This month’s Mike Mount cartoon is a holiday special.
Santa may be coming to town, but he better not park his sled in a privately-owned lot that’s contracted with a certain prolific trespass towing company.
See of Mike Mount’s local ‘toons in the ARLnow Press Club weekend edition newsletter.
We’re three days away from Christmas and in the midst of Hanukkah — and holiday travel is in full swing, storm and all.
While the winter storm is causing travel havoc, illnesses are also disrupting holiday plans. Covid is on an upswing locally while, at the same time, numerous other viruses — including but not limited to flu and RSV — are circulating.
From Axios yesterday:
“This year what you’re seeing is a true rebound of flu-like illnesses,” said Manoj Gandhi, senior medical director at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “It’s certainly bad.”
While much has been made of the so-called tripledemic of flu, RSV and COVID, but there’s actually more of a “septo-demic,” said Peter
Hotez, dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, in an interview posted last week with the American Medical Association.
That counts para influenza, rhinovirus, metapneumovirus and pneumococcus as part of the mix, he said.
“They’re working in different combinations and causing a lot of kids to be admitted to the hospital, as well as seniors. This is accounting for a big surge in hospitalizations,” Hotez said.
As of Wednesday, Arlington County was still within CDC’s “low” Covid level, but a flip to “medium” could be imminent. The number of weekly reported cases per 100,000 people is 170, below the “medium” threshold of 200. Weekly Covid hospital admissions per 100,000 people, meanwhile, are at 9.2, just shy of the threshold of 10.
The average daily case rate in Arlington, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data, rose to 63 yesterday amid 110 new reported cases.
Anecdotally, that case rate — which is based on positive cases reported to VDH and excludes at-home testing not otherwise reported to health authorities — feels low. Talk to Arlington residents, especially those with kids in school or daycare, and close Covid contacts abound.
Likewise, many seem to be in the middle of or getting over a cold, a case of the flu, a sinus infection or another ailment. Even among the nominally healthy there are coughs and runny noses.
So today we’re wondering: how many of you are currently sick? And have your holiday plans been disrupted due to illness?
There’s not a whole lot going on in Arlington today, save for activity at local shopping centers, so we’re going to fast forward right to the top story countdown.
Here are the most-read local articles of the week:
Feel free to discuss those or anything else of local interest in the comments. Have a great rest of your holiday weekend!
This month’s Mike Mount cartoon takes on two hot button issues: Taylor Swift’s concert ticket debacle and Arlington’s ongoing camp registration saga.
The website crashes suffered by Ticketmaster as millions of Swifties tried to secure tickets to her latest tour are reminiscent of those caused by Arlington parents eager to get their kids in coveted county summer camp slots.
As we reported last week, Arlington parks department officials are promising further improvements in the registration process and technology, but so far the clicking fingers of local moms and dads are undefeated.
See of Mike Mount’s local ‘toons in the ARLnow Press Club weekend newsletter. Your membership supports our reporting and includes the daily Early Morning Notes newsletter, previewing the stories we’re planning to cover that day.
(Updated at 11:30 a.m.) It’s been a rough fall for many, healthwise.
Flu and and RSV have been surging, straining hospital capacity, school staff and parental patience. Young children have been particularly hard hit, with the 0-4 age group recording the highest percentage of visits to medical offices for flu, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health.
Nationwide, it’s so bad that some pediatric medical organizations are seeking a federal emergency declaration.
Flu activity in Virginia and in the D.C. region is at the highest level on the CDC’s scale. In Arlington, meanwhile, Covid is still circulating, though at roughly the same level of daily cases as a month ago — 33 cases per day, as of today.
Local hospitals are feeling the effects. From VHC Health emergency department chair (and 2022 Spirit of Community honoree) Mike Silverman’s latest public social media update:
Although our percent positivity rate is not higher than it was earlier this fall, we have seen an increase in the number of people we are diagnosing with COVID the last few weeks compared to earlier in the fall. We’re also sitting a much higher percent positivity rate then we were this time last year. We are definitely having more positive tests a week than we did a year ago.
The Tripledemic that you’re hearing about on the news is real. The combination of COVID, Flu, and RSV is bringing more people to hospital ERs and causing more hospitalizations than we’ve seen over the last few years. Every year, emergency departments face a month or so of surging volumes because of the flu. I have seen flu surges in the fall, and I have seen them in March. Prior to the pandemic, I had never had a year as an attending physician without some sort of impact by a flu surge. What has me concerned about this year is how early the flu has impacted our community and the potential for how long the ER volume surge will continue. What’s to say we will not see an increase in COVID this winter as we did last winter?
