Page Global, an office solutions company, could open its doors in a few months after years of renovations (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Building permit signage at 5265 Langston Blvd (staff photo)
After two years of permitting and renovations, a business along Langston Blvd may be able to swing open its doors.
Two years ago, Page Global, also known as Page After Page Business Systems, put up signs indicating it would be moving into the old TitleMax location at 5265 Langston Blvd, the corner of Langston Blvd and N. George Mason Drive.
The company bills itself as “an award winning industry provider of office solutions, strategic communications and information technology.” On its website, it lists various government agencies as clients.
This retail space, in a Virginia Hospital Center-owned building, used to be home to a 7-Eleven. Page Global leased the building in November 2020, per a VHC spokeswoman.
Around the same time, Augustine Roofing signed a lease and moved in next door (5267 Langston Blvd), filling a vacancy left when the decades-old Sam Torrey Shoe Service closed down.
But Page Global hasn’t been able to move in yet, due to ongoing renovation construction, according to an employee next door.
“The company won’t be open for a least another couple months,” said the employee. “They’re doing a ton of work in there… It looks amazing inside over there now — from what it was.”
He said construction has taken longer because of permitting and issues that crop up during construction. Currently, permits for electrical and plumbing work, issued early last year, are posted to the door of the building.
Page Global, headquartered in D.C. at 800 Maine Ave SW, was not immediately available for comment before publication. The company is led by James Page, high school-dropout from the Bronx turned businessman of 30 years, per a 2020 profile by the Washington Informer.
Arlington County has selected two developers — Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing and D.C.-area developer EYA — to oversee the construction of affordable housing within an apartment complex in Crystal City.
They’re committing to provide 844 units, of which 655 will be committed affordable units and the remaining will be market-rate, in the Crystal House Apartments at 1900 S. Eads Street, near Amazon’s second headquarters.
After a site plan for the project was approved in 2019, Amazon put up $381.9 million so that the nonprofit Washington Housing Conservancy could purchase the 16-acre site in late 2020, stabilize rent for the 828 existing units and build more than 500 new units. The purchase was part of its commitment to create and preserve affordable housing as rents rise amid its growing HQ2 presence. Amazon later donated the land and development rights to the county.
APAH and EYA are committing to provide 100-plus more committed affordable units than for which the county planned.
“While this is a large development for APAH, the scope and phasing are consistent with our capacity and the need for more affordable housing in the region,” APAH Director of Resource Development and Communications Garrett Jackson tells ARLnow. “EYA has successfully completed several similarly-scaled public-private projects with municipalities and housing authorities including the Brownstones at Chevy Chase Lake and the Lindley with the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, Capital Quarter with the District Housing Authority, and the 45-acre Westside Shady Grove with Montgomery County.”
Jackson said both APAH and EYA have experience developing housing in partnership with localities in the D.C. area.
“Specifically, APAH co-located the Arlington Mill Residences, 122 homes, adjacent to the Arlington Mill Community Center over one shared garage. Presently, APAH is building 150 units of senior housing in Fairfax County on what was previously a Fairfax County stormwater detention facility,” he said. “EYA and APAH are currently working together on a public-private partnership in the Fort Totten neighborhood in the District that shares many of the same characteristics as the Crystal House project.”
“The Crystal Houses development will create a mixed-income community, ranging from people making 30% of the area median income and up. It will be multigenerational, with one 80-unit development set aside for senior housing. There will be 371 units with two bedrooms or more, of which at least 102 will be three bedrooms and “rare 4-bedroom affordable units,” Jackson said.
“We will provide permanent supportive housing units onsite, all affordable units will offer free Wi-Fi, we will offer residents services for affordable units, and we will develop two parks for the approved site plan,” Jackson said. “EYA is also exploring homeownership.”
Services will be provided in partnership with Arlington County Department of Human Services, Arlington Food Assistance Center and Our Stomping Ground, which helps adults with disabilities live independently.
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.
(Updated 4:55 p.m.) Late last year, an AI writing tool captivated public attention for its ability to write the way a human might.
And while some used it for fun — ARLnow asked it to write fanfiction about Arlington and a poem about a gondola from Georgetown to Rosslyn — one tech company in Arlington says the Natural Language Processing (NLP) powering that developing technology has more serious applications.
