News

Carlin Springs Road clocks another crash near Kenmore Middle School

By Jo DeVoe
The crash on S. Carlin Springs Road on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 (courtesy anonymous)

Yesterday morning, while Arlington Public Schools students were on their way to school, two cars were involved in a crash on S. Carlin Springs Road.

Around 7 a.m., police were dispatched to the intersection of Carlin Springs and 5th Road S. for reports of a crash resulting in property damage, says ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage.

“Upon arrival, it was determined the drivers of the two involved vehicles were traveling north on S. Carlin Springs Road when the vehicles collided, causing one vehicle to strike a utility pole and street sign,” she said. “No injuries were reported.”

The sign struck instructs turning vehicles to yield to pedestrians.

This stretch of S. Carlin Springs Road is notable for its narrow sidewalks and little or no pedestrian buffer. The road, which includes walk zones for Carlin Springs and Campbell elementary schools and Kenmore Middle School, has a history of crashes as well as a smattering of improvements.

In the last five years, the site of yesterday’s crash has seen a handful of crashes that sustained at least $1,500 in property damage or resulted in injury or death, according to data Savage shared with ARLnow. There were two last year, four in 2019 and two in 2018, but no recorded crashes in the intervening pandemic years.

A crash at S. Carlin Springs Road and 5th Road S. on Sept. 10, 2022 (courtesy anonymous)

Zooming out, on S. Carlin Springs Road between Route 50 to 8th Road S., there have been several crashes over the years, including near Kenmore Middle School.

Since 2013, there have been four severe crashes on this stretch of S. Carlin Springs Road: two at 1st Street S. in 2013 and 2021, one at 3rd Street S. in 2022, and one at 5th Street S. in 2016.

Last year, several intersections within this stretch saw 1-2 crashes each, according to a county report.

One of those last October involved a young cyclist and driver proceeding through a green light. After this crash, some in the community re-upped their calls for a safer S. Carlin Springs Road. They said local families have described unsafe conditions for years, leading to a 2018 study of the road that generated some short-term changes in 2020 and 2021.

Intersections with several crashes, pull-out of S. Carlin Springs Road added by ARLnow (via Arlington County)

Parts of S. Carlin Springs Road are in what the county calls an “equity emphasis area,” for its high population of people of color and households with lower incomes.

The county uses this designation to evaluate transportation upgrades and ensure these areas — where crashes occur twice as frequently — receive proper attention through Vision Zero.

As part of Vision Zero — the county’s effort to eliminate pedestrian deaths and serious injuries by 2030 — this spring, the county lowered speeds from 25 mph to 20 mph on parts of S. Carlin Springs Road within 600 feet of access points for Kenmore, Carlin Springs and Campbell.

To catch the attention of drivers, the county also added more visible crosswalks, signage and street markings.

Last winter, Arlington added rapid flashing beacons at a mid-block along 7th Road S., between Carlin Springs and S. Jefferson Street, which the county says is “on a critical path” for students walking to these schools.

(more…)

Around Town

Cleveland-based ‘loaded fries’ eatery launches delivery-only kitchen near Clarendon

By James Jarvis
1/4

A new delivery-only restaurant specializing in “loaded fries” has opened in a parking lot near Clarendon.

For Your Fries Only is serving up fries slathered in sauce and topped with a protein of choice from a trailer in the vacant Courthouse West parking lot across from Whole Foods.

It joins a handful of other food trailers selling everything from fried chicken sandwiches to Asian street food to asada fries via third-party delivery apps.

The owner told ARLnow the business had officially launched last week. It operates from one of the three trailers owned by REEF Technology, a company specializing in transforming underutilized urban parking lots into hubs for food and logistics. The food service arm of Reef is called NBRHD Kitchens.

Like other “ghost kitchens,” For Your Fries Only operates exclusively through third-party delivery platforms such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.

The concept has attracted a lot of media buzz and investors in recent years, especially during the pandemic when many people were getting food delivered more frequently. Based on its popularity, the Arlington County Board amended its zoning ordinance in June to streamline delivery for small businesses.

For Your Fries Only initially started with two locations in Ohio and has since expanded to Baltimore, Maryland and Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, according to its website.

The eatery offers toppings ranging from chicken and steak to shrimp and pepperoni, as well as various sauces. The menu also features chicken wings, available in sets of 10, 20, or 30, and customers can have them tossed in a choice of two sauces.

