Author: Vernon Miles

After Surviving COVID-19, Arlington Restaurateur Hopes to Bring New Meaning to His Life

By Vernon Miles

When he was in the midst of a protracted battle with a severe case of COVID-19, Arlington resident and former local restaurateur Mohammed “Jimmy” Khan said he realized he wished his life had more purpose.

Khan — who once owned Toscana Grill and Pines of Florence, among other restaurants — is currently at home in Arlington on the slow road to recovery since being diagnosed with the disease.

“I’ve been home for a month,” Khan said. “I’ve been much better. The day I came home I was so weak I couldn’t turn myself on my side.”

Khan said his first symptom was a fever that kept going up, but it was early in the pandemic and he didn’t suspect at first that it might be COVID-19.

“I was thinking it was just the regular flu, the seasonal flu,” Khan said. “My fever was going up and I did not pay attention. I thought it was just one of those every few years things. I didn’t pay attention that much. For 10 days I didn’t bother to go to the hospital, I just managed myself with Tylenol.”

During the day, Khan said it would seem to get better, but at night it would return.

“I had miscalculated,” Khan said. “When I came to [Virginia Hospital Center] they sent me back home for three days before I went to Fairfax Hospital. There they tested me for coronavirus and it was positive.”

Khan said his memories from the hospital, and from the days just before he tested positive, are hazy.

“I lost my memories,” Khan said. “I don’t even remember coming to the Arlington hospital. I don’t remember how many days I stayed there. Once I went home, when I came back, I’d learned I’d been to Arlington hospital because my family told me.”

By the time he arrived at Inova Fairfax, Khan said his temperature was 110 degrees. Khan was put into an ECMO machine for two weeks, which he credited with saving his life.

His first memory upon waking up was hospital workers trying to help him video conference with his family.

“When I first woke up, we tried to FaceTime my family,” Khan said, “but I had no power to talk or even keep my eyes open.”

Khan said his body is still sore and he has a hard time sitting down or moving around too much, but he’s managed to walk around the block a little further every week or so.

The frightening encounter with the pandemic has left Khan rattled and reevaluating his priorities.

“It’s hard when you see your life,” Khan said. “It makes me think everybody should do good deeds.”

During the hospital stay and in the long struggle to get back to normal afterward, Khan says he’s felt depressed and hopes to do more good with his life.

“I’ll probably have to give my life a little direction,” Khan said. “I’m thinking of doing more volunteering, anything I can do to bring discipline in my life. I used to not take care of myself, not give time to my family.”

Khan said he spent much of his life working in restaurants and he hopes, after the pandemic, to cut work out entirely and spend more of his time with his family. It’s a realization that Khan said he feels thankful for.

“I feel very blessed,” he said.

Photos courtesy Nargis Mughal

Local Startup Storyblocks Acquired by Boston Firm, But Will Remain in Courthouse

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

Arlington stock footage startup Storyblocks, which saw continued success during the pandemic, has been acquired by Boston-based private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

The price was not publicly disclosed, but a representative said business will continue as usual in Arlington. A press release said the partnership will allow Storyblocks to “accelerate its mission of modernizing the creative process to better support affordable, efficient video creation and to extend its current capabilities and product offerings.”

Great Hills Partners is known for its investments in Gizmodo and, locally, Fairfax County-based Custom Ink.

“We have seen dramatic changes to workflows for customers ranging from freelancers to small businesses to major production studios in recent years as they adapt to an ever-increasing demand for high-quality video content,” said TJ Leonard, CEO of Storyblocks, in the press release. “We are excited to partner with the Great Hill team because we share the belief that creatives are hungry for a new model to meet these new needs.”

Storyblocks started in 2009 as Footage Firm, shipping stock footage via DVDs, and the company has changed locations and brand over several years.

The company will retain its existing staff of 115 people, the Washington Business Journal reported, but will expand its product, engineering, marketing and sales staff.

Photos courtesy Storyblocks

Arlington County Board Candidates Discuss Campaigning Through Coronavirus

By Vernon Miles

While many elections are spaced out over months, sometimes even years at the presidential level, three Arlington candidates have been running for County Board in a 61-day sprint towards the special election on July 7.