That is Ballston-based Black Cape. Founded in 2019 to provide data analytics and machine learning solutions to national security and finance, Black Cape conducts most of its business today with the government on national security-related missions.
Its Co-CEO Abe Usher says in the last two years, “there has been an explosion in high-quality [NLP] for text analysis” — a development Black Cape is putting to use.
Black Cape logo (courtesy photo)
The company’s foreign language translation capabilities make it possible to translate English text to more than 100 other languages and back again over a chat tool.
“Consider the case of two people with different primary languages (English, Spanish) chatting with each other while their communications are seamlessly and automatically converted to the other person’s language in real-time,” Usher said. “It’s kind of like the old ‘Star Trek Universal Translator’ but modernized to work within a chat application.”
Natural language processing can also help customers who use Black Cape’s Rubicon tool to categorize and tag text automatically, using a technology called “topic models.”
“Our topic models can automatically sort news articles, social media and documents into thematic categories much like the way Google News works,” he said. “This allows us to create automatically generated collections of text documents with labels (‘world events,’ ‘climate change,’ ‘natural disaster,’ ‘infectious disease,’ etc.) that assist users in finding the information they are looking for.”
Usher says his company has also found applications for the developing technology known as “computer vision,” or a computer’s ability to read pictures or PDFs of old written documents for the text they contain.
“These computer vision models help with a range of image-related tasks, including automatically detecting textual information in images or PDF documents,” he said, adding that this “can help make legacy documents and images searchable based on the text contained within them.”
This year, he expects these two technologies will keep developing.
“In 2023, we anticipate increased technical innovation at the intersection of computer vision and natural language processing AI,” he said. “We also see an increased demand for AI-related services, including data engineering, feature engineering, machine learning model creation and refinement and machine learning operations.”
Pursuing applications for these technological advancements, Black Cape — which is privately funded and has been profitable since 2019 — has grown quickly. In 2022, the Washington Business Journal and Arlington County bothrecognized it as one of the fastest-growing companies regionally and within Arlington. (more…)
Former Arlington Public Schools internal auditor John Mickevice (via Arlington Public Schools)
Arlington Public Schools appears to be looking for a new internal auditor.
The job posting comes after a national government auditors association told APS that the school system asked John Mickevice, the former internal audit director, to sign a problematic contract, per a letter obtained by ARLnow.
When reached for comment, Mickevice declined to discuss what happened but confirmed he is no longer with APS. The job listing for his former position was posted last Wednesday.
Before his departure, the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA) had written to the Arlington School Board, saying Mickevive was asked to sign a contract that conflicts with its own policies as well as best practices. The author — ALGA Advocacy Committee Chair Amanda Noble — confirmed with ARLnow that she sent the letter.
In response to questions about Mickevice’s job status and the letter, a spokesman for APS told ARLnow, “I don’t have any details and I can’t comment on personnel matters.”
According to the ALGA letter, dated as of late August, the contract would have allowed the Superintendent to terminate the Internal Audit Director without cause with 90 days of written notice. It also would have allowed the Superintendent to assign duties to the audit director.
Noble wrote that this conflicts with APS policy as well as with international auditor standards and government auditing standards from the U.S. Comptroller General.
Per APS policy:
The Superintendent shall oversee only day-to-day administrative matters such as authorizing the IA’s leave, travel or minor purchases. The IA shall otherwise be independent of the Superintendent’s supervision. The IA’s annual evaluation shall be conducted by the two School Board members of the Committee.
APS policy and international and national standards alike “protect the independence and objectivity of the internal audit function by placing the internal audit function outside the reporting line of areas subject to audit and preventing management’s interference in the auditor’s performance of work and reporting results,” Noble said.
In other words, such a policy is set up to ensure school officials do not influence the outcome of audits.
Noble says the auditor’s independence would be “greatly strengthened by clarifying district policy regarding appointment and removal of the [Internal Auditor] Director and changing the audit committee composition.”
Currently, the committee that directs the Internal Auditor Director and to which the auditor answers is made of two School Board members as well as the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent. Half of voting members are management, which Noble says increases the chance of interference in the audit process.
Noble says that is not typical of most committees.
“In a recent internal audit benchmarking report prepared by the Council of Great City Schools, no respondents reported that their audit committee included the Superintendent or any member of management,” she said. “All respondents having an audit committee reported the audit committee composition was board members only, community advisors only, or a mix of board members and community advisors.”
