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Morning Notes

Published December 2, 2015 at 9:15AM | Updated December 2, 2015 at 9:39AM

More Metro Delays — A disabled train outside of the Farragut West Metro station produced big delays for those heading into Virginia via the Orange, Silver and Blue lines this morning. [Twitter]

Local Credit Card Holiday Spending — Arlington residents are charging an average of $718.43 on credit cards for holiday gifts this year, estimates the website Nerd Wallet. While that seems like a high number, collectively those in Arlington buying holiday gifts without using a credit card are missing out on $138,846.46 in rewards points, the website says. [Nerd Wallet]

Arlington Still Tops for Va. Tourism — Arlington remains the top tourism destination in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county attracts more than 6 million people who spend nearly $3 billion here and generate some $81 million in local taxes annually. The tourism industry accounts for about 25,000 jobs in Arlington. [Arlington County]

County Unveils New Online Calendar — Arlington County has rolled out Arlington Today, a new and improved calendar of local events. First up this morning on the calendar: a performance by The Rocking Chairs, the “in-house band” of the Lee Community and Senior Center. [Twitter]

Local Startup Raises $16 Million — Want to start a company in Arlington that can raise big bucks? Do so in the cybersecurity field. Data security software maker ThreatConnect, which recently moved from Shirlington to the Ballston area, has raised $16 million in a new round of funding. [DC Inno]

Arlington Recognized as Bike Friendly Community — Arlington has been named a Silver-level “Bicycle Friendly Community” for the third time since 2007. We’re one of 75 communities in the U.S. to achieve that rating. [Arlington County]

Arlington Home Named One of the ’15 Most Decked-Out’ in U.S.

By ARLnow.com

Published December 1, 2015 at 12:30PM

A North Arlington house has been named one of the “15 Most Decked-Out Holiday Homes in America.”

The house, on N. Abingdon Street at 16th Street N., near Virginia Hospital Center, is a perennial draw around holiday time. It features an array of lights, wreaths, Santa Clauses and other Christmas decorations.

The website MSN.com listed the house as No. 11 on its list of the 15 most outlandishly-decorated holiday homes in the U.S.

Flickr photo by Craig Pennington

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published November 30, 2015 at 9:05AM

Wreath Shortfall Projected for Cemetery — Wreaths Across America projects it will be 30,000 short of its goal of 230,000 wreaths to place on graves at Arlington National Cemetery this year. The organization is hoping more donors step up before its fundraising deadline tomorrow. [Fox News]

Sehkraft Brewing Now Open — Sehkraft Brewing in Clarendon opened to large beer garden crowds late last week. The brewpub has fire pits outside and is hosting live music nightly. [Facebook]

Arlington Ranks No. 2 for Roommates — Among major U.S. localities, Arlington ranks No. 2 for having the highest percentage of adults living with roommates. According to the website, 23 percent of 18-39 year olds in Arlington live with a roommate. That compares to 21 percent for the No. 4 city, Washington, D.C. [Priceonomics via Greater Greater Washington]

Barbershop Chorus to Sing at Metro Stations — The Arlingtones, a barbershop chorus, will be performing barbershop music at three local Orange Line Metro stations this month. [InsideNova]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published November 9, 2015 at 9:20AM | Updated November 9, 2015 at 9:43AM

Wakefield Wins, Ends Undefeated in Conference — The Wakefield Warriors football team defeated the Lee Lancers 50-18 on Friday to finish the regular season 8-2 and undefeated in the Capitol Conference. Wakefield will play in the first round of the 5A North Region playoffs on Friday. [InsideNova]

W-L Makes Playoffs with Win Against Yorktown — The Washington-Lee Generals secured a playoff spot and a 5-5 season with a win against cross-county rival Yorktown on Friday. It wrapped up Yorktown’s first losing season since 1995. [Washington Post]

I-66 ‘Worst Damn Freeway in America’ — Traffic-clogged I-66 is the worst interstate highway in America, so says the website Thrillist, based on federal highway data. I-10 in New Orleans was ranked the second worst. [Thrillist]

Arlington to Get Development Boost at Alexandria’s Expense? — After years of losing big office tenants to Alexandria, the economic tables may be turning for Arlington County. This month Alexandria elected a new mayor who ran on a mildly anti-development platform, while Arlington elected two new County Board members who spoke in favor of economic development efforts. [Bisnow]

Photo courtesy Buzz McClain

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published October 30, 2015 at 9:30AM

Arlington Ridge Ramp Closure — The ramp from Arlington Ridge Road to Washington Blvd and I-395, and from Washington Blvd to Arlington Ridge, will be closed during nights and mornings this weekend, starting at 9 p.m. tonight. VDOT will be milling and paving the ramp as part of a $2.2 million project to repair the Arlington Ridge Road ramp bridges. Construction is scheduled to end by 11 a.m. Sunday. Detours will be in place during the closure. [VDOT, Google Maps]

