Last night, hundreds gathered outside the family home of Cpl. Spencer Collart, who died tragically during a training exercise in Australia, to honor his life.
Despite the somber atmosphere at the Maywood home of Collart’s parents, Alexia and Bart, neighbors, friends and family offered prayers, shared fond memories and joined together to sing Spencer’s favorite song, “Africa” by Toto.
Using a restrictive covenant in a 1938 deed, neighbors in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood convinced a developer to build a single-family home instead of a duplex.
The home, 1313 N. Harrison Street, is not far from a wall that separated the historically Black neighborhood of Hall’s Hill from single-family-home subdivisions originally built exclusively for white people. In addition to specifying that only one home can be built on the lot, a second provision in the deed bars owners from selling to people who are not white.
(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Arlington National Cemetery was closed for most of the day today due to a bomb threat.
The cemetery said on social media Friday morning that the threat is being investigated.
Rent Keeps Rising — “Arlington saw the third highest month-over-month increase in apartment rents nationally in August, and now stands as the eighth priciest locality among 100 urban areas monitored by Apartment List. The median rent for an apartment in Arlington stood at $2,318 in the new data, reported Aug. 30. That was up 0.9 percent from a month before, and represents an increase of 9.6 percent since a trough at the start of the year.” [Gazette Leader]
Garvey Mulling Reelection — “Will it be a last hurrah, or serve as the precursor to a re-election bid? Libby Garvey hasn’t made up her mind, but says that either way, she aims to make her (expected) coming year as chair of the Arlington County Board in 2024 an effective one.” [Gazette Leader]
(Updated 7:10 p.m.) The Arlington County Police Department is pouring more time and people into recruiting officers in an effort to outpace attrition.
For the past four years the number of “functional staff” at ACPD has been in decline. That includes sworn officers and higher-up positions but excludes those on light duty for medical reasons as well as those in training.
(Updated at 12:10 p.m.) The first thing you notice when walking into the rebuilt Ireland’s Four Courts — which is officially reopening today, at long last — is that it’s both familiar and new at the same time.
The interior is a bit brighter and more open — the crash that smashed and torched the long-time Courthouse watering hole last summer revealed to the owners that the columns near the front were decorative, not structural.
Flyover Planned This Morning — “The Naval Air Force Atlantic will conduct a military aircraft flyover in the NCR over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, September 7, 2023, at approximately 11:10 AM.”
BB Gun Confiscated at W-L — “1300 block of N. Stafford Street. At approximately 10:26 a.m. on September 5, police were dispatched to Washington-Liberty High School to the report of found property. Upon arrival, it was determined school administration located a BB gun in a student’s possession on school property. Responding officers took custody of the BB gun and petitions for the juvenile were sought for Possession of a Weapon on School Property.” [Arlington County]
A manhunt is underway in D.C. for an escaped murder suspect, and Arlington police are on alert should he try to cross into the county.
D.C. and federal officers are currently searching the Georgetown area, following the 30-year-old suspect’s escape from GW Hospital this afternoon. Police have also been searching the Foggy Bottom area.
After a summer lull, politicking in Arlington is back in full swing.
For candidates, the first big stop on the campaign trail was an in-person and virtual forum hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation, or CivFed, last night (Tuesday).
Several roads in Pentagon City and Rosslyn will be temporarily closed this Saturday for the Arlington 9/11 Memorial 5K and 2023 Rosslyn Jazz Fest.
While jazz enthusiasts sway to soulful tunes, just a few miles away, emergency responders will be lacing up their running shoes for the Arlington Police, Fire, Sheriff, & ECC 9/11 Memorial 5K race in Pentagon City.
The Air & Space Forces Association will be moving out an office building north of Rosslyn to something closer to the Pentagon.
The association, which supports members the Air and Space Forces, was looking for a more modern space for its national headquarters after spending about 40 years in an office building from the 1980s. It sold its digs on Langston Blvd earlier this year before agreeing to move into the Westpost development, formerly Pentagon Row, in Pentagon City.
Arlington County has spent more than $150,000 on acoustic fencing to help manage the noise coming from pickleball courts.
In recent weeks and months, acoustic fencing has gone up around multi-use courts at five different parks around the county. That includes Glebe Road Park, Marcey Road Park, Hayes Park, Virginia Highlands Park, and Walter Reed Community Center, which were installed just last week — and two years ahead of schedule.