Despite many continuing to work from home, people are still socializing, going to school and traveling, arguably more so than this time last year. It’s almost as if the non-Covid diseases that had been relatively quiet during the pandemic are now “catching up.”
Given how much disease is circulating out there, today we are wondering: how many separate times have you gotten sick already this fall?
NBC 4 Chief Meteorologist Doug Kammerer revealed his annual winter forecast last night — and it was disappointing if you like snow.
Doug is calling for a measly 1-6 inches of snow during the entire winter in Arlington and D.C. He believes it will be an unusually warm and wetter than average winter, making for plenty of cold rain but very little snow.
It follows a trend: five of the six most recent winters in the D.C. area have seen below average snowfall, Kammerer said.
Long-range forecasting is far from an exact science and there are other predictions that call for more snow. The meteorologists at WUSA 9 and Fox 5 are both calling for average to above average snowfall. The Farmer’s Almanac, meanwhile, while decidedly not a scientific authority, is predicting above average snowfall and below average temperatures for the region.
Should Kammerer’s prediction come to pass and we see six or fewer inches of snow this winter, how would you feel about it?
Arlington’s “Missing Middle” housing proposal has led to impassioned debates, with locals both for and against the potential zoning changes.
As the County Board gets closer to a vote on the proposal, perhaps as early as December, we’ve compiled a dozen opinion pieces on the topic that have been published elsewhere. Many are letters to the editor or op-eds that have appeared in the Sun Gazette and Washington Post, while others have been features published in policy-focused publications like The Hill and Washington Monthly.
The following are numbered (in no particular order) and broken down by “for” or “against” Missing Middle.
1. For: The ‘missing middle’ is a crucial piece of Arlington’s housing puzzle (Washington Post)
We live in the 22202 area of South Arlington, spanning from original Sears houses to the new Amazon headquarters. Our neighborhood has been recognized for its mix of “single dwellings, twin dwellings, duplexes, apartment buildings, religious buildings, educational buildings, and commercial buildings.” Despite being dwarfed by newly built single-family homes, the dozens of aging duplexes and triplexes would be illegal to build today.
2. Against: What’s at stake with Arlington’s missing-middle housing debate (Washington Post)
It was hard for me to pick a side. Some of the NIMBYs think it’s possible to go back to an era in the 1990s when Arlington felt like an undiscovered oasis next to a booming metropolis. But there is no going back. A do-nothing option will slowly destroy Arlington’s beautiful multiclass, multiethnic mosaic. To be fair, most NIMBYs don’t argue this. However, these logical flaws pale in comparison with the misapplication of economics, blatant conflicts of interest, limited demonstrated understanding of history and selective data presentation from the YIMBYs.
3. For: Arlington’s ‘missing middle’ fight and the struggle for affordable housing (The Hill)
Exclusionary zoning disproportionately impacts the minorities and the poor, who are less likely to be able to afford expensive housing than affluent whites. Historically, restrictions like those currently in force in Arlington were often enacted for the specific purpose of keeping out Blacks and other non-whites. That’s one reason why the Arlington NAACP supports Missing Middle. Liberalizing the construction of new housing is an under-appreciated common interest of racial minorities and the white working class.
4. Against: Missing Middle will devastate Arlington communities (Sun Gazette)
Let us fervently hope that the current Arlington County Board will not be remembered as the group that foisted on unsuspecting residents the destruction of our community’s old, leafy, peaceful, beautiful neighborhoods. I don’t happen to live in one myself, but they are precious and must be preserved. Their tranquility and forests benefit all of us. “Missing Middle” is wrong on so many fronts.
5. For: Why I Can’t Afford to Live Where I Grew Up (Washington Monthly)
Everyone deserves to grow up in a place like Arlington–walkable, transit oriented, full of interesting restaurants and stores, diverse, and with great schools and nice parks. A wonderful place to learn to ride a bike, to develop an interest, and to make lifelong friends. But I know that given my current career trajectory, becoming a homeowner in Arlington is unlikely. If the city had been as expensive when my parents were a young couple looking in the late 1990s, I would have been raised in a farther-out suburb like Woodbridge or Lorton instead.
6. Against: Arlington should not be guinea pig for Missing Middle (Sun Gazette)
I introduced myself to County Board Chair Katie Cristol at the end of the session, and was shocked when she told me that she wants to pass Missing Middle zoning changes because she wants Arlington to be the first county on the entire East Coast to introduce this ordinance. I couldn’t believe what she said. I don’t want Arlington to be guinea pig for an unproven idea. This is not a contest to see who is first. I am assuming the County Board Members are looking for this to be part of their résumés. Changing the zoning planning needs to be done in a methodical and responsible way.
