A rare albino squirrel may be living near Yorktown High School.
A local teen sent ARLnow photos of the squirrel, above, taken in the Yorktown neighborhood. The critter has noticeably red eyes, a characteristic of albino squirrels.
Another photo of the squirrel, taken in Greenbrier Park near the high school, was posted earlier this month to the Capital Naturalist Facebook group.
The last white squirrel spotted in Arlington and reported on by ARLnow was back in 2016 near Columbia Pike.
Albino squirrels in particular are exceptionally rare — about 1 in every 100,000 gray squirrel births, according to a post on the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources website.
“There are two basic types of white squirrels: albino and leucistic. Albinos have pink or blue eyes and no dark pigments anywhere on their bodies,” the post notes. “Squirrels that have white coats and dark eyes are called leucistic.”
“The scarcity of albino squirrels is thought to be at least partially linked to the animal’s lack of any dark eye pigment: This leaves them more susceptible to the harmful effects of sun rays, which can permanently damage their eyes,” the post adds. “In turn, their poor eyesight makes them more likely to suffer injury and death by falling out of trees.”
Alonso Abugattas, Natural Resources Manager for Arlington County and the administrator of the Capital Naturalist group, said there have also been reports of white squirrels in neighboring jurisdictions like McLean and D.C. — on the National Mall — over the past few months.
“Most of these are white squirrels, but not albinos,” Abugattas told ARLnow. “Albinos due to a lack of pigment have pink eyes [and] are indeed very rare as this affects their sight.”
The event commemorates Jennifer Bush-Lawson, an Arlington resident who was struck and killed in 2014 by a dump truck while placing her child into a minivan near Nottingham Elementary. More pedestrian fatalities have since occurred on the same stretch of Little Falls Road, though new safety measures were installed earlier this year.
The race, first held in 2015, kicks off at 9 a.m. at the Knights of Columbus (5115 Little Falls Road). Those who want to support the cause without running in the cold can participate in a “Family Fun Day” festival, featuring a beer garden, a children’s fun run, moon bounces, laser tag, a rock wall, balloon animals, face painting and live performances.
The registration fee for the race is $40, which includes a T-shirt, or $35 for those opting out of the shirt. Participants can also choose to donate without participating in the race.
Festival-only tickets are priced at $25, granting access to all activities excluding the 5K. A combined ticket for both the race and festival is available for $50.
Proceeds support the Jennifer Bush-Lawson Foundation, founded in 2015 by Jennifer’s husband, Neal Lawson, to provide women in need and their babies with maternal and infant care.
“This event carries on the legacy of Jenn Lawson, a dedicated mom and runner who was passionate about making available to all mothers the same level of care she received for her own complicated pregnancies,” the event page says.
In line with previous years, the Arlington County Police Department has announced several road closures for the duration of the event.
The following roadways will be closed from approximately 8:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. to accommodate the event:
Yorktown Boulevard, from Little Falls Road/N. Greenbrier Street to N. Kensington Street
Little Falls Road, from N. Edison Street to Yorktown Boulevard and from Yorktown Boulevard/N. Kensington Street to N. Ohio Street
N. Lexington Street, from Yorktown Boulevard to 27th Street N.
27th Road N., from the dead end to N. Lexington Street
27th Street N., from N. Lexington Street to N. Ohio Street
John Marshall Drive at 27th Street N.
N. Ohio Street, from 27th Street N. to Little Falls Road
When safe to do so, residents of the affected areas will be escorted through the road closures, as necessary, to minimize the impact on the community. All roadways are expected to reopen at 10:30 a.m. Community members are asked to park vehicles in driveways to reduce the congestion on the course and to allow for standard traffic conditions to return as quickly as possible.
(Updated at 5:15 p.m.) Several blocks of N. Harrison Street are blocked in the Yorktown neighborhood due to an unusual crash.
A Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV ended up on top of an Acura TL sedan as the result of a crash in front of Chestnut Hills Park, a popular popular children’s playground.
No injuries have been reported and everyone was able to get out of the vehicles before police and firefighters arrived, according to scanner traffic.
