Feature

Columbia Pike Tech Repair Shop Running on Low Power During Pandemic

By Vernon Miles

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com,  Startup Monday 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!

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) For a while, things at Wireless Rxx (2340 Columbia Pike) were going okay. Owner James Sampson said there was a rush on getting smartphones and other devices fixed the first week of March, and he was able to pay his employees and get them a small bonus.

Like many businesses in Arlington, however, the swift spread of the pandemic and the subsequent social distancing measures caused a sharp downturn by the end of the month, and Sampson was the sole worker left at his technology repair shop.

“Things dipped down so quickly,” Sampson said. “At first I had to furlough one college kid. Others had to let go and show them how to sign up for unemployment.”

Sampson said some of the signs were there early on for him.

“It started a little earlier with problems with the supply chain,” Sampson said. “In China, where our distributors are, Chinese Lunar New Year is the first week of February. There will be a week where you don’t get any shipments. But right after that coronavirus hit and nothing was shipping. It’s been months now where nothing’s shipping.”

Sampson said he started having to tell people that the repair parts for their devices were being held up at a warehouse in New York as impacts rippled down the supply chain. That increased prices too, with Sampson saying he had to raise prices $15 to $20 because of price increased sent down to him.

“I was getting letters from wholesale distributors saying they’re operating at 30 or 40% capacity,” Sampson said. “Because how how globalized economy and world is, it didn’t take too long to affect businesses in the U.S.”

Wireless Rxx is considered an essential business in Virginia and is open. But the store was briefly closed because Sampson didn’t feel comfortable making employees face possible exposure to COVID-19.

Today, it’s just Sampson. Before the pandemic, he said there were usually between 20-30 people walking into the store per day. It’s by appointment only, for now, with a sign in front of the store telling customers to call and set something up. Sampson also does on-the-go repairs now, traveling around Arlington to make fixes. Where he’d have 15-20 repairs a day, though, Sampson said he’s now doing between one and three.

(more…)

Legal Insider: Filing Unemployment Claims in Virginia Related to COVID-19

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.

By John V. Berry, Esq.

Many Virginians have recently found themselves laid off or otherwise out of work due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, unemployment compensation benefits are needed like never before. This is a short article on the unemployment claims process in Virginia and benefits in light of new legislation.

Benefits for affected employees can be sought through the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC). Employees who have been laid off, terminated or otherwise had their hours reduced can qualify. Here is a link to the VEC directions for initiating a claim.

Changes to Unemployment Claims Related to COVID-19

On March 12, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) also provided additional guidance to state unemployment agencies interpreting unemployment benefits related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOL offered states guidance in being flexible in awarding unemployment compensation to those affected.

As of March 15, the Commonwealth of Virginia waived the one-week waiting period for the unemployed to receive unemployment benefits. The effect of this change is that out of work Virginians can receive unemployment compensation benefits sooner.

Another change is that a claimant in Virginia has usually had to show that they were actively seeking new work, but Virginia changed this requirement in light of COVID-19 for obvious reasons.

Lastly, Virginia is in the process of making unemployment compensation benefits available to the self-employed (1099 and Gig Economy workers) pursuant to an order from Governor Northam.

To file for unemployment compensation in Virginia, please apply at www.vec.virginia.gov. It is also recommended to file as soon as possible so that benefits can start as soon as possible.

Contact Us

If you are in need of employment law representation or advice, please contact our office at 703-668-0070 or through our contact page to schedule a consultation. Please also visit and like us on Facebook or Twitter.

Rethink Energy: Virtual Solar Co-Op Info Sessions

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored column is written by the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy team (AIRE). This county program helps you make smart energy decisions that save you money and leaves a lighter footprint on the environment.

We hope you are safe and well at home. To learn more about protecting yourself from COVID-19, please visit the County’s COVID-19 page.

Due to the need to remain at home, we are announcing our first virtual solar and electric vehicle (EV) co-op session.

More than 200 homeowners have already participated in our Solar and Electric Vehicle Charger Co-op. The cooperative helps Arlingtonians buy solar and EV chargers at a discounted price through bulk purchasing. The cooperative also provides support to participants to make the purchasing process easy. This year we will also provide information about storing your solar power at home in battery systems.

You can also take advantage of one of the last big federal solar tax credits. This year the solar tax credit will be 26 percent. In 2021, it will be 22 percent and in 2022 and beyond, it won’t be available for homeowners at all.

Being stuck at home is an opportune time to learn more about solar, electric vehicle charging and solar battery storage. Help our community reach carbon neutral by 2050.

