Author: Adrian Cruz

Around Town

Pentagon City Mall Starts Valet Parking Service

By Adrian Cruz

Starting Friday, visitors to the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City will be able to use the mall’s new valet parking service.

“A valet service has been something we’ve wanted to implement for many years now,” said Todd Jerscheid, the mall’a director of marketing and business development. “As we prepare for the renovation completion later this summer, we couldn’t think of a better time to launch the program. We know this will be a huge hit for our shoppers, especially around the busy holiday season and as they begin to really experience all of our new features and services!”

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News

County Plans Transportation Changes During Metro SafeTrack Work

By Adrian Cruz

The first stage of SafeTrack involves single tracking on the Orange and Silver lines between Ballston and East Falls Church. Trains will run every 18 minutes, with additional Orange Line trains running from Ballston to New Carrolton.

In response, Arlington County will supplement WMATA’s efforts to assist travelers with its own. ART routes 55 (Rosslyn-East Falls Church) and 52 (Virginia Hospital-Ballston-East Falls Church) will use 40-foot buses instead of the usual 35-foot buses to add capacity during the surge. The county is also considering adding a bus lane on Lee Highway to speed up 55 buses during rush hour.

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Around Town

Memorial Day Closures in Arlington

By Adrian Cruz
Rolling Thunder (Flickr pool photo by Michelle Dupray)

All county offices, courts, libraries, and other facilities will be closed for the holiday. Metered parking will not be enforced.

ART buses will operate on a Sunday schedule as will Metrorail and Metrobus. Metrorail will charge off-peak fares all day and parking will be free at all Metro facilities.

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Events

Gulf Branch Nature Center Celebrates 50th Anniversary

By Adrian Cruz
Gulf Branch Nature Center (Flickr pool photo by Cameron Manuel)

Both events will be free, with the first one taking place on Thursday, June 2 at Arlington Central Library and the second taking place at on Sunday, June 12 at the nature center.

The nature center released the following press release about the events:

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Around Town

Arlington Teen Raises $45,000 for Juvenile Diabetes Research

By Adrian Cruz
Alex Simmons (Photo courtesy Kathy Mimberg)

Since being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes almost five years ago, Alex Simmons has worked to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) — and like in basketball, he has succeeded in a major way.

Alex, a freshman at Washington-Lee High School, has raised over $45,000 for the foundation. Every year, Alex along with his family, friends and basketball teammates join “Alex’s Terminators” for the JDRF walk in D.C.  This year’s JDRF walk will be held on Sunday, June 5.

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Around Town

ACPD Officer’s Act of Kindness Spreads on Social Media

By Adrian Cruz

While visiting the Pentagon City mall on Saturday with her son, Beth Schweinefuss says that she saw a man walking around the food court and standing by himself with a plastic bag on his head.

“We were sitting on the third floor of the mall resting and doing some people watching,” Schweinefuss told ARLnow.com. “We both noticed the gentleman in the food court standing by himself and wearing a plastic bag on his head. His mannerisms suggested to me he was possible talking to himself and was just looking around and listening to something on a portable tape recorder. That caught our attention.”

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Traffic

Resident of One-Way Street Is Shaming Speeders and Wrong-Way Drivers on Twitter

By Adrian Cruz

In past years, Arlington has been ranked as having some of the worst drivers in the nation. That doesn’t surprise Brian Meenaghan, who has started a Twitter account to document what he views as a never-ending parade of bad drivers on his block.

Meenaghan, an Arlington Heights resident, started the Twitter account @BadDriversof1stRdS at the end of April. The account focuses on the worst offenders on the 3600 block of 1st Road S., a one-way street located in a high traffic area around S. Glebe Road, Route 50 and the Thomas Jefferson middle school and community center.

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Around Town

Future Chefs Graduate from Culinary Training Program

By Adrian Cruz
Graduate Tony Vinson receives his diploma

Seven Arlington students graduated Friday from a culinary program that trains individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the skills necessary to get a job in a commercial kitchen.

This was the sixth incarnation of the D.C. Central Kitchen’s Culinary Training Program, which meets locally at the Fairlington Community Center. The graduation ceremony was held in Rosslyn Friday afternoon and the Arlington students were joined by eight other students from the Central Union Mission, a homeless shelter in D.C.

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News

Neighbors Gather to Complain About Complaints, Gripe About Grumpy British Man

By Adrian Cruz

After months — maybe even years — of constant “harassment” from an anonymous neighbor, North Highlands resident Mary McCutcheon had enough, as did the rest of the community.

On Thursday, McCutcheon organized a neighborhood meeting in front of her house — in the small community just north of Rosslyn — to discuss a neighbor who was constantly calling Arlington County to report supposed violations of zoning codes in local yards. It was enough of an issue that even County Board Chair Libby Garvey showed up.

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News

Metro’s ‘SafeTrack’ to Start with Single-Tracking Between Ballston and EFC Next Month

By Adrian Cruz

There will be nearly two weeks of continuous single-tracking between Metro’s Ballston and East Falls Church stations next month, and that’s just the start of a sweeping plan to make Metrorail safer and more reliable.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld released the final version of its SafeTrack plan on Tuesday. Intended to catch up on years of deferred maintenance, the plan will condense three years of track work into less than a year of a “safety surge,” resulting in major transit disruptions.

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News

County Board Approves Redevelopment of Affordable Housing Complex

By Adrian Cruz
The Berkeley apartments rendering

The Arlington County Board has approved the redevelopment of the Berkeley Apartments near Four Mile Run.

The Berkeley, located at 2910 S. Glebe Road near the Arlington-Alexandria border, currently contains 137 apartments in two four-story buildings. Of those, 110 are committed affordable.

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