Around Town

(Updated at 8:15 pm on 02/27/23) When florist and collage artist Azeb Woldie fled Ethiopia after being harassed and imprisoned by the government, she settled on Columbia Pike and began working with a flower shop in Alexandria.

She never imagined that within a few years of moving here, her arrangements would make it onto TV and be seen by millions of people.


News

Drivers have been blocking a new PBL in search of the perfect PSL.

Last November, as part of a 2022 Complete Streets project, Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services replaced two parking spots with a protected bike lane, or “PBL,” on the east side of Clarendon Blvd. It also added new free, 15-minute parking spots at N. Danville Street, to accommodate those who would have used the two former spots when picking up their coffee order from the nearby Starbucks.


News

The old Transportation Security Administration buildings in Pentagon City, vacant and awaiting redevelopment, could get put to a new, temporary use.

Avis Car Rental is looking to add rental operations to the pair of offices and their underground garages at 601 and 701 12th Street S. The business, which currently has a location at 2600 Richmond Hwy, has filed two applications, one for each building, with the county.


News

Amazon announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it is shutting down its charitable e-commerce platform AmazonSmile, which lets customers support their favorite nonprofits while shopping.

Instead, the tech company says it will focus on areas of more “meaningful change,” chiefly, investments in affordable housing. One of the first examples it highlighted was its contributions in Arlington County, the home of its forthcoming second headquarters.


News

After a few years of planning, a new public park in Pentagon City is headed to the Arlington County Board for approval.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to consider adopting some changes to land use and zoning and property lines for two patches of land known as the “Teardrop Parcel,” once intended to be used as a maintenance facility for the streetcar that never was.


News

A realtor who says she has doubts about the current Missing Middle proposal has emerged as an Arlington County Board candidate.

Realtor Natalie Roy, founder of the Bicycling Realty Group, is vying for one of two seats on the County Board that will be left open after Katie Cristol and Chair Christian Dorsey step down. She is running for the Democratic nomination in the party’s June primary.


News

Lower speeds near schools could soon become countywide policy in Arlington.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to consider an ordinance to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on streets within 600 feet of a school property or pedestrian crossing in the vicinity of the school. This would expand on slow zones around 13 schools instituted last year.


News

A property between Rosslyn and Courthouse that is home to an office building and two long-time restaurants has been sold to a developer with plans to build apartments and retail.

D.C.-based The Fortis Cos. bought the property at the intersection of Wilson Blvd and N. Rhodes Street for $14 million.


News

Proposed Missing Middle zoning code changes are set to go before the Arlington County Board for a first look on Saturday.

The Board is slated to review a request to advertise public hearings on a proposal to allow the by-right construction of duplexes, three-unit townhouses and multi-family buildings with up to six or eight dwellings on lots of up to one acre in Arlington’s lowest-density zoning districts.


Schools

Dozens of Arlington Public Schools students now hop aboard the system’s first electric school buses.

When students returned from winter break, the county and APS replaced two of its 190 diesel engine buses with emissions-free “and almost noise-free” battery-powered electric ones, the county has announced.


News

Sally Diaz-Wells, who coordinates the food pantry at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Arlington, just got the weekly egg bill.

It was $2,000, which makes up nearly 20% of the church’s weekly budget of $12,000 for purchasing food for distribution.


News

America’s oldest continuous law-making body, the Virginia General Assembly, is now in session, and local lawmakers have introduced a slew of new legislation.

With split control of the General Assembly, Republicans of the House of Delegates and Democrats of the Senate, it’s unclear how many bills introduced by Arlington’s all-Democratic representation will pass.


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