Author: Vernon Miles

Crystal City Plans New Drive-In Movie Series

By Vernon Miles

The National Landing BID (née Crystal City BID) is hosting a series of drive-in movies, starting Thursday and running weekly in September.

Retro drive-ins have become a popular alternative to traditional theaters, which can be a COVID-19 hazard. In Alexandria, a similar drive-in series has already sold out all of its tickets.

For the National Landing film series — dubbed “Ride in Reels” — the venue is the empty lot at 33rd Street S. and Crystal Drive. Gates will open for moviegoers at 7 p.m.

Films scheduled for the drive-in are:

Prior registration is required to attend. Would-be attendees are encouraged to sign up for the National Landing BID newsletter; a link will appear in the Monday newsletter for Thursday’s movie. When registering, participants select their vehicle type or choose one of the non-vehicle spaces for those walking or biking to the movies.

“Please note, once you make your selection, you should complete your registration quickly because Eventbrite does not reserve ‘tickets’ that are in your cart,” the BID cautioned.

Registration for this Thursday’s showing of Little Women is currently open.

Attendees should remain in their vehicles, or in designated non-vehicle spaces, throughout the movie, the BID said. Public restrooms will not be available.

Outside food and drink is allowed, but alcohol and smoking is prohibited. Face masks are required when entering and exiting but can be taken off during the movie.

The series is co-sponsored by grocery store chain Lidl, which has its U.S. headquarters in Crystal City.

Image via Disney

Consignment Shop For Parents and Kids Coming to Westover

By Vernon Miles

Those who mourned the closing of Finders Keepers in Westover (5906 Washington Blvd) should be happy to know a new consignment shop is coming to the same space, but with some significant new changes.

True to the consignment store spirit, Amber Scivolette is taking a second-hand retail space and breathing new life into it — Finders Keepers is becoming Blossom and Buds Consignment.

The store will serve both kids and adults. Offerings will include clothing, shoes and accessories, as well as toys, books, games, and other items.

“We’re going to have kids’ consignment as well as women’s consignment,” Scivolette said. “It’s basically two storefronts, with one whole side for kids and a kids’ play area.”

Inside, Scivolette said she has renovated the space.

“We pulled everything apart,” Scivolette said. “We just completed that, now we’re setting things into place.”

The exterior, which currently is mostly covered in plastic, is also getting spruced up. Scivolette said a new sign and a power wash are coming soon.

The new store is scheduled to open in September, possibly with a soft opening around Thursday, Sept. 10, or Friday, Sept. 11.

Though the exact details haven’t been nailed down yet, Scivolette said Blossom and Buds will implement COVID-19 safety measures. Early on, that will mean a big emphasis on selling items via Instagram, Facebook and other social media outlets. Scivolette said the store will offer contactless pickup if someone wants to buy something they spotted online.

While many locals opening new stores have had challenges, Scivolette says she’s found a silver lining.

“Opening now… it’s not ideal, but I feel like I’m not rushed,” Scivolette. “I can take the time to do what I want to do. The timing works out okay for us.”

Photo courtesy Amber Scivolette

Arlington Drafthouse Remaining Open With Comedians and Cult Classics

By Vernon Miles
1/2

A month into Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse’s (2903 Columbia Pike) reopening “test drive,” the venue is moving forward with more programming, but also adapting for some of the bumps in the roads.

“We’re coming into the fourth weekend,” said owner Tim Clark. “We have kept capacity right around 25% and that seems to be working pretty well. I’m really happy with how we opened. Staff has been great in keeping things sanitized and clean, and making sure people have been adhering to policy.”

While Clark highlighted safety measures like cleaning and distancing, the truth remains that going to theaters amid a pandemic remains a risk. Despite the successful reopening, Clark said it hasn’t been easy maintaining business as customers have stayed away from the indoor venue.

“Everything is quite a bit down,” Clark said. We’ve seen a stronger attendance for the comedy shows. Movies have been hit or miss. Some have done really well, like Back to the Future. Our largest attended show was 20 people.”

Other movies, like 40 Year Old Virgin, didn’t do nearly as well as Clark was hoping, and some reliable blockbusters have also had a disappointing showing.

“Empire Strikes Back didn’t do as well as I thought last week,” Clark said. “It’s more of the cult classics that are doing well.”

The new schedule of upcoming shows highlights the shift towards 80s and 90s classics, mixed in with the Drafthouse’s bread-and-butter live comedy shows and occasional special event.

Late September Opening Eyed for Ballston’s Mosaic Park, But Pandemic Puts Some Features on Hold

By Vernon Miles
1/6

After delays in planning and over a year of construction, Arlington’s ambitious overhaul of Mosaic Park (538 N. Pollard Street) is about a month away from its debut.

The park is planned to open, in part, in late September, according to Susan Kalish, spokeswoman for the county parks department.

The renovations convert the park behind the Gold’s Gym in Ballston to an urban plaza with an interactive water feature, children’s play area, casual use lawn, multipurpose court, and basketball half-court. Some of those new features won’t be active at the start, however, due to the pandemic.