The sending of the letter and Mickevice’s departure occurred less than a year after his scathing review of issues that plagued the Virtual Learning Program, which he said earlier this year was “an indigestible meal that is going to make you sick.”
Arlington County is surveying residents and businesses to understand how they use broadband internet service and if their access can be improved.
The results of the survey are part of a $250,000 study that could inform ways to bridge the digital divide between residents with good internet connectivity and those without it, using the county’s existing fiber-optic network, dubbed ConnectArlington.
“The Broadband study builds off past work to fill in information gaps and provide a clearer picture of the County’s broadband needs,” Erika Moore, a spokeswoman for Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development, tells ARLnow.
Arlington has an extensive fiber network, which it installed seven years ago to provide connectivity for county and Arlington Public Schools facilities, support public safety needs and encourage economic development. She says this move has since saved the county money and now allows for additional uses, such as connecting traffic cameras, emergency services and colleges across the area.
Now, the county is partnering with Vienna-based consultant Televate to look at how to leverage what it has to bridge the digital divide, an issue exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Based upon gaps identified, the consultant will lay out a comparative evaluation of different service delivery models to address the County’s needs,” Moore said. “Depending upon the outcome of the study, the County may need additional analysis to further research a specific model.”
The study will also review a license agreement for leasing strands along an 864-count fiber line dedicated to economic development. The concept, intended to give local companies higher-speed internet at lower costs than big-name providers like Comcast, has languished because would-be providers found the agreement onerous. So far, only JBG Smith has agreed to lease some of the cable to help build its 5G-enabled “Smart City.”
“The likelihood of modifying the license or changing or adding other policies will be considered after the results of the study,” Moore said.
The survey, available now in English and Spanish, asks people a few dozen questions about internet use. Questions include how long respondents have used the internet and how much it contributes to their jobs, whether they use broadband for telehealth services, if they’re satisfied with the speed and cost, as well as demographic questions.
Moore says the county has studied the digital divide before but not on this comprehensive of a scale. Past research targeted low-income housing and relied on Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Census data.
This “did not provide the level of detail needed and gave no indication of service quality, bandwidth availability, provider competition, or digital literacy needs,” she said.
A coalition of local advocates for making broadband a county-provided utility say the scope seems redundant given past efforts, however.
“The county has studied the digital divide to death. We have good numbers on that,” says ArlFiber Collective leader Tim Dempsey, adding that ironically, the survey is long and only available online.
“Televate LLC, does not appear to be interested in seriously studying municipal broadband and the current course and scope of the study could very well reproduce the same work on broadband that has been done in the past, without moving us forward in any meaningful way,” ArlFiber wrote on its website. “Residents and civic groups that are interested in community broadband for all, should reach out to the County Board members and let them know.”
A rendering of the proposed Sunrise Senior Living facility (via Arlington County)
The church building on S. Glebe Road (via Google Maps)
Arlington County has accepted a site plan application for a senior living facility proposed to replace a church in the Alcova Heights neighborhood.
Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean-based senior living provider, proposes to demolish a church building at 716 S. Glebe Road to build a four-story, 60-foot-tall building with 108 assisted living units, 55 parking spaces, common and service areas, a covered porch and an outdoor garden.
Kedrick Whitmore, the land use attorney representing Sunrise Senior Living, says the development would add sorely needed assisted living facilities in Arlington County.
“This facility would provide or coordinate personal and health care services, 24-hour supervision, and assistance (scheduled and unscheduled) for the protection general supervision and oversight of the physical and mental well-being of aged, infirm, or disabled adults,” he said. “The current supply of such facilities in Arlington County is insufficient to meet the current demand.”
So far, the applicant isn’t looking to go beyond base density, and proposed community benefits include streetscape and sidewalk improvements, utility and affordable housing contributions and sustainable design, per application documents.
As the change in use would displace two child care programs, county planning staff are urging Sunrise to incorporate child care into the development.
“The County has a need for child care services,” county planner Leon Vignes said. “Please consider the possibility of collocating a child care use with this development to maintain an existing use.”
There are two programs operating inside the church, Children’s Weekday Program and Rainbow Road Preschool. County staff said one of the programs in operation there does not have the necessary approvals to do so, but did not specify which.
