Dan Egitto | ARLnow

Plan to swap proposed Crystal City library for $5.8M could become final this weekend

Published June 13, 2024 at 3:30PM

1901 S. Bell Street, where a library branch was meant to be located (via Google Maps)

A plan to have a developer pay Arlington County $5.8 million instead of building a planned library in Crystal City could get final approval this weekend.

Citing “site, operating, and capital budget constraints,” a county report calls for accepting a proposal “to support library operations elsewhere” by receiving payments from JBG Smith in installments over the next six years.

News

More composting, higher fees for more bins recommended in plan to divert 90% of Arlington’s waste

By Dan Egitto

Published June 12, 2024 at 3:55PM

Arlington recycling bins (Flickr pool photo by Aaron Webb)

A new recycling facility and more food scraps collection could be coming to Arlington as the county revamps its waste-reduction strategy.

A proposed Solid Waste Management Plan seeking to divert 90% of Arlington waste away from landfills and incineration by 2038 is slated to go before the Arlington County Board on Saturday. Replacing the current plan adopted in 2004, the new document would guide initiatives in Arlington for the next two decades.

News

Planned DCA pedestrian bridge teed up for $18M regional investment

By Dan Egitto

Published June 12, 2024 at 9:30AM

A rendering from October 2022 of the proposed CC2DCA bridge near a future Virginia Railway Express station at Crystal City (Arlington County)

Arlington is poised to accept $18 million in funding for a pedestrian bridge connecting Crystal City to Reagan National Airport.

A funding allocation from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is slated for consideration at an Arlington County Board meeting this Saturday. Construction on the project, dubbed the CC2DCA multimodal connection, is expected to begin in Fiscal Year 2028.

Schools

Stricter cellphone policy needed in Arlington schools, parent group argues

By Dan Egitto

Published June 11, 2024 at 3:30PM

People on smartphones (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

An Arlington parents group is pushing for more stringent rules around cellphones in the classroom.

Arlington Parents for Education argued in a letter to Superintendent Francisco Durán that a countywide policy of having students stow phones in lockers during the day would improve learning and mental health during the 2024-2025 school year.

Schools

Washington Wizards and Mystics celebrate new hoops at Barcroft Elementary

By Dan Egitto

Published June 11, 2024 at 1:30PM

The Washington Wizards mascot celebrates new basketball hoops at Barcroft Elementary School (courtesy of Kenny Giarla)

An Arlington elementary school celebrated a major upgrade to its basketball court this week thanks to a local dad and some pro sports teams.

Mascots from the Washington Wizards and Mystics joined a crowd of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students on Monday to mark the installation of four new basketball hoops at Barcroft Elementary School. The hoops, courtesy of the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation, replaced deteriorating equipment that dated back to the 1960s.

News

Sign honoring Black troops who fought in Civil War comes to Fort Ethan Allen Park

By Dan Egitto

Published June 11, 2024 at 9:45AM

Installation of the new sign at Fort Ethan Allen Park (courtesy of Civil War Trails)

A new marker commemorating Black troops who fought in the Civil War has been installed at Fort Ethan Allen Park.

An official unveiling for the new sign at 3829 N. Stafford Street is scheduled for Thursday, June 20 — the day after Juneteenth. The marker commemorates the 107th United States Colored Troops, which ran drills and manned the ramparts at Fort Ethan Allen and other Arlington forts starting in October 1865, guarding D.C. following the end of the war.

Schools

School Board passes $826 million budget, falling short of some officials’ ambitions

By Dan Egitto

Published June 10, 2024 at 1:45PM | Updated June 10, 2024 at 3:16PM

Arlington School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres discusses the Arlington Public Schools budget (via Arlington Public Schools)

The Arlington School Board has unanimously passed an $826 million budget that, in the view of several board members, fails to accomplish key goals.

“This is a budget of status quos,” Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres said prior to a Thursday vote. “I said this the day that [Superintendent Francisco Durán] announced the budget. This is a budget of maintaining the status quo at a bare minimum.”

News

BREAKING: Man killed in Arlington house explosion likely caused the blast himself, authorities say

By Dan Egitto and Jared Serre

Published June 7, 2024 at 11:30AM | Updated June 7, 2024 at 12:05PM

Dashcam video of house explosion (via Arlington County/YouTube)

An Arlington man likely caused the explosion that killed him and leveled his house during a standoff with police in December, authorities have concluded.

James Yoo, 56, appears to have poured gasoline throughout the basement where the blast — which engulfed the house in a fireball, hurled debris for three blocks and could be heard and felt for miles around — originated. Investigators concluded that Yoo himself likely sparked the blast by striking an ignition source such as a match, lighter, flare or gun.

News

Invasive, parachuting Joro spiders have not come to Arlington (yet)

By Dan Egitto

Published June 6, 2024 at 3:55PM

A Joro spider (via FNRClemson/YouTube)

Though media reports are buzzing with tales of an invasive, parachuting arachnid with four-inch legs, the Joro spider doesn’t appear to have landed yet in Arlington.

The bug, a native of East Asia introduced to Georgia in the 2010s, has generated headlines across the Eastern seaboard this week. Though of minimal threat to humans, the creature’s size and its spiderlings’ habit of gliding for miles on strands of web have raised cries of disgust and alarm.

News

Company managing former WeLive space in Crystal City files for bankruptcy

By Dan Egitto

Published June 6, 2024 at 11:45AM | Updated June 6, 2024 at 12:13PM

WeWork / WeLive in Crystal City, in 2016 (file photo)

The company managing a residential space in a Crystal City office building has filed for bankruptcy.

Common Living — the company in charge of the Common co-living space at 2221 S. Clark Street — filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Friday, indicating plans to liquidate its assets. All company operations have been suspended, according to a news release.

News

Planned HQ2 expansion gets more utility work, but no updates on construction timeline

By Dan Egitto

Published June 5, 2024 at 11:30AM

Utility work at the planned site of PenPlace, the next phase of HQ2, in June 2024 (staff photo by Dan Egitto)

Utility work for HQ2’s stalled second phase is continuing this month, but Amazon is still keeping mum about a construction timeline.

Several sidewalk and crosswalk closures are scheduled for the next few weeks in the area of the planned PenPlace site in Pentagon City, contractor Clark Construction said in an update to neighbors.

News

One Missing Middle lawsuit dismissed, but the county’s legal fees are still mounting

By Dan Egitto

Published June 4, 2024 at 3:55PM | Updated June 4, 2024 at 4:47PM

Attendees at the Arlington County Board meeting Wednesday, March 22 on Missing Middle Housing (staff photo)

The first Missing Middle case to be heard in Arlington Circuit Court was dismissed last week, but legal fees in another lawsuit against the county continue to balloon.

The dismissed lawsuit related to a pair of planned six-plexes in Alcova Heights, approved after the Expanded Housing Option changes. A judge struck the suit down on Friday “due to technical defects,” Zachary Williams, an attorney for developer Classic Cottages, told ARLnow.