announcement

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Metroway bus in Crystal City (Photo courtesy Donna Gouse)

Crumbs Could Reopen — The shuttered Crumbs Bakeshop in Clarendon could reopen, after the bankrupt cupcake company was purchased by a new owner. Fischer Enterprises has yet to reveal which of Crumbs’ 48 stores will reopen. [Washington Business Journal]

Arlington’s Naturalist Blogs on the Side — Frustrated with “days filled with meetings and paperwork” after he started working as the natural resources manager for Arlington’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Alonso Abugattas founded an educational blog and Facebook group called Capital Naturalist. The blog has a loyal following among readers and respect from fellow naturalists. [Washington Post]

Transportation Among Reasons Politico Stayed — The president of Monday Properties, the major Rosslyn property owner, says political publication Politico decided to renew its office lease in Rosslyn largely because of “superior transit options and greater concentration of housing and retail.” [Washington City Paper]

Changes Coming to ARLnow — ARLnow.com is expected to roll out a website redesign this afternoon. The site may experience brief downtime during the transition. Readers should also expect various menu and visual changes immediately after the transition.

Photo courtesy Donna Gouse

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

View of Washington, D.C. from the side of the GW Parkway at night

Doughnut Truck Comes to Arlington — A new food truck devoted to doughnuts has hit the streets of Arlington. The truck, from the Penn Quarter eatery Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken, is so far only selling doughnuts and coffee. It plans to stop in Rosslyn, Clarendon and Ballston. [Washingtonian]

Fundraising for Hot Car Mom — A local couple is trying to raise $50,000 for the legal defense of Zoraida Magali Conde Hernandez, the mother accused of accidentally leaving her 8-month-old son in a car for 6 hours on a hot day, leading to his death. The couple says they were “heartbroken” for Hernandez, who is facing a charge of felony child neglect. [Patch]

Flashback: Arlington’s Last Chicken Debate — It turns out this is not the first time that there has been a strong debate in Arlington about urban hen raising. Late in 1945, after the end of World War II, Arlington was preparing to reinstitute an urban chicken ban that had been dropped during the war. The renewed restrictions “drew public debate and strong views on both sides.” [Sun Gazette]

Republican Running for Moran’s Seat — Republican Micah Edmond says he’s planning to run for the Congressional seat of the retiring Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). Edmond has previously worked in banking, defense policy and as a Marine Corps officer. [National Review]

Pyzyk Poached by Arlington County — ARLnow.com freelance reporter Katie Pyzyk has accepted a full-time position with Arlington County. Pyzyk, who joined us in 2011 and who holds the crown for our most-viewed story of all time, will be a spokeswoman for the Dept. of Community Planning, Housing and Development. We wish Katie the all best in her new position.

Introducing ARLbiz, A Local Business E-Newsletter

By ARLnow.com

ARLbiz logoARLnow.com will begin publishing a new email newsletter called ARLbiz next month.

ARLbiz will be published weekly and will be geared toward local entrepreneurs and business professionals. It will provide concise original reporting on local business matters and links to other outlets’ Arlington-related business articles, all in one place.

There will also be weekly commentary from local business, nonprofit and government leaders.

“Despite the recent slowdown in the commercial real estate market, Arlington remains a thriving business center,” said Scott Brodbeck, publisher of ARLnow.com. “We’re looking forward to launching an editorially-independent business publication that focuses only on Arlington, bringing vital business intelligence to local business owners and professionals.”

ARLbiz will be published only as an email newsletter, starting in January 2014. Subscriptions are free. To subscribe now, use the form below or click this link.

(All fields are required.)








Introducing Real-Time Real Estate Stats

By ARLnow.com
1/3

There’s a new addition to our Arlington real estate section.

Now, in addition to sale, rental and open house listings, we’re debuting real-time Arlington real estate statistics.

Our technology partners are still working out a couple of kinks (for instance, the 12-month view of price decreases appears to have incomplete data) but for the most part the page provides an interesting and useful look at market trends by analyzing real estate listings in the county.

According to current listings, the average price for a home in Arlington is $695,155, while the median price is $549,900. The number of listings is on a seasonal downswing, as is average price per square foot.

Among neighborhoods indexed in the listings, Rock Spring has the highest average sale price ($1,524,500) while Columbia Heights West had the lowest ($225,493).

Announcing RestonNow.com

By ARLnow.com

RestonNow_Final-3Local News Now LLC, the publisher of ARLnow.com and BethesdaNow.com, is proud to announce the addition of a third local news website in the Washington area: RestonNow.com.

Serving the Reston (Va.) community, Reston Now is helmed by Karen Goff, a long-time Reston resident who most recently worked as a local editor for Patch.com. Before transitioning to digital journalism, Goff was a feature writer and sports reporter for the Washington Times, and a metro reporter for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

“I am so excited to work with Local News Now,” Goff said. “In my more than three years with Patch I learned how valuable hyperlocal news is to communities. Reston has really embraced online, up-to-the-minute news, and working with a locally-owned company will give residents the voice and outlet they need.”