Takis Karantonis (D), Susan Cunningham (I) and Bob Cambridge (R) are all first-time candidates in the most unconventional race in recent memory.

“It’s unprecedented and extremely short,” said Karantonis. “We have the COVID-19 [pandemic] and it is a special election [held] right after Fourth of July. Everything you can imagine that is non-typical for an election is typical for this one.”

The 61-Day Campaigns

The special election was triggered by County Board member Erik Gutshall’s resignation in April. Ten days later, Gutshall died after a battle with brain cancer. On May 7, Karantonis bested three other candidates to be chosen as the Democratic nominee in a closed caucus.

Karantonis, and economist and the former director of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, faces opposition in the election from Cunningham, a business executive and independent who has been involved in several major planning efforts, and Cambridge, a Republican and former instructor in the CIA.

For each candidate, it’s been a struggle to adapt over the span of weeks to national and local changes — from the phased reopening to the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd.

“It was right at the end of April [when Gutshall resigned], ” Cunningham said. “I mulled it over, talked it over, then filed before the end of the month and before the party caucuses. It was not particularly premeditated — it was an unusual time with a lot of grieving and a lot of need. The rest of us were shaken by Erik’s death and we had to get a lot of signatures in the middle of the pandemic.”

Without a party infrastructure to back her up, Cunningham said she has had to take a grassroots approach in a compressed election cycle when traditional door-to-door campaigning grassroots tactics weren’t viable. Cunningham considered throwing her hat into the ring for the Democratic primary but said she felt more comfortable running as an independent.

“I thought long and hard about whether to run as an independent because there’s only, like, one example of that working,” Cunningham said, referring to independent John Vihstadt’s victories over Democratic candidates until he was bested in 2018. “It really was a values-based decision. I’ve always through local government should be non-partisan. The issues are not the national party issues; it’s potholes and schools.” (more…)

Wakefield High School Teacher Honored for News Literacy Efforts

By Vernon Miles

A Wakefield High School teacher has been honored by a national organization for her role in promoting news literacy among her social studies students.

Every year since 2016, the nonprofit News Literacy Project (NLP) has selected one journalist and one student for their role in promoting news literacy and understanding. This year, for the first time, the organization has selected an educator — Patricia Hunt — as well.

“Patricia has set the gold standard as the first recipient of our educator of the year award,” said Alan Miller, NLP founder and CEO. “She’s… developed engaging activities to enhance her students’ ability to learn and apply news literacy skills, and her passion for improving the well-being of her students is contagious and inspiring. We are so proud to give her this award and spotlight her as a champion for news literacy education.”

Hunt said in a video that her goal as a social studies teacher is to help prepare her students to verify their sources and become informed voters.

“I started teaching in 1993,” Hunt said. “There were no cell phones, no internet. And today, the amount of information students have at their fingertips is quite daunting. Students struggle with being able to discern what is credible and what is entertainment or an ad. My goal as a social studies teacher is to get students to be skeptical of what has been laid down as the truth.”

Hunt said students leave her classroom questioning each other, questioning her, and able to engage with the news in a meaningful way.

“Preparing my students to be voters is why I’m there,” Hunt said.

Hunts efforts were also featured in an NPR article about combating fake news in the classroom.

“My goal as an educator is to give students the tools that they need to become lifelong learners,” Hunt said in a statement. “My hope would be for them to continue listening to the news, to continue checking their news feed against other news feeds, to stop and pause before sharing.”

Photo via YouTube

Arlingtonians Seem To Be Encountering Snakes More Often, But Locals Shouldn’t Be Rattled

By Vernon Miles

If it seems like you’ve been seeing more reports of snakes around Arlington on local listservs, you’re not alone. Arlington County officials said there’s been a noticeable uptick in reported copperhead snake sightings.

Alonso Abugattas, the county’s natural resources manager, said there has been an increase in copperhead snake sightings but that the exact numbers are hard to track down because he, Arlington’s nature centers, and animal control all get and respond to calls about snakes.

“This past year I have gotten more,” Abugattas said, “but I expect there’s been more because more people are outside.”

