Over the last 18 months, Arlington nonprofit Bridges to Independence has experienced a notable surge in children and families seeking shelter, resulting in a growing waiting list.
CEO Fraser Murdoch sat down with staff reporter James Jarvis to discuss what factors may be driving the youth homelessness crisis in Arlington and how the broader community can intervene.
Listen below or find the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
The man behind the highway cameras capturing driving stunts on I-395 got in front of the microphone for a conversation with ARLnow.
Dave Statter talked with assistant managing editor Jo DeVoe about how he wound up posting clips on X, formerly Twitter, of Virginia State Police high-speed chases that halt at the D.C. line and people who reverse or make actual left turns — blinkers and all — on the highway. Plus, he shares his thoughts on erratic driver behavior these days.
The veteran journalist, long interested in public safety, discussed what topics keep him up at night, including D.C.’s 911 service, and previewed future topics he will dig into.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
There’s persistence, and then there is Audrey Clement and her decade-plus effort to get elected to local office in Arlington.
Clement talked with ARLnow editor Scott Brodbeck to talk about her latest unsuccessful run for County Board, her allegations of media bias and age discrimination, Missing Middle zoning changes, proposed changes to Arlington County’s governance, and why she keeps running for public office.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
Despite weathering the pandemic, small businesses along Columbia Pike are now facing a new set of economic challenges, including rising rent, inflation, new developments and ongoing road work.
Deputy Director of the Columbia Pike Partnership Amy McWilliams sat down with ARLnow’s James Jarvis to delve into the economic hurdles that these small businesses are still confronting, nearly four years post-pandemic. McWilliams offers insight into the enduring strength of the small business community, emphasizing its continued resilience.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
Last week’s election may have had few surprises locally but it shook up the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates.
Virginia elections analyst Sam Shirazi caught up with ARLnow’s Jo DeVoe to talk about how Democrats won majorities in both legislative chambers and why Arlingtonians should look outside the county’s deep blue bubble and pay attention to state politics.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
What’s next for tech in Arlington?
Michael Stiefvater, Director of Business Investment at Arlington Economic Development, sat down with ARLnow’s James Jarvis to discuss Arlington’s emerging tech industry over the last decade and the future outlook for the local tech scene.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
You’ve seen him in the comments, now you can listen to him on a podcast.
Flood Czar, a pseudonymous and long-standing active participant in our comment section, sat down with ARLnow to discuss the origin and history of the Flood Czar persona and its role in the community, the evolution of the comment section over the years, and the role of ARLnow as a source of information for residents.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
You can also check out our 2019 podcast interview of another prolific ARLnow commenter, Dave Schutz. Or you can order the official Flood Czar t-shirt, new to the ARLnow Shop, the design of which is above.
After a multi-year hiatus, ARLnow’s podcast is returning this fall. Our first test episode recording turned out pretty well, so we decided to let you listen to it.
It starts with a discussion of some local news of the week, then transitions to a discussion about local news reporting and journalism as a career. The episode features ARLnow founder Scott Brodbeck, reporter/editor Jo DeVoe, incoming reporter/editor James Jarvis, and Peter Berlizov, a local high school student who showed up for a tour of our office and got roped into interviewing ARLnow’s staff for the podcast.
Let us know what you think of this format in the comments.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.
Arlington Independent Media hopes to open its first satellite studio by early fall.
The non-profit video and audio production studio has begun the build-out at 3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive in Green Valley, Arlington Independent Media (AIM) CEO Whytni Kernodle told ARLnow. They are looking to modernize three underused audio-production studios inside Arlington Arts’ Cultural Affairs Division office, with a focus on providing podcasting space.
Construction is expected to take about four months and cost over $200,000. The aim is to be finished and ready to open sometime in September, Kernodle said.
AIM was established about four decades ago and provides programming for two local cable access television stations and operates the radio station WERA 96.7 FM.
In November, the county approved a lease agreement allowing AIM to take over about 1,100 square feet of space at the Arlington Arts location in Green Valley. It follows the county’s vision for an “arts & industry district” along Four Mile Run.
This new studio in Green Valley represents AIM’s commitment to branching out not just in terms of location but also who is using the studios to tell their story.
“After 40 years, we’ve always existed in one space, always in North Arlington,” Kernodle said. “And our membership has primarily been people over the age of 60, mostly retired, mostly white, mostly male, mostly cis-gendered, mostly English speakers, mostly non-military, and mostly non-disabled. We are trying to change that because that’s not reflective of our community.”