Earlier this week, we invited the candidates running in Tuesday’s general election to write a post about why our readers should vote for them. Find information here on how and where to vote in Arlington on Nov. 8.
Below is the response from the Republican nominee for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, Karina Lipsman. It has been edited at the end to remove sentences that brought the submission above the 750 word limit.
Northern Virginia has been setting records.
Record high crime, record high cost of living, record high gas prices, record high inflation, record high lowering of standards in our schools, record high lack of transparency into what is happening in the hallways and what is taught in the classroom.
These are records brought on by Don Beyer and that is why I’m running for Congress.
I was born in Odesa, Ukraine when it was still under the Soviet regime and fled to the U.S. with my single mother and elderly grandparents when I was 8 years old. We did not speak English, lived in low-income housing, and survived on food stamps. On my first day of Baltimore public school, my fellow classmates stood up in unison and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and while I did not understand a single word, I felt that it was something I wanted to be a part of. So as soon as I turned 18, I became a U.S. citizen by choice and recited the most meaningful Pledge of Allegiance knowing how fortunate I was to have this opportunity that many around the world can only dream of.
I put myself through college in three-years with a bachelor’s in economics, earned a master’s in engineering from Johns Hopkins while working in the defense and intelligence communities and resigned my 14-year career to run for Congress full time.
I’m working for you because I am you. When I am in the community, I hear your concerns, and I feel them too. I feel the higher cost of living, I pump my own gas, which I am now afraid to do at night with rising crime. I talk to struggling parents across the district who are disenfranchised that they can’t afford private schools. Even with the high taxes we pay, the public schools are failing our children.
I could not watch the American Dream I lived slip away, and I promise I will be your voice in Washington to protect this Dream for all. I will never vote 100% with any party, and I promise to never embrace polarizing politics.
Sadly, my opponent is the opposite. He inherited a legacy business; making him the top 5 wealthiest members of Congress. He doesn’t feel the high cost of living, or the pain at the pump. He says we need to ban stock trades by members of Congress, yet he has made 102% returns on semiconductor stock trades after helping write and pass the CHIPS Act — a bill regulating and setting policy for this exact industry. While he claims the number one issue he hears about from constituents is “airplane noise,” I’m in the community hearing what really matters to residents: rising crime, rising cost of living, and crumbling schools.
My opponent is just another out-of-touch career politician who is in it for himself and not the people of Northern Virginia. Just look at the recent scandal in his office: he represents the Pentagon and the CIA and had to fire a staffer working for the Chinese Embassy! My opponent is compromised.
New leadership is needed now more than ever. It is time for someone who understands the struggle of the almost 47% minority or immigrants that now make up this district and the average person — not the political elite.
As your Congresswoman, I will be a strong and powerful voice in the incoming majority that will represent Northern Virginia. I will be the first female ever elected in this district, the first Republican since Ronald Reagan, the first refugee Ukrainian immigrant in Congress, and the largest political flip in the country. I will use this platform and my strong voice to bring common-sense and not partisan politics to the national spotlight.
I will prioritize positive solutions and will work across the aisle. I will advocate for common-sense policies that fight crime, reduce inflation, and improve our educational standards. I will keep Northern Virginia and America safe.
I am tired of the broken promises made by my opponent. If I break any of my promises to you, I ask you to vote me out of office.
You deserve better. Vote for me for the change we need, the fresh voice we deserve, and a new age in Congress. I would be humbled and honored to represent you.
Karina Lipsman is the nominee for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. Lipsman’s story is the American Dream. She is a refugee immigrant from Odesa, Ukraine.
Editor’s note: Candidates for local races are invited in advance to submit candidate essays, via contact information ARLnow has on file or publicly-listed contact information on the candidate’s website. Reminders are sent to those who do not submit an essay by the evening before the deadline.
Earlier this week, we invited the candidates running in Tuesday’s general election to write a post about why our readers should vote for them. Find information here on how and where to vote in Arlington on Nov. 8.
Below is the unedited response from the independent candidate for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, Teddy Fikre.
Hello fellow residents of the 8th Congressional District, for many of you, most likely, this is the first time you have been made aware of my campaign and heard of my name. That is to be expected as I’ve been running a campaign that is far from conventional. Whereas the typical political playbook demands raising fortunes in order to blanket the airwaves and roadways with ads and inundate mailboxes with flyers, I made a decision to try something different when I was contemplating running for Congress.