Abugattas said with coronavirus keeping people at home rather than in their offices, the increase in calls may have something to do with people exploring their local parks during the day, when copperhead snakes are more active.

“Parks have had a 200% increased use because people are at home and bored,” Abugattas said. “I think more than anything else, people are more aware of them.”

The local emergency room is also seeing evidence of rising encounters between snakes and humans.

“We’ve had a few patients with copperhead bites recently,” Mike Silverman, head of the emergency department at Virginia Hospital Center, wrote last Friday. “As someone who trained and worked for a long time in Baltimore City, it’s seems so weird to see snake bites in what’s otherwise an urban area but they are definitely in Arlington.”

He encouraged anyone suffering from a snakebite to get a photo of the snake.

“Pictures of dead snakes are great,” Silverman wrote. “Please don’t feel the need to bring the snake into the ER, even if it’s dead, though it does add a little excitement to the shift.”

The copperhead is one of only three venomous snakes found in Virginia and the only one found in Arlington County. Ken Rosenthal, park naturalist at Gulf Branch Nature Center (3608 N. Military Road), said in a presentation last Thursday that they are most likely to be found in Gulf Branch and along the rocky, forested hillsides along the Potomac River.

Despite being venomous, Abugattas said there have only been one or two cases nationwide of copperheads killing humans, and even those had other factors. Neither of them, Abugattas said, were in Virginia.

“It is, for the most part, a very timid snake,” Abugattas said. “Even when they do bite, about one-third of the bites are dry bites — a warning.”

(more…)

Bun’d Up Hoping to Serve Alcoholic Drinks at Pentagon Row, but Wary of Second Virus Wave

By Vernon Miles
1/3

Like a lot of local restaurants, it’s been a rough spring for Bun’d Up — which opened at Pentagon Row (1201 S. Joyce Street) in December — but its owner hopes warmer weather and the forthcoming delivery of speciality Asian alcoholic drinks can help turn things around.

Bun’d Up’s Scott Chung said the business is being inspected later this week for a new ABC permit that, if approved, would allow it to offer in-restaurant serving or home delivery of beer and wine.

“We’re trying to jump on board with the take-home drink trend,” Chung said. “This area allows people to drink in the courtyard and we’re hoping to do take-home delivery of alcohol as well. We’ll see how it goes, and try to expand to do more Asian-inspired drinks.”

Chung said from what he’s heard, frozen drinks have been selling really well at other local restaurants. Bun’d Up just got new ice machines and Chung said he’s hoping to start with frozen drinks to test the waters.

“We’re going to focus on Asian-inspired Korean beers and soju, and specialize in Japanese whiskeys,” Chung said.

The restaurant is still trying to figure out which distributor to use and the prices for the drinks haven’t been set in stone, but Chung said it will be comparable to other restaurants in the area.

In general, Chung said he’s hopeful alcohol sales can help boost a business that’s been hurting over the last few months of the pandemic.

“In the beginning, it was pretty rough, but we’re doing better,” Chung said. “It’s still not comparable to before all this started, but we do see some weekends better than others. I think alcohol and getting an outside presence will help.”

There are other ideas in the pipeline, but Chung said the immediate focus will be putting together food that pairs well with alcohol and drawing more attention to the outside space — assuming the good weather holds up.

“The weather has still been pretty funny,” Chung said. “We had a cold rush last week, but right now it’s hot and there’s a ton of people outside.”

Chung said he’s eagerly looking forward to the third phase of reopening.

“Once Phase 3 [of reopening] happens, the business should get a lot better,” Chung said. “Once Phase 2 hit, even before that started — when they announced Phase 2, we were busier. It took some weight off people’s shoulders that it’s getting better.”

Chung is wary of a second coronavirus wave, however, and he said that’s curbed his enthusiasm for rehiring a full staff.

“We get complaints about how long it takes sometimes to get food ready,” Chung said. “That’s probably the number one complaint we hear, but we can’t staff at earlier levels. With a potential second wave, don’t want to staff more people and then turn around and lay them off again.”