A passenger in the car told ARLnow that the crash happened as the SUV driver was making a U-turn and ended up colliding with the Acura, which was occupied by several members of Yorktown High School’s golf team. The driver’s side of the Jeep came to rest on top of the Acura’s hood.
As of 5:15 p.m. the roadway was back open.
LOCATION: 2800-blk N. Harrison St INCIDENT: Traffic Collision IMPACT: Due to police and fire activity, please avoid the area and seek alternate routes. pic.twitter.com/h8O5BE5TTY
(Updated at 1/2/24) The new Crumbl Cookies coming to Lee Harrison Shopping Center hopes to be fully baked by Spring 2024.
The franchised cookie bakery is moving into the former Starbucks space at 2441 N. Harrison Street, next to the Wild Birds Unlimited store. The coffee shop closed in 2019.
The cookie shop is scheduled to open sometime between February and March of this year, Crumbl’s PR team told ARLnow.
It was first reported in June 2022 that Crumbl was making its way to Arlington, joining a cadre of cookie shops across Northern Virginia owned by Paukstys and his team. That includes bakeries in Falls Church, Reston, and Vienna.
But this location stands out because several of the owners grew up within a few minutes walk of where the new Crumbl is going.
“We are primarily a women-owned company. My wife grew up in Arlington and her aunt’s house, who also is a [co-owner], lived just down the street,” Paukstys said.
The Arlington territory initially was claimed by a different franchisee, but Paukstys picked it up to be part of their group of stores in large part due to the local connection.
Crumbl Cookies is known for its elaborate designs and flavors. It has a rotating weekly menu of options like S’more, Buttermilk Pancake, Orange Creamsicle, and Snickerdoodle Cupcake.
The cookie menu in Arlington is expected to be the same as the other regional locations.
Paukstys says he is still looking to hire as the store ramps up to open in a few months. There is also a possibility, he said, of more bakeries opening in Arlington.
The Lee Harrison Shopping Center, in the Yorktown neighborhood, has seen some changes in recent months. A Loyal Companion store, which closed after the pet store chain filed for bankruptcy, has been converted to a Wag N’ Wash. A new Thai restaurant, meanwhile, opened in the former Ghin Na Ree Thai space, after the family that owned the eatery decided to retire.
(Updated at 1:30 p.m.) A driver was pulled from their overturned vehicle after reportedly running into a gas pump.
The unusual incident happened shortly before 11 a.m. at the Sunoco station at 5501 Langston Blvd, across from the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center. Employees hit the emergency gas shut off after the crash, per scanner traffic.
The driver, an elderly woman, was extricated from the Chrysler coupe by firefighters after they stabilized the vehicle. She and a second vehicle occupant were transported to a local hospital via ambulance with unspecified injuries.
“At approx. 10:54am the Arlington County Fire Department was dispatched for a report of a single vehicle crash in the 5500 block of Langston Blvd,” Capt. Nate Hiner told ARLnow. “Crews arrived on scene and found a single vehicle crash with 1 occupant trapped inside. The vehicle was stabilized and the individual was extricated. Two adults were transported from the scene with non-life threatening injuries.”
There were no reports of the crash sparking a fire nor causing a significant fuel spill.
A vehicle overturned in the garage of a single-family home in the Yorktown neighborhood this afternoon.
The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of Old Dominion Drive and 29th Street N., across from Washington Golf and Country Club.
It’s unclear how exactly the vehicle overturned. A large contingent of firefighters worked to stabilize the vehicle and rescue a woman who was reported to be trapped inside.
The victim was transported via ambulance to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.
A new Thai restaurant has opened in the space formerly occupied by Ghin Na Ree Thai at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center.
Khun Yai Thai opened last week at 2509 N. Harrison Street, next to Duck Donuts. It’s taking the place of Ghin Na Ree Thai, which announced last month it was closing after more than two decades and being sold to another family.
“Arlington is a special place with a great community, we knew we wanted to be part of,” a Khun Yai Thai rep wrote ARLnow in an email. “After meeting the family of Ghin Na Ree, they were very open and accommodating. It felt right, as they wanted to transition into retirement.”
