Flags flying in the wind at Arlington County’s justice center in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Flyover Planned This Morning — From AlertDC: “The US Military will be conducting a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday January 10, 2024, at 9:05 AM.”
New Popeye’s at Mall — From Chris Slatt: “Building permit filed for a new Popeye’s at Pentagon City Mall, if that’s your kind of thing.” [Twitter]
Buzzer Beater Against YHS — A McLean High School student’s winning half-court buzzer beater in overtime against Yorktown High School is up for the “National Play of the Week in high school boys basketball,” which is decided by an online poll. [Sports Illustrated, Instagram]
De Ferranti to Chair NVTC — “Arlington County Board member Matt de Ferranti will chair the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission for the coming year.” [Gazette Leader]
New Eagle Scouts Honored — “Seven members of Boy Scout Troop 638, sponsored by Little Falls Presbyterian Church in Arlington, ascended to Eagle Scout rank during a court-of-honor ceremony held Jan. 7 at the church.” [Gazette Leader]
Exhausted Bat Rescued — “A wildlife center in Arlington announced Monday that they rescued their first bat of the year last week by sharing a video. Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA) said the big brown bat arrived at their Wildlife Resource Center after it was found crawling across the street in a local neighborhood. When the bat was found, officials said he was dehydrated and exhausted.” [WUSA 9, Twitter]
It’s Wednesday — Expect partly sunny skies and a high of around 49 degrees accompanied by a breezy west wind blowing at 17 to 22 mph, and gusts reaching up to 39 mph. As for Wednesday night, the sky will be mostly clear with a low temperature of about 32 degrees. The southwest wind will be blowing at a speed of 5 to 13 mph, and gusts may reach up to 18 mph. [Weather.gov]
Pentagon City Metro Station on Dec. 13, 2023 (staff photo by James Jarvis)
A man fleeing from officers after a theft in Pentagon City ran into a Metro tunnel, prompting service to be shut down in the area, police say.
The incident happened Monday morning, as police responded to a shoplifting call on S. Hayes Street.
After running into a Metro tunnel at the Pentagon City station, the man emerged and was arrested at the Crystal City station, police say. In addition to a theft charge, he has also been charged with trespassing and fare evasion.
More, below, from today’s Arlington County Police Department crime report.
PETIT LARCENY (Significant), 2024-01080073, 1200 block of S. Hayes Street. At approximately 10:16 a.m. on January 8, police were dispatched to the report of a larceny just occurred. Upon arrival, it was determined the male suspect entered the business, collected merchandise, allegedly left the store without payment and fled into the Pentagon City Metro. A lookout was broadcast and responding officers located the suspect in the Metro and gave him commands, which he disregarded, and fled onto the train tracks. Metro service in the area was temporarily suspended and the suspect subsequently exited the train tracks at the Crystal City Metro station where officers took him into custody. The preliminary investigation determined the suspect did not pay a fare upon entering the Metro. No injuries were reported. [The suspect], 37, of Washington, DC was arrested and charged with Petit Larceny, Trespassing on a Railroad Track and Failure to Pay Fares.
Some of the response to the incident was captured on video.
Veo e-bikes at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Rhodes Street in Rosslyn (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
Seated and standing e-scooters by LINK (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
LINK’s standing scooters in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 2:20 p.m.) Arlington County is losing a pair of scooter operators this year.
California-based Veo — which operated both scooters and e-bikes — is leaving the area due to market conditions while LINK, the service from Boston-based Superpedestrian, is shutting down all of its U.S. operations.
“It was Veo’s pleasure to serve Arlington County,” Veo told ARLnow in a statement. “However, current market conditions led us to make the decision not to seek a permit renewal in Arlington and Alexandria.”
Veo says it will continue to provide transportation options in D.C and in College Park, Maryland.
“We commend Arlington County for its commitment to advancing sustainable and accessible transportation and look forward to serving the community in the future should circumstances allow,” Veo’s statement continued.