Chung said if the recovery continues, he’ll hire more staff to help speed food preparation and delivery, but for now he’s waiting out the summer to see how the virus continues to impact the community.

Local Real Estate Investor Turned Inventor Tinkering With New Prototype Bottlecap

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

On hot summer days, Alex Ordonez’s kids and their soccer team, which he coached, had a hard time cooling down. The players were being sprayed with water, but Ordonez figured there had to be a better way.

Thus, the Spritz Cap — or an early concept for it, anyway — was born.

“While coaching for both teams in the summer, the heat became too much, and there were limited breaks,” Ordonez said. “When the kids became exhausted, they would run near our sidelines and we would spray them with water, and with time, I was able to modify a product to allow for any water bottle to turn into a portable multiuse bottle that allows for water conservation and several functions for user use.”

Ordonez, who also works as a real estate investor, is working on a prototype for a multi-use bottle cap he hopes to produce at affordable levels to adapt any water bottle into a spritzer.

“With our product, consumers will be able to save water and utilize water bottles for alternate needs, such as rinsing, cleaning, camping needs, etc,” Ordonez said on a Kickstarter campaign. “Spritz Cap is a two-part replacement that replaces an existing water bottle cap, made out of plastic and will be packaged in 1, 3, and 10 quantity packages.”

A video Ordonez put together for the product said the idea is to design a cap that could turn a water bottle into a tool to wash hands or cool down after a workout without wasting water.

Taking the Spritz Cap from an idea to a product is no easy feat, and one Ordonez is still working through. A Kickstarter for the project was launched but cancelled in January after getting only four backers and $28. Ordonez said he took down the Kickstarter because he wanted to work on the product some more. He’s now nearing the end of the prototype phase and hopes to re-launch soon.

“There were prospective investors but most wanted to see me with a product vs. a virtual design,” Ordonez said. “I decided to remove the Kickstarter, while I finalized the product and possibly come up with additional features that could increase additional interest. I hope to re-launch within a few weeks.”

Ordonez said the goal is to keep the product affordable, with several package options and individually packaged at 99 cents.

While development of the product has faced setbacks — including Ordonez’s limited access to funding, in part due to self-admitted “imperfect credit” as the result of an injury — he said one of the greatest sources of help in the development of the Spritz Cap has been Arlington Economic Development.

“They were able to assist with several factors as well, but the biggest struggles that any company has or will find is finding the available capital,” Ordonez said. “I spoke with several entities such as the [Small Business Administration] and other government institutes, and every single one was a dead stop… However, Arlington Economic Development was extremely helpful, not with funding, but the information and assistance that they provided was and is still outstanding. They took the time to listen to my ideas, provide feedback and were able to assist with making the right connections.”

Image via Kickstarter

Mountain Bikers Push to Legalize Trail Use in Arlington Parks

By Vernon Miles
1/3

(Updated at 9:25 a.m.) In addition to the official woodlands paths and trails through Arlington parks, a visitor is likely to find countless other well-worn paths that criss-cross the park built from decades of use.

As Arlingtonians venture into nature for a social-distanced outdoors experience, a local group is hoping to legalize the natural trails and make them sustainable.

An over 200-member Facebook page called Arlington Trails advocates for preserving and sustaining natural trails across Arlington — particularly for local mountain bikers.

“Arlington County is the only area that doesn’t allow mountain biking,” said Matthew Levine, who runs Arlington Trails. “It’s a great way of getting kids into nature. Right now, a lot of people need to be outside.”

Susan Kalish, a spokeswoman for the parks department, verified that natural trail use is restricted to walking humans and dogs on leashes, due to the damage caused by bicycles.

“Bikes are not allowed on a natural trail in Arlington,” Kalish said. “Wheels on trails compact the ground and have a greater impact on the flora and fauna that make up our natural trails. Wheeled transport on natural trails compacts the soil and can destroy plants and damage tree roots. Compacted soils and less vegetation lead to water runoff and degradation of our streams. There are also safety issues as these trails are narrow and the walkers and bikers can’t easily step to the side without harming more vegetation and possibly themselves on steep embankments.”

Kalish said those trails have been damaged in recent months by irresponsible users.

