum of care” model that brings together nonprofits, affordable housing providers and public and private service providers to oversee everything from subsidy programs to street outreach.

The funding will help replace early Covid relief federal funding through the CARES Act, which is coming to an end, she noted.

The grant comes as the county is working on its next strategic plan to help households at risk of homelessness keep their housing and help homeless families quickly regain stable housing.

Arlington County adopted a 10-year plan in 2006. Data over the last decade show that during the out-years of the plan, the population of people living in shelters and outdoors dropped sharply. That rate of decline has since slowed and possibly plateaued.

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Arlington over the last decade (via Arlington County)

“We started off really strong and we had that sharp decline, but once you get down to the lower numbers we have, we’re going to get down to the folks who are hardest to serve: those are the folks who don’t necessarily stay sheltered,” McClure said. “I know, here in Arlington, we are concerned about losing that momentum and progress.”

A three-year plan was adopted in 2018. The plan was extended due to Covid, but now, the county is reprising its planning. This round is focused on addressing inequities for people of color, immigrants and seniors.

“Arlington struggles with the availability of resources, funding and stock of affordable housing,” McClure said. “There are large and systemic root causes that perpetuate homelessness… Arlington is trying to address those systemic root causes.”

Interested community members can attend any of the following informational sessions.

APS transitioning to new grading style but many parents are giving it poor marks

By Jo DeVoe
The Arlington Public Schools Syphax Education Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Over the last seven years, Arlington Public Schools has transitioned more than a dozen elementary schools to a different style of grading, with more on the way next year.

The schools system says the goal is to get away from simplistic letter grades and to better describe student progress toward mastering standards — without encouraging unhealthy levels of competition among students.

During the transition to the new system, APS has held meetings to bring parents up to speed. But ARLnow has heard from many parents who say that despite the laudable goals, the new notation system confuses them and make it harder to know if their child needs academic support outside of school.

There may be something lost in translation, too, as parents with limited English proficiency rely on school-based bilingual specialists or Google Translate for interpretation. Some parents say they’ve given up looking at the report card and would like to return to letter grading.

“Why did this change?” said Celia Jimenez, through a Spanish interpreter. “We had a system that worked and it was easy to tell how the child was doing in school because you looked at the report card. A, good. B, good. C not doing so well, let me find out what’s going on.”

She says she has stopped looking at the report cards for her fifth-grader it’s “useless and she doesn’t understand any of it.”

For community advocate Saul Reyes, this is an equity issue impacting people who don’t have the resources to understand the report card, independently measure how their child is progressing and provide academic support outside the class.

“Arlington talks about equity. Equity is about equal outcomes for everyone,” he said. “How is this equitable?”

Before the switch, students in grades 3-5 received traditional letter grades — A,B,C, D, and E — while students in first and second grade received either a “P” for “making expected progress” or an “N” for “not making expected progress.”

“‘ABCDE’ grading drives students toward ‘A,’ and leaves no room to differentiate exceptional skill levels, and can inadvertently create conditions of comparison and judgment that are counterproductive to learning,” APS says in a website unpacking standards-based grading.

The new system, used in 17 elementary schools as of this year, is as follows:

Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) used in some report cards (via Arlington Public Schools)

“It’s pretty hard to understand. That is Chinese for me,” said Abel Flores, using the Spanish-language equivalent of the idiom “It’s all Greek to me.” (Flores talked to ARLnow in English but his first language is Spanish.)

APS spokesman Frank Bellavia says bilingual family specialists “have been very helpful in aiding parents in understating the progress reports” while schools hold meetings early in the school year to explain this system of grading and families can reach out to their child’s teacher or school counselor for more information.

Both Jimenez and Flores said APS can’t rely on specialists because translating report cards is outside of their wheelhouse and there are too many parents needing help. Reyes says he has spoken to bilingual specialists who say they’re overwhelmed by translation requests.

“There is terminology that’s difficult to understand and difficult to interpret,” he said. (more…)

Plans to redevelop bank on Columbia Pike clear Planning Commission, head to County Board

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

A residential redevelopment planned for a four-story office building, bank drive-thru and parking lot on Columbia Pike is now heading to the Arlington County Board.

