Bluemont

Man Found Unconscious on Wilson Boulevard

By ARLnow.com

A man suffering from life-threatening injuries was found lying unconscious on Wilson Boulevard early Sunday morning.

The man was found around 1:00 a.m. on the 5300 block of Wilson Boulevard, in Bluemont, suffering from significant head trauma, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. It’s unknown at this time whether the injury was the result of a hit-and-run, a fight or a fall. The man still had his wallet with him, so robbery is not considered a likely motive if he was, in fact, attacked.

The man was taken to a local hospital where surgery was performed to stop bleeding in his brain, Sternbeck said. His injuries are considered life-threatening.

The man is described as a 38-year-old Arlington resident. No other details were available about the incident.

Castro’s Bakery Closed in Bluemont

By ARLnow.com

 

The Bluemont location of Castro’s Bakery is no more.

The family-owned bakery closed about a month ago, we’re told. Signs have been taken down from the storefront at 5515 Wilson Boulevard and all equipment has been removed from the interior.

An employee at Castro’s Seven Corners location (6276 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church) confirmed that that location has remained open. So far, there’s no official word on why the Arlington location closed.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

‘Bookhouse’ in Bluemont Profiled — The Washington Post profiles the Bookhouse, a rare book business in Bluemont run by Natalie Hughes, 80, and her husband Edward, 91. The couple say they plan to close the business — which features a collection of about 30,000 volumes — in a year or two. [Washington Post]

Board Declines to Appoint Tie-Breaker — The Arlington County Board, down to four members since Barbara Favola resigned on Dec. 31 to start her new career as a state Senator, has opted not to appoint a designated tie-breaker, as permitted by state law. Instead, measures that garner a 2-2 tie vote will simply fail. [Sun Gazette]

Sign Spinners Featured on News Broadcast — The sign spinners we photographed during a training session have been now been profiled by Fox 5. [MyFoxDC]

Traffic Signal Installation on Wilson Blvd in Bluemont

By ARLnow.com

A new set of traffic lights and pedestrian crossing signals are being installed at the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and N. Wakefield Street.

The traffic signals are located next to the Murphy Funeral Home and a new residential development, in the Bluemont neighborhood near Ballston. A developer agreed to pay for the traffic signals in 2008 as part of the development’s site plan process. At the time, county staff argued that increased traffic from the development would necessitate the installation of traffic signals.

No word yet on when the traffic lights might be switched on.

Rash of Car Break-Ins in Bluemont, Arlington Forest

By ARLnow.com

About a dozen residents of the Bluemont and Arlington Forest neighborhoods woke up Tuesday morning only to find that their vehicles were broken in to overnight.

According to police, an unknown suspect broke in to at least 12 unlocked vehicles on the 100 block of N. Columbus Street, the 500 block of N. Jefferson Street, and the 5600 blocks of N. 5th and N. 7th Streets. All four streets are within easy walking distance of the Bluemont and W&OD trails.

The suspect stole various items like change and GPS units, according to police.

One vehicle was also stolen during the break-in spree, according to Arlington County Police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal. NBC4 is reporting that stolen vehicle was a van belong to the charity Treats 4 Our Troops. The van was filled with candy and care packages for wounded and deployed military servicemembers, the station reported.

Police say they don’t have any suspects at this time.

Most Elaborate Halloween Decorations in Arlington?

By ARLnow.com

Some Arlington residents went all-out when it came to dressing up their homes for Halloween. Just before the kids started trick-or-treating last night, we stopped by two local streets that were said to have some of the best decorations around.

On the 700 block of N. Illinois Street in Bluemont, two homeowners were duking it out for the title of scariest house. One home was not only spook-ified on the outside, but the creepy decorations and frightful lighting continued well inside the front door as well.

The 700 block of N. Jackson Street in Ashton Heights was even more festive. One otherwise charming home was converted into a yard of horrors, with freshly-dug graves, cobwebs, leering ghouls and a menacing coffin. Just down the street, neighbors were out taking photos of the N. Jackson Street Cemetery — a house-turned-haunted-house featuring a real, rusted-out hearse, more freshly-dug graves and a small army of free-standing witches, ghosts and skeletons.

How do these compare to the best-decorated homes in your neighborhood?