Please RSVP and join us for an information session to learn more:

April 27: 12 p.m. Info Session link
Facebook event link

April 28: 12 p.m. Battery Storage 101 link
Facebook event link

April 30: 6 p.m. Info Session link
Facebook event link

Neighborhood Spotlight: How to Give Back During COVID-19 — 3 Ways to Help

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.

With so many people affected by regulations surrounding the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, it’s more important than ever to support our communities and take care of one another. That’s why so many amazing members of the Keri Shull Team have taken the initiative to make a difference in our local area and support those who need it during this time.

We interviewed some of these agents to ask them how they decided to help out in the way that they are, and how other people can get involved in their philanthropy.

Providing Local Food to Local Hospitals

Libby Bish and Rafael Melo are using their ingenuity and resources to give back to two groups of people who have been affected by COVID-19: healthcare professionals and local restaurants. They have been using donations to purchase food from local restaurants and give it to local hospitals and first responders in the DMV.

With the recent stay-at-home orders that were issued across D.C., Maryland and Virginia, people have been asked to stay in their houses except to complete essential business. Restaurants have been restricted to take-out or delivery only.

As a result, a lot of restaurants have struggled to maintain their customer base in a time when a lot of industries are floundering. Libby and Rafael saw this happen to a client of theirs, and decided to take action to help support local restaurants.

“Restaurants all across the world are taking a severe blow and we want to help! You can too! We know that hospital staff are working tirelessly around the clock to protect and treat our people. We’d like to help the locals by helping the locals. Ordering catering from our local restaurants and delivering it to the local hospitals should help in the short term.”

Libby and Rafael knew that they could help two groups of people in need, at the same time. So they decided to purchase food from restaurants that needed to make sales and deliver it to local hospitals, where dedicated and selfless healthcare professionals are working around the clock to curb the spread of COVID-19.

In the short time since beginning their drive, Libby and Rafael have fed over 160 nurses and doctors with 6 catering trips — and they’re just getting started!

If you want to help them provide stability to local restaurants and healthcare experts, then click here to donate to their ongoing GoFundMe project!

Taking Care of Senior Citizens

Another group of people that have been deeply affected by COVID-19 regulations are the elderly. Some of our agents — including Brianna Byrd and Elizabeth Landeros have recently been working with senior care facilities, helping ease the transition for seniors who are entering the retirement communities.

When the stay-at-home orders came across the DMV, these considerate team members decided to send flowers to these communities to help raise the residents’ spirits.

When they sent over the floral arrangements, the caretakers told Bri and Elizabeth some heartbreaking news — due to extra social distancing concerns for seniors, the residents are unable to have visitors or interact with the other members of the community.

(more…)

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

4503 32nd Road N.
5 BD/6 BA, 2 half bath single-family home
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc
Listed: $3,675,000
Open: Virtual Tour/Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

 

5413 5th Street S.
4 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Compass
Listed: $950,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

1024 N. Utah Street #224
2 BD/2 BA condo
Agent: Weichert Realtors
Listed: $570,000
Open: Saturday 3-4 p.m.

 

1200 Crystal Drive #514
2 BD/1 BA condo
Agent: Optime Realty
Listed: $499,900
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Andors Real Estate Group.

Housing is essential, even during a pandemic. Your housing needs, and a real estate agent’s ability to help you with those needs, are essential.

All of the businesses supporting real estate transactions, such as photographers, stagers, inspectors, appraisers and lenders, are also still operating and fulfilling their part of the process of purchasing and selling real estate.

The Andors Real Estate Group is open for business — call me at (703) 203-1117 if you’re considering buying or selling real estate in Northern Virginia or D.C. — we’re here to help and be a resource during these uncertain times.

Mortgage rates have dropped for two weeks in a row, near to the lows we had seen before the COVID-19 pandemic got into full swing here in the U.S. A 30-year fixed is around 3.3%. This is one of many reasons why it’s still a great time to buy, though that is of course tempered with record unemployment filings and general market uncertainty.

Buyers in Arlington are still out there in droves and many new listings this week received dozens of showings, multiple offers and price escalations of 5% or more!

Arlington is a resilient county and historically we have been significantly sheltered from economic recessions. Many Arlington residents work in jobs that have transitioned to telework and many will still find themselves needing new housing. Additionally, one of the many drivers of our market is military moves, or PCS orders, and only some of those have been temporarily put on hold. The rest should be incoming and outgoing in the coming months.

