Another Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for the county, for D.C., and for much of the region. It’s in effect until 11 p.m. tonight.
“[The] main hazards for these storms will be heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail,” the National Weather Service says. “Additionally, isolated instances of flooding rainfall are
possible, mainly in urban areas.”
The scattered storms are expected to arrive locally at or after dinnertime and, like yesterday, could miss Arlington entirely.
Numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected again today, some of which could be severe with damaging winds and produce isolated instances of flooding. #DCwx#MDwx#VAwx#WVwxpic.twitter.com/HjVjQHImgB
Like yesterday, we expect storms more numerous west of the Beltway than in the immediate DC area. But anywhere in this watch zone could see showers/storms, especially after 6 or 7p. We'll keep you posted. https://t.co/BTibA2DBP5
Hundreds gather in Maywood for vigil honoring U.S. Marine Spencer Collart, who died in an Osprey crash in Australia (staff photo by James Jarvis)
From left, Spencer Collart’s aunt, Carole, mother, Alexia, and father Bart, held a vigil in their front yard to honor their son (staff photo by James Jarvis)
Scenes from vigil in Maywood honoring fallen Marine Spencer Collart (staff photo by James Jarvis)
Scenes from vigil in Maywood honoring fallen Marine Spencer Collart (staff photo by James Jarvis)
Spencer Collart (photo via U.S. Marine Corps)
Last night, hundreds gathered outside the family home of Cpl. Spencer Collart, who died tragically during a training exercise in Australia, to honor his life.
Despite the somber atmosphere at the Maywood home of Collart’s parents, Alexia and Bart, neighbors, friends and family offered prayers, shared fond memories and joined together to sing Spencer’s favorite song, “Africa” by Toto.
The 21-year-old was one of three Marines who lost their lives after their MV-22B Osprey aircraft crashed and caught fire on Melville Island, off the coast of Australia’s Northern Territory. The incident occurred about two weeks ago during a military training exercise involving forces from the United States, Australia, the Philippines, East Timor and Indonesia.
Twenty Marines survived, though three remained hospitalized as of Monday. The cause of the crash is still being investigated.
The Collarts said their son’s remains will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, although a date for the service has not yet been confirmed.
During the vigil, Collart’s youth pastor, Greg O’Dell of Cherrydale Baptist Church, said he had many passions as a young adult, including video games and lacrosse. But those were overshadowed by his desire to join the Marines, which he did on Oct. 26, 2020, at age 18, after graduating from Washington-Liberty High School.
“And he really researched it. And he said, ‘This is where I need to go. This is this is my next step,'” O’Dell said, recalling a discussion he had with Spencer his senior year.
His parents say Collart served in Pensacola, Florida, and Jacksonville, North Carolina. He became a MV-22B crew chief and was then stationed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
Collart was promoted to the rank of Corporal earlier this year and had earned three awards: the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
O’Dell said the last “serious conversation” he had with Collart took place at the former neighborhood bar and restaurant, Thirsty Bernie, and the young Marine “could not stop talking about” how much he loved his work.
He said Spencer was responsible for making sure everybody who went up in the Osprey came home safe. He mused that his actions were part of the reason most people aboard the aircraft survived.
“He’s the one that would go up and down and pull their straps and make sure they were buckled down,” O’Dell said. “He’s the one if they needed to bail out, he would open the back door and start bailing them out. He was the one who was the door gunner, if they came in, under fire. And so, he protected his Marines that came on to that Osprey, and so did the pilots.”
Announcing the Princess Kona!, the newest Arlington Pet of the Week.
This royal is living it up in her penthouse in Clarendon. She even has her own website that her loyal subjects can follow!
Her owner had this to say about the princess:
Princess Kona! is lovable and enjoys playing, sitting on the balcony chirping at the crows, and advocating for adoption at AWLA.
She was adopted just 10 months ago from AWLA and has made her home in Clarendon. She celebrated her 2nd birthday in May with family from New York. Being a princess, she enjoys going out in Clarendon in her backpack and sightseeing all that Arlington has to offer.
Her favorite toys are a red sparkly ball and a nice mouse to share with you.
She loves face rubs and back rubs. Most of all, while she likes chirping at birds, her food of choice is salmon and tuna. That includes not only her food; also her treats.
Her other fun thing to do is to sight-see while she is in her litter, after all, there is so much to see.
Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with 2-3 paragraphs about your pet and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos.
