Dave Statter against the backdrop of a Wienermobile he caught on camera crossing multiple traffic lanes on I-395 (by ARLnow)
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.
Reagan National and Dulles International’s Digital Marketing Specialist Amanda Ohbayashi (courtesy of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority)
(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) When Amanda Ohbayashi creates a social media post for Reagan National Airport, she’s doing more than just sharing information.
Her goal as DCA’s sole social media curator is to create content on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram that makes people stop and engage with what they are watching or reading.
And while these posts are designed to be fun, Ohbayashi points out that they also play a crucial role in educating travelers.
“We have fun sometimes, certainly, but also because of the engagement that these fun posts get, it lifts up our posts that really need to be seen because there is a major incident,” Ohbayashi told ARLnow. “That algorithm has already helped us out. So it really goes hand in hand.”
Take, for example, a meme DCA posted this summer about accidentally going to DCA when a flight is out of Dulles. The post struck a chord with with social media users, garnering some 54,000 likes on Instagram and around 75,000 views on X — thousands more interactions than either account usually sees.
Just your friendly reminder to please double and triple check which airport you’re flying out of.
While the meme is intended to be witty and entertaining, it also serves the practical purpose of reminding flyers to double-check their departure airport, says Ohbayashi.
“People thought that was so funny, and it related to a real problem that we have,” she said.
Even before she came on board with DCA’s three-person digital media team in 2018, Ohbayashi, who also co-hosts the airport’s podcast “The Capital Runway,” says she noticed a lot of airports around the country were leaning into humor to help lighten the stress of travel.
But everything really shifted gears when the pandemic hit.
“I would say a lot of the memes started probably during the pandemic… we had to fill some space. We wanted to keep things light-hearted and keep people interested even though they weren’t traveling,” Ohbayashi said.
Although humorous and carefree posts are great for increasing engagement, Ohbayashi also has a strategy for alternating between whimsical and serious content.
“We definitely want to maintain that balance because there are important messages that need to go out, whether it’s traffic incidents or runway updates or weather alerts,” she said.
When she has to post about something like snow, Ohbayashi says she still aims to soften the blow of the bad news with a positive spin.
“We do try to sprinkle in some fun content with snow team and featuring what they’re doing because they don’t really get featured that often,” she said.
Ohbayashi recognizes the goal of DCA’s social media is to provide essential information to travelers but, especially around the holidays, she views her posts as a way to remind travelers to stay positive.
“I always try to remind people to be kind because we’re all trying to get somewhere, and people are stressed in the airport,” she said. “The people who are working in the airport are also stressed, so just be kind, and we’ll get there, and it’ll be okay.”
The ThoughtExchange platform Arlington Public Schools has debuted (via APS)
Arlington Public Schools has a new internal social media platform for families but its anonymous commenting policy prompted a tense discussion among some School Board members.
This year, the school system launched ThoughtExchange, which allows people to comment on topics or proposals administrators bring to the community for public comment. Users can also rank the comments others make 1-5 stars.
ThoughtExchange is intended to be a simpler and faster alternative to answering surveys and writing emails. APS has used it to gauge reception of its proposed school calendar and its plans to turn Nottingham Elementary School into a “swing space” and relocate the Spanish immersion program from Gunston to Kenmore Middle School.
“The goal of ThoughtExchange was for us to get more comprehensive feedback from our community,” APS Director of Strategic Outreach Daryl Johnson said in a work session last week. “One of the biggest requests that we continually receive from the community is transparency, and so people are actually able to see the thoughts of others in real time.”
But the platform’s anonymous commenting function raised red flags for School Board member Reid Goldstein.
“In the 10 or 15 years that social media has been around, I have yet to hear anybody, worldwide, say, ‘Boy, this social media is the greatest thing since sliced bread,'” Goldstein said. “I’m curious as to what thought we were going to achieve by creating another social media conduit and allowing commenters to sign up anonymously.”
Johnson said APS allows anonymous feedback so people speak up without worrying their opinions will blow back in their face at, for instance, the next Parent-Teacher Association meeting.
“So yes, sometimes it may go to the other end of the spectrum where it allows someone to say something that may not be the most favorable or the most constructive feedback, but however, it allows people to actually give that honest feedback without the retaliation,” he said.
Goldstein asked Johnson if staff expect “unfavorable” comments to increase, how much time they devote to content moderation and whether the communications team will request a future full-time moderator position.
Johnson noted that staff spend significant time moderating comments and responding to those “spreading misinformation.” He said a full-time moderator is unnecessary because ThoughtExchange uses AI to flag words and notify staff and participants can also report comments.
“We also are able to comment and respond to what people are saying,” he said.
Responding to Goldstein, School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres said anonymous negative comments already exist on other platforms and, with ThoughtExchange, APS at least can moderate.
“These are comments that were happening already in different venues. If you’ve seen an ARLnow comment, if you’ve seen DC Urban Moms and Dads, Arlington Education Matters, these comments have been happening,” she said.
