Traffic

Here’s where ACPD is planning targeted traffic enforcement this fall

By ARLnow.com
Police officer talks with a driver during high-visibility enforcement along Little Falls Road (via ACPD)

We’re less than two weeks away from the ending of Daylight Saving Time, which means a renewed focus on road safety in the D.C. area.

Clocks will “fall back” an hour on Sunday, Nov. 5. Ahead of that, the Arlington County Police Department will be joining law enforcement across the region in kicking off the annual fall Street Smart campaign.

ACPD is planning targeted traffic enforcement events, starting this coming Thursday, at the following locations during the four-week campaign.

  • Thursday, Oct. 26 from 4-5 p.m. — 2000 to 2400 block of S. Glebe Road (Green Valley neighborhood)
  • Thursday, Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. to noon – 23rd Street S. and Arlington Ridge Road (Arlington Ridge neighborhood)
  • Monday, Nov. 6 from 4-5 p.m. – Wilson Boulevard and Clarendon Boulevard at N. Veitch Street (Courthouse neighborhood)
  • Wednesday, Nov. 15 from 4-5 p.m. – Four Mile Run Drive at S. Walter Reed Drive (Green Valley / Shirlington area)

More, below, from an ACPD press release.

Waning daylight hours and the end of Daylight Saving Time will bring darker evening commuting and reduced visibility. To ensure the safety of all travelers on our roadways, the Arlington County Police Department and law enforcement agencies throughout the region will take part in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Fall Street Smart Campaign from October 25 – November 19. The Street Smart campaign aims to identify and change unsafe behavior patterns amongst motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists, with the goal of reducing the number of traffic related collisions and injuries on our roadways.

No matter how you travel, remember to share our roadways and always be a P.A.L. – predicable, alert and lawful.

Drivers are reminded to:

  • slow down, drive the speed limit and obey all posted traffic signs and signals.
  • remain alert for pedestrians and bicyclists.
  • stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
  • use caution when passing buses or stopped vehicles.
  • watch for pedestrians and bicyclists when turning.
  • allow for at least 3 feet when passing bicyclists.
  • avoid using your cell phone and never text while driving. Holding a hand-held communication device while driving is illegal in Virginia.

Pedestrians are reminded to:

  • cross the street at the corner and use marked crosswalks when they are available.
  • use pushbuttons when available and wait for the walk signal to cross the street.
  • look both ways before crossing.
  • remain visible, especially after dark and in bad weather, by wearing light colored or reflective clothing.
  • watch for blind spots around trucks and buses.
  • avoid using devices that distract you, such as cell phones, while crossing the street.

Bicyclists and shared mobility device operators are reminded to:

  • ride in the same direction as traffic.
  • use hand signals to communicate your intentions with others.
  • wear a helmet, which is required for all bicycle riders 14 years of age and younger and recommended for all other riders. (Arlington County Code 14.2-64.)
  • keep your eyes on the road and avoid the use of devices that may distract you.
  • remain visible, especially after dark and in bad weather, by wearing light colored or reflective clothing.
  • use headlights and taillights, especially when riding between sunset and sunrise.
Around Town

Chinese eatery Tiger Dumpling set to open this week in Clarendon

By James Jarvis
1/7

A new restaurant specializing in Chinese dumplings will celebrate its grand opening later this week in Clarendon.

Tiger Dumpling is slated for an official opening this Friday. It joins a handful of restaurants, including O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub and Stone Hot Pizza, in a retail strip along the 3200 block of Washington Blvd.

Last month, ARLnow spotted “coming soon” signs outside Tiger Dumpling and its next-door neighbor Izakaya 68, both owned by 20-year Arlington resident Leopold Liao and Maryland-based Ivea Restaurant Group. Ivea also owns Gong-Cha Tea Shop in Rosslyn and Gyu-San BBQ in Ballston.

The grand opening Friday comes after Tiger Dumpling held a soft opening for friends and family over the weekend. Starting next Monday, Oct. 30, the restaurant will be open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

A native of China, Liao moved to the United States more than two decades ago. Eager to make a mark in the food scene, he first operated a food truck, Hot People Food, in Arlington in the early 2010s, serving modern Asian cuisine.

Although the food truck is no longer in operation, Liao has opened multiple D.C. establishments, including bubble tea shop E-Tea and ramen bar Reren Lamen.

Liao, an H-B Woodlawn graduate, started looking across the Potomac at Arlington once more after the pandemic because the prospect of opening another restaurant in D.C. had become too pricey.

After some convincing from his wife and children to stay closer to home, Liao approached his business partner Ivea with an idea for a restaurant specializing in dumplings and wheat-based dishes native to Inner Mongolia, where his family is from.

“If you look at the menu, you realize it’s different than other Chinese restaurants… we don’t do southern Chinese style, so like General Tso chicken, beef broccoli — we have none of those,” Liao said.

Those dishes are Western takes on traditional Cantonese cuisine but they dominate the Chinese food landscape in the U.S. Liao aims to rival this by introducing different flavors to Arlington’s Asian food scene.

“The main thing we focus on is dumplings with a different filling,” he said. “We have pork, chicken, lamb, beef, fish or shrimp.”

Diners can also watch chefs handcraft the dumplings from behind a small, glass-enclosed preparation station.

“If people want to learn, they can take a look how we make them,” Liao said.

