television

Comcast Going All-Digital In Arlington, Will Add HD Channels

By ARLnow.com

Starting next month, Comcast will be expanding its HD channel selection in Arlington as it transitions to all-digital cable service.

Comcast recently mailed informational material to customers regarding the changes, and earlier notified the county’s Cable Television Policy and Administration office of its plans.

Starting on or about March 3, Comcast will stop transmitting most basic cable channels in analog. Instead, anybody who currently watches cable TV without using a set-top box or a CableCARD device (like TiVo) will need to get a digital adapter to see the channels. Comcast is offering up to two digital adapters free of charge, with each additional adapter priced at $1.99 per month.

The switch from analog will free up space for new HD channels. Comcast will offer about 50 new HD channels to Arlington customers, most of which will be included in the Digital Starter cable package. Many of the new channels will be rolled out on March 15, with a few other channels set to come on-line on April 12.

Comcast is in the midst of a nationwide transition to all-digital and Arlington is just the latest area to get the service, which the company has alternately dubbed “Xfinity” and “The World of More.”

Last month, an ARLnow.com poll of nearly 800 people indicated that many local residents are unhappy with the quality of Comcast’s service.

Robert Billingsley, Cable Administrator for Arlington County, said that anyone who has unresolved complaints about their cable service can instead contact his office at 703-228-3242. He said his office gets about 15 complaints about Comcast per month, compared to 7 to 8 complaints per month about Verizon FiOS.

See a list of the new HD channels, after the jump.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Water Woes Continue in Ft. Myer Heights — Some Ft. Myer Heights residents were without water last night as crews worked to repair a persistent water main leak. Workers installed some temporary piping as they worked deep below the surface to repair the leak. [Ode Street Tribune]

Libraries Will Offer Self-Checkout — As part of a host of changes set to take place next week, Arlington Public Libraries will now be offering self-checkout at its Aurora Hills, Cherrydale, Columbia Pike and Glencarlyn branches. [Library Blog]

Artisphere Restaurant Name Contest Begins — Do you have a creative idea for the name of the new restaurant in Artisphere? If so, submit it online for a chance to win prizes. The arts center is letting the public decide the name of the restaurant, which is tentatively expected to open next month. [Artisphere / Washington Post]

Artisphere Appears on TLC Reality Show — The task of creating large, elaborate balloon sculptures (WARNING: link contains NSFW material) for the opening of Artisphere in October was the subject of an episode of the TLC reality series ‘The Unpoppables,’ which aired Monday night. [TLC]

TV Discussion of HOT Lanes Gets Heated

By ARLnow.com

In case you missed it from Friday (we did), County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman was a guest on TBD’s NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt program.

The topic of conversation was the failed plan to build HOT lanes on I-395, and Arlington’s lawsuit against the plan. Joining Zimmerman were two big critics of Arlington’s lawsuit: Bob Chase of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity.

Chase and Herrity took turns bashing Arlington’s HOT lanes lawsuit. At one point, Herrity mocked what he described as “claims of racism from probably one of the whitest and richest counties in the area.”

(Zimmerman disputed that the lawsuit claimed racism — instead, he said the case focused on “environmental justice” provisions in the law.)

Things got a bit heated about six minutes into the video above, when Zimmerman and Chase started arguing about details of the suit.

“Bob, Bob, you’re just not telling the truth now… now you’re just making stuff up,” an exasperated Zimmerman said to address one of Chase’s allegations.

“You didn’t see anybody rushing to trial with this thing,” Zimmerman concluded. “We think we had a pretty strong case, I suspect the other side thinks we had a pretty strong case.”

TBD has more about the discussion here.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Arlington Docs Take Money from Drug Companies –– Big pharmaceutical companies have paid tens of thousands of dollars to Arlington doctors over the past two years, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest, according to the Arlington Connection. One doctor who talked to the paper had received more than $63,000 from one drug company over the past two years.

Arlington Eateries on TV — Metro 29 Diner (4711 Lee Highway) was featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives program last night, as Twitter user Joe L. pointed out. Meanwhile, MTV was seen filming a segment for the documentary “True Life: I’m Allergic to Everything” at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington last week, according to Shirlington Village Blogspot.

Iota’s Breakfast Not Catching On, Yet — It’s too bad nobody knows that Iota Club & Cafe in Clarendon (2832 Wilson Blvd) now serves breakfast, says a reader. “Iota in Clarendon has just started serving espresso coffee, pastries, and full breakfast starting at 6:30am. Free wifi too. I just went and the coffee’s good and the place is empty,” Patricia said yesterday via email. Previously: We Love DC.