“A previously approved use permit for childcare uses affiliated with the existing Methodist church was discontinued with the operator noting the potential to resume operation,” associate planner Anika Chowdhury said in staff comments on the application. “A revelation confirmed by the applicant was that an existing daycare is currently operating at the existing church. There is no valid use permit approval on file for this operating use and a use permit is required for child care use(s) per the ACZO.”
If Sunrise were to consider incorporating a child care center, it would have to request changes to how the property is zoned, Chowdhury says.
County planner Matthew Pfeiffer, meanwhile, urged the applicant to increase the number of trees it will plant and make the architecture appear more historic.
“Recommend altering architectural style to match existing historic properties, such as Colonial Revival,” Pfeiffer said. “The most important site design aspect will be ensuring that there is a strong vegetated buffer on the western property line to screen The Alcova,” a historic property next door.
The building’s owner, Arlington United Methodist Church, sold the property to Sunrise last year, leaving a different Christian congregation that meets there, the Redeemer Church of Arlington, the child care programs and a clothing bank in search of a new home.
Sunrise has two other senior living centers in Arlington, in the Glebewood and Boulevard Manor neighborhoods.
Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr., at the Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting in Lubber Run Community Center on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington County Board candidate Maureen Coffey (courtesy photo)
Arlington County Board candidate Jonathan Dromgoole (courtesy photo)
Arlington Dems meeting in Lubber Run Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington Dems meeting in Lubber Run Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Josh Katcher, candidate for Commonwealth’s Attorney, at the Arlington Democrats meeting in January (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Wanda Younger, candidate for Sheriff, at the Arlington Dems meeting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
James Herring, candidate for Sheriff, at the Arlington Dems meeting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
State Sen. Barbara Favola at the Arlington Dems meeting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Three Arlington County Board hopefuls announced their candidacies to a packed house of local Democrats last night.
They are former NAACP Arlington Branch president Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr. researcher and Center for American Progress policy analyst Maureen Coffey and Jonathan Dromgoole, who facilitates LGBT appointments within the Biden administration for the LGBTQ Victory Institute.
Last night (Wednesday) at the Lubber Run Community Center, more than a half dozen people told Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting attendees about their intentions to run for the County Board, Sheriff, Commonwealth’s Attorney and seats in the state legislature.
The three County Board candidates are vying for the two seats that immediate past Chair Katie Cristol and current Chair Christian Dorsey will vacate at the end of this year. In June, the candidates will participate in a party primary to see which voters will get to run with a “D” by their name in the November election.
Coffey bills herself as a Millennial renter with expertise in housing discrimination and child welfare policy. Jonathan is also a Millennial renter who leads the official Latino caucus for Virginia Democrats. Spain is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has, at times, challenged the Arlington County Democratic Committee on its influence over local politics.
Coffey says she has seen first-hand how hard work is sometimes not enough to overcome life circumstances such as drug addiction and incarceration. She pledged to prioritize the most vulnerable in Arlington and more clearly articulate the County Board’s long-term vision for the county:
I’ve worked to become an expert on young children, and families and the adults that support them, which provides an understanding of almost every policy area that families come in contact with in their daily lives. This work has taught me to see every part of our lives as interdependent and woven into one. That’s the vision I want to bring to the County Board. Arlington has been a leader and a model for good policy for a very long time, but I have to ask myself, ‘Where are we going?’ We know we don’t have enough affordable housing, we know we don’t have enough child care, and we know we don’t have enough mental healthcare. We need a plan to meet these needs and, at the same time, protect what we love about Arlington: safety, parks, a sense of community.
Dromgoole introduced himself as a proud immigrant from Mexico and a proud product of public schools and teenage parents who came to America for a better life.
From a young age, he acted as the family interpreter for everything from doctors visits to navigating the education system and the family budget. He says Latino residents need that voice on the County Board.
We need to have conversations that will re-engage and inspire our neighbors to be part of the solution rather than feel left out because they weren’t part of a board and feel their voice doesn’t matter. Some in our community aren’t asking for much: Some want streets to be safer for their kids by investing in street lights, reducing speed limits and improving roads. Some are asking for their voices to be heard and policies to be explained in a language they understand. Some want the County Board to be reflective of their lived experiences as someone who has chosen to call Arlington home but fear they may never have the opportunity to buy into that American Dream.