On Monday night, the Planning Commission unanimously voted its approval for a project that would tear down the Bank of America building at 3401 Columbia Pike, at the northwest corner of S. Glebe Road and the Pike, next to the Wendy’s. It will now head to the Arlington County Board, which is slated to consider the project at its meeting next Saturday, Feb. 18.

The property falls within the Pike’s Commercial Form-Based Code, which provides a streamlined process for developers provided they meet certain guidelines. The project needs Planning Commission and County Board approval because of its size, according to Commissioner Stephen Hughes.

“Otherwise, the goal is for it to be a by-right development subject to the Zoning Administrator, if every checkbox is met,” he said.

The developer, Marcus Partners, proposes a 250-unit, six-story apartment building with 4,500 square feet of ground floor retail and 287 parking spaces across a 2.5-level underground garage. It will have 172 one-bedroom, 39 two-bedroom and 38 studio units.

“I for one am excited to see this building get built because it’s different,” Hughes said. “The materiality and the architecture of it are something we’ve yet to see on the Pike, and so I think we’re a little excited to see that.”

As part of the project, Marcus Partners will make streetscape improvements, revamp an existing alley for parking and loading and build a 7,800 square-foot private open space. It will landscape a small triangular lot to create more of a buffer between the building and a single-family home to the north.

Throughout the review process, people have been sensitive to how close the proposed building will be to this home and have recommended ways to minimize impacts on residents, said county planner Matt Mattauszek.

“This is not the first, nor will it be the last time, that a form-based code has an adjacency to a low residential development zone and it is always shocking to me… the embracing of the density that goes on with my neighbors on the Pike,” Hughes said.

The proposed building will round out development of this prominent intersection, says Lauren Riley, a land use lawyer with Walsh Colucci. It is flanked by three form-based code projects: Pike 3400 to the south, Gilliam Place to the west and the under-construction Westmont project to the east.

Riley assured anyone who banks with Bank of America that the branch — which was set to close late last year — will move across the street to the former Capital One building.

“No need to worry, you’ll still have your bank services across the street,” she said.

The form-based code comes with height restrictions: three to six stories for what it designates as main streets, two to five stories for avenues and two to three stories for local streets. Developers are able to extend or retract these designations up to 50 feet to make their project work.

Even with this workaround, Marcus Partners would have had to make a small section of its building three stories shorter, which county staff agreed would be unworkable. The developer is asking the County Board for relief from the tapering requirement.

“The transition from a higher density to a single-family home had been well thought out on the form-based code and the unique instance of this site and the way the site was assembled warrants this change,” said Commissioner Leonardo Sarli. “But the transition from main street to residential is a really good approach and one that benefits the community as a whole.”

County Board to consider hiking fees for weeds, overgrown lawns and vegetation

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

Arlington is poised to take a proverbial weed whacker to commercial properties with overgrown lawns and all properties with obstructive vegetation.

Last month, a proposal to change the ordinance pertaining to the condition of private properties was added to the Arlington County Board’s agenda but was subsequently removed because the proposal needed additional technical work, says Dept. of Community Planning, Housing and Development spokeswoman Erika Moore.

The changes would strengthen the county’s ability to enforce violations such as unmaintained lawns and vegetation, per the January report, which ARLnow reviewed before it was taken down.

The measure is set to appear on the Board’s February agenda, Moore said, confirming the substance of the proposal remains the same. The Board will meet on Saturday, Feb. 18 and again on Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Commercial properties would be added to a provision that previously only held residential property owners accountable for cutting grass and weeds and maintaining lawns. County Manager Mark Schwartz would then be able to take “corrective actions” when a property owner fails to trim back “obstructing vegetation,” per the report.

The January draft also proposed increasing fines for property owners who fail to do more upkeep to resolve civil citations.

“These increases are sought to provide a stronger financial deterrent, particularly in cases where private property is held by commercial ownership awaiting development,” the report said.

For example, back in 2020, some residents complained about trash in and around the vacant Wendy’s lot at 2025 Clarendon Blvd in Courthouse. The fast food restaurant had been torn down in 2016 to make way for an office tower that never came and instead was used as a construction staging area for a nearby redevelopment. The property since changed hands and construction of an apartment building started last fall.

The report noted that the ability of the code enforcement division of CPHD “to abate persistent, longstanding violations has become less effective.”