Thinking outside the box again, local nonprofit READ is turning the traditional read-a-thon into a Read-O-Rama with PajamaMama as a summer fundraiser. Activities include a game board with daily activities for every READer in the family, a family scavenger hunt and outdoor read-alouds to name a few.
All money raised will help READ launch its new initiative Baby Book Bundles that will provide 5 new board books to uninsured moms-to-be to start reading to their babies the day they are born, plus they’ll receive a new book every month of their baby’s first year. Think of it as a community service opportunity for the whole family.
1313 N. Harrison Street frontage, with an excerpt of restrictive covenants from its 1938 deed (by ARLnow)
Using a restrictive covenant in a 1938 deed, neighbors in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood convinced a developer to build a single-family home instead of a duplex.
The home, 1313 N. Harrison Street, is not far from a wall that separated the historically Black neighborhood of Hall’s Hill from single-family-home subdivisions originally built exclusively for white people. In addition to specifying that only one home can be built on the lot, a second provision in the deed bars owners from selling to people who are not white.
This second provision came to light this week after ARLnow and Patch reported on the neighbors convincing the developer to back down from building a two-family home. A copy of the deed circulated on social media shortly after and ARLnow obtained a copy from Arlington County Land Records Division to confirm its authenticity.
While racially restrictive covenants were rendered unenforceable by a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, many homeowners never scrubbed them from their deeds, according to local researchers who are mapping racially restrictive covenants in Arlington. Thus, in some cases, they exist alongside separate covenants restricting multifamily construction.
Using the covenant against multifamily housing appears to be a valid workaround for neighbors and Arlington County says it has no legal role in how these covenants are used between private parties. The county began approving 2-6 unit homes in previously single-family-only neighborhoods two months ago, but this is the first instance ARLnow knows of where such a document was used in this way.
Their use, however, resituates one of the initial reasons Arlington County said it embarked on the housing policy changes in the first place: to right historical wrongs caused by racism. It provoked the ire of some Missing Middle advocates, including the Arlington branch of the NAACP, which is calling on the county to address the issue.
“The whites-only restriction can’t be disentangled from the one-house restriction; they were meant to work together, with the purpose and effect of excluding people of color,” said Wells Harrell, the chair of the housing committee of the NAACP, in a statement. “It is profoundly disappointing to see restrictive covenants from the Jim Crow era being invoked to block new housing and exclude families today.”
Several months ago, Arlington resident Stephanie Derrig identified these covenants as a way property owners could block Missing Middle-type housing from being built in their neighborhood.
She told ARLnow this week that she does not support the racist elements of restrictive covenants. At the same time, she sticks by her belief that a “restricted deed is a land use tool… to protect your largest investment, in many cases.”
YIMBYs of Northern Virginia leader Jane Green and Former Planning Commissioner Daniel Weir, both supportive of Missing Middle, take the view of the local NAACP that the two restrictions are part of one legal document, written with exclusionary intent.
Whether these provisions can be separated is a legal question — and a thorny one, at that, according to Venable land-use attorney Kedrick Whitmore.
When a court rules part of an agreement is unenforceable, the court does not rewrite the agreement to be legal, he said. This principle might affirm the initial view of the developer, BeaconCrest, which argued — before backing down and deciding to build a single-family home — that the document seems unenforceable.
On the other hand, courts do not want to remove other rights and obligations for which two parties negotiated. This means the court could uphold the rest of the agreement, giving credence to the arguments made by the neighbors.
“This is not exactly cut and dry,” Whitmore said. “You could make arguments either way. If you went to court, the stronger argument is for the non-racially restrictive elements to remain valid. But again, that’s a question.”
Cody Chance and Dick Nathan of Long & Foster are hosting an online workshop on the topic of “down-sizing” Wednesday, June 9 from 5-6:30 p.m. Every great endeavor begins with a great plan. This workshop will give you the tools to design your plan.
We have created a workbook with an extensive planning guide to enable you to design a personalized written plan for your move, and more than twenty pages of resources specific to Northern Virginia to help you along the way! These resources will help you to find the best people to assist you in your move, and help you get the belongings that won’t move with you into the hands of people who will value them. The workshop format is a “guided group discussion” of the workbook, with a chance for the participants to ask their own questions, and special guest presenter Alexandra Fry of Orchestrated Moves will be joining us to share her many years of expertise in organization and moving.