Spain told the audience that what voters need on the County Board is experience — “personable and inclusive leadership.”
I believe that every child who grows up in Arlington should be able to live here as an adult and that means prioritizing affordable housing. I believe we should try to ensure that every corner of our community prospers and that means providing access to job training, ensuring living wages and supporting workers’ rights. With one in five Americans suffering mental illness, I believe that we should fully address the mental health crisis in our comm, and that means ensuring our gov has resources to support everyone with support services. I believe that means everyone should be able to live in Arlington without fear, that means standing with public safety officials while also assuring appropriate oversight and accountability. It is our duty to protect the environment and that means prioritizing sustainability and reinforcing our infrastructure.
Arlington County government offices at 2100 Clarendon Blvd (file photo)
Arlington County operations now run entirely on renewable electricity — a full two years ahead of schedule.
As part of the Community Energy Plan adopted in 2019, Arlington County committed to transitioning 100% of county operations to renewable sources by 2025.
The county said in a press release sent out this morning (Thursday) that its buildings, streetlights and traffic signals, leased facilities and the Water Pollution Control Plant now run on electricity from sustainable sources.
This includes Dominion Energy Virginia’s Green Power program, solar panels and the Arlington-Amazon solar panel field in Pittsylvania County.
This last source up is in large part the reason Arlington met its goal two years early. The Arlington-Amazon solar panel farm in Pittsylvania County, which a Dominion Energy spokeswoman told ARLnow opened “late last year,” provides more than 80% of renewable electricity to Arlington facilities through offsets,
“We set an ambitious goal for net-zero County operations and facilities, as part of our overall Community Energy Plan for a fully carbon-neutral community, and we’ve met it – two years early,” County Board Member Katie Cristol said in a statement. “This exciting milestone is the result of cross-sector partnership, innovative approaches and Arlington’s commitment to doing our local part in addressing the global challenge of climate change.”
More from the press release:
Arlington County has committed to be carbon neutral by 2050 as part of its Community Energy Plan (CEP) by:
Promoting buildings that are more energy efficient than is required by code.
Enhancing Arlington’s approach to energy assurance and resiliency for critical services and harnessing the ability of nature to mitigate Arlington’s need for energy.
Exploring alternative operational and financing mechanisms to support performance- and cost-effective renewable energy options.
Maximizing the use of walking/biking, transit and use of shared vehicles, including micro-mobility devices, to promote a multimodal approach to transportation.
Arlington’s award-winning Community Energy Plan (CEP) is a long-term vision for transforming how the County generates, uses, and distributes energy. The CEP also aims to provide access to the benefits of clean energy sources for all residents regardless of economic situation.
Per the Community Energy Plan, the way Arlington intended to power all county operations with renewable electricity was through the purchase of power purchase agreements (PPAs). These can be either physical, through solar farms or more local solar panel installations, or virtual, via certificates.
The biggest contributors to Arlington County’s overall carbon footprint in 2016 (via Arlington County)
The next milestone in the CEP is powering 100% of Arlington’s electricity with renewable sources by 2035.
The ultimate goal is for the county to be completely carbon neutral by 2050, and the current efforts comprise just 11% of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions Arlington County says it needs to meet the ultimate goal of the Community Energy Plan.
How Arlington can become carbon neutral (via Arlington County)
Arlington Public Schools — which contributed the most to Arlington County’s carbon footprint back in 2016 — continues to expand its solar capacity with new rooftop installations, says spokesman Frank Bellavia.
So far, three elementary schools — Alice W. Fleet, Discovery and Cardinal — are considered net-zero in terms of energy usage.
Solar power systems are being designed for Cardinal and Jefferson Middle School, and Bellavia says these should “host solar in the next year.”
“APS anticipates having over 3.4MW of solar capacity when these two schools’ solar arrays are operational,” he said.
Additionally, the school system is working on solardashboards “so students and staff can use them as teaching and learning opportunities,” he said.
This school year, there are sustainability liaison positions at every school building, up from 10 participating schools when the program began in 2016.
“The Sustainability Liaison Program aims to support teachers at APS by providing a modest stipend in exchange for coordinating and designing sustainability activities that engage students and the APS community,” Bellavia said. “Given the success of the program in its first year, the program has expanded to 38 APS school facilities this year.”