“This is due to a variety of factors, including unwillingness to comply by some property owners, but also legal ambiguity concerning what specific powers and processes could be implemented in seeking corrective actions,” it said.

Moore previously told ARLnow the amendments are not related to any specific community complaints.

“The amendments… are being made because there are conflicts with other local and state ordinances, and clarity is needed,” she said last month. “Commercial properties are being added to the section on tall grass and weeds not because of conflicts but to clarify the County’s enforcement authority on these properties.”

There were 609 complaints from the community in 2022 via phone and email primarily, we’re told. Arlington’s current system that stores complaints does not categorize them, but the county is moving to a new complaint tracking system at the end of 2023 where some of these data points, like theme, will be available, she said. (more…)

Planning Commission gives thumbs up to Joyce Motors redevelopment in Clarendon

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

A developer is setting aside $25,000 for the installation of a historical marker to describe the importance of the Joyce Motors site in Clarendon.

The sum raised eyebrows among some Planning Commission members last night (Monday) during their discussion of a proposed redevelopment of the auto shop at the intersection of N. Irving Street and 10th Street N.

“I think people often complain about the cost of building things and doing things so for my own benefit, when people ask me about this, I want to drill down a little bit,” Commissioner Daniel Weir said. “When you buy a plaque to give to one of your coworkers who’s retiring after 30 years of service, it costs $40 from the guy you buy tchotchkes from. So distinguish these two things for me, please.”

Commissioners were told the $25,000 is budgeted for the hard costs of installing a sign or plaque or embedding the explanations in concrete under-foot.

Without much other discussion, commissioners unanimously approved the plans from Orr Partners to build a 241-unit apartment building with 3,600 square feet of ground-floor retail.

The project required the developer to work with nearby businesses to divy up the triangular lot bounded by Wilson Blvd, 10th Street N. and N. Irving Street lot into three parcels. Orr Partners will build an alley through the middle of the site from which residents can access underground parking.

Orr Partners will preserve another nearby property deemed historic — 1411 N. Garfield Street, which housed a barber shop — from future development using the county’s transfer of development rights tool.

The approval comes more than three years after the developer submitted its site plan application in 2019. Arlington County accepted the site plan in spring of 2020 but put it on hold for two years while staff completed an update to the Clarendon Sector Plan, which guides development of the neighborhood.

“We have made substantial changes over the past three-plus plus years as we’ve been at this,” said Andrew Painter, a land use lawyer with Walsh Colucci, representing the developer. “We’ve shown the ability to be creative by partnering with neighbors on the alley [and] the land swap, by partnering to preserve historic façades and construct a building that will be able to solve so many planning goals.”

Changes to the 2006 sector plan were prompted by several redevelopments, including Joyce Motors, as well as on the Silver Diner/The Lot and Wells Fargo/Verizon sites, and projects proposed by the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, the YMCA and George Mason University.

While the $25,000 budget for a historical marker gave some commissioners sticker shock, others thanked Orr Partners for delivering a project that provided nine on-site committed affordable units, including five family-sized ones.

“I just wanted to say thank you for including larger-sized units that can fit families,” said Commissioner Tenley Peterson.

(more…)

APS parents and teachers want transparency. They say School Board members are advised to be ‘vague.’

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington Education Association president June Prakash (via Arlington Public Schools)

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) After lockdowns, a fatal, apparent drug overdose, a racist threat of gun violence, and additional threats and gun-related incidents — all within the past few weeks — parents and teachers say they want more information from Arlington Public Schools.

But there’s a document floating around — outlining how School Board members should talk to the public, school staff, other board members and members of the media — that they say encourages the Board to be less transparent.

June Prakash, the president of Arlington’s teachers union, the Arlington Education Association, bashed the document as part of her remarks outlining steps APS can take to improve school safety.

“We need to tear up this ‘How We Work’ document from Board Docs,” she said in a School Board meeting on Thursday, garnering applause from people who attended the meeting.

The document, prepared by School Board Chair Reid Goldstein, was meant to serve as a discussion guide for a retreat a few weeks ago to onboard the newest member, Bethany Sutton.

It tells members to:

  • Avoid conversations about workplace conditions with staff members without appropriate union representatives present.
  • “Err on the side of vague” when talking to the community. Officials should refer them to previous public discussions where possible and if none exists, say they’ll bring the issue to the rest of the Board.
  • Tell the Chair if they “are contemplating” responding to press inquiries and instead let the School & Community Relations staff advise them.