“We find rogue, bushwhacked trails where trees have been cut down and plants pulled out,” Kalish said. “We’ve also found places where bikers have built ramps, jumps and holes.”

For Levine, the recent damage shows that cyclists are still using these trails despite local ordinance, and legalizing that use while providing less destructive options for use.

“Part of it is making these trails legal, otherwise there are rogue trails being built with thrillseekers going straight down,” Levine said. “If they’re not sanctioned and following protocol — that’s why you have kids in the woods building jumps.”

Nora Palmatier, an Arlington resident and a member of Tree Stewards of Arlington and Alexandria, said that the trails through the parks are currently unsafe for mountain biking.

“It is too dangerous for off-road biking in small parks,” Palmatier said. “Several of us have been hit getting off trails by speeding bikes. I discovered 13 holly saplings 6-10 feet tall chopped down for bike trails which is just wrong in Lacey Woods. I love to bike ride but not where it destroys wildflowers and trees or where it is too dangerous.”

Currently, many of those trails are desire paths — reflecting the most direct routes park users take from one place to another. Levine said those paths aren’t made with concerns about erosion and other issues in mind, which is why Levine and local organization Mid Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts (MORE) work to adapt those trails into sustainable paths. Emails Levine provided of his offers to do so in Arlington show park managers rebuffing those efforts.

(more…)

One More Page Books Celebrates New Chapter in Online Sales

By Vernon Miles

Amanda Quain, social media manager for Arlington bookstore One More Page books, said the store has “the best problem” right now and one many other struggling retail locations would love to have: they are overwhelmed with orders.

The independent book store at 2200 N. Westmoreland Street in East Falls Church has been closed to public browsing since the pandemic started, but inside Quain said the shop is buzzing with staff putting together boxes and taking phone calls from customers.

While book stores nationwide are struggling, Quain said the pandemic has pushed the shop into an online shopping focus that’s changed how the business operates.

“We’re not planning on opening anytime soon,” Quain said. “We’re too small to do both online orders and letting people browse. We’ve had to get rid of a lot of fixtures and shelves that make shop feel cozy. Don’t want people to linger in the post-pandemic world. Sitting and staying a while have to go away. We hope increased online business goes to in-store after, but we also hope to maintain online sales.”

The store recently celebrated 10,000 orders.

Those online sales have created a new community around the bookstore that tries to replicate the experience of browsing and getting a recommendation, though Quain said the staff are busier than ever because that takes longer when not done in-person.

“A lot of it’s easier to do in-store, like recommending books, but that takes longer when that’s email or phone call,” Quain said. “We’re having the best problem. We’re very overwhelmed with orders and don’t have the staff to support it.”

Quain said One More Page also did a website redesign a year ago, which put the store in a good position when the pandemic started and customers started seeking out local businesses to support while social distancing.

The big sales come in waves, Quain said, and are often driven by trends.

“With a lot of the talk about antiracism and books by black authors there been a lot of those [sold],” Quain said. “Those are books like How to Be an Anti-Racist. We’ve been steadily increasing, but that was the biggest jump.”

Quain said other big-sellers have been Me and White Supremacy, Just Mercy, and Jubilee.

The pandemic has also driven the One More Page community to other products, like puzzles.

“Whenever we have puzzles on the website, those go pretty fast,” Quain said. “About a month ago we had one each of our puzzles and we auctioned them off. It was a steady price, whoever claimed it first got it. We were lucky, there no fighting, everyone was chill.”

Early on in the pandemic, Quain said the big push was for children’s books and workbooks. That intensified even more as summer vacation started. Quain said a lot of sales were driven by the Washington Post Summer Book Club for children.

“In the before-times, we would try to predict trends,” Quain said. “We don’t have as much time to do that now. It’s been more reactive than we like but it gives us a cool idea of what books people want. Some of them are books we’ve never heard of, or books we start stocking now.”

Quain said the big part of the book store’s survival has been flexibility, both for the store and trying to instill that in customers. There were frustrations early on, Quain said, when shipments that used to arrive overnight were taking a week or more to deliver.

