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

Obstructed views at ‘The Waterview’ leave Rosslyn homeowners threatening lawsuit

By Scott McCaffrey
Telecommunications boxes seen from The Waterview (courtesy photo)

A dispute over obstructed views from multimillion-dollar condos in Rosslyn has left some officials up in arms and homeowners threatening a lawsuit.

County-government staff last month received multiple tongue-lashings from members of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) over their handling of a 2023 zoning matter at The Waterview condo building in Rosslyn.

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News

School relocation, park upgrades, townhouse development on County Board agenda

By Scott McCaffrey
2025 County Board (screenshot via Arlington County)

Arlington County Board members have a lighter-than-usual agenda as they plan to gather for their monthly meeting on Saturday (March 15).

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some items worth watching. Among them:

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News

Arlington prosecutor pushes for more staff despite budget crunch

By Scott McCaffrey
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti at her 2023 election watch party in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney is pushing for an increase in funding for her office as the county continues to wrestle with a relatively tight budget.

At a budget work session last week, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti argued on behalf of three additional staff positions not included in the current budget draft.

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News

Arlington’s three state delegates formally announce re-election bids

By Scott McCaffrey
Dels. Alfonso Lopez, Patrick Hope and Adele McClure (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Three members of Arlington’s delegation to the House of Delegates launched re-election bids last week.

Dels. Adele McClure (D-2), Patrick Hope (D-1) and Alfonso Lopez (D-3) were widely expected to seek new terms.

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News

Arlington deer-culling efforts come with $151K price tag in budget proposal

By Scott McCaffrey
Deer grazing in the forest (via Arlington County Dept. of Parks and Recreation/YouTube)

The Arlington government’s budget woes likely won’t be severe enough to impact new deer-culling efforts.

The $151,000 proposed in County Manager Mark Schwartz’s draft fiscal 2026 budget “will fund these efforts,” Department of Parks and Recreation director Jane Rudolph told County Board members at a Feb. 27 budget work session.

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News

Arlington’s $8M funding bid for trail along Long Bridge Drive is rejected

By Scott McCaffrey
Bicyclists on the Mt. Vernon Trail while a boat on the Potomac passes by (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

An Arlington request for $8 million to support construction of a key segment of the Cross Potomac Trail has gotten the ax.

Staff from the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) and Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) determined that the project does not meet the criteria for funding through the Commuter Choice initiative.

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News

Big history, colorful tales can be found all along Little Falls Road

By Scott McCaffrey
Saegmuller mansion at 5115 Little Falls Road is now owned by the local Knights of Columbus (staff photo by Dave Facinoli)

The spring real-estate market is about to bloom, and some of the most sought-after homes in Arlington are located along Little Falls Road and in the neighborhoods that flank them.

Whether Rock Spring, Yorktown, Williamsburg or East Falls Church, the neighborhoods Little Falls Road traverses are interesting and eclectic. Along the way, you will pass a number of religious buildings and schools (public and private).

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News

Ranked-choice voting not likely in Falls Church until at least 2027

By Scott McCaffrey
Falls Church Registrar David Bjerke feeds provisional ballots into a scanner (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Falls Church officials appear willing to hold off, for now, on moving City Council elections to a ranked-choice format.

“It might be better to wait,” city elections director David Bjerke said at a Monday Falls Church Electoral Board meeting.

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News

Tenant-landlord panel seeks more engagement with renters, property owners

By Scott McCaffrey
Artistic renderings of a reimagined Barcroft site (via Arlington County)

Members of the Arlington government’s Tenant-Landlord Commission are aiming to forge deeper bonds with both its constituencies.

At the advisory panel’s Feb. 12 meeting, commission chair David Timm said the body was seeking to “cultivate some relationships” among tenant groups at some of Arlington’s larger apartment complexes.

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News

Economic, job uncertainty may be starting to impact Arlington homes market

By Scott McCaffrey
Home for sale sign and Arlington real estate (illustration by ARLnow)

A recent spike upward in the number of price cuts in the Arlington housing market could be connected to local and regional economic anxiety.

A key expert in the field tells ARLnow the data will be worth watching, but it is still too early to tell whether it is a one-time blip or the start of a more significant trend.

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Schools

School Board member questions APS’s decision to stop posting on X

By Scott McCaffrey
School Board member Miranda Turner (screenshot via Arlington Public Schools)

Arlington Public Schools’ recent decision to stop posting on the social-media platform X is getting some scrutiny from a School Board member.

Miranda Turner at the Feb. 27 Board meeting sought clarification of the reasons behind leaving the platform — formerly Twitter — and the 21,000 people who followed APS’s main X account (among smaller school-level accounts).

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News

Placement of ‘stumbling stones’ memorializing the enslaved to expand this spring

By Scott McCaffrey
Markers outside the Ball-Sellers House in memory of people enslaved there (photo via Arlington County)

“Stumbling stones” honoring the lives of people enslaved in pre-Civil War Arlington will soon be coming to more local neighborhoods.

An additional 15 of the brass memorial markers are slated to be placed in seven neighborhoods in coming months, part of a joint initiative of the Arlington Historical Society, Black Heritage Museum of Arlington and the county government.

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