“The document was a discussion guide prepared by the Board Chair to advise Board members about responding to questions about topics that they don’t have full information on,” APS spokesperson Frank Bellavia told ARLnow. “The Board receives many questions about pending decisions or other operational topics that they have yet to be fully briefed on. The guidance meant that it is okay to say, ‘I don’t know and I will get back to you,’ versus a specific response each time.”

He added that the memo “is not and will not become policy,” and that community members have several ways to engage directly with School Board members, including member office hours.

Media inquiries are handled through dedicated APS staffers for efficiency’s sake, but this approach is reviewed annually, Bellavia noted.

Prakash, however, tells ARLnow that the AEA is disappointed in the document, while the APS watchdog group Arlington Parents for Education says these instructions will erode the trust parents have in their elected officials.

“How can you ethically say, ‘Don’t talk — or even listen — to staff members about working conditions? You need to visit the schools, you need to listen to talk to the students and the staff. When you start listening, they’ll start talking,” Prakash said Thursday.

Last year neighboring Alexandria’s public school system was roiled by a series of events that included a School Board policy — since revised — that discouraged members from talking to the media, and the superintendent advising members not to talk to the media about a fatal stabbing. Superintendent Gregory Hutchings abruptly resigned shortly thereafter.

During the Arlington School Board meeting, members discussed how the guidance in the document applied to collective bargaining discussions but not regular engagement with staff, according to Bellavia.

“There is no direction for the Board not to listen to staff, or any other members of the community,” he said. “In fact, the Board has affirmatively stated that they want to hear from staff. The Board Chair acknowledges that it was poorly worded in the handout.”

Arlington Parents for Education said in a statement that the memo “reflects a keen reluctance to engage in clear, honest and frank discussion with the APS community, including parents, teachers and administrators.”

“We urge the Board to commit itself to a greater level of candor in its dealings with all stakeholders, and to publicly disavow the guidance and the sentiment behind it, which implies that community members are problems to be managed and not stakeholders who the Board is elected to represent,” APE said.

(more…)

Bishop O’Connell students prepare to dance 12 hours to raise money for cystic fibrosis

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

Bishop O’Connell High School students will be dancing for 12 hours straight to raise money for the research and treatment of cystic fibrosis.

The nearly 50-year-old tradition, dubbed the “Superdance,” will take place on Saturday, March 11 from noon to midnight. Each year, over 95% of the student body attends the event, which has live bands, DJs and games.

“This is a beloved school tradition created in the hopes of finding a cure for cystic fibrosis and in remembrance of several members of the O’Donnell family who died from the disease,” said Lizzie Whelan, the publicity chair for the Superdance.

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease that causes severe damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs in the body and leads to an early death. A therapeutic drug approved in 2019 can help patients avoid lung failure and live longer.

But no such therapy existed in 1976, when the first 12-hour dance-a-thon was organized by Maura O’Donnell, then a senior at Bishop O’Connell. She put it together in hopes of raising enough money to find a cure after her sister Brenda died of the disease in 1975.

Maura, who also had cystic fibrosis, attended the first Superdance and graduated high school, but died from the disease while in nursing school.

She is remembered as “a vibrant young girl, who left an impact on every person that had the pleasure of meeting her,” Whelan said.

“Maura created a monumental impact on the student body that has lasted forty years and will continue to influence O’Connell students in the future,” Whelan said. “The entire Bishop O’Connell is dedicated to supporting this cause and continuing the fight that Maura so bravely started.”

Since its inception, Superdance has raised nearly $4.9 million to help find a cure for cystic fibrosis. This year, Whelan says the students aim to raise over $143,000 and pass the $5 million mark. Last year, the Superdance raised $136,000, making Bishop O’Connell is the largest high school contributor to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

An assembly previewing the event and educating students about cystic fibrosis will be held this Friday, Feb. 10. It will feature speeches from the student council, presentations from student committees, guest speakers, skits and games. At the end of the assembly, this year’s theme for Superdance will be revealed.

Arlington sees more than a third of 2022’s carjacking total in first month of 2023

By Jo DeVoe
Police on scene of a carjacking in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Carjackings appear to be rising again in Arlington and across the D.C. area.