There are currently 204 homes for sale in Arlington. 119 are detached homes, 18 are townhouses/semi-detached, and 67 are condos. Last week there were 211 homes for sale.

The median list price of available properties is $­­­1,089,000, while the average is $1,185,953. These numbers are ticking up slightly, directly in line with my thinking that pricier homes will start to take a bit longer to sell the longer the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Sellers listed some 59 properties for sale this week, down 20 from the 79 of last week. Buyers ratified 45 contracts, 25 of which were homes that had been on the market one week or less. For this same week last year, sellers listed 75 new properties with 54 properties ratified.

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. Call the  Andors Real Estate Group today at (703) 203-1117 to talk more about buying or selling Arlington real estate. Below are eight homes that are new this week that I think you might like to check out.

Local Businesses Can Promote Themselves on ARLnow for Free

By ARLnow.com

Do you operate a small business in Arlington that is open but struggling amid the coronavirus shutdown?

We know the feeling. And we want to help.

For now until whenever things get back to mostly normal, ARLnow is offering free Community Posts to locally-owned businesses that need a bit of a boost.

>>Submit your post here<<

Here are some ways you can use a Community Post:

  • Let the community know you’re still open
  • Promote a new online ordering page
  • Tell local customers about specials you’re running

Community Posts stay on ARLnow’s homepage and email newsletter for up to 7 days.

This is being provided as a free service to local businesses. We ask that submitters limit posts to 150 words or less and refrain from promoting treatments or services related to COVID-19.

Statutes of Liberty: Just Another Disastrous Day in the U.S. Immigration System

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This sponsored column is by James Montana, Esq. and Doran Shemin, Esq., practicing attorneys at Steelyard LLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Arlington, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact James for an appointment.

All too often, there are two kinds of law in this country — procedurally fair law for those who can afford it, and Kafka for those who can’t.

If you’re Felicity Huffman, you get fourteen days in prison for a federal felony and a New York Times story describing you as “by turns cheerful and stoic.” If you aren’t, your treatment won’t be as felicitous, and you won’t make the Times. This week, we want to share one of those stories with you.

Meet Mr. M., a gentleman who has been living in the United States since the 1990s.

Mr. M. has been living in the United States for most of this time under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. You may remember reading about the TPS program in one of our previous articles. Mr. M. has five U.S. citizen children, ranging from ages three to 17. He is a homeowner and has been working for the same construction company for more than ten years.

In August 2019, his wife of fifteen years passed away. Mr. M. wanted to take his children to their home country to visit family. Based on his TPS status, Mr. M. applied for advance parole, or a travel permit, so that he could temporarily leave the United States and return with TPS. Note that applying for advance parole is completely legal: Mr. M. was following the rules.

Unfortunately, Mr. M. applied for advance parole with what is commonly referred to as a notario. Notarios are people who pretend to be lawyers and help immigrants file immigration paperwork. Pretending to be a lawyer is a crime.

Mr. M’s notario completed the paperwork for Mr. M’s travel permit and shipped it off. Unfortunately, due to the notario’s negligence, Mr. M’s original travel document was sent to the wrong address.

Mr. M. knew that his advance parole document had been approved, but he couldn’t find the original. Because he had worked with a notario rather than a real lawyer, Mr. M. had no legal recourse. But Mr. M. was resourceful, and tried to fix things on his own — he went to a local U.S. Department of Homeland Security office to ask how he could get his approved travel permit.

This, by the way, is where things really went off the rails.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security official printed a copy of the approved travel permit from their internal system. The employee gave it to Mr. M. and told him he could travel with the copy.  “It will be fine,” they said.

It was not going to be fine.

Mr. M. travelled to El Salvador with his children. At the end of their trip, he returned to the airport with his children and was barred from boarding the plane because you need an original Advance Parole document to return to the United States. (The stated reason for this requirement: security requires the original piece of greenish paper.)

Panic ensued. Mr. M’s family came to our office to see if we could help fix the problem.

We helped Mr. M. apply for a different type of travel permit. Four months later — that’s four months separated from his five US citizen children — the new travel permit was approved, but, in order to actually board a plane back to the U.S., Mr. M. had to attend an interview at the US Embassy.

He did. (In fairness, we have to say that the State Department behaved impeccably.) The embassy gave him his travel permit, which is a boarding foil in his passport. It will expire this first week of April.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 hit, and El Salvador is not letting anyone leave or enter. Mr. M. remains stranded, separated from his family.