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By ARLnow.com
My Painter's local headquarters

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Schools

A swastika-like drawing was found in a bathroom at Key School this week

By Jo DeVoe
Key Elementary School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Graffiti resembling a swastika was found Monday at Key Elementary School, according to the school’s principal.

A staff member noticed the swastika-like drawing inside a bathroom stall in the second-grade trailer, Principal Marleny Perdomo said in an email to families last night, shared with ARLnow.

She said the drawing “is not an accurate depiction of the hateful symbol” but, as a precaution, the school requested Arlington Public Schools Office of Safety and Security and the Arlington County Police Department help with an investigation.

“At Arlington Public Schools, we condemn antisemitism and hate speech in all forms,” she said. “Hate speech impacts us all and is unacceptable, whether it occurs in person on school grounds or on social media. This type of behavior is unacceptable and any student(s) responsible will receive consequences in accordance with the Arlington Public Schools Student Code of Conduct.”

Today, staff at the Spanish immersion school, also called Escuela Key, will discuss “the impact of hate” with all students during class using resources from the No Place for Hate Campaign by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

“The goal will be to reaffirm that Escuela Key is a safe and supportive place for all students and that hate speech is not acceptable,” Perdomo said.

The principal urged families to play a role, too. She shared resources from the ADL as well as PBS Kids for talking about hate, violence, race and racism with children.

“I am asking families to talk to students about the serious nature of hate speech, as well as writing on school bathroom stalls, desks and other school property,” Perdomo said. ”We must continue to work together to eliminate discrimination and hateful speech in our school community.”

More from her email:

Our school counselors and administrators will visit classes throughout the coming weeks to reiterate our Escuela Key values of respect for self, others, and our space We will remind students that writing mean and hurtful words and images on walls or surfaces hurts others. We will remind students that our words have power and that we can choose to use them to make our school a better and happier place for everyone.

She noted the school will be hosting a class on peaceful relationships for children and parents tomorrow evening at the library.

The crude swastika coincides with an uptick in antisemitic incidents last year, though few of these incidents occured in Virginia, according to new FBI data. The ADL has observed an increase in antisemitism this month after Hamas, the Islamist military organization governing Gaza, attacked Israel.

Key School had another instance of worrying graffiti this January, when messages involving a possible gun threat and targeting a third-grade girl were found in a bathroom.

Some parents, including the mother of the targeted girl, told ARLnow they were frustrated to receive information in piecemeal updates and learn of a delayed involvement of law enforcement.

APS investigated the response and administrators apologized for the handling of the incident. Perdomo was placed on leave during this time, frustrating other families who pled for her return amid calls for more transparency from APS and the School Board.

The school system also investigated a swastika incident in 2020 at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Announcement

Japan Spring Festival in Ballston May 22

By Study Japanese in Arlington (SJA)

Want to win sushi restaurant gift cards, anime goods and convention tickets, or free Japanese language, cooking, and culture classes? If so, buy $2 raffle tickets on or before SJA’s (Study Japanese in Arlington) Japan Spring Festival.

May 5th is Children’s day in Japan — come celebrate it with kid’s activities, martial arts performances, and a yard sale with kid’s items, anime, Japanese goods, snacks and tea.

Go to Japan Spring Festival in Ballston May 22 Read more
News

Secretary Blinken inaugurates new facility at State Dept. training center in Arlington

By James Jarvis
1/7

(Updated 10/26/23) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken inaugurated a 200,000-square-foot building at the Arlington-based National Foreign Affairs Training Center yesterday.

The $121.2 million, federally funded facility, dubbed “Building B,” opened in 2022. It aims to expand the training center’s capacity, which has seen a surge in recruitment over the last two years, according to State Department officials.

“Building B has vastly increased the Foreign Service Institute’s workspace, creating hundreds of new areas where students and instructors can come together for classes, breakout sessions, large format meetings,” Blinken said during the dedication ceremony on Monday.

Located on S. George Mason Drive in the Alcova Heights neighborhood, the training center is the primary training ground for U.S. diplomats and foreign affairs professionals, offering courses in languages and international relations.

Since 2020, the student body has increased by nearly 30%, said Joan Polaschik, the director of the Foreign Service Institute.

“We are engaged in the largest hiring surge in more than a decade,” she told ARLnow following the ceremony.

This surge forced the training center to use State Department offices in Rosslyn to accommodate the overflow of students, according to FSI.

The State Department has seven other buildings in Arlington, home to bureaus such as Diplomatic Security and the Office of the Inspector General. More than 5,000 full-time employees and contractors work across these offices.

The new Building B, which serves a total of 3,679 in-person and online students, should alleviate this overflow issue, according to FSI. The campus has seen its daily in-person student capacity increase by 25%, going from 650 to 1,100.

Building B is home to FSI, the Consular Training Division, School of Professional and Area Studies and Leadership and Management School.

“The new Building B will eliminate the need for both of these spaces in Rosslyn and consolidate language studies in one place — our Arlington campus,” the FSI spokesman said.

Other planned expansion efforts resulted in the closure of a walking trail, despite efforts from some residents to save it, though these were unrelated to Building B, the spokesman later clarified. Plans for Building B were approved in 2020.

During his remarks, Blinken — who lives in Arlington — said the new building serves as a much-needed asset, amid growing tensions between the United States and other global superpowers, such as Russia and China, as well as conflicts in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.

“It is essential that we empower our workforce with the skills and training that they need to operate in a crisis like this and to meet any challenge that comes our way,” he said. “So today, I’m really happy to mark the significant step forward toward that mission.”

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