Author: Tim Regan

‘Beliebers’ to Flock to A-Town for Bieber Bash Friday

By Tim Regan

Justin Bieber, photo via Twitter : JustinBieberIf you’re not a true “Belieber,” you might want to steer clear of A-Town in Ballston this Friday night.

The bar and grill at 4100 Fairfax Dr. will host parties before and after Justin Bieber takes the stage at the Verizon Center that night.

“Join us for happy hour to pregame for the show or come back after as we’ll be rocking to Bieber beats and asking what you mean both times,” reads a Facebook page for the event. “We’ll be kicking things off at 5:00pm for happy hour. Hope to see all our fellow Beliebers before or after the concert!”

More than 75 Bieber fans have already RSVPed for the event.

Photo via Twitter / Justin Bieber

Greek Easter Festival Kicks Off at Ballston Kapnos Taverna Sunday

By Tim Regan

Kapnos Taverna in Ballston

Celebrity chef Mike Isabella will host a Greek Orthodox Easter festival at Kapnos Taverna (4000 Wilson Blvd.) this weekend.

Patrons will celebrate the holiday with “spit-roasted meats, homemade spreads and flatbread, live Greek music, [and] Greek wine,” according to an event listing.

“Easter is one of the most important events on the Greek Orthodox calendar, and this year Kapnos Taverna is hosting our first annual Greek festival in honor of the holiday on Sunday, May 1,” the listing reads.

The festival starts on the Kapnos patio at noon. Tickets cost $70.

Brixx Closes Clarendon Pizzeria After Six Months in Business

By Tim Regan

Brixx Wood Fired PizzaOne of Clarendon’s newer pizza restaurants has closed its doors after only half a year in business.

Brixx Wood Fired Pizza, which opened at 1119 N. Hudson Street on Oct. 26, is now closed, the North Carolina-based company said in a Facebook post earlier this afternoon.

“Arlington friends, we have enjoyed serving you, but have decided to close our restaurant in Clarendon,” the post reads. “We will miss you, but hope you’ll visit us in Woodbridge or Virginia Beach. Thank you for your patronage and your kindness.”

The company did not say why it closed the pizzeria and a representative for Brixx did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Calls to the Clarendon location went unanswered earlier this afternoon.

Hat tip to a tipster for sending news of the closure our way

Tip Leads to Arrest of Suspected Argumentative Face-Slasher

By Tim Regan

Calderon, Ramon mugshot (photo courtesy ACPD))A police tip earlier this month led to the arrest of a man suspected of slashing another man in the face after an argument last June, police announced this morning.

According to the authorities, a tip received through Arlington County Crime Solvers led to the arrest of 24-year-old Ramon Calderon on April 14.

Calderon is suspected of brandishing a pocket knife, then cutting another man across the face at the Gunston Middle School soccer fields in June. The attack caused “a fairly large laceration,” on the victim’s face according to police, and resulted in significant bleeding due to a cut minor artery. The man was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he received 60 stitches.

Police said last June that the two men were arguing about the “worth and importance of a college education” before the attack, but they did not specify whether the suspect was arguing for or against the value of higher education.

Photo courtesy ACPD

BREAKING: Metro Closing Rail System Tomorrow for ‘Emergency Inspections’

By Tim Regan

Metro will close its rail system to riders for a full 24 hours starting tonight at midnight, the transit agency announced the news at a press conference this afternoon.

The Metrorail system will close at midnight tonight and remain closed until 5 a.m. Thursday, according to officials. All six Metrorail lines and all 91 stations will be closed on Wednesday.

More information from Metro:

Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld, with support from the Authority’s Board of Directors, today announced the full closure of the Metrorail system on Wednesday, March 16, for emergency inspections of the system’s third-rail power cables following an early morning tunnel fire yesterday.

The inspections of approximately 600 “jumper cables” will occur along all tunnel segments on the Metrorail system. At the conclusion of the inspection process, there may be a need for additional rail service outages. Any further service impacts will be announced to the public as soon as they are known.

The news also appeared to crash the WMATA website earlier this afternoon.

The move comes just one day after an early morning cable fire caused massive delays on Metro’s Blue and Orange lines.

APS Projected to Surpass 30K Students by 2022 Amid ‘Unprecedented’ Growth

By Tim Regan

APS Enrollment Report screenshot 2

The number of PreK-12 students enrolled in Arlington Public Schools is expected to surpass 30,000 in 2022 after steadily rising for years, according to APS in its newly released enrollment report.

School officials say 25,238 students were enrolled as of Sept. 30, 2015, the first time since 1969 that APS has reached the 25,000 student milestone. By 2017, the school projects 27,491 students will have enrolled, an increase of 4.5 percent over the previous year. And steady growth continues from there: The school says its student body will grow by at least 2.5 percent until the 2021-2022 school year, when it’s expected to surpass 30,700 students.

According to APS, the total number of enrolled students “has risen at an unprecedented high growth pattern since 2008.” Since fall 2005, the number of students has grown by more than 6,800 students, an increase of about 37 percent.

Growth will likely slow to 1.7 percent by 2023 and continue to wane thereafter, APS adds. By 2026, the school’s student body is projected to grow only by 0.6 percent and reach an enrollment total of 32,807.

Overall, the school expects to add nearly 7,600 students between now and 2026.

APS Enrollment Report screenshot alternative projectionsThough all other alternative projections put the school over 30,000 students by 2024 at the latest, APS says it’s possible that the number of enrolled students could shrink instead of grow by that time. One projection says the school could lose 1,181 students between 2021 and 2025. But the school cautions that such alternative projections “are not statistical confidence limits, but instead represent judgments made by planning staff as to reasonable upper and lower bounds.”