The company has recently expanded into some municipalities, including San Antonio, Texas, and limited access in other areas, such as the Bronx in New York City, where scooters would reportedly end up in the river. Also this year, Fort Wayne, Indiana, ended its 4-year partnership with Veo over alleged negligent behavior by riders.
Superpedestrian is out because it shut down its U.S. operations on Dec. 31 and has been auctioning off its 20,000 bright-yellow and silver electric scooters.
In February 2022, Superpedestrian introduced 333 bright-yellow and silver standing scooters and 50 seated ones to Arlington, its second U.S. market after debuting in Baltimore. Its time in Arlington was short-lived, however.
After getting into micro-mobility in 2020 and raising $125 million early on, Superpedestrian was in a lurch by late 2023, pinning its hopes on more funding and a potential merger that never materialized, TechCrunch reports. The outlet attributed the demise of Superpedestrian — and the death of “the shared electric scooter business as we know it” — to “unfavorable city regulations, high operational costs and hiring bloat as a consequence of VC funding.”
Scooter operators that still have permits to operate in Arlington, Spin and Bird, were not immune from slumps this year. Spin began exiting several European and American cities in 2022 before fellow operator Bird acquired it in September.
Bird, once valued at $2.5 billion, filed for bankruptcy this December after a rocky 2023: Its founder and CEO stepped down, it was removed from the New York Stock Exchange for overstating its revenue and was beginning to pull out of dozens of cities.
Financially, Veo seems to be doing better. This year, it started selling a scooter via online retail.
Arlington’s other authorized operator, Lime, also defied the dismal fates of its competitors, reporting profitability in the first half of 2023, Verge reports. The company ended 2022 with plans to go public on the stock market but remained privately held.
The application for scooter operators is currently available on the Arlington County website. The county allows up to 2,000 e-scooters and 1,000 e-bikes at one time. The companies leaving Arlington, meanwhile, are expected to take all of their scooters and e-bikes with them.
“Departing contractors are required to remove their devices, but if anyone sees a device left behind, they can send a message to the Shared Mobility team at [email protected],” said Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors.
This article was updated to correct where Veo is based and remove a reference to a different tech company by the same name.
Garvey Talks Crime — “Board chair Libby Garvey didn’t go for the jugular, but in a Jan. 2 roundtable between County Board members and the Arlington County Civic Federation, managed to make her point: The county’s relatively recent catch-and-release approach to crime and punishment, she said, must end… Garvey made clear that the five-member County Board had no statutory authority to instruct prosecutor Parisa Dehghani-Tafti on how to run her office – ‘we cannot tell the commonwealth’s attorney what to do’ – but hinted that there was more to come on the issue.” [Gazette Leader]
Changes Mulled for B Live — “Changes could be coming soon to B Live, the live entertainment space that replaced longtime restaurant Whitlow’s on Wilson in Clarendon in May 2022. Husband and wife duo Mike and Crystal Bramson are considering plans to rebrand the roughly 4,000-square-foot space at 2854 Wilson Blvd. — perhaps to something like B Live Bar and Grill — to better convey to prospective customers that it’s not just open for live shows on the weekends.” [Washington Business Journal]
Boeing Stock Nosedives — “Shares of [Arlington-based] Boeing tumbled 8% on Monday as investors digested the news that the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered airlines to ground dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for urgent inspections. The FAA issued the order on Saturday after a door plug blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday when the nearly brand-new aircraft was flying at around 16,000 feet.” [CNBC]
Union Kitchen to Nix Union? — From Washington Business Journal’s Dan Sernovitz: “Union Kitchen employees, citing picketing [and harassment], vote to break from @ufcwlocal 400. The vote followed an initial push over the summer to break from the collective bargaining union.” [Twitter]
First Bill for New Delegate — “For new-in-2024 Del. Adele McClure (D-Arlington), House Bill (HB) 157 likely always will hold a special place in her heart. That’s the first piece of legislation that was dropped into the hopper by McClure for the 2024 session. It focuses on eliminating exemptions from Virginia’s minimum-wage requirements for two groups: those employed as farm laborers and certain temporary foreign workers.” [Gazette Leader]
It’s Tuesday — Heavy rain is expected with a high near 60, accompanied by strong east winds increasing from 10-15 mph to 23-28 mph in the afternoon, gusting up to 39 mph. A 100% chance of precipitation is anticipated, with 1-2 inches of new precipitation possible. Tuesday night, rain mainly persists before 1am, with a low around 44. Windy conditions continue, as the southeast wind shifts to southwest at 16-21 mph after midnight, and gusts could reach up to 47 mph. There remains a 100% chance of precipitation and an additional 1-2 inches of rainfall. [Weather.gov]
Police car at night (file photo courtesy Kevin Wolf)
(Updated at 8 p.m.) Residents were asked to stay inside Monday evening as police searched part of the Radnor-Fort Myer Heights neighborhood following reports of gunfire.