“The reality is that these comments were being made,” she continued. “A lot of these comments are incredibly disrespectful and are incredibly unkind and are incredibly inappropriate, however, here is an area where we can in fact do that moderation, using the tools that Mr. Johnson just mentioned.”
Goldstein agreed these comments have always existed but stressed with the new platform, “we are giving a platform to them and rewarding bad behavior that we have historically…”
“We’re not, though, if we’re taking them away,” Diaz-Torres interjected.
“…historically spent too much time [rewarding],” Goldstein continued, reprising his comment.
Diaz-Torres, who added that she appreciates the ability to rank comments, concluded the discussion with a message to the community “to be kind.”
“This is a new piece of software. And yes, you can be a keyboard warrior to your heart’s content, behind your keyboard, in the privacy of your own home, but remember, that there are humans on the receiving end of this,” she said.
Posters @ARLINGTONAF submitted to the Arlington County Fair, including the award-winning ARLnow poster (courtesy photo)
Posters @ARLINGTONAF submitted to the Arlington County Fair (courtesy photo)
Posters @ARLINGTONAF submitted to the Arlington County Fair (courtesy photo)
A poster poking fun at the ARLnow commentariat won an award at the Arlington County Fair last week.
In white, upper case letters on a purple background, it reads, “You’ll see me in hell before you’ll see me in the ARLnow comments.”
ARLnow caught up with the creator ribbing the denizens of the comment section — who can be helpful, amusing and pugnacious, all in the course of a Monday morning — and he said the poster is a friendly jab.
“It’s true I don’t play pickleball but I do read ARLnow (subscribe actually) and I got nothing but love for the commenters,” he said.
The creator is also behind the volley of pro-pickleball posters in Penrose earlier this year: @ARLINGTONAF, who can be found on the platform X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as well as Threads. His posters likening pickleball to the Cold War popped up all around Columbia Pike earlier this year.
The account owner, who goes by Mac, says fair attendees who stopped by his art display got a kick out of the poster.
“Lots of people stopped and laughed and took their phones out for that one,” he told ARLnow, adding that he liked seeing it resonate with people.
For @ARLINGTONAF, the joke comes from a good place. It inhabits the simultaneously sarcastic and genuine Arlington subculture — also seen in the ARLnow comment section — that can rib and lionize civic leaders and find the humor in debates over pickleball, gondolas, housing and bicycle trails.
“It’s like the Jay Fisette trail: if you have to have the joke explained, then obviously you didn’t get it,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure everybody in the ARLnow comments gets ‘their’ joke.”
For the uninitiated, the words “Jay Fisette Memorial Trail” were found spray-painted onto a dirt “desire path” on the east side of N. Carlin Springs Road, north of 1st Street N. In 2015, the majority of Arlington County Board members, including avid cyclist Fisette, voted against a proposal to pave what which Fisette then called a “cow path.”
Mac, who documents his bicycle rides through Arlington on social media, says he submitted several “random” posters he made but never hung. This includes a stylized portrait of former Board member Katie Cristol, with the caption, “Here for the housing, not the convention,” a nod to her focus on increasing housing, including Missing Middle-type dwellings.
A few months ago, he was asked to frame the ARLnow poster for an interested buyer. He did — using garbage he found on the Pike — but the buyer never came through. This ended up being a stroke of luck for the poster pundit.
“I got hit by a car a few weeks ago and didn’t actually get to make any art this year, but wanted to enter something,” he said, noting he is feeling better after the crash.
While the poster received a ribbon, Mac demurred from too much recognition, saying most of his submitted work has been recognized one way or another.
“This year, I just went with my own Arlington theme,” he said.
Skiff featured Courthouse’s Brooklyn Bagel Company as well as adult sport league Volo in recent TikToks (courtesy of @margaretskiff on TikTok)
While many TikTokers share their perfect days in D.C., one recent grad has found a recipe for social media success by sticking closer to her home in Arlington.
Since graduating from Roanoke College and moving to Arlington in 2020, Maine native Margaret Skiff has accumulated more than 60,000 followers for videos inspired by this life transition, including tips on budgeting and relocating to the D.C. area.
While her account was originally geared towards caring for houseplants, Skiff found herself wanting to share more general lifestyle content. At first, she struggled with whether to lean into being across the river from D.C.
“I felt a lot of pressure at first to brand myself as a D.C. influencer because, you know, closest major city. Everyone’s like, ‘This is a day in my life in D.C.,’ and I had just seen that and I felt like that’s what resonated with people,” Skiff told ARLnow. “But I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t live in D.C. I live in Arlington. And there are plenty of people that live on this side of the river that will also relate to my content.’”
As she posted more Arlington-centric day-in-the-life videos, she watched her following, particularly among Northern Virginians, grow.
“It was very slow going at first, I was kind of just posting whatever, and then I had a couple of videos that started to do really well,” Skiff said. “Within six months I gained over 30,000 followers, and then it’s kind of been steady growth ever since.”
