Arlington County police will be stepping up enforcement and a traffic safety education next week as students go back to school.
The first day of school for Arlington Public Schools is Monday, meaning more children walking, bicycling, and riding the bus around Arlington.
APS Mulls Next School Calendar — “The biggest battle may be over the proposal that Arlington align itself with other jurisdictions that are now starting the school year two weeks before Labor Day. Arlington’s school year in recent years has started one week before, and many respondents to an online survey conducted by the school system were not in favor of starting earlier than that.” [Gazette Leader]
Higher Faregates Working? — “Metro today released preliminary data showing that new, higher faregates are reducing fare evasion by more than 70 percent at the first stations where they have been installed, including Fort Totten, Pentagon City, Bethesda, Vienna, Mt. Vernon Square, and Addison Road.” [WMATA]
Arlington County police responded to a break-in at Nova Armory early this morning.
The Metro-accessible gun store at 2607 Wilson Blvd had its front door “smashed in” by a suspect, setting off a loud alarm. The suspect reportedly took items but not any guns — the retailer takes weapons off shelves and stores them securely at night.
(Updated at 9:15 p.m.) Thousands were without power in and around Crystal City and Pentagon City for much of the day due to a widespread outage.
The outage was first reported just after 11:15 a.m. Arlington County firefighters investigated a possible underground explosion and treated a Dominion worker with burns from steam that came out of a manhole, according to scanner traffic.
‘Missing Middle’ Permits Approved — “Arlington County approved its first three expanded housing option permits that will allow developers to move forward on building a 6-plex housing unit, a three townhouse complex, and a two-unit project… on lots in different parts of the county previously zoned for single-family housing. One of the projects approved by Arlington County is located uphill from an area in the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods in which the county is taking measures to address flooding issues.” [Patch]
Late Night Fire at Apartment Building — From Dave Statter, about a Sunday night incident: “Video of @ArlingtonVaFD arriving at the Crystal Plaza Apartments, 2111 Richmond Highway, about 30 minutes ago. A fire was found in the boiler room.” [Twitter]
Plans to build the future pedestrian bridge from Crystal City to National Airport are firming up.
A new report outlines the impact the bridge could have on the environment. It also details how the project will relate to separate plans to redo roadways and add more parking, new car rental facility and office space.
Those living near Walter Reed Community Center may soon get a reprieve from the pickleball pop.
Next week, a 10-foot-tall acoustic fence will be installed at the multi-use pickleball and tennis courts at 2909 16th Street S., south of Columbia Pike.
Arlington County police are investigating an armed robbery in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood early Friday morning.
The robbery happened around 1:30 a.m. at the intersection of S. Arlington Ridge Road and 23rd Street S.
Solidcore Moving HQ to Rosslyn — “A growing boutique fitness company is moving its corporate headquarters again, this time from D.C. to Rosslyn, in search of more space. Come September, Solidcore Holdings LLC — branded as [solidcore] — will move out of its offices at 1728 14th St. NW in the District, where it takes 6,700 square feet. The company will move to 1735 N. Lynn St. in Rosslyn, where it inked a lease in June for 12,000 square feet.” [Washington Business Journal]
Attic Fire in Green Valley — “Fire in the attic of a Green Valley duplex is out, per ACFD. Sizable response remains on scene.” [Twitter, Twitter]
For years, parts of Columbia Pike have been under construction, resulting in wider sidewalks, newly-planted trees and underground utilities, among other changes.
Now, work on the penultimate phase of the years-long Columbia Pike Multimodal Street Improvements project is slated to begin in September, according to the county. Work could begin on the final phase early next year.
A 34-year-old D.C. man was arrested last month in a high-profile Arlington sexual assault case.
Police say they suspect Geremy Bridgeforth is the man who broke into a woman’s apartment in Virginia Square on April 2 and sexually assaulted her. That attack was followed by a subsequent early-morning apartment break-in on April 12, in Courthouse, in which the victim was touched inappropriately.
Clarendon Gym-Office Combo Highlighted — “Jessica DiGiovanna starts her Mondays at 6:30 a.m. with squats, dead lifts and lunges at her local Life Time gym. Afterward, she showers, gets dressed—and stays, working on her laptop and phone until about 6 p.m. Her new office is the gym, on the fourth floor, in a co-working space scented with notes of bergamot and stocked with a basket of fruit and energy bars. DiGiovanna, a 25-year-old audit project manager in Arlington, Va., only goes to her real office for big meetings and other organized events.” [Wall Street Journal]
New Raise for Arlington Startup — “ElectroTempo, an Arlington company that uses analytics to project electric vehicle use and demand for charging stations, has raised $4 million in a seed round to expand its team, refine its software and move into slightly larger space. The round, announced Wednesday, was led by Buoyant Ventures, a Chicago investment firm focused on startups combating climate change, with participation from Zebox, a French accelerator and incubator for logistics startups whose U.S. headquarters is in Crystal City.” [Washington Business Journal]