The initial call for gunshots heard along the 1700 block of Arlington Blvd came in around 5 p.m. Police verified with nearby Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall that no firing drills were underway at the time before starting to search the area.
The U.S. Park Police Eagle helicopter was called in to assist amid more reports of shots being heard, but has since left the county after not finding any suspects, according to scanner traffic.
“ACPD is investigating the report of shots heard in the 1700 block of Arlington Boulevard,” Arlington police said around 5:45 p.m. “At this time, no injuries or property damage have been reported. A police helicopter is assisting with an aerial search of the area. Expect continued police activity.”
The search appeared to be focused on one particular building.
“Community members are asked to avoid the area as police continue to investigate the report of shots heard in the 1700 block of Arlington Boulevard,” ACPD said around 6:20 p.m. “If you are in the area, go inside and stay inside.”
Police also closed the N. Rhodes Street bridge, near where the search was taking place, according to Arlington Alert.
Shortly before 8 p.m., the search was called off.
“A search of the building has concluded,” said ACPD. “No evidence of a shooting was located and there is no apparent ongoing threat to the community. We appreciate the community’s patience during the investigation. The avoid the area/stay indoors has been lifted.”
More, below, via social media.
CONTINUED: Community members are asked to avoid the area as police continue to investigate the report of shots heard in the 1700 block of Arlington Boulevard. If you are in the area, go inside and stay inside.
LOCATION: 14th St N/ N Rhodes st INCIDENT: Police Department Activity IMPACT: Traffic has been closed in both directions on N Rhodes St starting at 14th St N and ending at Arlington Blvd. Seek alternate routes. pic.twitter.com/HjtoXX063O
Arlington County Police: SEEK INDOOR SHELTER. ACPD is reporting shots fired near 1730 Arlington Blvd. Avoid the area. If you are in the area, go inside immediately and stay inside. Close and lock all windows and doors. Stay tuned for further updates.
Arlington County police are investigating after a boy says he was robbed twice by the same group of suspects.
The first robbery happened around 7 p.m. this past Thursday in Rosslyn, while the second happened around 7 p.m. the next day in the Courthouse area, according to police.
Police say the boy knows the three male suspects, one of whom brandished a knife during the first robbery.
ROBBERY (late), 2024-01050225/2024-01060032, 1500 block of Clarendon Boulevard/15th Street N. and N. Uhle Street. At approximately 3:47 a.m. on January 6, police were dispatched to the late report of a robbery by force. It was determined at approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 4, the juvenile male victim was in the area of the 1500 block of Clarendon Boulevard when he was approached by three male suspects, who are known to him. Suspect One brandished a knife and made threatening statements while Suspect Two assaulted him and demanded his electronics. The suspects then left the scene with the stolen property and the victim did not require medical attention following the incident. At approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 5, the victim was in the area of 15th Street N. and N. Uhle Street when he was approached by the suspects from the incident the day before and approximately seven additional subjects. Suspect Two demanded and stole the victim’s personal property and caused damage to his electronic device before the group left the area on foot. No injuries were reported from the incident. The investigation is ongoing.