The changeover from one restaurant to the next took less than a month.
The owners of Khun Yai Thai are local veterans in the restaurant business, having previously owned eateries in Tysons, Rehoboth Beach, and Falls Church.
Khun Yai Thai means “Thai grandma,” per the owners. The restaurant is owned by three sisters, including at least two who are grandmothers.
“[The name] signifies the journey of the family that immigrated to the US over 40 years ago, achieved the American dream of opening a business, and now continuing to pursue the American dream generations later,” the restaurant rep wrote. “Thai grandma is someone who wants to share their story and heart through their recipes. At Khun Yai Thai, we want to achieve a sense of comfort, like dining with family.”
The menu is traditional Thai, with dishes like panang curry, kao pad, pad gra pow, tom kha gai soup, and pad thai. All are family recipes, we’re told.
The new restaurant owners have some big shoes to fill given that Ghin Na Ree Thai was generally well reviewed during its more than two decades in business.
More Arlington residents woke up this morning to find their car windows shattered by an unknown vandal or group of vandals who had previously damaged nearly three dozen vehicles in a week-long smashing spree.
ARLnow has received reports of freshly smashed car windows in the Westover and Yorktown neighborhoods and in Ballston, near Washington-Liberty High School. That follows reports of damaged cars yesterday in parts of Clarendon, Lyon Village, Virginia Square, Courthouse and Glencarlyn.
We are awaiting additional details from Arlington County police, but a crime report just posted online says 54 vehicles were damaged by a BB gun between Tuesday evening and Thursday morning.
From ACPD:
DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY (Series), Between the evening of October 25 and early morning of October 27, an unknown suspect damaged the windows of approximately 54 vehicles with a bb gun. Detectives are investigating this as a series with the previously reported destruction of property series. Community members in these areas are asked to review their home surveillance for any footage that may assist the investigation. Information can be reported to the Arlington County Police Department’s Tip Line at 703-228-4180 or [email protected]. The investigation is ongoing.
The vast majority of the damaged vehicles listed by police were parked in various parts of northern Arlington.
Yesterday police confirmed 10 damaged vehicles; the latest report adds 44 vehicles to the two-day total. Combined with the vandalism spree late last week, ACPD has received reports of more than 80 cars with shattered windows over the past seven days.
“Since October 21, there have been 81 vehicles reported to have damaged windows,” ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage tells ARLnow. “It’s important to note that since some of these reports are filed online and the reporting party does not always note if the damage appears to be from a BB gun, some of these reports may ultimately be determined not to be part of the series.”
Ghin Na Ree Thai is currently closed at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center, having been sold to a “new family.”
The two-decade-old Thai food restaurant near the Yorktown neighborhood shut down within the past few days, with both its website and phone message announcing its closure.
“Thank you for 21 years of great food! Ghin Na Ree has been sold to a new family and will reopen under another name in the future,” reads the restaurant’s website.
Ownership began telling regulars of the impending closure several weeks ago, saying in a note that “our parents are retiring and we’ve made the decision to sell the restaurant.”
The note also says that a “wonderful Thai family will be taking over in the next few weeks” while asking customers to “please continue to support this restaurant.”
The best Thai restaurant in Arlington for decades, Ghin Na Ree Thai has been sold ☹️ super happy they have sold it to another Thai family – here’s to the next family hopefully carrying on the Samla Family tradition of deliciousness! pic.twitter.com/zXWBKy12g5
ARLnow was in touch with the now-former owners last week — when the restaurant was still open — but they have so far declined to share who that new family might be.
The restaurant was generally popular with locals, earning 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp, with recent reviews calling the owners “beyond nice” and mentioning how large the portion sizes were.
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that highlights Arlington-based startups, founders, and local tech news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn.
Seeing his cart flipped in the middle of what was then called Lee Highway in Rosslyn, with eggs and taco shells spilling down the street, Osiris Hoil was close to giving up his dream.