An uptick between 2019 and 2020 spurred Arlington County Police Department to focus prevention efforts on robbery, burglary and destruction of property incidents. Increased enforcement in 2021 resulted in fewer carjackings, after ACPD made two significant carjacking arrests, per ACPD’s 2021 annual report.

“The combination of the collaboration and the education and proactive work that ACPD did reduce the carjackings and then reduced the stealing of cars in general,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, who participated in a regional effort to crack down on carjackings during that time. “With that reduction, less collaboration was needed, but we are working together to make sure that we’re doing the same coordination as before with other jurisdictions.”

But now the crime — in which a person steals a victim’s car by force, threat or intimidation — seems to be ticking up again, with five carjackings in January 2023 compared to zero carjackings in January 2022 and 14 throughout the 2022 calendar year, according to stats provided by ACPD.

Meanwhile, across the river in D.C., one Arlingtonian was carjacked near Union Station and another resident’s Rolls Royce was stolen near Logan Circle, according to police reports.

Dehghani-Tafti said the social science data shows the certainty of being caught is the strongest deterrent from people committing crimes, but deterrence can be harder with carjacking.

“These can be hard crimes to solve because people get away so fast and cars change hands so quickly, they take a lot of collaboration and coordination and proactive action,” she said.

Law enforcement and the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney say they’re devoting more resources to combat these crimes.

ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage says the department “continues to deploy increased police resources, to include both visible and non-visible assets, in Crystal City and the surrounding neighborhoods to address this crime trend.”

“The Arlington County Police Department remains a member of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force which coordinates on offenses such as carjackings,” she said. “As part of our ongoing investigative efforts into these incidents, detectives are working collaboratively with our regional law enforcement partners to share information, identify trends, apprehend suspects and hold them accountable for their actions.”

Dehghani-Tafti, meanwhile, is meeting with a division of Virginia State Police on vehicle thefts, generally.

Two units in the VSP Fairfax Division are “partnering to take a more concentrated and analytical look at vehicle thefts within the Northern Virginia region,” state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. “This is not uncommon for state police to do, as we consistently look for ways to address any crime patterns that develop and identify ways to strategically address and resolve them.”

Fact patterns 

Of the five reported carjackings last month in Arlington, four were in the Crystal City and Pentagon City areas — where many such incidents were concentrated during the last spree — and three involved BMWs.

“In recent cases, carjacking suspects have generally approached victims as they were inside their idling parked vehicles, brandished a firearm and demanded the victim’s keys and property,” per an Arlington police press release, sent in response to the uptick. “In some cases, the suspects approach the victim by pulling alongside them in a vehicle, which is later determined to be stolen. Reported incidents in Arlington have generally involved multiple suspects.”

While some are threatened with guns, other victims are attacked when they exit their cars.

On Jan. 27, a Columbia Pike resident was exiting his car near Union Station in D.C. to let out an Uber customer when he was attacked and the attacker drove away in his car. The victim and another driver idling behind him chased the alleged carjacker for nearly a mile. Stuck behind a dump truck, the suspect reversed the stolen car and hit the pursuing car. The duo apprehended the suspect but ultimately let go, citing fear for their safety and a growing crowd, according to a Metropolitan Police Department incident report.

The car was later returned to the owner.

Arlington police issued the following safety tips for residents in response to the recent spate of carjackings.

  • When inside your vehicle, keep your doors locked and windows up
  • Exit your vehicle and continue to your destination promptly after parking
  • Be aware of your surroundings when entering and exiting your vehicle
  • Limit your use of devices that may distract you, such as cell phones and headphones
  • Don’t leave items unattended or visible in your vehicle

One woman’s story

Some two-and-a-half years ago, then-Alexandria resident Lauren Brown was similarly attacked while waiting to turn left onto S. Glebe Road near the Harris Teeter in Potomac Yard. She told ARLnow her experience as a cautionary tale.

A group of 18-year-olds in a stolen car hit Brown. After pleading with her not to call the police — with whom she was already on the phone — they drove away. They returned, and one occupant hit her while the other got in her car and they drove away.

“It’s a really crazy thing what adrenaline does to your body,” she said. “I didn’t feel [the injury] until a few days later.”

(more…)

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