Weenie Beenie Serves a Top Dog — The borderline historic Weenie Beenie stand near Shirlington is one of the “21 best hot dog joints in America,” says Thrillist.com, besting event Ben’s Chili Bowl. [Thrillist]

Another Endorsement for Cristol, Dorsey — The urbanist blog Greater Greater Washington says Democrats Katie Cristol and Christian Dorsey are the best choices for Arlington County Board. GGW says Cristol is “great on transit” and “a pleasure to work with” and Dorsey is “clearly superior to the other two options, Audrey Clement and Mike McMenamin.” [Greater Greater Washington]

Ashton Heights Profiled — WaPo’s real estate section profiles the Ashton Heights neighborhood of Arlington, calling it “cozy” with “charming older homes, a child-friendly atmosphere and accessibility to the city.” [Washington Post]

Flickr pool photo by xmeeksx

Arlington’s Most Lecherous ZIP Codes, As Determined by the Ashley Madison Hack

By ARLnow.com

Published August 28, 2015 at 11:00AM | Updated August 28, 2015 at 12:26PM

(Updated at 12:25 p.m.) Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Rosslyn have the highest percentage of Ashley Madison users in Arlington, according to the hacked user list from the site.

The now-notorious hack exposed the names, addresses and other personal information of the site’s millions of users, who signed up with the promise of finding partners for discreet extramarital affairs.

ARLnow.com obtained a list of local users, sorted by ZIP code. There are some duplicate and anonymous entries in the data, so the following represents the raw number of user entries by ZIP code, sorted by percentage of the overall population.

22211 (Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall)
Users: 17 (2.6% of 648 population)

22202 (Crystal City, Pentagon City, Aurora Highlands)
Users: 311 (1.6% of 22,543 population)

22209 (Rosslyn)
Users: 192 (1.6% of 12,314 population)

22201 (Clarendon, Lyon Village, Lyon Park)
Users: 437 (1.3% of 33,476 population)

22206 (Shirlington, Fairlington, Nauck)
Users: 195 (1.0% of 19,051 population)

22213 (Bishop O’Connell High School area)
Users: 30 (1.0% of 2,936 population)

22203 (Ballston, Buckingham)
Users: 190 (0.9% of 21,850 population)

22205 (Westover, Waycroft-Woodlawn)
Users: 145 (0.8% of 17,087 population)

22204 (Columbia Pike corridor)
Users: 323 (0.7% of 47,233 population)

22207 (North Arlington neighborhoods)
Users: 221 (0.7% of 30,920 population)

Among those Arlington residents named on the list is an unsuccessful candidate in a recent local election. However, because ARLnow.com cannot verify that those named on the list were the actual users of the site, we will not name users nor link to the list. Comments that name users will be removed.

Correction: We erroneously combined the 22202 and 22203 ZIP codes in an earlier version of this article. The error has been corrected.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published August 27, 2015 at 9:35AM

Washington Blvd Temporarily Closed — Westbound Washington Blvd is temporarily closed at N. Evergreen Street from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today for water service installations. Traffic will be rerouted around the closure, which is several blocks from Virginia Hospital Center. [Twitter]

Arlington Bagel Shop Named Best in Va. — Brooklyn Bagel in Courthouse has the best bagel in the Commonwealth of Virginia, at least according to Tripping, an online vacation rental search engine. [Tripping]

Tough Talk for Park Supporters — At a time when Arlington’s burgeoning student population is creating a need for more and bigger schools, supporters of parks in Arlington have been opposing the creation of new schools in existing or potential future parks. County Board Chair Mary Hynes says that those who want to see more and more parkland in Arlington may be disappointed. “Their stance seems to be that we should put all our money into buying more land and use it as little as possible… [but] land is our scarcest resource.” [Falls Church News-Press]

AT&T Injected Ads on DCA Wi-Fi — AT&T has acknowledged that for a period of time, it injected popup ads onto websites visited by users of its free Wi-Fi networks at Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. [Recode, Web Policy]

Locket Found in Ballston — Someone found a silver locket hanging from a tree in Ballston. The finder is offering to return the locket to its rightful owner. [Reddit]

Photo courtesy James Mahony

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published August 25, 2015 at 9:30AM

Arlington No. 3 on ‘Walkable’ List — Arlington is the third most walkable “mid-sized city” in the U.S., according to rankings from real estate firm Redfin. The top ranked locales on the list were Jersey City, N.J. and Newark, N.J. “Many of the cities on the list are considered suburbs of the nation’s largest cities, proving that one need not live in the center of a major city in order to enjoy a walkable lifestyle,” said a press release. [Business Wire]

