September, 2010 | ARLnow.com

APS Students Returning to More Relocatable Classrooms

Published September 3, 2010 at 9:36AM | Updated September 3, 2010 at 11:45AM

Relocatable classrooms — superintendent Dr. Patrick Murphy prefers the term “learning cottages” — are here to stay in Arlington County. The school system, having determined that the portable units are ten times more cost-effective than physically building a new classroom, has started buying rather than leasing the “relocatables,” and has started buying them four at a time for a further cost savings.

This summer APS added four relocatables each to Glebe, Carlin Springs, and Barrett elementary schools. One relocatable was installed at Nottingham Elementary and H-B Woodlawn, according to APS spokesperson Frank Bellavia.

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Crumbs Is Coming Soon

By ARLnow.com

Published September 3, 2010 at 7:21AM | Updated September 23, 2010 at 12:14AM

Signs for the new Crumbs Bake Shop are up next to Lululemon and Red Mango on Clarendon Boulevard. Clarendon Culture reports the store is expected to open in December.

The storefront has nearly 900 square feet of space for the popular New York-based cupcakery. According to county records, the store’s initial floorplan calls for 10 indoor seats and no sidewalk cafe.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published September 3, 2010 at 6:58AM | Updated September 3, 2010 at 3:58PM

Unemployment Steady in Va., Down in Arlington — Arlington has kept its crown as the locality with the lowest unemployment in Virginia. The unemployment rate in Arlington fell slightly in July, from 4.3 percent to 4.2 percent. Unemployment remained steady statewide, while rising in 8 out of 14 of the state’s metro areas.

Few Foreclosures For Sale in Arlington — Local Realtor Laura Rubinchuk reports that there are only 17 foreclosed homes for sale, out of the hundreds of homes on the market in Arlington. She compiled a list of the foreclosures here.

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County To Spend Stimulus Funds on LED Streetlights

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 4:08PM

Officials hope to replace 1,800 streetlights, or 40 percent of all county-owned lights, by the spring of 2011. The funds for the project will come from a federal energy efficiency and conservation grant.

After the initial push, the county will install 500 new streetlights per year. The conversion will take about six years to complete, and will produce a significant cost savings for the county.

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Rep. Moran Returning From Afghanistan

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 3:39PM | Updated September 3, 2010 at 7:03AM

The Alexandria Times reported earlier this week that Moran left for Afghanistan on Sunday. The trip was organized for members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense but was not announced publicly.

The group has at least one additional, undisclosed stop to make before returning to the U.S. by Monday.

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Beloved Ashlawn Elementary Teacher Dies Suddenly

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 1:30PM | Updated September 7, 2010 at 3:00PM

Long-time Ashlawn teacher Jimsey L. Frye is being remembered as a devoted educator with an infectious sense of humor. She died unexpectedly at the age of 61, at a time when she was getting ready to greet students for a new school year.

“Needless to say this is a loss for us and the larger school community, as Ms. Frye has touched so many lives in her many years of teaching,” wrote Ashlawn’s new principle, Judy Apostolico-Buck, in a letter to parents.

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Examiner: Resurgence of Residential and Retail in Rosslyn?

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 10:58AM

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.”

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In Case You Were Wondering: The Hockey RV in Courthouse

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 9:31AM | Updated September 2, 2010 at 10:04AM

The RV is on a tour of the U.S. and Canada to promote the “real hockey experience” of playing NHL 2K11 on the Nintendo Wii.

It’s here in Arlington in advance of two promotional appearances this weekend: Saturday at a GameStop in Rockville (14929 Shady Grove Road), and Sunday at a Best Buy in Alexandria (5901 Stevenson Ave). Both appareances will take place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Around Town

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published September 2, 2010 at 7:55AM

ACDC Kicks Off Campaign Season — Last night, the Arlington County Democratic Committee officially launched its campaign to maintain electoral dominance in the county. But looking forward to November contests that include a challenge to incumbent county board member Chris Zimmerman, Democrats aren’t counting their chickens quite yet. “We are not going to take anything for granted [this] fall,” ACDC chair Mike Lieberman tells ARLnow.com. The Democrats’ campaign season will kick into high gear on Monday at the party’s annual Labor Day Chili Cookoff.

Dems, GOPers Swipe Each Other’s Swag — Stop us if this starts sounding like symbolism. In an effort to appease their respective constituencies, the local political parties decided to start stealing from one another. The petty political thievery took place at the recent Arlington County Fair. The Sun Gazette has the details.

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Crime Report: Mom Would Not Approve Edition

By ARLnow.com

Published September 1, 2010 at 5:30PM | Updated January 9, 2018 at 2:40PM

Early this morning, police responded to the small shopping center at the corner of Columbia Pike and Glebe Road for a report of men throwing rocks through the front windows of several stores. One of the two stores targeted was Mom’s Pizza Restaurant. From this week’s Arlington County crime report:

MISSILE INTO AN OCCUPIED DWELLING (SERIES) 09/01/10, 3200 block of Columbia Pike. On September 1 at 1:45 am, two subjects threw rocks into two occupied businesses, and two unoccupied businesses. Guillermo Rodriguez, 29, of Washington D.C., was charged with Drunk in Public. He was held until sober. Harris Rivera, 30, of Washington D.C., was charged with two counts of Throwing a Missile into an Occupied Dwelling and three counts of Destruction of Property. He was held without bond.

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Demolition Rubble Makes Yorktown High Look Like a War Zone

By ARLnow.com

Published September 1, 2010 at 3:54PM

Construction crews have been working feverishly over the summer to get the new Yorktown High School ready for students, while tearing down remnants of the old Yorktown High building. With one week left until students return and with a field full of rubble left to clear, it looks like the work may be coming down to the wire.

Check out the photos below, which show heavy equipment picking through huge piles of debris as well as a worker hosing down the rubble, apparently to keep dust down. Also below: a photo of the old high school, just before the demolition.

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Let’s Crash Scott McCaffrey’s Party

By Scott Brodbeck

Published September 1, 2010 at 1:27PM

According to his blog, McCaffrey has been waiting six months to cover something that’s “likely to happen tonight.” But he’s not saying what it is, so as to not alert “what passes for the competition.”

Since we have some of the smartest readers in town — witness the corrections that go into the comments section the minute we get something wrong — I figured it would be a piece of cake to figure out what story Scotty has been salivating over.