Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

It’s Labor Day, the day when we traditionally mourn the end of summer (even though the official start of fall is more than two weeks away and at least two more 90+ degree days are predicted this week).

With the pools getting ready to close and the kids going back to school, we ask:

Has this summer gone faster or slower than usual? And are you excited for fall or sad about the end of summer?

Flickr pool photo by Chris Rief

“Rosslyn has seen a surge in residential and retail development,” the Washington Examiner opined over the weekend. “Nearly 600 new housing units have opened in the past year and more than 500 are under construction.”

According to the Examiner, Rosslyn has experienced a “transformation” over the past decade that has made it “cleaner and greener” and a more attractive place to live.

“Rosslyn is becoming much more mixed use,” Rosslyn BID finance director John Seal told the paper. “There are so many things to do here that people tend to overlook.”

Between the DC skyline views and the proximity to downtown, Rosslyn is the “the high-end living destination in Arlington,” one local real estate broker said.

Another selling point: Artisphere, the shiny new cultural center set to open in October in the old Newseum space. (The article incorrectly lists Busboys and Poets as a tenant — in fact, Busboys dropped out and the county is trying to find another restaurant to take over.)

Yes, there’s more housing in Rosslyn as of late, and yes, Artisphere will bring more culture to the area, but retail? The article’s case for a retail resurgence seems much more thin.

Rosslyn-ites, what do you think of your neighborhood’s development?

Pool photo by Patrcye.

To be honest, I thought Eric Patrick (@ericisfunny on Twitter) was not going to be very funny.

With the past music, photography and acting aspirations of Real World cast members in mind, I was preparing myself for pity laughter and polite applause when Eric took the mic as the last act of the night on Friday.

The stand-up comedians who preceded him on stage at the sold-out Arlington Drafthouse were actually quite funny — but it was Patrick’s name on the marquee out front. Would the former State Department employee live up to the billing?

In fact… he did.

His confident, energetic and engaging performance was surprising given that nothing on The Real World: New Orleans up to this point has really shown his funny or outgoing side. In an interview after the show, Eric readily admitted that his sole contribution to last week’s episode was carrying a drunk cast member from the sidewalk to her bedroom.

But that’s about to change. Eric says the last three episodes of the season will feature him and his comedy more prominently. And even though he’s “the normal one,” Eric says he wasn’t able to avoid drama with cast member Ryan in some upcoming episodes.

Despite the lack of screen time, Eric says he often gets recognized on the streets of Arlington. He was hoping that basic cable stardom would be a one-way ticket to getting more girls, but says it has instead been a magnet for older men and unattractive women.

“Here’s what I’ve noticed: the bigger the excitement to see me, the bigger the woman,” Eric quipped during his edgy 30-minute act.

In the end, Eric says he loved living in New Orleans, but the Real World experience wasn’t without its low points.

“The pros outweighed the cons, and it was mainly the city,” he said. “It was one of the best cities I’ve been to.”

Eric, 25, returned to Arlington after taping the show and is currently living in his grandparents’ house near Virginia Hospital Center. The grandparents, Roy and Peggy Jones, now live in Georgia and let Eric keep watch over the home, which has been in the family for at least four generations.

The Jonses were at the show Friday night. Mrs. Jones said they’re supportive of Eric — who they described as “quiet” — even when he’s making jokes about receiving oral sex in Roy’s rocking chair.

“That’s fine, it’s life,” Mrs. Jones said. “That’s the way we are, we always support our children… whatever they want to do we tell them to do it 150 percent.”

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This weekend, as many as 300,000 conservatives from across the country will flock to the DC area to attend Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

Many of the Tea Party activists who will be attending Saturday’s non-political event be staying at hotels in Arlington, so it’s important that they know the best places to eat! As such, we’ve compiled a guide to everybody’s favorite non-partisan food: pizza.

Thanks to the Maine Tea Party’s advice to members for navigating the multicultural environs of the greater Washington area, we have a pretty good idea of what Tea Partiers like. So, without further adieu, here are the top five places to go for pizza in Arlington (and none of them are on the dreaded Yellow Line!).

1. Lost Dog Cafe (5876 Washington Blvd) — Safely nestled in a small shopping district in North Arlington, Lost Dog serves not one but five types of white pizza. From the Popeye Pie, with spinach and chicken, to the Ricky Ricotta, described as a white pizza lover’s dream, Lost Dog has plenty of variety to satisfy even the pickiest eater. To wash it down, choose from Lost Dog’s great beer selection. Recommended choices include the Blue Moon White Ale, the Menocino White Hawk Ale, and Allagash White.

2. Pupatella Pizza (5104 Wilson Blvd) — Pupatella just opened its first brick and mortar restaurant to rave reviews. The restaurant is owned by Enzo Algarme, a legal immigrant from Europe – an inspiring story! Forget the fancy gourmet pizzas on the menu, however. Instead, design your own made with Buffalo mozzarella imported from Naples and Pupatella’s homemade cream and garlic white sauce.

3. Piola (1550 Wilson Blvd) — Imagine yourself in a cozy Italian pizzeria when you visit this imported gem in scenic Rosslyn. Piola’s menu features an entire section devoted to Le Pizze Bianche, the original Old World pizza style. Just be glad you weren’t here when the World Cup brought out noisy crowds that insisted on challenging this country’s sport sovereignty by calling the game “football.”

4. Ledo Pizza (1501 Arlington Blvd) — Conveniently located in the Best Western near the Iwo Jima memorial, local chain Ledo Pizza serves reasonably-priced food that will remind you of neighborhood pizzerias back home. But here’s the twist: the pizzas are square. We recommend the Italian White Pizza, with garlic herb aioli, fontina, and a delicious blend of three cheeses. If you’re trying to feed a large group, check out the giant tray of Fettuccini Alfredo.