Income Needed to Buy a Home — Want to buy a house in the D.C. area? In order to afford the median sales price of a home in the region — $403,800 — you’ll need a household income of $86,595. The median sale price of a home in Arlington last month was $622,500. [InsideNova]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published August 17, 2015 at 9:20AM | Updated July 11, 2017 at 4:39PM

Arlington No. 1 in Public Transit to D.C. — Among suburban D.C. counties, Arlington has the highest percentage of commuters who travel to the District via public transit. In Arlington, 53 percent of D.C. commuters take public transit, while 36 percent drive alone and 8 percent carpool. Montgomery County was second, with 43 precent of D.C. commuters taking public transit. [WTOP]

Vihstadt Campaign Website Hacked? — County Board member John Vihstadt’s campaign website has apparently been hacked by online porn purveyors and its homepage now displays a profane message. That message is also visible when you search for “John Vihstadt” on Google. Vihstadt was elected to a four year term last November and won’t be up for reelection until 2018. [Twitter – NOT SAFE FOR WORK]

County Ranked Top 50 Event Destination — Arlington County has been ranked No. 36 on a list of the top 50 U.S. localities for meetings and events. The District ranked No. 6 and National Harbor ranked No. 35 on the list, from event software provider Cvent. The ranking “reflects Arlington’s appeal as a vibrant urban destination in the heart of the nation’s capital – one that offers the convenience of downtown D.C. with hotel rates averaging up to 20 percent less,” a county official said. [Arlington County]

Columbia Pike Parking Mishap — A car ran partially over an embankment in a shopping center parking lot at the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Dinwiddie Street on Sunday evening. [Twitter]

Pike Photography Book — “Living Diversity: The Columbia Pike Documentary Project,” has been published by the University of Virginia Press. The book “is the extraordinary result of a team of five insightful and highly skilled photographers and interviewers portraying the contemporary life of people and sites along the exceptionally ethnically-diverse and rapidly-changing Columbia Pike corridor.” The hardcover version is selling for $39.95 on Amazon. [Preservation Arlington]

Arlington Ranked No. 2 Best Place to Retire

By ARLnow.com

Published June 8, 2015 at 12:30PM

Arlington is the second best place to retire in the U.S., according to new rankings from Bankrate.com.

Arlington received kudos for low crime and above-average quality of health care, along with “great” resident well-being and area walkability. Taxes and weather were deemed “average” and the only negative mark on Arlington’s report card was a “very high” cost of living.

(Arlington was paired with Alexandria as a “city,” for the purposes of the rankings.)

The only place to best Arlington in the rankings was top-ranked Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona. New York City was ranked last, at No. 172, thanks in large part to a very high cost of living and tax burden.

Bankrate.com had the following to say about Arlington.

Typically associated with America’s most famous cemetery, retirees have more to do in Arlington than visit Civil War tombstones.

There are more than 100 miles of trails, bike lanes and routes throughout the city, so it’s not surprising that residents here embrace a healthy lifestyle and rank high on the wellness index.

Arlington has a low crime rate, and locals can get by without a car. Much of the city is walker-friendly, including areas like Crystal City, Rosslyn and Ballston. The city has ample public transportation, with a handful of metro stops in the area. Neighboring Alexandria is also friendly to walkers.

Virginia also has one of the better health care systems in the country. And when compared with the other states, Virginia’s tax rate is more favorable than the national average and falls below its higher-taxing neighbor, Washington, D.C.

Clarendon Named One of the 12 ‘Bro-iest’ Neighborhoods in U.S.

By ARLnow.com

Published May 4, 2015 at 3:30PM

The men’s lifestyle website Thrillist thinks Clarendon is chock full of bros.

Thrillist included Clarendon in its list of “America’s 12 Bro-iest Neighborhoods,” ranked No. 10.

Bros, defined by Urban Dictionary as “obnoxious partying males,” are supposedly attracted to Clarendon as a temporary place of residence right out of college.

From Thrillist:

So, you just graduated from Georgetown and got yourself a job where your boss isn’t also the guy sitting across from you at Thanksgiving dinner. Congrats. Now, where do you go to rock your Vineyard Vines, drink craft beer, and live with your college lacrosse teammate? Clarendon, of course, right across the river from DC in Virginia. It’s where all the fresh-outta-school bros show off the extra cash before moving to Manhattan work in finance and be closer to family in Connecticut.

Ranking higher than Arlington on Thrillist’s bro scale are neighborhoods like Murray Hill in New York City (No. 1), Uptown in Dallas (No. 2), Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, Calif. (No. 3), Wrigleyville in Chicago (No. 4) and Capitol Hill in Seattle (No. 5).

Photo via Facebook/Project DC Events