Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

News

Falls Church meals-tax revenue recovers after a bumpy start to the year

By Scott McCaffrey
Roll Play is among the recently opened restaurants in Falls Church (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Falls Church officials are breathing a sigh of relief as meals-tax revenue seems to have bounced back from declines earlier in the year.

“We did have a rebound. We’ll continue watching it,” City Manager Wyatt Shields said at the Oct. 3 meeting of the City Council’s budget and finance committee.

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News

County seeks input on transition time for possible gas-powered leaf blower ban

By Scott McCaffrey
A leaf blower at the US Air Force Memorial in a past year (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

County leaders are seeking public input on how long a transition period to allow if Arlington ends up phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers.

Nationwide, most jurisdictions that have imposed bans on gas-powered blowers have provided an interim period to educate the public and to allow professional firms and homeowners to acquire the correct equipment.

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News

Ballston office-to-residential conversion awaits County Board action

By Scott McCaffrey
4100 Fairfax Drive is shown located behind IHOP restaurant (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

A major office building in Ballston may be next in line for conversion to residential use.

Property owner Red Fox DC LLC is expected to come to the County Board later this month, seeking approval to convert a 13-story office building at 4100 Fairfax Drive — above Bronson Bierhall — to 296 residential units.

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News

County Board candidates mostly upbeat on office-to-residential building conversions

By Scott McCaffrey
A rendering of a proposed adaptive reuse project at 2200 Crystal Drive (rendering by Brick Visual, courtesy of JBG Smith)

County Board candidates largely expressed interest in efforts to convert aging office buildings to residential and hotel uses at a recent candidate forum.

“There are huge opportunities,” Board Chair Takis Karantonis said during the Sept. 30 event sponsored by Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future.

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News

Mount Olivet’s 170-year history comes to life with historic re-enactments

By Scott McCaffrey
Catherine Aselford portrays one of the founders of Mount Olivet United Methodist Church (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Historical re-enactors brought names from the past to life at the Mount Olivet United Methodist Church Cemetery last weekend.

The event, which involved re-enactors portraying some of the notables interred on the grounds, was hosted jointly by the church and the Arlington Historical Society. It was an opportunity to celebrate 170 years of “education, healing and spiritual growth,” said Mary Waters of the church’s history committee.

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News

Arlington unemployment up 38% over 2024 as regional leaders brace for more

By Scott McCaffrey
Job seekers line up at career day in Crystal City (staff file photo by Jay Westcott)

Joblessness in Arlington County is up 38% year-over-year in new state data, and local officials are warning that federal layoffs will likely bring further increases.

A total of 5,413 Arlington residents were recorded as seeking jobs in August, according to data released yesterday (Wednesday) by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement. That’s compared to 3,932 unemployed residents in August 2024.

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News

ART recorded improved ridership, on-time performance during FY25

By Scott McCaffrey
Arlington Transit bus (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Arlington Transit (ART) in fiscal 2025 returned to service levels last seen immediately preceding the pandemic, according to county officials.

About 2.62 million passengers rode the local service between July 2024 and June 2025, on par with the period between July 2019 and June 2020.

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News

Arlington apartment rents dip slightly, but remain among the nation’s highest

By Scott McCaffrey
Valen apartment building at 2050 S. Bell Street (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

The median rental cost for an Arlington apartment is down 0.9% year-over-year, according to new data, paralleling a slight nationwide decrease.

The county’s apartments remain among the most expensive in major urban areas outside California.

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News

Housing panel seeks more local autonomy to tackle affordability in Arlington

By Scott McCaffrey
An affordable housing building in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington’s Housing Commission is seeking more local leeway in addressing affordable housing and new formulas for determining the number of affordable units in new projects.

Commission Chair Kellen MacBeth included these recommendations in a letter to the County Board following a review of policies by the Affordable Housing Ordinance working group established earlier this year. County leaders are currently developing legislative priorities for the 2026 General Assembly session.

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News

Falls Church officials seek to overhaul design of city website

By Scott McCaffrey
Falls Church government-operations committee meeting (screenshot via Falls Church)

Falls Church city leaders are working to update a government website that they acknowledge has fallen behind the times.

Poor functionality on mobile devices, broken links and outdated information and contacts currently plague the website, according to Joshua Surprenant, who joined the communications staff in April and has been tasked with dissecting the site’s strengths and weaknesses.

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News

In the 1920s, Organized Women Voters became a force in Arlington’s political scene

By Scott McCaffrey
Organized Women Voters of Arlington 1954 (via Charlie Clark Center for Local History)

This reporting was supported by the ARLnow Press Club. Get upgraded email newsletters while supporting in-depth local journalism.

The League of Women Voters of Arlington was established by a coalition of 17 founding members in January 1944, and for more than 80 years has been a force in the county’s civic life.

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Schools

APS probably won’t sell buildings even if enrollment drops continue, official says

By Scott McCaffrey
2025 construction work at the Grace Hopper Center, located next to the current Arlington Career Center (staff photo by Dan Egitto)

Even given the possibility of declining enrollment at Arlington Public Schools over the next decade, school leaders say they’re disinclined to dispose of any facilities.

Jeffrey Chambers, the school system’s director of design and construction, said the school system learned from a decision to do that several decades ago.

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