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Good morning, Arlington. It’s Friday the 13th.

What are you superstitious about?

If you spend enough time listening to Arlington’s police frequencies, you’ll notice that people love calling in to complain about things. Since complaining is so popular, we’re launching a periodic feature called the “complaint of the day,” to highlight the most humorous, outrageous or otherwise unseemly complaints received by police.

When it comes to citizen gripes in Arlington, noise complaints and “aggressive driver” complaints are common, but far and away the most frequent complaint is the parking complaint.

Vigilant civilians will call the police when a car is illegally parked in zone parking on any given weekday afternoon. They will also occasionally call to report expired meters.

This morning, someone called to report that a satellite truck — assumedly a news van — had been parked for more than four hours at North George Mason Drive and North Park Drive. We’d love to know the thought process involved with such a call — what was so bad about the truck being parked there that would justify asking police to possibly interrupt a broadcast being watched by thousands of people? (See comments.)

“There is no doubt that it’s all about the money,” the Washington Times says about Arlington’s new red light cameras.

In an editorial — who knew the Times still covered local issues? — the paper claims the combined “angle collision” rate at the four intersections where cameras are installed is a mere 0.15 incidents per month.

The Times also says that rear end collisions doubled last time Arlington installed red light cameras.

So, is it about the money? No, police say: it’s about safety, not profit.

But the month-long trial period suggests that Arlington will likely generate revenue from the program.

A total of 577 warnings were issued in the past month. If that rate remains constant while the system issues $50 citations, it will generate $346,200 over 12 months. Arlington pays $178,800 per year to the contractor that maintains the camera system. That leaves a surplus of $167,400. Of course, a significant percentage of that will be paid to the contractor as ticket processing fees (we’re guessing half).

Somehow, though, it seems unlikely that a sinister revenue-generating plot was hatched over a sum that would barely pay the salary and benefits for one additional beat officer.

Start writing the eulogies now. The effort to change Arlington’s form of government has failed to attract enough petition signatures to get on the November ballot, ARLnow.com projects.

As of 2:30 this afternoon, election officials had counted 12,621 signatures, out of the 14,350 required by law to get a referendum on the ballot. Election staff are nearly finished with their “second pass” through the 761 petition sheets submitted by the Committee for a Better Arlington. A third pass is unlikely to yield a significant number of additional signatures.

Arlington County General Registrar Linda Lindberg says her staff has completed their second pass over about 700 petition pages. Since about 10,200 signatures were validated during the first pass, that means the second pass is, on average, validating 3.5 additional signatures per page. But with only 61 pages to go, it’s likely that the petition will only have about 12,900 valid signatures going into the third pass, which is expected to start Monday.

“I’d be surprised if we pick up another 100″ signatures during the third pass, Lindberg said. With those 100 additional signatures, the petition will be more than 1,350 votes short. This spreadsheet shows just how improbable it would be for the petition to reach the magic 14,350 number from this point out.

It’s not clear what the next step will be for the Committee. In an phone interview last week, a CBA representative did not rule out the possibility of some sort of legal action.

“We’re going to wait for the Registrar to do their count,” the representative said. “Once they make that announcement we will proceed accordingly.”

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Arlington is home to a relatively new establishment that may be the country’s only restaurant dedicated exclusively to Tunisian cuisine (at least the only one with a web presence and decent SEO).

Chez Manelle (2313 Wilson Blvd) opened in Courthouse late last year. It is a small, independently operated eatery, with a unique vibe, a unique menu and some good old-fashioned friendly service.

It’s a bit of a hole in the wall, just off the Courthouse main drag and well down the road from Clarendon. The front of the restaurant — a two-tone awning amid beige stone brick — does not do the interior justice. The owners have added planters and some outdoor seating, but making the place look like the unique ethnic restaurant it actually is seems to be an uphill battle.

The restaurant has fared well on Yelp, getting high marks for all the reasons stated above. But one particular complaint seems to resurface among the few negative reviews: bland, greasy food.

The blog DC Dives recently posted a review of Chez Manelle, and came to the same conclusion. Here’s an excerpt.

When reviewing restaurants I have tried to avoid making definitive factual statements, because after all my review is just my opinion. However, with Chez Manelle I can say as fact that it is unquestionably the best Tunisian restaurant in the DC area. Sadly it’s not because of its great food, but because it is the ONLY Tunisian restaurant in the area. Located in Clarendon near the courthouse metro, the restaurant is ideally located, yet when we arrived at 8:00 the only people in the restaurant were the 4-5 waiters standing around watching TV. That should have been our first hint, but we decided to go ahead and order several appetizers and a couple of main entrees.

Read the rest of the review here.

We’d love to see Chez Manelle stick around long enough to perfect its food offerings. Amid the influx of pizza restaurants, burger joints and bakeries, the value of having such a unique spot in town should not be overlooked.

If you’ve spent any time on the comments section of this site, you undoubtedly know of Mike, who, bless his heart, is never in want of something to blame on the Arlington County Democratic Committee.

Since it’s Friday, we decided to share a recent email (and accompanying photo) from Mike.

It seems that he recently visited Northside Social and was pleasantly surprised by the experience.

They may be frou frou and attracting annoying hipster doofi (plural), but they sure can pour one amazing looking latte.

Give the beatnicks some credit and post this.

It begs the question: is Mike losing his edge? First he sticks up for Arlington’s water main repair efforts, then he says we should give the election officials verifying petition signatures “the benefit of the doubt.” What’s next, praising the county board for being courageously pro-business when it comes to development at East Falls Church?

Seriously, though, we like it when civility rules the day in the comments section. Carry on.