Arlington might not be as hard-hit as places with lower vaccination rates, but the delta variant of the coronavirus is still infecting dozens of people a day in the county.
The latest data from the Virginia Dept. of Health shows the seven-day trailing average of new infections in Arlington ticking up from 32 to 36 cases per day since Tuesday.
With elevated infection rates but relatively low hospitalization rates in Arlington, we’re wondering whether locals have started taking more precautions over the past month or so.
Have you been more diligent about masking up, social distancing, or avoiding crowds since cases started rising two months ago? Or have you gone about your daily life much as before, putting trust in the vaccine and its ability to protect against infections or against serious illness in the event of breakthrough cases?
Let’s find out where the community currently stands.
Another week, another stretch of temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes near 100.
It’s been a hot and humid summer in Arlington and the D.C. area. With a predicted high of 93, today will likely be the 41st day with the temperature over 90 (the yearly average is 40).
Yet, the outward signs of fall are there: Oktoberfest beers at the grocery store, football on the television, the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte today at Starbucks.
(For what it’s worth, the “PSL” arrived a day earlier than last year and a full week earlier than four years ago.)
ARLnow readers have told us they consider the fall equinox in the latter half of September to be the “real start of fall” in Arlington, as opposed to Labor Day, the first day of September, or the debut of the sweet pumpkin-y goodness at Starbucks. But with a premium put on outdoor activity during the pandemic, maybe this year locals are mentally prepared for an earlier start of fall.
Given the sweltering temperatures, cicadas, itch mites and heavy rains, are you suffering summer fatigue? Would you trade the remaining four weeks of summer for a changeover to cooler and crisper weather? Let’s find out.
The Washington Business Journal’s Alex Koma reported yesterday afternoon that D.C. is acquiring the Exxon station in Georgetown that could serve as the gondola’s eastern terminus.
The D.C. Council included $10 million for the purchase in the 2022 budget it passed earlier this month, teeing up a deal for the property at 3607 M St. NW once the spending plan receives sign-offs from both Mayor Muriel Bowser and Congress.
The half-acre site, by the famous “Exorcist” steps, currently belongs to a joint venture of Altus Realty Partners and DYNC Atlantic Property and Investment, who have spent years pursuing its redevelopment as condos, so far to no avail. But the shuttered gas station has also been envisioned as an ideal landing spot for a gondola stretching across the Potomac River, providing a transportation link between Georgetown and Rosslyn that some local business leaders and politicians have championed.
The potential acquisition doesn’t mean that the gondola, a subject of controversy on both sides of the river, is anywhere close to actually happening, but it should preserve it as an option by bringing a valuable piece of real estate under the city’s control.
Plenty of challenges remain, not the least of which is the fact that Arlington County said it was “not in favor” of the $80-90 million project four years ago.
Still, the news raised some hopes among the gondola faithful — and those who just appreciate the somewhat whimsical notion of aerial lift transportation across the Potomac.
2025: Washington wakes up and realizes everyone wasn't just imagining it and we actually built a gondola to Rosslyn
Okay, but in all seriousness, do people want the gondola to be built?
One has to imagine that, given the rising costs of large building projects, the price tag on the gondola has to be pushing $100 million at this point. Is that worth it for something that would mostly benefit tourists, Georgetown students and Rosslyn-Georgetown commuters?
Would the experience of riding the gondola, compared to walking over the Key Bridge, be significantly better for the projected 6,500 daily riders? (Most riders will be local workers or residents, according to a study.)
Today is Friday, August 13 — a day that some would consider unlucky.
Friday the 13th lore is at least a century old, and relates to various things, from Jesus’ last supper to the Knights Templar to Norse mythology.
While some may consider superstition about Friday the 13th irrational or silly, others have an actual fear of the day.
“According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day, making it the most feared day and date in history,” notes a Wikipedia entry.
Today we’re wondering: how many people in Arlington — a rather rational place — actually worry when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday.
Traffic on I-66 near Washington-Liberty HS (photo courtesy Eric)
August is the month of vacations.
Congress goes on recess, schools are still on summer break, and legions of D.C. area residents head out of town, to the beach or elsewhere. That leads to less local traffic and more out-of-office email replies.
Obviously not everybody leaves town in August. We’re wondering what percentage of ARLnow readers sticks around and takes their vacations during other months of the year.
ARLnow was the first local news outlet to report on the mysterious, highly itchy bug bites many residents were reporting.