This tragedy didn’t have to happen, Mr. M. should have relied on a licensed attorney. DHS shouldn’t have “helpfully” given him a useless copy of the travel permit. But these explicit mistakes are just part of the picture. It took four months to get a new travel permit, even with competent legal advice. There was no better way to do it.

As always, we also welcome any comments and will do our best to respond.

Small Business Shoutout: Classic Cottages

By ARLnow.com

ARLnow is continuing a series of articles to highlight the local businesses that advertise with us and help keep the community informed during these trying times.

Today we’re recognizing our sponsor Classic Cottages. The company, which focuses on Northern Virginia, will celebrate its 10th anniversary in June.

Ask a real estate agent to compare and contrast local homebuilders, and they’ll probably tell you that Classic Cottages stands out for its commitment to quality. And that commitment has paid off: you don’t have to go too far in Arlington to encounter a home built by Classic Cottages.

“Classic Cottages is passionate about building high quality homes that meet modern lifestyle needs,” the company says on its website. “Our fully integrated in-house team of architects, designers, sales, marketing, and construction professionals consistently reinvent our beautiful models to adapt to industry trends and meet market demand. When you build with Classic Cottages, you can be confident you will receive a quality home that will last for generations. Build well. Live well.”

If you’re considering buying a new home, or just want to take a gander at some HGTV-worthy interiors, you can see some of Classic Cottages’ recently-completed homes, home models and photo galleries on its website.

Biz Talk: Coronavirus Causes Emergency Situation for Arlington Business Community

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This article was written by Telly Tucker, Director of Arlington Economic Development.

These are unprecedented times. Like so many other communities, Arlington is working through the effects and global impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Arlington Economic Development, a division within the Arlington County Government, is continuing to update and support the local business community throughout this pandemic and is following the lead of local and state authorities. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has now issued a Stay at Home order in response to the spread of the coronavirus and has prohibited people from gathering in groups of more than 10 people.

Under the direction of the Governor, Arlington restaurants have closed their dining rooms, and quite a few are providing meals on a takeout basis. Other businesses, such as gyms, theaters and shopping malls have closed as well.

The Governor has asked that people stay home unless it’s essential that they go out. However, there are many ways we can all support the Arlington business community. You can see a list of Arlington businesses offering specials and online ordering/curbside delivery options on our website.

For the business community, and especially our small business community, this situation can be devastating, if not catastrophic. More than 90% of Arlington County businesses employ 50 people or fewer, and some have already had to make very difficult decisions when it comes to employees.

We at Arlington Economic Development are reviewing the newly enacted federal CARES Act legislation to better understand how our local businesses can take advantage of this stimulus. We are also keeping track of other resources at the state and federal levels designed to help our business community weather this global situation.

Locally, the Arlington County Treasurer will not impose penalty and interest for those affected by COVID-19 for tax due dates between now and April 30. We are also collaborating with our regional partners in the NOVA EDA to study the short and long term economic impact of coronavirus. We will be sharing those results once the study is complete.

Arlington is a resilient community. We have weathered hardships before and learned the lessons to come out even stronger on the other side. But to echo the thoughts of Governor Northam, we must work together to do so. We will continue to share available resources with our business community.

In the meantime, we ask all of you to make responsible decisions for the health and welfare for yourselves, your employees and your neighbors in Arlington.

Arlington Pet of the Week: Steven

By ARLnow.com
1/2

Arlington’s newest Pet of the Week is Steven, an igneous rock that was rescued from a gravel mine.

Here is what Steven’s owner had to say on his behalf:

Hello! My name is Steven and I’m an igneous rock (part quartz and feldspar) rescued from a high-crush gravel mine! I’m a sprightly 570 million years old. While the first couple hundred million years of my life have been pretty rough and tumble, I’m living in Arlington now and taking nothing for granite! My favorite activities include sunbathing, skipping on smooth bodies of water, and holding down papers for my mom. I’m not that good at fetch, but I love being held in a warm, comfortable hand or occasional pocket. I’m learning a few new tricks but so far all I’ve mastered is “sit” and “stay.” I love music (rock, of course) and have been told I’m a great listener!

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Please don’t send vertical photos, they don’t fit in our photo galleries!

Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks. Becky’s Pet Care is the winner of eight consecutive Angie’s List Super Service Awards, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year and a proud supporter of the Arlington County Pawsitively Prepared Campaign.

Becky’s Pet Care provides professional dog walking and pet sitting in Arlington and all of Northern Virginia, as well as PetPrep training courses for Pet Care, CPR and emergency preparedness.

View More Stories