“Reston deserves a local news source that’s focused solely on what’s going on Reston,” said Scott Brodbeck, founder of Local News Now. “We’ll be reporting on the stories that impact the daily lives of Reston residents — everything from restaurant openings to local government, development, schools, crime and the Silver Line.”

As a local, independent online news publisher, Local News Now is devoted to building a sustainable future for local journalism in the D.C. area. We believe in quality coverage of local communities by talented local journalists, supported by affordable, effective advertising and marketing services for local businesses and organizations.

ARLnow.com Hires New Full-Time Reporter

By ARLnow.com

ARLnow.com horizontal logoARLnow.com has hired a new full-time reporter.

Ethan Rothstein comes to ARLnow.com from Leesburg Today, a weekly newspaper in Leesburg, where he covered the Town of Leesburg and high school sports. He has broken stories on controversial developments, investigated local transit issues and covered elections from town council to the 2012 presidential campaign.

Previously, he covered education and sports for the Delaware Wave and Delaware Coast Press, based in Bethany Beach, Del. Ethan is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Merrill School of Journalism, where he studied print journalism.

You might have already seen Ethan’s byline — his first day was July 1. Working alongside editor Scott Brodbeck in ARLnow.com’s Rosslyn office, Ethan is the site’s first full-time reporter. Katie Pyzyk will continue contributing to the site as a part-time reporter.

“This hire is an investment in community journalism in Arlington,” said Brodbeck, who is also the site’s publisher. “It will allow us to expand the breadth and depth of our news coverage.”

“While there are hundreds of local, independent online news websites across the country, ARLnow.com is one of the few that has the resources to hire full-time editorial staff while remaining profitable,” Brodbeck continued. “For that we thank our advertising clients and our tens of thousands of loyal readers.”

Server Trouble This Morning

By ARLnow.com

Update at 10:45 a.m. — The issue seems to be resolved. Thank you for your patience.

ARLnow.com is experiencing server problems this morning.

These problems are causing slow page loads and occasional site outages. Please bear with us as we work to resolve these problems.

We anticipate getting back up and running by 11:00 a.m.

A Quick Word on Our New Background

By ARLnow.com

Ballston GreenAs you have probably noticed, the background of ARLnow.com is different today.

The new background is part of a site-wide promotion for Ballston Green, a new luxury townhome community near Ballston. The new background will be in place for the rest of the week, after which time we’ll revert to the old background.

ARLnow.com might host similar marketing campaigns in the future, but we wanted to give readers a heads up on this one to answer any questions the changes might have prompted.

Like the current campaign, we’ll make sure the backgrounds used for future promotions are attractive and relatively unobtrusive.

Changes in Progress

By ARLnow.com

Readers:

We’re currently making some changes to the site. Please be patient as we work to improve your user experience. Some site features may not work today (Saturday).

If you continue to experience issues on Sunday, please email us at arlingtonnews[at]gmail.com and let us know what’s happening. Please provide as much detailed information as feasible.

Thank you!

The ARLnow.com Team

Call for Submissions: Arlington Pet of the Week

By ARLnow.com

Dogs relaxing in the shade at the 2011 Columbia Pike Blues FestivalStarting next week, ARLnow.com will be introducing a new weekly feature intended to highlight some of our furriest and friendliest neighbors.

Each week, we’ll pick a new “Arlington Pet of the Week.” From dogs, cats, birds, fish and everything in between, the feature will include photos and an explanation of what makes that week’s pet so special. The owner of each Pet of the Week will receive a gift card to a local pet store, in addition to the recognition of just how awesome his or her pet is.

If you think your little guy should be a contender for Arlington Pet of the Week, email one or more photos of and a 2-3 paragraph write-up about your pet to [email protected]. Please also include your name and the neighborhood you live in. All material sent to ARLnow.com may be used for publication.

File photo

Merry Christmas from ARLnow.com

By ARLnow.com

Christmas treeThe team behind ARLnow.com — Katie, Stephanie, Aaron and Scott — wishes you and yours a very merry Christmas.

As we approach the new year, we have a sincere wish for 2013. We have noted with disappointment the increasingly negative tenor of some comments on the site, and we hope that in 2013 those commenting here keep in mind that while the people on this site may be using online aliases, they are our neighbors in this relatively tiny, 26 square mile county.

ARLnow.com staff has been doing our best to actively remove comments that contain personal insults, racially or ethnically insensitive remarks, or even vitriol directed at children who are part of a news story. We will continue to do so to make sure ARLnow.com is a safe place for a robust but respectful community discourse. We also hope that readers understand that the moderation of comments is an imperfect process, and refrain from cursing at or berating our staff who are making an honest effort to prevent discussions from degrading to the the level of discourse found on some other, popular news websites.

On a happier note, we expect to continue to expand the scope of our local coverage and our business operations in 2013. We owe a very big thank you to our readers and our clients for helping to make that happen.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas. We’ll bring you three additional days of news coverage starting on Wednesday, before going on a brief New Years hiatus.

View More Stories