News

Morning Notes

Storm clouds on the move over Ballston (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Rent Keeps Rising — “Arlington saw the third highest month-over-month increase in apartment rents nationally in August, and now stands as the eighth priciest locality among 100 urban areas monitored by Apartment List. The median rent for an apartment in Arlington stood at $2,318 in the new data, reported Aug. 30. That was up 0.9 percent from a month before, and represents an increase of 9.6 percent since a trough at the start of the year.” [Gazette Leader]

Garvey Mulling Reelection — “Will it be a last hurrah, or serve as the precursor to a re-election bid? Libby Garvey hasn’t made up her mind, but says that either way, she aims to make her (expected) coming year as chair of the Arlington County Board in 2024 an effective one.” [Gazette Leader]

FCPD Chase Through Arlington — “Fairfax County PD chased the pickup truck seen below through Arlington on I-66. Crossed the bridge into D.C. just before 12:45 p.m. ACPD monitored the chase but did not pursue into the District.” [Twitter]

Reminder: Weekend Events — “Roads in Pentagon City and Rosslyn will be temporarily closed this Saturday for the Arlington 9/11 Memorial 5K and 2023 Rosslyn Jazz Fest… The festival will take place from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and feature several jazz acts… The race, which kicks off at 6 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m., will start and end at the DoubleTree Hotel.” [ARLnow]

More Road Closures — “The following roads along the National Mall and Memorial Parks and George Washington Memorial Parkway will be closed from approximately 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, September 9, 2023: Arlington Memorial Bridge, Arlington Memorial Circle…” [National Park Service]

Crash-Prone Local Intersections — “Arlington saw 2,052 total crashes in 2022. That’s about 15% higher than in 2021, but still 18% lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when there were more cars on roads… Here are the intersections with the highest number of crashes in 2022—and what Vision Zero is doing in the way of safety improvements at each location.” [Arlington Magazine]

Feds Planning Big Raise — “Two million federal employees just got one step closer to an average 5.2% pay raise next year. President Joe Biden wrote a letter to leaders of the House and Senate on Thursday formally declaring the boost for all federal civilian employees, thereby setting his intent to give employees the largest base pay increase in nearly four decades.” [Federal Times, Twitter]

It’s Friday — A chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Areas of fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. On Friday night, anticipate a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am, with mostly cloudy skies and a low of 70. [Weather.gov]