Following our article two weeks ago, the bites — red, relentlessly itchy and lasting up to two weeks — have become the talk of the town. Our reporting has been echoed by TV stations, the Post, national outlets, and our friends at PoPville.
County officials and the expert interviewed by the Post believe the bites are from microscopic bugs known as oak itch mites, or pyemotes, which are thought to feed on cicada eggs. They’re nearly impossible to see on your skin and fall from trees where cicada nymphs have been hatching.
You can’t feel the bites, but after about half a day they produce red bumps that can inflame the skin around it and are seemingly impervious to over-the-counter itch creams. The bumps also form a characteristic pimple-like center.
There’s some bad news for folks who have been suffering from the mite bites: an “oak mite apocalypse” in Kansas City in 2016 persisted well into the fall, until a couple of hard freezes finally brought relief. It’s unclear whether the D.C. area might see the mites scourge end earlier due to their presumed food source — the cicada nymphs — hatching and burrowing into the ground for the next 17 years.
Regardless, today we’re trying to find out the extent of the mite bites so far by asking readers: have you been bitten?
“Allergy season in North America has been the lengthiest and the most severe in decades,” Axios reported yesterday. A number of factors are making allergies worse, from climate change lengthening the pollen-producing season to an overabundance of pollen-producing male trees in urban areas.
That’s not to mention added air pollution from western wildfires and the pandemic potentially leading to more outdoor activity.
Today, we’re asking how this year compares with last year those with seasonal allergies in Arlington. Is it worse, better, or about the same?
Arlington County logo on basketball court in Waverly Hills
After its first set of finalists to replace the current county logo fizzled, Arlington officials went back to the drawing board and asked for more design submissions.
Now the county is seeking feedback on 10 proposed logo designs, eight of which are new and two of which are holdovers from the first iteration of the process.
Arlington is asking locals to vote for up to three logos as part of its feedback process, but we wanted to get a sense of which of the designs ARLnow readers like the best. Weigh in on your favorite below.
One place where a school might be needed: the National Landing area, where hundreds of new apartments are planned and where the nearest elementary school — Oakridge, in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood — is getting increasingly overcrowded, according to APS projections.
There’s not much contiguous land on which to plop down a full elementary school with fields and a playground in the Crystal City or Pentagon City neighborhoods, but one thing both have in abundance is office space — particularly older, harder-to-lease office space.
The Washington Business Journal reported last week that the City of Alexandria is purchasing an office building on N. Beauregard Street for $18 million, with plans to eventually convert it into a 600-student elementary or secondary school. Might that be an example for Arlington Public Schools to follow?
why does every elementary school kid in the fastest growing part of Arlington have to ride a bus to school, with no end in sight, and none of our bottomless bonding is devoted to smart ideas like this? https://t.co/z7G1CVIPfE
If not purchase an entire building, APS could potentially lease part of an office building for school use. Of course, some parents and students might not love the idea of having to take an elevator to class, or not having the grassy fields and other amenities of a typical suburban school.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam sits in on a lesson in Mr. Foster’s class at Barcroft Elementary School during a visit Monday morning (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Virginia is “strongly” recommending that all elementary students, staff and teachers wear masks indoors this fall.
The guidance from the state health and education departments, which is not binding, recommends requiring masks until “there has been sufficient time to allow for children [under 12] to be fully vaccinated,” the Washington Post reported.
The latest guidance from Arlington Public Schools suggests masks will be required for everybody inside schools in the fall, as has been the case this summer. But the APS mandates could change in light of the new state guidance, which also recommends that fully vaccinated middle- and high school students be allowed to go maskless inside.
What do you think of local elementary kids wearing masks this fall inside schools?
As of today, marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older to possess, consume and grow in Virginia. But unless a doctor has signed off on a prescription, there’s no legal way to buy it.
Lawmakers have set a 2024 target to begin retail sales to recreational users, a runway the legislation’s authors say is necessary to establish the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, which will regulate the new market.
But some legalization advocates are hoping the General Assembly will agree to speed up that time frame.
“Our priority in the 2022 legislative session is to expedite retail access for adult consumers, both through already operational medical dispensaries and by moving up the date VCCA can begin issuing new licenses,” said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML.
More than 80% of respondents to an ARLnow poll earlier this year said they support the legalization of marijuana. And more than half of respondents to a subsequent poll said they “definitely” or “maybe” will partake in legal weed.
But we’re wondering whether the enactment of the new law today changes anything for anybody. Will legalization actually result in you doing something you didn’t do before?