Fight near Clarendon caught on camera (courtesy Dave Statter)
An early morning fight near Clarendon was caught on camera over the weekend.
The brawl happened around 2 a.m. Saturday along the parking-lined section of Fairfax Drive at the western end of Clarendon. The video shows one person being knocked to the ground and a car ramming the side of another car, amid a fight that appears to be between two groups of people.
Police arrive on scene near the end of the video.
According to public safety watcher Dave Statter, one of the people to post a photo of the fracas on social media, it’s just the latest in a series of fights over the past month or so associated with Clarendon nightlife.
In addition to fights that take place outside, “there are also multiple police calls each weekend night for fights inside the bars in the 3100 block of Wilson and Clarendon,” Statter wrote last week.
Fight #caughtoncamera: A wild scene in Clarendon at 2 a.m. today. Two people were knocked down and a car was rammed. This is the loop on Fairfax Drive at Wilson Blvd. It lasted for a while with @ArlingtonVaPD delayed getting to the scene. It's not clear when they were called and… pic.twitter.com/LbBZDhmVAT
HERE IS VIDEO of a brawl in Arlington County, with one punched out and a car getting rammed. This happened in the parking lot between Wilson Blvd and Fairfax Dr just after 2 a.m. @ARLnowDOTcompic.twitter.com/15ZoDpnCRO
Arlington National Cemetery flyover, as seen from the Courthouse area (staff photo)
Pacers Owner Keeps Streak Alive — “Chris Farley is a runner who, for nearly a quarter-century, had finished a marathon or otherwise run 26.2 miles every year in under three hours. But in November, Farley, the owner of the Pacers Running stores in the D.C. area, was pretty sure his streak was over. He ran the New York City Marathon in just over three hours, a disappointment to him and his wide orbit of friends and supporters. He was ready to call it quits and say the streak was behind him — until his friends stepped in and told him they’d help him achieve his goal.” [Washington Post]
Renovations for Monroe Park Playground — “Get ready for some fun, the Monroe Park Playground is being redone! Share your feedback to help inform upcoming renovations for the playground area of Monroe Park, which requires replacements according to Arlington County’s facility lifecycle process. No new amenities are planned for this project, which is funded by the Capital Improvement Plan.” [Arlington County]
Robbery in Va. Square — “The female victim was in the area when she was approached by the two juvenile female suspects. One suspect allegedly struck the victim, causing her to fall to the ground. The suspects then took the victim’s personal property and demanded the victim’s cellphone before fleeing the scene on foot with the stolen items. Responding officers canvassed the surrounding area, located the suspects in the Rosslyn Metro and took them into custody. The victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries.” [ACPD]
Ranked Choice for General Election? — “It wasn’t the whiff of waffles you might have caught lingering in the air. But perhaps it was waffling.Intentionally or not, Arlington County Board members in a Jan. 2 confab with the Arlington County Civic Federation left some ambiguity whether they planned to enact ranked-choice voting for the 2024 general election. ‘It hasn’t been decided yet,’ County Board Chairman Libby Garvey said in response to a federation question, although she said upcoming meetings slated for Jan. 20 and 23 are ‘when I expect we’re likely to take it up.'” [Gazette Leader]
Hot Start for DJO Hoops — “A strong start to the season continued for the Bishop O’Connell Knights in recent days with more significant victories. First, the boys high-school basketball team (12-2, 2-0) finished 3-0 to win the Traditional Division of the annual Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach. Next, host O’Connell defeated Gonzaga, 65-57, in a big Washington Catholic Athletic Conference showdown in Arlington.” [Gazette Leader]
Strong Storm Expected Tuesday — “Weather models are unusually aggressive in simulating the potential for widespread 50 to 60 mph gusts as far south and west as the Carolina Piedmont. Major cities including Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York all could see gusts over 50 mph. The combination of high winds and saturated soils could topple trees, meaning power outages are likely.” [Capital Weather Gang]
It’s Monday — Expect a sunny day with highs near 45, and a northwest wind at 5 to 9 mph that will become a light westerly breeze in the afternoon. Clouds will increase during the night, with lows around 32. [Weather.gov]
Today’s Morning Notes are brought to you by coworking provider Industrious. ARLnow has been based in an Industrious office — one of several in Arlington — for years and we love the convenience — you get to focus on your work rather than worrying about stocking an office.