Flickr pool photo by Philliefan99

Moran Facing Criticism For Remarks to Arab TV Channel

By ARLnow.com

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) is once again facing scrutiny for something he said.

Moran told Alhurra, U.S. government-sponsored Arab TV network, that Democrats suffered in the 2010 elections because many Americans don’t want a black president.

“In this case a lot of people in this country, I believe, don’t want to be governed by an African American, particularly one who is inclusive, who is liberal, who wants to spend money on everyone and who wants to reach out to include everyone in our society,” Moran told an interviewer, as reported by the Washington Post.

Moran also made reference to “slaveholding states,” which would include his home state of Virginia.

Moran, of course, has a long history of sparking controversy with off-handed remarks. He faced criticism during his reelection campaign this fall when he said that Republican challenger, retired Army Colonel Patrick Murray, has not “served or performed… any kind of public service.”

Verizon and Comcast Reps Respond to Poll

By ARLnow.com

One thing Comcast and Verizon certainly excel at it knowing when people are writing about them on the internet.

In a poll we conducted yesterday, nearly three quarters of respondents rated their overall experience with Comcast “poor” or “very, very bad.” The comments section generally reflected the same sentiment.

In the article that accompanied the poll, we also mentioned Verizon’s FiOS service, saying that it helps protect consumers by giving them a viable alternative to cable.

Within just a few hours of the article being published, representatives from both Comcast and Verizon called and emailed us and left notes in the comments section.

Comcast, to their credit, was solely concerned with looking into the frustrating personal experiences with customer service that were mentioned in the article and in the comments. Kudos to them for that.

Verizon, unsurprisingly, appreciated our words of support for the continued expansion of FiOS service into local apartment and condo buildings.

Local Verizon sales manager Mark Harrington said he personally agreed that “any service provider, including Verizon, has been shown to be more responsive where there is the real option of being fired by our customers.” He shared the following information and advice for anyone who would like to get FiOS service in their community.

We’re trying to get to as much of Arlington as quickly as we can with our Verizon FiOS service. If you live in a condo or apartment building… I generally advise residents to make their voices heard with their board or property manager and have those people contact us.

We’ve reached out to every property we can and have successfully built out many at Verizon’s expense, but with others we have not yet, either because the owners have not yet granted permission, we haven’t been able to contact them, or in some cases we are still working on the fiber build to reach a few areas of Arlington.

Our website with more information for property owners is here…

http://communities.verizon.com/default.aspx?page=ownmulti

Morning Poll: Rate Your Experience With Comcast

By Scott Brodbeck

Last night I had my most horrid Comcast customer service experience to date, and that’s really saying something. I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say that it was an hour and a half of my all-too-rare free time that I’m not getting back.

It’s not so much that the Comcast customer service agents themselves are that bad, it’s just that the customer service system in which they operate seems to be designed with the sole purpose of minimizing cost at the expense of producing meaningful solutions to customers’ problems and complaints.

Comcast has a partial monopoly in Arlington. Sure, Verizon FiOS and satellite TV are available to single family homes and certain apartment buildings and condos. But for many apartment and condo-dwellers, Comcast is the only game in town. The only option for those folks in the event of an unresolved grievance is to either grin and bear it, cancel service and forgo cable and/or internet altogether, or complain to the county’s cable administration office and hope for the best.

Competition is a customer’s best friend — a point of leverage in disputes. With any luck, FiOS will continue making inroads and internet-based TV will continue evolving into a viable alternative. Until that time, however, Comcast will continue to exasperate and frustrate those for whom going without internet or cable television service is not an option.

Rate your Comcast experience below, and feel free to vent in the comments. Who knows, maybe someone in a regulatory position will be listening.


Bachelor Contestant from Arlington Booted Off First Show

By ARLnow.com

The Bachelor is back for yet another season, and this time around one of the contestants lives in Arlington.

Well, at least that’s what the on-screen graphic said during last night’s premiere. We didn’t really get to know Lauren, the 26-year-old high school teacher, because we really didn’t hear much from her. The most screen time she got was at the end, when she failed to get a rose from bachelor Brad Womack.

“This was a leap of faith that I made that didn’t work out for me, and that pisses me off,” Lauren told the camera. “He missed out on a really great woman who’s going to be an amazing wife, an amazing mother, who has — I think — a fantastic personality. So it’s his loss, obviously.”

Lauren’s official ABC biography reveals what bachelor Brad is missing out on. Lauren says she likes Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift and the Dave Matthews Band. She has no tattoos and her favorite holiday is Halloween. She owns a toy poodle named Gabby, and she’s a big fan of the history of Henry VIII and the Elizabethan era.

