Arlington will hold its annual Neighborhood Day on Saturday, May 21. Fifteen neighborhood-specific events will be held throughout the county to mark the occasion.
Among the events planned:
The Arlington County Police Department and Sheriff’s Office held its annual observance of Peace Officers Memorial Day this morning.
Drummers, bagpipers and a bugler helped to mark the solemn occasion at the Arlington County Justice Center Plaza om Courthouse. Courthouse Road was shut down for the ceremony, which started at 8:00 a.m. Through speeches, the law enforcement community remembered the six Arlington County officers who have died in the line of duty.
Sohaib Athar achieved worldwide fame for providing real-time Twitter updates during the raid — without knowing that it was a raid or that it was Osama bin Laden’s secret hide-out that was being raided. Munasifi, meanwhile, achieved region-wide fame for his music video ode to life in Arlington.
Despite the fact that Athar lives in Abbottabad, Pakistan and Munasifi lives in Clarendon, Remy’s comedy apparently crosses physical and cultural borders — his parody video “Hey There Khalilah” is one of Athar’s “favorites” on YouTube.
Unleashed (5400 Lee Highway) opened for business last week and now its planning a grand opening celebration this weekend.
The store is part of the ‘Unleashed’ boutique pet store chain run by giant pet retailer Petco. It replaced a Blockbuster video store that closed in January.
According to real estate web site Zillow, real estate list prices in Arlington were up 8.6 percent year-over-year in April, but the web site’s estimate of home values in Arlington was down 2.5 percent year-over-year as of March. That’s consistent with a nationwide downward trend, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
According to an accounting by the Sun Gazette, home sales in Arlington are down while both average and median sale prices were down year-over-year in April. By contrast, Northern Virginia as a whole saw a continued rise in sale prices.
Changes are coming to the steep stretch of Walter Reed Drive where a bicyclist was killed over the weekend.
Arlington County plans to begin work this summer to add a number of safety improvements to Walter Reed between S. Pollard Street and Four Mile Run Drive. The changes, which were in the works before the accident, include:
Jim Morrison in Arlington? — The late Doors frontman Jim Morrison apparently was an Arlingtonian. The son of a Navy admiral, Morrison lived at as many as three different Arlington addresses. The current resident of one of his reported former addresses says Morrison’s ghost has haunted the house on three different occasions. [Falls Church News-Press]
Pete’s Apizza Groupon Selling Fast — A 50% off Groupon for Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza (3017 Clarendon Blvd) has nearly sold out. As of this writing, 5,800 people have purchased the deal — 4,800 specifically for the restaurant’s recently-opened Clarendon location. Expect the Clarendon restaurant to get considerably more crowded over the next few weeks as a result. [Groupon]