Crystal City

Rugby, Hockey Come to the Parks and Parking Lots of Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

Crystal City may not seem like an obvious venue for team sports, but don’t tell that to the growing number of players who compete in sports leagues in and around the neighborhood.

Starting this year, a few new sports will start to be played in the shadows of the office towers and high-rise hotels that line Jefferson Davis Highway. Among them: street hockey, rugby and outdoor volleyball.

An “old school” street hockey league is currently accepting new player and team registrations. The co-ed league will play on Thursday nights from May through July at a surface parking lot near the corner of 20th Street and S. Bell Street. The league’s start date — May 5 — is set to coincide with the Crystal City’s Fit Week.

A co-ed touch rugby league will play its first game Saturday afternoon, at a park on Eads Street near Ft. Scott Drive. The leagues is still in open registration for individual players.

Registration for an outdoor volleyball league at Virginia Highlands Park (1600 S. Hayes Street) started last week. The 6v6 league will supplement an indoor volleyball league that is played at Sport & Health Club Crystal Gateway (1235 S. Clark Street).

All the leagues are run by the Arlington Athletic and Social League. AASL is also running an indoor dodgeball and a women’s 3 on 3 basketball league in Crystal City this spring. Both sports are in open registration for individuals.

Photo courtesy DC Social Sports

Mackey’s Public House Closes in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 9:40 p.m.) Mackey’s Public House (320 S. 23rd Street) has closed its doors in Crystal City.

The pub served its last customers this weekend, an employee said today. The D.C. location at 1823 L Street NW will remain open.

Mackey’s catered largely to the Crystal City lunch and after-work crowds. It had sidewalk seating that was popular on warm weather days. No word yet on why the pub closed, although a recent health department inspection of the restaurant turned up more than a dozen violations, including the presence of cockroaches and fruit flies.

Mackey’s is the second Irish pub to close in the Crystal City area in the past 6 months. McGinty’s Irish Pub, in the Market Square at Potomac Yard development, folded in December.

Photo via Mackeyspub.com

Reminder: Time Running Out to Enter Crystal City 5K Photo Contest

By ARLnow.com

Tonight’s Crystal City 5K Friday race is your last chance to snap photos for our ‘Flickr Flash’ photo contest.

Submit your shots from this race or any previous 5K Friday race to the contest’s Flickr stream by Sunday for a chance to win gift cards to local restaurants.

A panel will pick ten finalists and ARLnow.com readers will select the winners next week. Good luck to all contest participants!

Crystal City Outdoor Movie Schedule Released

By ARLnow.com

(Updated on 6/20/11) Crystal City’s outdoor film festival, Crystal Screen, will return in just a month and a half.

This year’s theme for the festival is “By The Numbers” — movies that include numbers in the title. Twelve movies will be shown on Monday nights, from June 6 to August 29.

See if you can guess all 12 (see the list after the jump). Hint: Organizers decided Se7en was too gory.

The movies will be shown in the grassy courtyard at 1800 S. Bell Street, one block from the Crystal City Metro station, weather-permitting. Last year’s theme was “Star Trek.”

(more…)

Employee Who Lost Eye During DMV Brawl Speaks Out

By ARLnow.com

A hotel employee who lost an eye during a huge brawl at the DMV Music Awards in Crystal City last month is speaking out about his ordeal.

In a video produced by the Arlington County Police Department, the employee — “Antonio,” a bartender at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City — says he and his family are now in debt and struggling to get by on meager workman’s compensation payments. He has had two operations since the March 5 incident and expects to have at least one more to get a prosthetic eye. While in recovery, Antonio has been unable to bathe or care for himself, and relies on his wife and friends to accomplish everyday tasks.

“I used to work for three hotels… I don’t know” if I will ever work again, he said. “I cannot live this way.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the attack to contact Detective J. Donaggio at 703-228-4167 or [email protected]. Several photos of the woman who is alleged to have attacked Antonio are displayed at the end of the video.

Crystal City Office Building Placed on Lockdown

By ARLnow.com

There were some tense moments in Crystal City this morning as Arlington County and Pentagon Police surrounded an office building after receiving a false report of a man with a gun.

Police were originally dispatched to the scene for a report of an intoxicated military service member who was said to be brandishing a handgun in an office on the 2200 block of South Clark Street. One floor of the building was evacuated, employees sheltered in place on other floors and elevators were locked down.

One tipster said their office was told there was a “gunman” on the 9th floor of the Crystal Plaza 6 office building, and that employees were “safe” and “awaiting instructions from building security.”

Eventually, it was determined that the incident was not as serious as reported, and may have actually happened over the weekend. A suspect was reported to be in custody, but it’s not clear when he or she was arrested.