“When the park opens the water feature, two electrical circular play elements, park lighting and multipurpose court lighting won’t be available until later in the fall,” Kalish said. “The water feature is official called a splashpad, as you can walk into it and play around. According to the Governor’s Forward Virginia guidelines, splashpad (and our spraygrounds) cannot be turned on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The county website said the park is designed with casual “drop-in activities” in mind rather than specific sports or engagement with nature.

“Mosaic Park is specifically designed to bring a diverse community together,” the county said. “Whether laying out to soak up some rays or challenging a neighbor to a friendly game of frisbee, this park is uniquely positioned to support impromptu, casual usage.”

New Mexican Restaurant ‘Los Chamacos’ Replacing Cantina Mexicana Off Columbia Pike

By Vernon Miles
1/3

Interior renovations are underway on a new Mexican restaurant called Los Chamacos, which is planning to pick up where Cantina Mexicana left off in December.

The restaurant — which translates to “The Kids” — will offer Mexican cuisine classics, like fajitas, enchiladas, molcajete, pambazo and barbacoa, according to a sign on the restaurant window. It’s located at 922 S. Walter Reed Drive

Cantina Mexicana first opened along Columbia Pike seven years ago but temporarily closed late last year due to the owners needing time off to care for a family member who suffered a stroke.

An employee inside the storefront said the restaurant is tentatively scheduled for an opening sometime in November.

Locals were bittersweet about the change on social media, lamenting the loss of Cantina Mexicana, which also previously had a location in Crystal City.

https://twitter.com/kbutler333/status/1296801492041641986

H/t to @SRtwofourfour

Crystal City Legal Sea Foods in Questionable Waters

By Vernon Miles
1/3

The future is murky for Legal Sea Foods in Crystal City after the company took the location off its official list of restaurants.

The webpage for the Crystal City location now redirects to the chain’s Reagan National Airport outpost. Similarly, the Legal Sea Foods location in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood has been removed from the company’s list, and its webpage now redirects to that of the Legal Sea Bar in Union Station.

The removal of the D.C. and Arlington restaurants from the locations page was done within the past month; as recently as July 28 both were still listed.

All Legal locations in the D.C. area remain closed, at least temporarily, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s locations in its home market of Massachusetts, by contrast, started reopening in June.

While the front door to the Crystal City Legal Sea Foods has a sign up saying the closure is temporary, a source with knowledge of the matter tells ARLnow that it has indeed closed permanently.

The company, which is suing its insurer over the denial of business interruption claims caused by the pandemic, could not be reached for comment.

As one door on the block closes, however, another opens. The neighboring Bowlero at 320 23rd Street S. opened in July.

Local Startup Streamlining Cloud-Based Services Scores $4 Million in Investment

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, StartupMonday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Shirlington Gateway. Say hello to the new 2800 Shirlington, which recently delivered a brand-new lobby and upgraded fitness center. Experience a prime location and enjoy being steps from Shirlington Village, a large retail hub with a variety of unique restaurants and shopping options. Spec suites with bright open plans and modern finishes are under construction and will deliver soon!

Arlington startup Stacklet, started by a pair of locals who met while working Capital One, has raised $4 million in seed investment.

Stacklet helps administrators manage various aspects of their cloud network systems, like security, cost optimization, and regulatory compliance. It’s a service that could become increasingly vital as more businesses consider making pandemic-era work-from-home policies permanent.

The funding came from investor Lee Fixel’s fund Addition and Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Foundation Capital, according to a press release.

Rather than addressing various cloud accounts individually, Stacklet allows users to manage thousands of accounts. The service also offers analytics on to show things like the trends and anomalies in cloud usage.

The project is built around Cloud Custodian, an open-source project created by Kapil Thangavelu — Stacklet’s Chief Technology Officer — and used by companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Capital One, the company said in a press release. Thangavelu created Cloud Custodian while at Tysons-based Capital One.

“Organizations struggle with how to balance their productivity desires with governance requirements,” CEO Travis Stanfield said in a statement. “Striking the right governance posture and keeping that posture up with the intense pace of innovation requires community, open source and crowdsourcing. Stacklet empowers organizations to automate cloud governance via advanced product features with commercial support. This results in self-service to cloud technologies which are properly aligned with an organization’s governance posture.”

In announcing its funding round earlier this month, Stacklet said the startup was emerging from stealth mode — an early period of developing a service before revealing it to the public.

In public filings, the company’s address is listed as a post office box in Clarendon.

Photo via Stacklet

Virginia Hospital Center Unveils New Unit Built with COVID-19 in Mind

By Vernon Miles
1/4

Virginia Hospital Center (1701 N. George Mason Drive) has opened up a new suite of patient rooms, each a bit larger than the typical hospital rooms with some features designed with COVID-19 in mind.

“Virginia Hospital Center’s new 4th floor patient unit and nurses’ station opened in August, adding 21 more private rooms that are 30% larger than VHC’s standard rooms,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. “The interior design of the new unit continues the clean, modern aesthetic of the VHC campus creating a comforting space for patients and families.”