And the hope is that this will not be AIM’s only satellite studio, with Kernodle noting that the organization would love to set up studios in Virginia Square, Rosslyn, and Columbia Pike as well.
The aim is to put production facilities in locations that are accessible to communities that maybe didn’t have the ability to make their voices heard in the past.
“Our goal is to prioritize those voices that have been traditionally underserved or miss-served not just nationally but here in Arlington and here at Arlington Independent Media,” Kernodle said.
She also hopes to use the partnership with the county to turn Arlington’s art scene into the envy of the region.
“[Arlington] is not known for arts and industry. The goal of AIM and my goal is to really make Arlington into the Brooklyn of the D.C. area,” Kernodle said. “We have all the diversity and the resources that Brooklyn values and the proximity to the city as Brooklyn does. And we’re just not honing that because it’s not been centralized.”
Along with production studios, AIM also has access to the county’s “Theater on the Run” to screen films.
This past weekend, AIM hosted a showing of the documentary “The R-Word” as an introduction to the new space for the community. The movie depicts the experiences of persons with intellectual disabilities and how representation matters in telling the story of that community.
Kernodle hopes to have more screenings at the theater of this nature, prioritizing “films of marginalized people.”
With the plan to open AIM Green Valley in a few months, Kernodle believes that this is just the beginning of expanding Arlington’s artistic reputation.
“Our goal is to act as an anchor organization for art transformation and social justice,” she said.
Currently, in Arlington County, a podcasting studio would need to go through a county permitting process to inhabit an office building.
But that is likely changing.
A proposal to allow more “untraditional” uses in traditional office buildings is headed to the Arlington County Board this weekend.
On Saturday, the Board is set to consider revising the zoning ordinance to allow broadcasting studios and businesses in the audio-visual production field to occupy commercial space by right. It is also expanding what counts as research and development while allowing those uses by right, too.
Under the changes, entrepreneurs would no longer need a permit to outfit an office for podcasting and influencer studios — Instagram-ready backdrops for people to take photos and record content.
Arlington’s extensive roster of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence startups, meanwhile, would no longer need a permit to conduct research and development. Facilities doing technological, electronic, biological, scientific and engineering research would be able to lease a typical office building in the same way as any other office tenant.
These businesses could also engage in small-scale product design, development, prototyping and testing. The changes will not allow industrial scale production or manufacturing.
Arlington Economic Development says these are some emerging trends it is looking to pounce to tackle its office vacancy rate and remain competitive in a changing economic landscape. Otherwise, it may lose out to peer cities, such as Seattle and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“In the past, [AED] has had prospects come through looking for flexible research and development space to locate their semiconductor and microchip, cyber and quantum computing, as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning companies,” according to a county report. “However, the AED team was not always readily able to accommodate those prospects due to zoning barriers.”
“The competition for attracting research and development investment is fierce, the market for these uses is strong, and technological advances have allowed these uses to fit seamlessly into existing business districts,” it continued.
This is the fourth zoning code update headed to the County Board in 13 months under the “Commercial Market Resiliency Strategy.”
Through this strategy, the county established a streamlined public engagement process that expedited the approval process for these changes. Some Planning Commissioners have balked at the shortened engagement period and the nuisances that may arise.
Despite these misgivings, the strategy has already been used to allow micro-fulfillment centers, urban agriculture, breweries and distilleries, and artisan workshops to operate in office buildings, without additional red tape.
Most recently, the County Board approved a broader definition of by-right indoor recreation use, meaning pickleball courts and ax-throwing could be coming to an office building near you.
Anyone familiar with ARLnow and our little corner of the digital media universe knows that we have a prolific comment section.
Voices from every spectrum of the community can be seen weighing in on local topics, often just minutes after an article on any given topic publishes. Driving the comment section is a community of regular commenters that has developed over time, and one of the leading voices in that comment community is Dave Schutz.
Dave is an Arlington resident who’s active in civic life and has a political bent that one might call middle-of-the-road. He is noted for being one of the few commenters to use his or her real name in the comments.
Dave has some signature opinions that he shares often — that the county should acquire the two country clubs that reside in Arlington, and their extensive acreage, for instance. But aside from a couple idiosyncratic takes, Dave can often be described as a voice of reason in the midst of heated discussions — he helps, to some degree, to keep comment threads focused and civil, and to make the comment section more of a community.
We talked with Dave about the comment community on ARLnow, about our comment moderation, and about his opinions on various topics — a unilateral audio comment section, of sorts.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or TuneIn.