Members all opined on the potential zoning changes last night (Tuesday) during their first meeting of the year, when they also unanimously elected Christian Dorsey as the chair and Libby Garvey as the Vice-Chair for 2023.
A lot changed in 2022: Covid was a top priority this time last year but this year, the pandemic barely registered a blip at yesterday’s annual organizational meeting. Instead, increasing housing while bridging divisions in the community dominated their speeches, which are reprinted online.
Dorsey committed to ushering in new policies to increase the supply of housing and ensure a range of prices and housing types.
Today, and during my year as Chairman, I plan to lead the community through the development of a set of housing policies to meet the challenge of this generation to make Arlington a place for young families, for seniors and for everyone in between.
I suggest that our housing policies be guided by five principles where I believe there is broad agreement:
First, Arlington should be open to all. Inclusive communities are dynamic and best positioned to be resilient. Barriers to entry should be identified and dismantled. This is a foundation principle.
Second, our planning for the future should, as always, be community based, and that means engaging all stakeholders in our community and incorporating thoughtful views.
Third, planning should be iterative, allowing us to course correct when necessary and evolve over time.
Fourth, to the greatest extent practicable, living anywhere in Arlington should not be determined by income levels. Our attention to vibrant and diverse communities should span across all our 26 square miles.
Fifth, planning to meet our housing goals must be integrated with our interconnected priorities of: creating transit and active transportation-oriented communities that are safe for all users, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and attracting and retaining employers that support good jobs for workers.
His vice-chair, Garvey, said Missing Middle is really a conversation about what kind of Arlington residents want, and this has sowed division and upset more people than any other issue she has worked on. (An anti-Missing Middle rally is planned this weekend, for instance.)
Think about the simple phrase, “I love Arlington.” One person says that and is thinking about our quiet, leafy neighborhoods with houses far apart. Another says the same thing, but means the lively, vibrant and noisy urban corridors. They use the same words, but they mean very different things.
To those differing views expressed with the exact same words, throw in the nature of people to hear what they expect to hear rather than what is actually said. Add to that our own government tendency to respond with more and more information, which makes it harder for a clear message to come through. Top it all off with the current climate where opponents like to demonize each other and catastrophize outcomes. Then bake it in a social media stew where misinformation, rumors and fears fly through a community. You have a recipe for a real communication trouble.
Nonprofit leaders and Chief Equity Officer Samia Byrd at the Dec. 20, 2022 Arlington County Board meeting (via Arlington County)
The informal, relationships-based advocacy at the core of the “Arlington Way” makes it harder for nonprofits led by and serving people of color to receive county funding, Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol says.
She tells ARLnow these concerns were raised by leaders of color, and she is working on a resolution — that could be voted on by the County Board this month — to change the status quo. The resolution will incorporate recommendations made by a small group of leaders representing local nonprofits.
At the top of their list is a fairly simple concept: a formal application process. Right now, Cristol says, the county uses an “ad hoc” process that doesn’t “live up to our values of transparency and access.”
Meanwhile, a decades-old, community-based program that identifies small infrastructure improvements is confronting a longstandingcriticism — which leadership says is backed up by fresh data — of favoring projects in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods.
Community leaders presented updates on these efforts to the Arlington County Board last month. The moves are part of the county’s work to apply its 2019 equity resolution to policy-making and the newest contribution to the Board’s ongoingdiscussion of problems with the “Arlington Way,” the moniker given to the public process that informs policy-making.
The process often rewards those who are most civically active, connected and vocal about a given issue. But not always: it also frustrates those who follow the civic engagement playbook only to have the Board vote the other way.
“We heard some truthful feedback about how the ‘Arlington Way’ — for the many things it has achieved and its, at times, positive contributions to the community — also has some real downsides,” Cristol said in the Dec. 20, 2022 meeting. “It has been a way of doing things that lacked transparency and access, has prioritized relationships over fairness, and at times, it feels like it is reflective of predetermined outcomes.”
As part of the annual budget, the county awards grants of up to $50,000 or $100,000 for nonprofits serving low- and moderate-income residents, such as employment programs for people with disabilities, after-school programming for immigrant youth and financial planning assistance for families at risk of homelessness.
Leaders of local organizations say the county needs to do a better job of publicizing when funding is available and helping grassroots groups with the application process.