An SUV crashed into a bank in Pentagon City (photo courtesy Steve Brusk)
The man driving the Jeep that seriously injured a pedestrian before slamming into a Pentagon City bank is likely to face charges, police say.
The driver, who has not yet been identified, “was attempting to turn from S. Hayes Street onto 12th Street S. when he exited the roadway onto the sidewalk, struck a pedestrian and crashed into a closed bank,” an Arlington County police spokesman says.
The crash, which happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday, heavily damaged the front of the Chase bank branch at 710 12th Street S., next to the Metro station.
The man struck by the Jeep was seriously injured but is expected to survive. Charges are expected to be filed soon against the driver.
“The pedestrian, an adult male, was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries and is currently in stable condition,” ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage tells ARLnow. “The driver of the striking vehicle, an adult male, was not injured and remained on scene. The investigation into the circumstances of the crash is ongoing and charges are pending.”
The crash was witnessed by New York Times reporter Ken Vogel, who posted on social media this morning that the injured man was bleeding from the head and fading in and out of consciousness.
The pedestrian was sprawled on his back on the sidewalk, blood coming from his head.
As he faded in & out, I urged him not to try to move, told him help was coming (someone had called 911) & that he would be ok.
I hope he was.
(I took the above photo after police/EMTs arrived)
Traffic fatalities, including pedestrian deaths, are up sharply nationwide compared to pre-pandemic levels. The Times recently published an investigation (and a podcast) looking into U.S. pedestrian deaths, which are on the rise — especially in nighttime crashes.
Office buildings, including the Nestle building, in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington’s office vacancy rate remains high but may be stabilizing after an initial, sharp increase due to Covid remote work policies.
As of the fourth quarter of 2023, the countywide office vacancy rate stands at 24.4%, according to a new report from commercial real estate company Colliers.
Since 2020, Arlington’s overall vacancy rate has risen 4.3% points, per the report, prompted by the pandemic-era shift to remote work and in defiance of return-to-office efforts. The county saw a 3-percentage-point jump between 2020 and 2021 followed by a more modest 1-percentage-point increase over the last year.
“The big story last year was the delivery of Amazon’s HQ2 which drove absorption earlier in the year,” Colliers Research Manager Miles Rodnan tells ARLnow. “Sublet space across the D.C. region has leveled off, which has helped slow down vacancy increases.”
“Additionally, as companies continue to settle into their return-to-office/hybrid policies, the decisions to offload space have been made in many instances,” he continued. “As leases continue to expire, there will be downsizes, but the rate should taper off.”
The vacancy rate in Arlington since 2015 against the average asking rent price (courtesy Colliers International)
(Arlington County also tracks its vacancy rate and, notably, it reported a rate hovering around 21.5-22% this fall. This discrepancy may be because the county and Colliers have different numbers for total office buildings and rentable square footage. Graphs tracking rates over time, from the county and Colliers, have similar trend lines.)
At the end of 2023, the Colliers report says vacancy rate was slightly higher for the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, at nearly 25%, than for National Landing — Pentagon City, Crystal City and Potomac Yard — at 24%.
While the difference is marginal, the rate is trending down in National Landing dropping 0.7% point over 2023, while the rate increased 0.8% point on the R-B corridor, the report said.