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Video: Pupatella Neapolitan Pizzeria

By ARLnow.com

The county-run Arlington Virginia Network’s “Food For Thought” program recently visited Pupatella Neapolitan Pizzeria (5104 Wilson Blvd), in the Bluemont neighborhood (just west of Ballston).

Owner Enzo Algarme, donning sunglasses and a bright orange fedora, explained to host Katie Greenan how Pupatella make pizza that tastes like it came straight from Naples, Italy.

TV Stolen Minutes After Being Delivered to Bluemont Home

By ARLnow.com

It took just three minutes for a flat-screen TV to be stolen from a Bluemont front yard after it was dropped off by a delivery service. Now, the victim is fighting back online.

The N. Kensington Street homeowner posted surveillance video of the incident on YouTube, in the hopes that someone will be able to identify the alleged thief.

The video purports to show a FedEx employee delivering the TV at 12:21 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20. At 12:24 p.m., a man runs up to the TV and hauls it off, possibly to a vehicle seen slowing down during the delivery.

In addition to asking for help identifying the man in the video, the victim is questioning why the pricey TV was dropped off without a signature.

Screen capture via YouTube

Bluemont Residents to Debate Development Plans

By ARLnow.com

A controversial development plan will be debated at the Bluemont Civic Association meeting tonight.

The plan, which we reported on in April, envisions a “Bluemont Village Center,” featuring new mixed-use developments along a stretch of Wilson Boulevard (west of Ballston) currently flanked by single-story shops, restaurants and an older Safeway supermarket. The plan was generated by the Bluemont Civic Association, with the volunteer help of a Virginia Tech graduate student, as part of its Neighborhood Conservation plan process.

The plan is only intended to guide future development along Wilson Boulevard, but its renderings of imagined 4 to 5 story buildings has elicited a strong response from residents who object to the potential increase in density.

“Is this your ‘vision’ of Bluemont?” asks a flyer (after the jump) that has been widely distributed in the neighborhood. The flyer argues that the plan could result in the displacement of existing small businesses (like Two Chefs, Pupatella and Body Dynamics), the addition of 100 to 200 apartments, greater competition for on-street parking and “at least 200 more cars flooding neighborhood streets each morning and evening.”

The flyer also cites a Bluemont Civic Association survey, which found that 54.5 percent of respondents objected to building heights over 3 stories. The same survey, however, found that 69.7 percent of respondents favored a “‘village center’ type development” — defined as “a mix of retail, office, residential, and cultural uses in a compact, pedestrian-oriented center.”

(more…)

Bluemont Civic Association Mulls Development Plan

By ARLnow.com

County Board Member Mary Hynes seemed a bit surprised at last night’s Bluemont Civic Association meeting when she started fielding questions about a development plan for the North Arlington neighborhood.

“It’s not on the county’s radar,” she told anxious residents and businesses owners who had gathered in the library of the Arlington Traditional School.

It turns out that the plan everybody wanted to talk about was not a county plan at all, but a private plan commissioned by the leaders of the civic association. The 32-page document, which includes renderings of an imagined “Bluemont Village Center” along Wilson Boulevard, was created after civic association leaders decided just over a year ago that it would be prudent to begin thinking of the neighborhood’s long-range (10-20 year) future as part of its upcoming neighborhood conservation plan.

The reasoning, as explained by the civic association’s president, was that the Bluemont Safeway (5101 Wilson Blvd) — which seems to be serving fewer and fewer customers lately — may decide to sell its large property. If that were to happen now, the neighborhood wouldn’t have much of a say in the kind of business they sell it to. A plan could help guide the use of the land so that it — and properties around it — could be gradually transformed into an attractive, pedestrian-friendly commercial district.

(more…)

SUV Slams Into Bluemont 7-Eleven

By ARLnow.com

An SUV came crashing through the front of the 7-Eleven on Wilson Boulevard near George Mason Drive this morning.

As customers were arriving for their morning coffee, a vehicle described as a new Toyota Rav4 hopped the curb, smashed through a low brick wall, a door and a plate glass window. Nobody was hurt.

In addition to the busted-up storefront, some merchandise in the SUV’s path — including at least a dozen cases of beer — appeared to have been damaged and strewn about the floor.

Workers have boarded up the broken windows and the store is now open. The store’s clerk said the driver was an employee who had recently learned how to drive.