Update at 9:00 p.m. –Federal Protective Service spokesman Chris Ortman issued the following statement tonight:

This morning, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers responded along with Arlington County Police, Pentagon Security, and Defense Protective Service, to a report filed today of an incident that took place on Friday, April 8, involving an armed, intoxicated individual at Crystal City Plaza 6, 2221 S. Clark Street, Arlington, Va. The individual was found and the weapon was confiscated without incident. An investigation is ongoing and more details will be shared when they are available.

Reminder: Crystal City 5K Friday Photo Contest

By ARLnow.com

Photographers: want to show off your skills and get a chance to win gift cards to local restaurants?

If so, head down to the 5K race on Crystal Drive in Crystal City tonight and get a few photos of anything race-related. Upload the photos to our contest Flickr group and get a chance to win some tasty prizes.

If you brought your camera to last week’s race and haven’t uploaded your photos yet, feel free to upload them now.

With any luck the rain will have passed by the time the race starts. The contest is sponsored by ARLnow.com, Foto DC, Crystal City BID and Pacers.

Flickr photo by Diltch1

The Day of Reckoning is Coming, According to RV Convoy

By ARLnow.com

A slow-moving convoy of recreational vehicles drove through Arlington this afternoon declaring that the “day of reckoning” is coming.

A man with a bullhorn barked pronouncements of doom in passing, in case motorists were not able to see the graphics on the side of the half dozen RVs in the convoy.

We spotted the convoy driving south on Route 1 in the Crystal City area around 3:45 p.m. No word on where they were headed.

Update at 4:45 p.m. — Commenter CW has identified the likely culprits, who believe the apocalypse will come on May 21.

Is Legal Sea Foods’ Sidewalk Seating Legal?

By ARLnow.com

Legal Sea Foods’ sidewalk cafe in Crystal City seems a bit fishy to one local.

The outdoor seating area has “taken over almost the whole sidewalk on 23rd Street,” an anonymous reader tells ARLnow.com. “The pedestrian area is now down to a single file lane to get past the restaurant. The other restaurants on that part of 23rd have not pushed their outdoor seating out that far… what gives?”

“I walk to work every morning and somedays I have to either walk in the street or wait for people walking the other way to get by,” the tipster added. “That has to be against code doesn’t it?”

We couldn’t reach anybody in the zoning office to confirm whether Legal is in violation of the law, but generally county ordinances require a minimum six-foot clear passage zone on Arlington sidewalks. Clearly, the above photos show that that standard is not being met in this case.

Update at 4:45 p.m. — It’s possible that the building owner may own the sidewalk in front of Legal, in which case they would be able to do pretty much whatever they want with it, as far as the county was concerned. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, however, requires that sidewalks maintain a minimum width of three feet on a contiguous basis.

Crystal City 5K Friday ‘Flickr Flash’ Photo Contest

By ARLnow.com

Update on 4/8/11 — Good news for fair-weather photographers who don’t want to brave today’s rain: the contest has been extended by two weeks.

Tomorrow hundreds of runners will kick off the first Crystal City 5K Friday of the year, and we’re hosting a contest to make the evening race as competitive for photographers as it is for runners.

ARLnow.com, in partnership with Crystal City BID, FotoDC and Pacers, is challenging photographers of all skill levels to take photos of the first four 5K Friday races and upload up to five to a specially-designated contest page on Flickr. Feel free to use your creativity and take photos of anything race-related.

On Sunday, April 24, a panel of representatives from all four organizations will help choose ten finalists. Then it’s up to ARLnow.com readers to vote for the winning photos.

We’re offering the following prizes to the top three vote-getters:

  • 1st Prize: $200 Morton’s Crystal City gift card and a race t-shirt
  • 2nd Prize: $50 Jaleo gift card and race t-shirt
  • 3rd Prize: $25 Bozzelli’s Italian Deli gift card and race t-shirt

The winners will be announced during the race after-party at Crystal City’s FLASH photo exhibit. Happy snapping!

Top Chef Spike Mendelsohn Scouting Out Crystal City?

By ARLnow.com

Is former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn planning on opening a restaurant in Crystal City?

An ARLnow spy spotted Mendelsohn and a man identified as his father dining at the Crystal City Chick-fil-A while chatting up the manager about foot traffic and sales.

“He is apparently opening a new restaurant (or planning to) in Crystal City,” the tipster said. A second source confirmed that Mendelsohn may be scouting out locations in Crystal City.

Mendelsohn is the proprietor of Good Stuff Eatery, a gourmet burgers-fries-and-ice-cream joint on Capitol Hill, and We, the Pizza, which is exactly what you think it is.

Good Stuff Eatery is in the midst of an expansion that is bringing it to new locales like Baltimore and Philadelphia. Might Crystal City be next?

Photo via Twitter

View More Stories