After witnessing one politician after another promising to deliver change only to become part and parcel of the very status quo they ran against, I realized that the only way we can restore representative government in DC is by running an authentically organic campaign as an independent and not taking a penny from corporations and special interests. I did this so I could focus my campaign on overcoming social and political divides instead of pitting people against each other the way both political parties have and continue to do.
Though there are many issues facing our country and many problems we need to confront, there are two concerns in particular that compelled me to run for Congress and are the basis of my campaign. The first issue is the state of our economy and the way wealth is being transferred to a fraction of society while poverty is being socialized for the rest of us. Martin Luther King Jr once noted that social justice is not possible without economic justice; this is an immutable fact because the root cause of many social ills can be traced to the pervasive poverty or financial uncertainty that are the realities facing most Americans.
While we are conditioned to fight over our differences and bash other powerless people, the harsh truth is that 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and the net savings of the average worker is zero. Almost all of us, irrespective of our skin tone, gender, orientation or belief systems, are but one or two missed paychecks away from calamity. This is precisely what happened to me in 2015 as I went from being a high-priced consultant to homelessness.
As hard as that two-and-a-half-year journey through homelessness was, in hindsight, I am grateful for the hardships I endured. Before experiencing a life of destitution and despair, I viewed life through the lens of partisanship and fought for justice through the prism of tribe. Living in shelters and witnessing a sea of humanity broken by hopelessness and penury taught me this valuable and undeniable lesson: pain transcends all our political and social differences.
This gets to the second and even more important reason why I decided to run for Congress. The number one issue facing us is the way we have become so polarized as a country. As long as we remain divided, we will never be able to galvanize a critical mass of people needed to compel change that will benefit all. While it is critical to acknowledge historical injustices and address inequalities that are impacting the lives of so many, we must do so without reverting to collective judgement and assigning blame to others who are struggling to make ends meet.
Far from turning us away from divisive rhetoric and antagonism that is Balkanizing society, Democrats and Republicans in DC are leading us towards more factionalism and antipathy. That is because the bedrock of our politics and the calling card of both parties is the toxic tribalism of “us versus them” that has replaced our common purpose and eroded our common humanity in the process.
I am running as an independent for this very reason, we cannot depend on politicians who are thriving through our disunion to bring us together. It is time for authentic change in DC. As a full-time IT Project Manager who drives Uber part-time to make ends meet, I ask for your vote so that we can have a representative in DC who doesn’t have to feel your pain because I live your reality.
Editor’s note: Candidates for local races are invited in advance to submit candidate essays, via contact information ARLnow has on file or publicly-listed contact information on the candidate’s website. Reminders are sent to those who do not submit an essay by the evening before the deadline.
Earlier this week, we invited the candidates running in Tuesday’s general election to write a post about why our readers should vote for them. Find information here on how and where to vote in Arlington on Nov. 8.
Below is the unedited response from Rep. Don Beyer, who is running for re-election in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District.
My name is Don Beyer, and I have served as your representative in Congress for Northern Virginia, including Arlington, since 2015. I am seeking reelection, and your vote, in the 2022 midterm election on November 8th.
This election is one of the most important of our lives, with so much hanging in the balance, and huge implications for our economy, American democracy, and the future of the planet.
Today Northern Virginians are struggling with higher costs, and as Chair of the Joint Economic Committee I am working to help bring down prices to help families. This year we enacted the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower health care costs and prescription drug prices, and make energy cleaner and more affordable.
We also passed the Chips and Science Act, which will create jobs in our region through investments in scientific research and development, support American manufacturing, and strengthen our supply chains. And we enacted the American Rescue Plan, which has helped fuel one of the fastest economic recoveries in history, with a record 10 million jobs added since President Biden took office.
House Republicans opposed these bills to help Americans, and while they talk a lot about inflation, their plans would actually make things worse. They’ve called for more tax cuts for the wealthy, making prescription drug prices more expensive, and threatening to wreck the economy unless they get cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Led by Kevin McCarthy, they have also given total allegiance to Donald Trump, echoing the “stolen election” lie and voting to overrule Americans’ voice at the ballot box by rejecting election results.
These nihilistic positions are dangerous for the country. I will continue to oppose them, and to protect our elections and Americans’ right to vote. I will also continue working to deliver real results that change things for the better.
