Talento Sworn In As Interim Board Member — “Tannia Talento was unanimously appointed to the Arlington County Board on Saturday, July 15, 2023, during the Board’s regular meeting. She was sworn in at Tuesday’s Recessed meeting and will serve out the term remainder of former Board member Katie Cristol, who stepped down July 4, 2023.” [Arlington County, Twitter]
DCA Proposal Down to Seven Add’l Flights — “A bipartisan group of lawmakers revised downward its plan to add more long-distance flights at Reagan National Airport in hopes of finding more support, offering a measure that would add seven round trips instead of the 28 the group originally sought.” [Washington Post]
Bad Day for Local Hondas — “2400 block of Army Navy Drive/S. Vance Court at 27th Street S./2600 block of S. Vance Court. At approximately 8:57 a.m. on July 17, police were dispatched to the late report of a larceny. Upon arrival, it was determined between approximately 5:00 p.m. on July 16 and 8:52 a.m. on July 17, the unknown suspect(s) removed the tires and rims from three vehicles, smashed the passenger’s side window of one vehicle and tampered with a fourth vehicle. All involved vehicles are Honda models.” [ACPD]
ACFD Helping Out in Vermont — “A team from the Arlington County Fire Department has headed to Vermont to support recovery efforts after significant flooding impacted the state. The fire departments of Arlington and the city of Fairfax teamed up to deploy eight swift-water-rescue personnel to aid in recovery efforts.” [Gazette Leader]
Arlington Tops ‘Digital’ List Again — “Arlington County is proud to be recognized as the No. 1 Digital County for 2023 by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties. This year’s award marks the sixth time that Arlington has received the top spot in the nation for the 150,000-249,999-population category.” [Arlington County]
Synetic Nixes Some Performances — “Unexpected problems with its performance space have caused Synetic Theatre to cancel this week’s performances of its summer production, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac.’ Shows set for July 20-23 have been nixed… ‘Earlier this month, acoustic ceiling tiles within the facility failed, falling into the theater,’ they said.” [Gazette Leader]
More on New Crystal City Metro Entrance — “The lone existing Crystal City Metrorail entrance, at South Bell Street and 18th Street South on the west side of a lengthy block, was frequently at capacity during peak ridership times pre-pandemic, and usage is expected to grow with development in the area. A typical Metro rider living or working on Crystal Drive will save about three to five minutes walking or using a mobility device to access the new Crystal City Metrorail Station entrance. Construction on the $146.1 million project could begin next summer and is expected to be completed in 2027.” [Arlington County]
Commercial Vacancy Blues — “Arlington had the highest year-end-2022 office-vacancy rate of any jurisdiction across Northern Virginia and the second highest among all localities in the region, according to new Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments data. The vacancy rate on the roughly 64 million square feet of office space in the county stood at 19.5 percent at year-end… Across the metro area, that’s second only to Greenbelt, Md., whose estimated office-vacancy rate was 21.5 percent.” [Gazette Leader]
New DCA Parking Garage? — “The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority appears to have a plan to address parking shortages at the increasingly busy Reagan National Airport, where the space inventory often fills to 100% capacity, or very near it, during peak periods. The authority is readying a solicitation for a 1,500-space, three-story modular parking garage, which would be built on the existing economy lot at National. Modular is the key: The garage would be ‘relocatable,’ according to a staff presentation released ahead of the MWAA board’s Wednesday meeting.” [Washington Business Journal]
TV News Producer’s Plea Deal — “A former national security journalist for ABC News who was indicted on child pornography charges this year has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors, a court docket indicates… The FBI said agents searched [James Gordon] Meek’s apartment in Arlington last year and found explicit images and videos of minors on his electronic devices, after receiving a tip that began with the online file storage company Dropbox.” [Washington Post]
It’s Wednesday — Expect isolated showers followed by possible thunderstorms after 11am, partly sunny weather with a high near 88, and a light northeast wind of about 5 mph. The chance of rain is 40%. For Wednesday night, there’s a chance of showers and thunderstorms primarily before 2am. Otherwise, expect partly cloudy skies with a low around 71. [Weather.gov]