Among the factors used to project school enrollment was historic birth rates in Arlington County, which are used to project the number of future incoming kindergarten students.

APS Enrollment Report screenshot birth dataAn average of 2,800 live births per year were recorded in Arlington between 2004 to 2008. Between 2009 and 2013, a period APS refers to as “the wave,” about 3,100 births on average were recorded each year. As children born during “the wave” grow up, they’re expected to crowd schools as they advance through elementary, middle and high school.

In response, APS has in the past undertaken several actions to mitigate school crowding, like hiring 387 new teachers last summer and utilizing trailer classrooms.

Among the steps being taken by APS to add more capacity for the growing student body are adding an elementary school at the Thomas Jefferson Middle School site, expanding Abingdon Elementary in Fairlington and building the new Stratford Middle School while moving the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program to Rosslyn.

Graphs via APS Enrollment Report

Some Stores Still Awaiting Shipments of Fresh Food Following Blizzard

By Tim Regan
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Though the blizzard is long gone, some area grocery stores are still awaiting fresh shipments of milk, eggs, bread and meat to restock shelves stripped bare before and during the storm.

Shelves normally stocked with milk, eggs and bread were empty earlier this afternoon at the Safeway and Target stores on Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. Though employees at both stores declined to say much, they did say it may take another day before they can restock.

An employee at the Whole Foods at 2700 Wilson Boulevard said the store had just four cartons of eggs left, and a worker at Mom’s Organic Market (1901 N Veitch Street) said milk supplies were running low.

Some residents also have reported shortages of certain items at the Clarendon Trader Joe’s (1109 N Highland Street). Joe Flinchum, a supervisor at that location, said his store hasn’t received a delivery since last week.

“Our warehouse is really far away,” Flinchum said. “They’ve obviously been impacted by the weather just as we have. We may get a perishable food delivery tentatively tomorrow morning.”

But not every store in the area is out of fresh food.  An employee at the customer service desk of the Harris Teeter at 600 N Glebe Road said the store has everything except snow shovels and salt.

TRAFFIC ALERT: Car Overturns in Crash on I-395

By Tim Regan

395-ridge-ot

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) Police and firefighters were on the scene of a crash involving an overturned vehicle on I-395 earlier today.

The crash occurred near exit 8B on the southbound lane of I-395 just before 3:30 p.m. this afternoon.

No injuries were reported and everyone was able to safely escape the car, a Toyota, according to scanner traffic.

Workers removed the flipped car around 4 p.m. and traffic began moving normally shortly thereafter.

Here’s the Story Behind ACFD’s Snow-Shoveling T-Rex

By Tim Regan

As the snow piled up on Saturday, a video from the Arlington County Fire Department took off.

The video, tweeted out by the fire department around noon that day, showed a T-Rex clearing clearing snow from around a fire hydrant. The message was clear: If a predatory dinosaur with useless little arms can shovel snow, so can you.

But here’s a secret: that wasn’t a real T-Rex. And the video wasn’t filmed around here.

“The actual video was not filmed in Arlington,” said Jamie Jill, the Arlington firefighter who originally shared the clip. “It was at my sister’s home in Bethesda.”

And it was Jill’s nine-year-old niece Janelle who played the role of the “civically minded” lizard, he added.

“When she first went out in the suit, there were neighbors out shoveling their cars and everyone started laughing and taking pictures,” Jill said. “She actually didn’t want to do it because she was embarrassed. I had to bribe her with a present.”

Janelle wasn’t as embarrassed when she found out she made the news, Jill said.

“When I showed her the news reports, she said she was going to tell everyone at school,” he added.

Will we see more of the tiny T-Rex in the future? That all depends on whether Janelle will don the dinosaur suit again, Jill said. And if she won’t, he added that he “might have to get the fire department to purchase one.”

Metro Restoring Some Aboveground Train Service Today

By Tim Regan

Metro restored some aboveground service on several of its train lines today.

The transit authority reopened aboveground stations between Ballston and New Carrollton on the Orange Line, Union Station and Glenmont on the Red Line and Fort Totten and Branch Avenue on the Green Line at 11 a.m.

Though Metro announced yesterday its plans to reopen some stations that were closed during the blizzard, those plans did not originally include aboveground service restorations.

The stations between East Falls Church and Vienna and along the Silver Line are still currently closed. More stations may open throughout the day, according to Metro spokesman Richard Jordan. Though Jordan did not say which stations might be reopened next, he said to expect an update later this afternoon.

Fares will not be charged today, and trains will run every 20-25 minutes until midnight.

Metro will also restore service to the 5A bus route between L’Enfant Plaza and Dulles Airport at noon today.

Morning Notes

By Tim Regan

Quincy park snowball fight

County Board Takes a Rare Snow Day — The Arlington County Board cancelled its Jan. 23 meeting due to the snow. Government officials can’t remember the last time a monthly meeting was called off on account of the weather. [InsideNova]

Snowfall Covers Graves at Arlington National Cemetery — Accumulating snow covered headstones at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday. Army sentinels continued to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier despite whiteout conditions. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

Florida Teens Stuck in ‘Snowzilla’ — The monster blizzard stranded a group of Florida teenagers in Arlington all weekend. For many of them, it was their first real experience with snow. [WJLA]

Falls Church to Emulate Arlington’s Student Decal Competition —  The treasurer of Falls Church will copy Arlington’s student vehicle decal competition. Falls Church students stand to win $750, with lesser prizes for second, third and fourth place. [InsideNova]

Digging Out — From walking to work to dealing with limited Metro service, here’s how the D.C. area has coped with the remnants of the snow. [Washington Post]

Quincy Park snowball fight photo courtesy of John Kua

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