This term saw enactment of my hate crime prevention bill, and major suicide prevention initiatives I helped fund. I helped enact an expanded Child Tax Credit, which saw poverty in the United States hit an all-time low. I helped craft provisions of the biggest climate bill ever enacted, and a key measure in the first major gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years. I voted for the bipartisan infrastructure law, which is already funding transportation improvements in our region. I helped thousands of constituents get assistance from federal agencies, and secured millions in federal funding for local projects.
But we still have so much more work to do.
My top priorities start with continuing our very important work to address inflation and strengthen the economy. I will keep pushing for more legislation to prevent gun violence, and seek to advance bills that will enact universal paid leave, support affordable housing, bring down the cost of health care and child care, protect union rights, and raise the minimum wage.
One of the most important things I will work for in the next Congress is federal legislation to protect abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I humbly ask for your vote on Tuesday, November 8th, to continue the progress we have made. If you have questions please visit www.friendsofdonbeyer.com. Regardless of who you support, I encourage everyone to vote in the midterm election, and send my thanks to all who are doing their civic duty by participating in our democracy.
Editor’s note: Candidates for local races are invited in advance to submit candidate essays, via contact information ARLnow has on file or publicly-listed contact information on the candidate’s website. Reminders are sent to those who do not submit an essay by the evening before the deadline.
Earlier this week, we invited the candidates running in Tuesday’s general election to write a post about why our readers should vote for them. Find information here on how and where to vote in Arlington on Nov. 8.
Below is the unedited response from Democrat-endorsed School Board candidate Bethany Sutton.
I am Bethany Sutton and as a 21-year Arlingtonian and engaged community leader, I have the depth and breadth of experience in our schools and community to serve effectively as a member of the School Board.
My children currently attend Jefferson Middle School and the HB Woodlawn secondary program. I began my journey with APS in 2011 when my older child started kindergarten at Randolph Elementary School. I served on the Randolph PTA board for seven years, including three years as president. As PTA president, I held listening sessions with teachers to learn about their needs and priorities, advocated for facilities improvements for an aging school building, and supported getting books into the hands of students in a Title I school where nearly 65 percent of the children are English language learners and nearly 75 percent come from socioeconomically disadvantaged families.
For the past two and a half years, I have served as the coordinator for the Randolph Food Pantry. Our all-volunteer effort centered on providing a one-stop-shop model in which families could access not only groceries to feed their children, but also talk with school leaders, check out library books, access pandemic relief resources, and even get vaccines.
Since 2021, I have served on the Arlington County Food Security Task Force, working on how to address hunger in our community in systemic ways. I also serve on the Columbia Pike Partnership’s Community Advisory Council and I was a member of a large APS task force in 2015 to explore options for locating a new elementary school in the county.
I am Chair of the Advisory Council on Teaching & Learning (ACTL), which I joined in 2018. We work to engage parents and community members across Arlington in conversations about our academic priorities and what students need to support their learning. ACTL includes 14 subcommittees focused on particular content areas-such as Math, Science, and English Language Arts-and on particular student groups such as English language learners and students with disabilities.
My professional background is in higher education and leadership development. The perspective I have gained from working with college and university leaders is a unique lens that I bring to my thinking about K-12 education.
In terms of my priorities for our schools, I would like to highlight three:
I seek to elevate student learning as the fundamental purpose and focus of our school system. Advancing student achievement and digging into the inequities in academic outcomes in our system are high priorities for me. This is a moment for our school system to renew our expectations for student learning and recognize that teachers are critical to our success in helping students achieve measurable progress.
I also care deeply about addressing the health and well-being of our school community. We need to provide a supportive environment in our schools that focuses on helping everyone feel a strong sense of belonging — especially those who often are marginalized, including students of color, students with disabilities, and students who are LGBTQ+. If we want to make meaningful progress on student learning, we must support students’ social and emotional development. It’s also important to balance academics with the other activities that students love and that contribute to their engagement in school, such as sports, theater, music, internships, and community service.
In the next four years, we have an opportunity to rebuild a sense of community around education in Arlington. I believe that the School Board has a responsibility to foster an environment of trust, transparency, and clear communication. I’m not running for School Board because I’m mad about something or because I think something is broken that needs to be fixed. I’m running because I genuinely believe in attentive leadership and good governance. Trust, transparency, and communication are essential components of effective leadership.
I think Arlingtonians will find me to be a thoughtful leader who is focused on listening, learning, and making meaningful contributions to our community.
Editor’s note: Candidates for local races are invited in advance to submit candidate essays, via contact information ARLnow has on file or publicly-listed contact information on the candidate’s website. Reminders are sent to those who do not submit an essay by the evening before the deadline.