On her TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pages, Skiff now shares a mix of daily video blogs, budget breakdowns and fashion ideas on top of the ups and downs of working a 9-5 job in corporate America. Her TikTok page has more than 4.5 million likes, owing to her honesty about her life and work.
When it comes to Arlington-specific lifestyle tips, the local social media content creator says she typically keeps to Clarendon, Courthouse and Ballston. She enjoys Spider Kelly’s for a late-night spot, Maison Cheryl for an upscale dinner, and the Brass Rabbit for happy hour. In addition, her videos regularly feature local farmers markets and other popular spots like Brooklyn Bagel Bakery.
While not all of her followers are from Arlington, she does share tips for making friends and getting involved.
“There are so many cool and fun ways to make friends in D.C., especially right out of college,” Skiff said in a TikTok posted in July where she discusses social adult sport leagues in the area.
Skiff tells ARLnow the key to success is posting things that her audience will find relatable, whether that is lighter fare — such as finding the perfect dress for a summer wedding — or more serious topics, including mental health.
“Sometimes, you know, not everyone’s going to like everything that you post, but I try to be conscious of how other people are going to feel about it,” Skiff said.
The then newly-renovated Wendy’s open on Columbia Pike in 2019 (staff photo)
An ARLnow tweet that went viral locally on Friday has quite the twist ending.
The post, on the social network now known as X, went out shortly before 2 p.m., following an unusual Arlington police dispatch.
The report: two people were apparently having sex in the bathroom of the Wendy’s at 3431 Columbia Pike, and the restaurant wanted them to be banned from the premises.
Our tweet quickly became fodder for jokes as dozens of replies and quote tweets starting flooding in.
In addition to the humorous responses, there was also some earnest discussion of the issue of people fornicating in restaurant bathrooms, which turns out to not be that unusual.
According to someone with knowledge of the police response, officers did not find a copulating couple in the bathroom, but instead found just one person engaged in an altogether different activity.
“The Wendy’s bathroom sex call turned out to just be a solo individual having a very relieving No. 2,” the person said.
A local startup is providing younger generations with a new way to understand banking and finances.
Wellthi is a software tool that grants financial advice on a social media-like platform. It can be used through its independent app that is available to download, or within mobile apps of participating banks.
“Think of it as a Facebook or LinkedIn within a mobile banking app,” founder and CEO Fonta Gilliam said. “We are helping banks rethink their mobile banking experience.”
Fonta Gilliam and Nneka Ukpai of Wellthi (via Wellthi)
The company, initially named Invest Sou Sou, officially launched in 2021. Since then, it has formed partnerships with Mastercard, Discover Card, Galileo Financial Technologies and IDology. Citizens Bank recently became the first banking partner to launch with Wellthi, Gilliam said.
She aims to bridge the gap between the financial services banks provide and the places younger generations turn for finance tips: social media.
“We found that a lot of banks don’t know how to talk to millennials and Gen Z. 80% of us get our financial advice not from our branch managers or a financial advisor but from places like Reddit, TikTok and Facebook,” Gilliam said. “Wellthi gives users an experience that feels like say Reddit or TikTok but in a space where users can talk to certified financial advisors versus random influencers on social media.”
She hinted at a few other undisclosed partnerships with banks.
The VPP funding follows on a seed funding round in December worth $2.1 million, Washington Business Journal reported. Gilliam says she moved her startup from D.C. to Arlington to take advantage of the various types of support available for startups, as well as the county’s hub of tech companies.
“Arlington had incredible incentives. I was looking for a [place] that could provide venture capital for early-stage companies like mine,” Gilliam said. “I was excited about the growth happening right now in Northern Virginia from Amazon’s HQ2 to the welcoming business feel the area gives.”
She says she hopes that this proximity will turn into more interest from local consumers and small businesses in the near future.
Chris Farley (center) of Pacers recording his Pace the Nation podcast (file photo)
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.
It used to be that we could just post article links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts and call it a day.
But each social network has been leaking users and reducing the organic reach of news publishers, so in order to connect with readers where they are we’ve been upping our game.
Two recent initiatives include a push to get email newsletter signups, to cut out the middleman between readers and our local news stories, and posting our top stories on Instagram.
As of today, something new: we’re going to be publishing business- and economic policy-related local news stories on our new ARLnow LinkedIn page.
Just click “Follow” on the page to get our links in your LinkedIn feed.
One thing we know for sure is all that drama caused interest in the open-source social network Mastodon to spike. Many who have tried out the network have not stuck around, and there’s skepticism about whether any new Twitter-like network will be able to supplant the original, but nonetheless some recent developments point to potential staying power for Mastodon.
That makes it feasible for us to launch ARLnow Mastodon presence and start publishing links to stories. But… would it be worthwhile? Is there a critical mass of Arlingtonians hanging out on Mastodon?
The free Afternoon Update newsletter goes out at 4 p.m. every day we publish and has all of the day’s articles, plus the Morning Notes and more.
(A special early morning newsletter, with a preview of the Morning Notes and the stories we’re covering that day, is also available but only to ARLnow Press Club members.)
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