This month’s cartoon by Mike Mount riffs on the local debate over historic preservation: what’s the dividing line between historic and just old?
With a state bill to make it easier for preservation advocates to prevent demolitions now dead for 2022, and the proverbial wrecking ball unlikely stop swinging, the debate seems likely to continue for some time.
See Mike’s weekly cartoons in our exclusive weekend email for ARLnow Press Club members.
TGIF, Arlington.
We hope you have a restful weekend and avoid any convoy protest-related delays. The latest update indicate that truckers and supporters in personal vehicles will arrive on Saturday, with the Beltway and the White House as possible destinations.
New from me:
I'm not excited to report this, but the trucker convoy is very real and headed to somewhere around D.C. tomorrow.
They've picked up dozens of semis and hundreds of cars. The JFK Jr. people joined them. Some might be going to the White House.https://t.co/qnm1bRHaSv
— follow @bencollins on bluesky (@oneunderscore__) March 4, 2022
Anyway, these trucker Telegram groups have hundreds of thousands in them combined. People are piling on overpasses to support them as they drive by.
They're headed to DC tomorrow.
Where exactly? Unclear.
To protest what? Also unclear.
Here's the story:https://t.co/qnm1bRpA0X
— follow @bencollins on bluesky (@oneunderscore__) March 4, 2022
At last check the convoy was in Hagerstown, Maryland and continuing to grow in size.
As we wait to see what impact, if any, the convoy has on Arlington, below are the most-read ARLnow articles of the past week.
Have a great weekend! Feel free to discuss those stories or anything else of local interest in the comments.
(Updated at 12:10 p.m.) Two years ago, stores in Arlington were being picked clean of face masks, as COVID-19 started to spread in the United States. Today, for the first time in a long time, masks are becoming optional in county facilities.
It’s been an unusual round trip from those early days of the pandemic, when healthy people were being actively discouraged from wearing masks.
From a March 4, 2020 Time article:
“It seems kind of intuitively obvious that if you put something–whether it’s a scarf or a mask–in front of your nose and mouth, that will filter out some of these viruses that are floating around out there,” says Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. The only problem: that’s not effective against respiratory illnesses like the flu and COVID-19. If it were, “the CDC would have recommended it years ago,” he says. “It doesn’t, because it makes science-based recommendations.”
The science, according to the CDC, says that surgical masks won’t stop the wearer from inhaling small airborne particles, which can cause infection.
Soon enough, mainstream opinion among health professionals shifted decidedly to the pro-mask camp, to the extent that mask mandates became the norm in Arlington and elsewhere.
But with most of the population vaccinated, and with new antiviral treatments available, the CDC last week again adjusted its mask guidance, saying that masks should be optional in places where the levels of Covid and Covid-related hospitalizations are relatively low.
That includes Arlington.
Only about 90 cases and two daily hospitalizations were being reported per 100,000 Arlington residents, per week, as of Tuesday, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. That is well below the 200 cases or 10 hospitalizations per 100,000 people per week that would push the county above the CDC-defined “low” levels.
So with county facilities, Arlington schools, the Pentagon and Congress now mask-optional, we’re wondering how our readers are handling the shifting guidance. Are you still wearing masks in some mask-optional situations, or are you going full maskless unless otherwise required, like on airplanes or in medical settings?
Let’s find out.
Yet another year of summer camp registration drama is prompting action by the Arlington County Board.
The online registration system used by Arlington’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation again melted down as camp registration opened at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, despite efforts to beef up the systems this year.
Camp registration is competitive in Arlington, with parents jockeying for position to claim some of the prime camp slots the second registration opens. That makes it tough to keep up with demand, amid hundreds or even thousands of people trying to register at the same time.
At stake is not only enrichment opportunities for kids, but affordable de facto childcare for parents.
After another year of stories of frustrated parents spending an hour or more trying to get the registration pages to load, Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol said the Board has “been in touch with the County Manager and department leadership about expectations for a full reform of registration.”
DPR will be “designing a new process” and the Board has “asked for details… including a timeline for implementation,” Cristol said in a statement she posted on social media.
More from the Board on expectations for reforming summer camp registration, below. Importantly for this year: 6,000 spots are still open for this summer, and families who need DPR camp can continue to register online or w/ customer service team, [email protected]. pic.twitter.com/aLmeAmhQg6
— Katie Cristol (@kcristol) February 24, 2022
What’s unclear is what a new registration system might entail.
One possibility is that the process remains competitive, with more robust technology preventing server crashes and those with quick clicking fingers continuing to get an advantage.
Another possibility, as suggested by some parents in the wake of last week’s fiasco, is a lottery system that would remove the need for parents to wake up early and try to register as quickly as possible, but would add some additional uncertainty to parents’ summer childcare plans.