Compared to National Landing, where all the new office construction was tied to Amazon, the R-B corridor saw more speculative office projects: 3901 Fairfax Drive in Virginia Square, slated for delivery next year, as well as George Mason University’s FUSE at Mason Square building, which will house university programs in addition to private office space.
Overall, however, these projects contribute less than a million square feet of leasable office space. Rodnan says this could be a saving grace, given predictions that vacancy rates will continue to rise.
“A breath of fresh air comes from the restrained construction pipeline, which will hopefully allow vacancy rates to stabilize in the region as negative absorption is still anticipated in the near future,” he said.
Generally, newer office buildings — which real estate analysts dub “Class A” — are attracting tenants who are willing to pay upwards of $2 more per square foot to get out of dated office stock, or so-called “Class B/C” buildings.
This is a trend playing out across the region, Rodnan said, not attributing the submarket-level upticks to any tenants in particular.
Amid the well-established “flight to quality,” Arlington County is working on several initiatives to make it easier to reposition these obsolete buildings from which people are moving.
“The work is cut out for us: zoning needs to become reasonably more flexible and less burdensome,” Arlington County Board Vice-Chair Takis Karantonis said during his New Year remarks this week. “We need to be innovative and courageous in repositioning and reusing obsolete buildings.”
County Board member Matt de Ferranti spelled out what this office vacancy rate means for the county budget.
“We depend on our office vacancy rate, which leads to a lower tax rate than our surrounding localities in northern Northern Virginia,” he said, noting that commercial real estate comprises a greater percentage of Arlington’s budget than that of neighbors.
Either this month or next, Arlington County will learn the extent of the impact of decreased office property values on the expected budget deficit, which is preliminarily projected around $20-$40 million.
“That will be sobering news, or perhaps hopeful news,” de Ferranti said.
Through April, the 2024-25 budget process will address the ongoing challenge of high office vacancies.
“Why is this budget more difficult than our last? Haven’t we known about the work-from-home paradigm shift for two years?” said de Ferranti. “Well, we have, but the office assessment process and that market is based on 5-, 10- and 15-year leases. So this year, we’re seeing the reality come home to us.”
Snow falls in the Westover neighborhood on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) This weekend’s coastal storm is expected to fall as mostly rain in Arlington, but the county is preparing just in case.
If you were among the 76% of ARLnow readers to predict less than an inch of snow in Wednesday’s poll, congratulations — one day out, the forecasters agree with you. The storm is currently expected to start as snow Saturday morning, leaving maybe a coating of accumulation locally before switching to sleet and heavy rain.
Even a coating could cause problem on some roads, though, and on the off-chance the storm overperforms in terms of snowfall, prep work could give crews a head start. To that end, Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services is applying brine lines to “hills, bridges and known trouble spots” today.
“Brining the tricky spots,” DES spokesman Peter Golkin confirmed to ARLnow in a brief email. “As per usual, best that people stay off the roads until a winter storm passes.”
Crews today will be applying brine to known tricky stretches, i.e. hills and bridges. No matter how tomorrow goes, apply common sense: Avoid driving during any winter storm. The phases of storm response: https://t.co/4wMpLIjBHT. #ArlWXpic.twitter.com/PS46stJmXK
— Arlington Department of Environmental Services (@ArlingtonDES) January 5, 2024
VDOT, meanwhile, said Friday afternoon that it is gearing up for the storm, too.
“Northern Virginia District crews are ready for snowfall, wintry precipitation, and rain that is forecast to impact the region Saturday,” the department said. “As always, residents are asked to monitor forecasts, change travel plans if conditions worsen, and be aware of the potential for black ice and refreezing as temperatures remain low.”
Golkin also had a message for Arlington residents: don’t overdo it when putting down salt on sidewalks and driveways.
“We hope folks go easy on the salt,” Golkin wrote. “A little does a lot.”