That flexibility has also created some innovative new products at the store. One of the more popular, Quain said, is the One More Page surprise box. Customers pay $100 and answer extensive questions about their reading preferences, and staff put together a customized box based on recommendations.

Photo via One More Page Books/Facebook

Columbia Pike Summer Movie Festival Converts to Drive-In Experience

By Vernon Miles

After months of uncertainty, the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization announced that the group’s annual summer movie series would be converted into a new drive-in theater format.

“On Saturday nights throughout July and August, CPRO will be showing blockbuster hits on the big screen at the Arlington Career Center parking lot (816 S. Walter Reed Drive),” the organization said in a press release.

The movies are scheduled to start at sunset, sometime between 8-8:30 p.m.

The event will remain free and open to the public, but with limited space, participants will have to register in advance. Attendees will also be asked to remain in their vehicles during the movie. Public restrooms will not be available.

An area will be set aside for households without vehicles, which CPRO said can be identified on the registration form.

The lineup (below) is a fusion of the earlier schedule for movie nights at Arlington Mill and Penrose Square, now that the only screenings will be at the Career Center.

  • July 11: Jurassic Park
  • July 18: The Secret Life of Bees
  • July 25: Twister
  • August 1: Crazy Rich Asians 
  • August 8: Apollo 13
  • August 15: Ready Player One 
  • August 22: Coco 
  • August 29: Mary Poppins Returns 

“2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbia Pike Movie Nights and we had already hosted several rounds of voting to let the people pick this year’s line-up, so we were really eager to find a way to host the event safely,” CPRO Program Director Stephen Gregory Smith said in a press release. “So we worked with [Arlington Public Schools], libraries, and county staff to secure the Arlington Career Center parking lot and come up with a plan to allow everyone to still enjoy their favorite movies together — while still apart — this summer.”

Photo via CPRO

Darna Lounge Owner Pushes Through Slow Recovery from COVID-19

By Vernon Miles
1/2

There was a moment when Ahmad Ayyad, owner of Darna Lounge at Virginia Square, was sure COVID-19 was going to kill him.

“When I went to [Sibley Memorial Hospital in D.C.] and they intubated me and I woke up in Baltimore at [Johns Hopkins Hospital],” Ayyad said. “I had this tube and all these things connected to me. I texted my best friend ‘I think I’m going to die.'”

In March, Ayyad was starting to feel weak and a little under the weather when talk of COVID-19 spreading across the United States was just starting. With no coughing or fever, Ayyad said at first he thought it was just a cold, but after a few days he found that he wasn’t getting better.

“I went to the hospital just to get medication, then I went to Sibley and they put me in and the next thing you know, it’s oxygen and they might have to put you into a coma. And at that point, you’re like ‘What, woah, me?'”

Ayyad said he was one of the first people in Hopkins with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

“I was a guinea pig,” Ayyad said. “They didn’t know much of what to do with me about how to help me. They didn’t really have the knowledge that we have now.”

As he was lying in the hospital, Ayyad said he not only had to tell his parents what was happening but had to warn them away from coming to the hospital to see him in what might have been his final hours. Even after the disease has passed, Ayyad said that’s the part that still haunts him. Ayyad said he still thinks of what his parents went through: crying themselves to sleep and waking up at 6 a.m. to call the doctor just to hear that Ayyad is still stable.

“The hardest thing was hearing what my parents went through,” Ayyad said.

Meanwhile, Ayyad said being in quarantine inside the hospital was a lonely and isolating experience.

“You’re kind of, like, stuck on an island by yourself and you have no one to talk to or encourage you, anything to feel like you have someone on your side,” Ayyad said. “You’re just stuck in the room.”

Recovery for Ayyad has been slow, especially for someone who said he took a lot of pride in being in shape. Even over a month after his release, Ayyad said he still suffers shortness of breath when he works out. Progress has been a slow build: from moving around on a walker to walks around the neighborhood and eventually to weight training.

Ayyad, a fitness buff and marathon runner, lost 60 pounds and much of his muscle tone while in the hospital.

“My determination has never been higher,” he said. “You look in the mirror and see the COVID in your body. I’m determined to get my body back to what it looked like before.”

(more…)

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