“This part was important for us, particularly for smaller organizations who don’t necessarily have the bandwidth or knowledge in the grant-making cycle that other larger organizations have,” said Cicely Whitfield, the chief program officer for the homeless shelter Bridges to Independence.
This could involve providing clearer deadlines and technical assistance, as well as feedback and workshop opportunities for nonprofits that are denied funding so they can apply successfully.
The group says the county should defer to organizations, which have a better sense of what the community needs, and ask for input on applications from people who would benefit.
Board Member Libby Garvey supported the changes but warned they could be controversial.
“There’s that saying, ‘I’m here from the government and I’m here to help you,’ and that’s supposed to be scary. It’s really because what it often means is, ‘I’m here from the government and I’m here to tell you what you need.'”
The sentiment applies to the Arlington Way, she says.
“We may find a little reaction from this, that ‘This is not the Arlington Way,'” she said. “We’re going to have to figure out ways to bring along everyone and explain… ‘This is going to be better and here’s why.’ We’re going to have work to do with the other part of the community that maybe is usually included.”
There is a three-decade-old program where the county acts on needs identified by residents: the Arlington Neighborhood Conservation Program, now known as the Arlington Neighborhoods Program (ANP).
The downside of this program is that it has “equity liabilities,” County Board Member Takis Karantonis said.
He said the model works for “community members who could afford to go to the meetings, who could afford to make a methodical evaluation of the state of sidewalks, or lack of sidewalks, or lack of public lighting… and fight for funding in a competitive but orderly manner.”
Although not a new criticism, ANP Chair Kathy Reeder provided the County Board with new data suggesting the program has disadvantaged less wealthy, more diverse neighborhoods.
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.
(Updated at 12:05 p.m.) Shift5, a data and cybersecurity company that protects planes, trains and tanks, is heading into 2023 in new and bigger digs in Rosslyn.
In early December, it expanded its office footprint at 1100 Wilson Blvd by 67% to accommodate a swelling employee base. The startup’s workforce grew by more than 50% in 2022, funded by a $50 million Series B fundraising round completed early last year.
The building, owned by column sponsor Monday Properties, is home to restaurant Sfoglina and the headquarters for defense and aerospace company Raytheon Technologies.
Shift5 says the investment in more office infrastructure demonstrates the flexibility, empowerment and responsibility it provides to employees to work wherever is best for them. From its founding in 2019, the startup has permitted its employees across the U.S. to use office space or work remotely.
“Despite economic headwinds, Shift5 has actually expanded our headcount by 54% just this year. Because of the work we do with the government, we have been insulated from a lot of this turmoil and have been fortunate enough to keep growing,” said Shift5 CEO and co-founder Josh Lospinoso in a statement to ARLnow. “We are hybrid-by-design and will remain that way, but some of our teams want to be working in-person and collaborating in real-time.”
1100 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn, home to Shift5 and other companies, including defense contractor Raytheon Technologies (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The company says its expanded presence in Arlington enables it to continue driving the pace of technology outside of Silicon Valley and keep tabs on decisions the U.S. Department of Defense makes to improve critical infrastructure.
“Shift5 is in a powerful position in the market. We’ve found a beachhead within [the Department of Defense] and have several customers using our technology to help fortify the readiness, lethality, and survivability of the military,” Lospinoso said in a press release. “Such success has helped us invest back into our company, and our people, one of our most valuable assets. Our hybrid-by-design workforce and massive growth are proof points of the fast-growing D.C. metro community.”
The office will hold over 80 desks, spaces for team meetings and activities, flexible workstations with stand-up desks, easily-moveable furniture and dedicated quiet areas. The new office space also includes a wellness room for nursing mothers and for those who would like to address physical and mental health needs during the work day.
2022 was a big year for Shift5. In addition to the $50 million fundraising round, it appointed three C-level executives: its inaugural Chief Financial Officer, Chief Research Officer and Chief Technology Officer. It was named a Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Capital Cyber Award Finalist and Tech 100 Honoree, and recognized as an “Excellence Award Finalist” in the Most Promising Early-Stage Startup category for the 2022 SC Awards, which honor the American solutions, companies and people advancing cybersecurity.
It also secured multiple government and military contracts. Shift5 technology is used to monitor weapon system cyber health on aircraft, protect defense department weapons, provide technology for defensive cyberspace operations and provide cybersecurity for a network used by all military branches to share information and make decisions faster.