Photos via For Your Fries Only/Instagram

Sponsored

Halls Hill native recalls making history with Civil Rights-era lawsuit over voting in Arlington

By Scott McCaffrey

As a 23-year-old voter in still-segregated 1960s Virginia, Portia Haskins was convinced she had followed all the rules in order to cast a ballot in Arlington.

Election officials disagreed, saying she had failed to pay the appropriate poll tax still required in the Old Dominion, maintained in part to disenfranchise Black voters.

Haskins took the county, and state, to court. She won, with her case ultimately being folded into the landmark 1966 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Haskins was an unusual legal combatant, committed to seeking unity.

“I’m the type of person who wants to bring everyone together,” the Halls Hill native said at a weekend presentation sponsored by the county library system and hosted by the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.

After her efforts to vote were rejected at the local level, Haskins enlisted support from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge the ruling. She traveled several times to the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then watched as the case and others like it moved to the Supreme Court.

Her reaction at the final outcome? “I was so happy,” she said.

The 6-3 ruling in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections effectively outlawed requiring poll taxes for state elections in those few states, like Virginia, that retained them. The poll-tax requirement for federal elections had been eliminated with ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964.

Lessons from the struggle are still valuable today, said Haskins, now 83.

“Everybody has to come together and fight” when they see injustice, she said. “You have to get together.”

Historical photo of Portia Haskins (via Black Heritage Museum of Arlington)

Haskins is among the Arlingtonians profiled in the “From Barriers to Ballots,” an exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Several versions of the exhibition are on display across Northern Virginia, with one at Central Library running through Nov. 4.

The Arlington Historical Society partnered on the exhibition, and was excited about the Haskins presentation, former president David Pearson said.

“She is someone we really wanted to learn about,” he said, pointing to a renewed effort to “really get out the stories of the complete history of Arlington.”

Haskins has been a member of Mount Salvation Baptist Church near the Glebewood neighborhood since 1951, and in the community she has promoted “the spirit of community and empowerment,” said Scott Taylor, president of the Black Heritage Museum.

Haskins lamented that much of the history of the civil-rights movement is being lost in the public consciousness.

“We went through a lot, but people today don’t know,” she said. Young people in particular, she said, “don’t care because they don’t know.”

Her request to today’s youth? “Let everybody know how you feel” and use the ballot box to create change.

“Voting is important. That’s what everybody really needs to do,” Haskins said.

News

Amid declines in non-fatal overdoses, local addiction treatment options for youth are taking hold

By Jo DeVoe
Parents and community members march at Wakefield High School after 14-year-old student Sergio Flores died of an overdose (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Bucking statewide trends, Arlington County may be seeing opioid overdoses trend down this year.

So far this year, Arlington registered 44 overdoses with Narcan — a brand name for the opioid-reversal drug naloxone — deployed in 35 instances. Of the overdoses, eight involved juveniles, all of whom received Narcan.

That marks a 31% decrease this calendar year in total opioid overdoses, compared to other Virginia jurisdictions still seeing increases, says Emily Siqveland, the opioids program manager for the county.

That is the good news, to be taken with a more sobering projection that Arlington County is not seeing a similar decline in fatal overdoses. As of this time last year, Siqveland says Arlington had the same number of fatal overdoses as it does now: 15.

Arlington County has been significantly affected by the opioid epidemic wreaking havoc on the country and the region, where the Inova health system estimates some 32% of adults have a family member or friend with an addiction. In response, the county has joined lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies linked to the opioid crisis, putting settlements toward treatment.

It was the January 2023 death of 14-year-old Sergio Flores after overdosing at Wakefield High School, however, that threw a spotlight on the use of pressed pills among young people and a lack of local treatment options for them. His passing prompted a surge in activity and conversations within Arlington Public Schools, the county and the broader community.

Eight months later, some of that work is coming together.

Percent change in naloxone distribution versus overdoses over the last year (courtesy Emily Siqveland)

Works in progress

The hyperlocal focus on young people dovetails with findings from Inova that younger generations are particularly touched by addiction. It found 32% of Gen Z and 39% of Millennial survey respondents reported having a family member or friend with an addiction.

APS has hired one substance abuse counselor and is finalizing paperwork for the other, says Darrell Sampson, the school system’s executive director of student services. This would bring the total number of counselors to eight serving the division.

This year, the Dept. of Human Services and APS are preparing to station four county therapists in the high schools. To date, 320 high school students have family consent to carry Narcan in school.