The co-founder of District Taco, which in 2011 was but a simple taco cart, called his neighbor and business partner Marc Wallace for help. He came to Hoil’s rescue bearing tools, know-how, and resolve to fix the cart’s broken hitch.
“I’m so stressed out, so tired,” Hoil said as he recounted the story of the flipped taco cart to ARLnow. “But then Mark said, ‘don’t worry man, someday we will be laughing about this.'”
Sure enough, more than a decade later, Hoil and Wallace are indeed laughing at the memory of their flipped taco cart, an incident that was covered by ARLnow at the time (and followed soon thereafter by another Rosslyn fender bender).
Today, the two Arlington-based entrepreneurs have just sold their 10 millionth taco and are on the verge of franchising the Mexican fast-casual restaurant that started as a taco cart on the streets of Rosslyn (and then Crystal City) in 2009.
As Hoil and Wallace explain it, the idea of District Taco and their partnership came out of two neighbors drinking beers on each others’ porches and lamenting about the economic downturn.
It was 2008 and both were living near Yorktown High School at the time. Wallace had just sold his tech company and would often chat with Hoil about the hardships of the construction business, the industry that Hoil worked in at the time. They’d also scarf down chips and Hoil’s homemade salsas, made from traditional recipes that his mom used back in Yucatan, Mexico.
With both at transition points in their careers — Hoil was laid off during the 2008 financial crisis — they decided to partner and open a Mexican food truck, at a time when those were still a bit of a novelty. But an actual food truck proved to be too pricey.
“So, we got a cart which we pulled behind a pick-up truck,” said Wallace. “A food truck costs $100,000, so we went with a cart.”
They got the necessary permits from Arlington County (D.C. initially denied their request) and set up their cart by the building that houses WJLA in Rosslyn.
Within months, breakfast tacos became District Taco’s calling card.
They also had help from local notables. WJLA’s meteorologist Brian van de Graaff would grab a couple of breakfast tacos before work and talk about it on-air, Wallace remembered.
“Before he went on the news, he would come down and get his tacos,” he said. “It was great PR for us.”
In late 2010, Hoil and Wallace opened their first brick-and-mortar location at 5723 Lee Highway (now Langston Blvd), near their homes. The original District Taco is still there today.
Despite that initial success, both say it was not an easy road. Beyond a flipped taco cart, there were also lean times, delays, and near disasters.
“If I told you how many times I wanted to give up, you wouldn’t believe it,” said Hoil. “I was working so many hours, wasn’t making any money… and, one time, I almost burned down my house cooking.”
(Updated at 5:45 p.m.) A Crumbl Cookies location is expected to open at Lee Harrison Shopping Center.
A poster from leasing company A.J. Dwoskin & Associates that states Crumbl Cookies is “coming soon” has been seen on a window at the shopping center, next to the Wild Birds Unlimited store. The cookie bakery also appears on a published retail leasing plan for the shopping center at the corner of Langston Blvd and N. Harrison Street.
“I think it’s exciting, I think a lot of kids are going to be happy they can get some cookies,” Harrison Drier, commercial operations manager at A.J. Dwoskin, told ARLnow about the shop.
Founded in Utah in 2017, Crumbl has since expanded to more than 370 franchised bakeries in 40+ states, according to a press release. It claims to offer “the world’s best chocolate chip cookie” and has a rotating weekly menu of specialty cookies including options like Buttermilk Pancake, Orange Creamsicle, Lemon Blackberry and Iced Oatmeal.
Crumbl also offers drinks and several flavors of ice cream. Its offerings are available via delivery, pickup, catering and national shipping services.
A Crumbl Cookies spokesperson could only say that the Lee-Harrison store “is in the very early stages” and details would not be available until later this summer. The spokesperson noted that there is another location planned nearby in Falls Church.
Drier said the cookie store is likely to open “more towards November, December” this year.
“They haven’t gotten keys to the space yet,” he said.
Crumbl appears to be replacing the urgent care clinic, which has since moved to a larger space in a recently-built structure on the shopping center’s property.
Other Crumbl Cookies locations in Northern Virginia include Reston, Chantilly and Vienna, according to the company’s website.