Arlington bachelors, care to share your thoughts?

Photo via ABC/Hulu

TBD & Politico Operations Expanding in Rosslyn

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) It’s rare to find a news organization that’s actively hiring these days, let alone one that’s expanding physically. But that’s exactly what Allbritton Communications is seeking to do in Rosslyn.

Allbritton’s landlord has applied for a site plan amendment to convert space that was originally intended to be a television studio into work space for the web divisions of its WJLA-TV and Politico properties. The nearly 6,000 square foot space is a former retail bay in the interior mall of the 1000/1100 Wilson Boulevard office complex.

Citing the “evolution of the broadcast television industry into a web-based online media,” Allbritton will take what the board initially approved in July 2008 to be a new TV studio for WJLA and convert it into cubicles and offices for web employees. County staff is recommending the board approve the change at its Saturday, Dec. 11 meeting.

The renovations will help facilitate the on-going addition of nearly 100 employees for TBD, the web and cable division of WJLA, and Politico Pro, a new subscription service that’s being launched early next year, according Saul Carlin, Allbritton’s Director of Special Projects.

TBD currently has 24 web employees and approximately 12 cable employees. Politico Pro is expected to launch with a staff of 40. According to TBD Editor Erik Wemple, the web site is in the process of hiring three new employees — a news writer, a D.C. neighborhoods reporter, and a transit/transportation reporter.

That accounts for not quite 80 of the 100 stated new hires. Additional hirings at TBD are “possible,” Wemple said.

In the site plan filing, Allbritton said the new hires should boost the company’s Rosslyn workforce by about 25 percent, from 400 employees to 500 employees.

“If approved, the change would help us to keep our growing Arlington operations under one roof,” said Carlin. “In this difficult economy, we’re pleased that we can be an engine of job creation in Arlington County.”

“The proximity to the federal government creates opportunities for news organizations in the Washington, D.C. media market that might not be available to them elsewhere,” Carlin added.

Flickr pool photo by BrianMKA

Arlington Church to be Featured on Dateline NBC

By ARLnow.com

A crew from Dateline NBC will be filming the evening mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in South Arlington on Saturday. The church is being featured for its upcoming humanitarian mission to Haiti.

A delegation of parishioners and Remote Area Medical volunteers will be leaving for a two-week trip to Medor, Haiti on Sunday. Together, the group will conduct a medical clinic for the cholera-ravaged town of 40,000. They will also repair roads and build an airstrip to allow air ambulances to deliver critical supplies.

“Medor has no running water, no sewage or trash disposal, impassable roads and inadequate agriculture,” the church said in a press release. “Like the rest of Haiti, the village has been devastated by a succession of hurricanes, earthquakes and now the deadly cholera epidemic this year.”

The earthquake and aftershocks that reduced Port au Prince to rubble earlier this year also damaged schools, medical clinics and churches in Medor. It also resulted in an influx of refugees to the area.

Our Lady Queen of Peace, located in Arlington’s Green Valley neighborhood, has supported missions in Medor since 1997.

The Dateline special is set to air on or around Jan. 12, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake.

Barcroft to ACFD: No More Made-For-TV House Burnings

By ARLnow.com

Neighbors aren’t too pleased with the made-for-TV house fire set by firefighters in Barcroft last month.

Last night the Barcroft School and Civic League passed the following resolution, asking Arlington County to rescind its policy of allowing the fire department to perform controlled burns in residential neighborhoods.

Resolution

Whereas the Arlington County Fire Department burned a house in Barcroft on S. 8th Street on October 19, 2010, producing billowing clouds of thick black smoke and leaving the building a charred hulk that is still giving off fumes; and

Whereas the notification to the immediate neighbors was received at 5pm on the previous day, and the telephone number given for questions was not answered, indicating that the Fire Department had decided not to consider any citizen concerns about the burning and giving insufficient notice for parents to make arrangements for moving their children for the day or for pregnant women to arrange to move elsewhere; and

Whereas there was no notification at all to the neighborhood at large; and

Whereas similar burnings have provoked protests in other neighborhoods; and

Whereas the burning of a typical older Arlington house produces toxic fumes from lead paint and other materials and in most cases releases asbestos fibers; and

Whereas in an era of concern about toxic substances and their effect on air quality the intentional burning of a home in a neighborhood is clearly an anachronism;

Now therefore the Barcroft School and Civic League recommends to Arlington County that the policy of permitting the Fire Department to burn homes in residential neighborhoods be recinded.

Adopted this 4th of November, 2010 by the Barcroft School and Civic League.

Bryant Monroe

President

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