“With the additional substance abuse counselors, we’re able to expand supports to middle schools,” Sampson tells ARLnow, noting insufficient support for 6-8th graders was a concern in the community. “We want to try to keep [kids who are experimenting] from blowing up into a more full-blown addiction or using even more concerning substances.”

In June, several years after closing down its juvenile treatment program, National Capital Treatment & Recovery (NCTR) — formerly Phoenix House — debuted its new adolescent intensive outpatient program this summer.

As of yesterday (Thursday), NCTR has admitted 13 patients and has had to turn away referrals from outside the county, which it cannot accept at this time, NCTR Chief Clinical Officer Pattie Schneeman tells ARLnow.

“I anticipate the referrals will increase now that school has started, because that is often where we start seeing the needs surface, i.e. when it interferes with school attendance, etc.,” Schneeman said.

(more…)

Announcement

Festival Argentino 2021 Set for Sept. 18

(This Community Post was written by Festival Argentino and underwritten by Embracing Arlington Arts.)

Join us in celebrating the 34th Festival Argentino, an annual day-long festival of Argentinean & Latin-American Music, Food, Exhibitors and Culture in Arlington, Virginia. The Festival Argentino 2021 is presented under the auspices of the Embassy of Argentina and partially supported by funding from Arlington Cultural Affairs Division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts.

Go to Festival Argentino 2021 Set for Sept. 18 Read more
News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Puffy clouds over the Air Force Memorial (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Ballston Office Building Sold — “JLL has arranged the sale of Ballston One, a 239,678-square-foot office building located at 4601 N. Fairfax Drive in Arlington, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Penzance purchased the building from UBS Realty Investors LLC for an undisclosed price.” [Rebusiness Online]

YHS Senior Earns Int’l Medals — “Thanks to high finishes at the recent world championships, Eleni Guerrera recently added even more significant power-lifting medals to her already impressive collection. The Yorktown High School senior earned four individual medals – three silvers and one bronze – in her Sub Junior (ages 14-18) 125-pound weight category at the world power lifting championships held in August in Romania.” [Gazette Leader]

APS Wants Portion of Road — “What’s a few square feet – 131, to be exact – among friends? That’s the question that goes to the Arlington County Board later this month, as their School Board counterparts are asking county officials to trim a sliver off South Walter Reed Drive to make way for construction of the new Arlington Career Center. The slice of right-of-way is located between 7th and 8th streets South.” [Gazette Leader]

Local Nat’l Merit Scholars — “Sixteen high school students from Arlington have been named 2024 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, taking the first step in securing a scholarship in the competitive program. On Wednesday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced approximately 16,000 semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of high school seniors in the U.S.” [Patch]

Odd Crash on I-395 — From Dave Statter: “Exit 8C never disappoints. It’s always something that has you go WTF! Today at 10:00 a.m.” [Twitter]

Lots of Migrating Birds Overhead — The website BirdCast estimates that 529,100 crossed Arlington Wednesday night into Thursday morning. From former School Board member Barbara Kanninen, in response: “Bigger night! Turn your outside lights off at night to help them stay on course.” [BirdCast, Twitter]

Minn. Judge Blocks MM-Like Zoning — “A Minneapolis zoning plan praised by supporters of Missing Middle Housing in Arlington has been struck down by a state judge in Minnesota, who ruled the city’s implementation of the plan is an ongoing violation of the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. The zoning plan, called the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, eliminated single-family zoning in Minneapolis as a way to create greater housing density within city limits.” [Patch]

It’s Friday — Expect a sunny day with a high temperature near 76 degrees accompanied by north winds blowing at 9 to 11 mph. Later in the evening, skies will remain clear while the temperature drops to a low of around 55 degrees. [Weather.gov]

Announcement

Second Saturday Divorce Workshop — Register Now

By Argent Bridge Advisors

Second Saturday Divorce workshops are designed to equip you with the legal, financial and emotional resources you need to make the right decision for your marriage and your life. This is a supportive and understanding space focused on encouraging peaceful, empowered decisions about divorce.

At a Second Saturday Workshop, you’ll hear from local divorce professionals including family law attorneys, financial advisors, therapists and more who will offer professional, unbiased support, prudent information, and assist with your questions and concerns regarding the divorce process. All Second Saturday workshops value privacy and we will never release personal information or specifically identify any registrants or attendees.

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