In a lottery system, one might have to try to register for multiple camps in order to increase the odds of getting a given time slot. Then, they would have to cancel the registration for any duplicate entries. But if everyone adopted that strategy, it might lead to a chaotic registration process and make it hard for DPR to predict the true demand for a given camp.
Which do you think the parks department should choose?
As the four-day work week winds down for most, we’re going into the last weekend in February.
One of the top stories of the month is also hopping in this week’s most-read list for the second week in a row. The article on the bunny that infiltrated the Pentagon was the second most-read of February, only followed by the coverage of the lockdown at Yorktown High School.
The bunny news followed a rogue chicken scoping out the Pentagon entrance on the first day of February, another well-read story. We’ll have to see if March brings more animal news.
Now, here are the most-read Arlington articles of the past week.
Feel free to discuss these stories or anything else of local interest in the comments. Have a great weekend, Arlington!
We hope you are celebrating George Washington’s birthday with a three-day weekend. Most county services will be closed Monday and there are festivities abound in Alexandria for those who want to partake.
The week’s roundup of news included everything from updates to Covid mitigation strategies in schools to confirmation that an Amazon Fresh is coming to Crystal City.
Now, here are the most-read articles of the past week:
Feel free to discuss those stories or anything else of local interest in the comments. Have a great long weekend!
We’ll assume many of you are courting your sweethearts locally this weekend ahead of Valentine’s Day, based on poll results earlier this week about Arlington’s date spots.
Or maybe you’re venturing out with a light jacket to enjoy Saturday’s unseasonably tepid weather before we’re reminded it’s still February on Sunday with some snow possible — more likely to just be a coating than accumulation.
Now, here are the most-read Arlington articles of the past week.
Feel free to discuss those stories or anything else of local interest in the comments. Enjoy the warm(er) weather, Arlington!
Valentine’s Day is around the corner, which naturally leads many to consider where to take their significant other out on a date.
If you live in Arlington, there’s a natural gravitational pull to stay closer to home when possible. After all, you’re presumably paying the higher rent or mortgage payments associated with living here because you like being close to stuff.
One significant challenge to taking your beloved out in Arlington has been a dearth of properly impressive options. D.C. has far more hip and high-end restaurants to choose from, for instance. Of Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants list from Feb. 2020, most are located in the District and only one currently operating restaurant — Ser in Ballston — is from Arlington.
But the picture seems to be changing, at least by some measures.
We now have some new, well-regarded homegrown spots (like Ruthie’s All-Day and Cafe Colline), local outposts of popular city eateries (Salt Line and Sfoglina) and an entire neighborhood (Pentagon City) that seems intent on transforming into a drinking and dining destination with plenty of interesting new restaurants, many apparently banking on business from those working at Amazon’s under-construction HQ2.
Entertainment options in Arlington remain limited, however, with options for going to big shows pretty much confined to Signature Theater and, when a national name is on the marquee, the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse. The Rosslyn-Ballston corridor is still screaming out for a decent concert venue or comedy club.
Given all that, five days before V-Day, we’re asking: on balance, do you think Arlington has improved as a date destination over the past few years?
Photo by Rene Ranisch/Unsplash
Once a year, we ask ARLnow readers to take a couple of minutes to provide feedback that sets the stage for everything we do over the next 12 months.
Adjustments in our news coverage mix, changes to our opinion content, and prioritizing weekly in-depth features. These are all things that survey feedback helped to bring about recently.
We have a number of new, key questions that will inform decisions we’ll be making in 2022. If you enjoy reading our site and want to have a voice in how we can best serve your needs, please click the button below.
This year’s survey — posted here in lieu of the Morning Notes today — will close after Feb. 28.
Thank you, Arlington, for helping us to improve year after year.
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The contest to name the “Pentagon chicken” produced plenty of great would-be monickers: Chick Cheney, Col. Sanders, Joint Cheeps of Staff.
Ultimately, the name Henny Penny was chosen, and the chicken found up being serenaded on national TV by Jimmy Fallon.
Tiny Song: “Chicken at the Pentagon” #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/k4z9SLeSxL
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) February 2, 2022
Contrast that with the reaction to Washington’s NFL team and its new name, the Washington Commanders, and you have the basis of the latest local Mike Mount cartoon.
Want to see all of Mike’s weekly musings? Join the ARLnow Press Club.
It was quite a week.
There was everything from breaking news, like the county finalizing a new jail medical provider after the latest inmate death, to helpful stories like where to stock up on Girl Scout cookies. And you all seemed particularly interested in stories about wayward poultry and an aggressive fox.
Here are the most-read Arlington articles of the past week.
Feel free to discuss those stories or anything else of local interest in the comments. Have a great weekend and stay warm, Arlington!