The hospital said that each room will have a bathroom and shower, with individual temperature controls, televisions, a sofa for families, a reclining chair and bench.

Perhaps the most important feature, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is that each room can be converted to negative pressure, which lowers air pressure and requires any air leaving the room to pass through a filter.

“Each patient room also has the ability to convert to negative pressure — an important feature when treating patients with highly contagious conditions, such as COVID-19,” the hospital said. “Negative pressure traps and keeps potentially harmful air particles within the room by preventing internal air from leaving the space.”

The floor plan for the new unit also includes high-visibility nurses’ stations, along with private patient and family consultation rooms and a new lobby.

“Every aspect of the new unit was carefully designed with the needs of both patients and caregivers in mind,” the hospital said, “and to create a nurturing environment that is conducive to healing.”

Separately, Virginia Hospital Center is in the midst of a major expansion project.

Changes to Columbia Pike Bridge Over Four Mile Run Expected This Fall

By Vernon Miles

(Updated at 5 p.m.) Crossing Four Mile Run on Columbia Pike on foot or bike can be nerve-wracking, with scarcely any space separating pedestrians from the busy street. A new project set to get underway in a few months should make that crossing a little easier.

The Columbia Pike Four Mile Run Bridge Pedestrian Enhancements project will bump out the northern sidewalk along westbound traffic to 10 feet, double the current five feet. Vehicle travel lanes will, in turn, be slimmed down.

The project also will add lighting to the northern side of the bridge.

There is currently nothing except the curb separating pedestrians from vehicles, but the project will add guardrails in spots to help improve safety.

“The sturdier guardrails will be installed at the approaches [but] not on the bridge itself,” said county transportation spokesman Eric Balliet. “The expanded sidewalk will remain 9″ tall to provide protection for pedestrians.”

Balliet said there’s no word yet on when the improvements will be completed.

“The project is currently in design,” he said. “Implementation of the bridge enhancements is expected this fall, but we don’t yet have a start or end date for the work.”

The project arose out of public feedback from the Columbia Pike west end project, in which local residents said the sidewalks were too narrow and the too poorly lit to feel safe traveling along the bridge at night.

Images via Arlington County

Nearly 200 Years Later, Henry Clay Faces Another Duel Over Arlington Park Name

By Vernon Miles
1/4

As renovations are underway for Henry Clay Park, some local residents are hoping for one more additional change: getting rid of the name honoring slave-owning former Secretary of State Henry Clay.

Clay, who represented Kentucky in Congress before and after serving as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams, fought a duel in Arlington: at Pimmit Run in 1826. Neither participant was wounded and no Broadway musicals were written in Clay’s honor. Though he owned slaves and had a negative view on a multiracial society, Clay was opposed to slavery and freed those he enslaved upon his death.

The Lyon Park Civic Association is now hoping to change the name to one honoring Zitkala-Ša, a Native American writer and political activist who lived in the neighborhood from 1925-1938, the Falls-Church News Press first reported.

“The Lyon Park Civic Association has requested that the park be renamed the Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird) Park,” confirmed Susan Kalish, spokesperson for Arlington’s Department of Parks and Recreation. “They presented their request at the July 28 Park and Recreation Commission meeting.”

Kalish said after receiving the request, the proposal will be reviewed by the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board and the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee.

“The Park and Recreation Commission will consider the renaming request again after they receive comments from these citizen advisory groups and adjacent civic associations,” Kalish said. “Once the commission approves the name, the County Board will make the final decision on the proposed park name.”

Henry Clay isn’t the only slaveowner in Arlington whose name could be removed from public property. Arlington County is also currently considering renaming Lee Highway, named for Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Whatever its name will be, Kalish said renovations to the park at the corner of 7th and N. Highland streets are still on track to be completed by the end of the year.

“While the pandemic caused delays in procurement and site furnishing manufacturing,” Kalish said, “it all came together and the community will see a new basketball court, playground, open field and picnic shelter with updated site circulation, site furnishing, fencing, drainage and landscaping.”

Image via Arlington County

Arlington’s Charlie Clark Takes County Back to 1959 With Restored 8mm Footage

By Vernon Miles

Local historian Charlie Clark has helped produce and narrate a compilation of rare Arlington footage from the late 1950s.

Clark, a columnist with the Falls Church News-Press, said the 8mm home videos came from a Belgian family visiting the area. The video includes footage of everything from Bernie’s Pony Ring to shopping in a local grocery store.

“Thanks to Arlington Historical Society backers and to technical director David Downey of Transvideo in Falls Church, who continues to utilize all that funky old audio-visual equipment,” Clark said.

Clark admitted there’s some cheating, in that the video isn’t just sights around Arlington — it includes footage of Glen Echo Park in Maryland, for instance — but he said the park was a regional attraction for many locals at the time.

Comments on the video said it was a nostalgia trip for many locals who lived in the area.

“I grew up in Arlington, Fairfax and McLean,” one said. “Our cousins, my sister and I used to play in the Lyon Village park, ride ponies, visit Glen Echo during the late 40’s through the early 60’s.”

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