Arlington County has received a $1.2 million federal grant to move people experiencing homelessness into permanent or temporary apartment housing.
Approximately 55% of the grant will be for housing — mostly one- and two-bedroom affordable rental units — and the remainder “is for supportive services and staffing,” says Dept. of Human Services spokesman Kurt Larrick.
Essy’s Carriage House Closing — “Announcing another landmark soon to vanish: Essy’s Carriage House, the American cuisine steakhouse that’s been a fixture in Cherrydale for 48 years, will close its doors at the end of March. No other Arlington full-service restaurant has been open longer, according to founder-owner Essy Saedi, an Iranian immigrant who came to the United States in 1962. (An exception might be Mario’s Pizza, primarily takeout since 1958.)” [Falls Church News-Press]
La Coop Grand Opening — “Customers lined up outside on Saturday to get their first drink and pastry at the grand opening of La Coop Coffee’s new location in the Arlington Forest neighborhood of Arlington. La Coop Coffee had already made a name for itself in Arlington by selling coffee at the nearby Lubber Run Farmers Market.” [Patch]
(Updated at 4 p.m.) A pair of suspects carjacked a vehicle in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood last night, leading to a police chase into D.C.
The carjacking happened around 8:30 p.m. Saturday on the 2800 block of Fort Scott Drive, not far from Crystal City.
Update at 2:30 p.m. — The issues have been resolved, Arlington County authorities say. Alexandria also experienced the same problems.
Earlier: Arlington County “is experiencing technical difficulties with calls placed to 9-1-1,” according to an Arlington Alert notification.
A local man is accused of drunkenly breaking into Washington-Liberty High School early this morning, damaging a door.
Nothing was reported stolen and the motivation for the alleged break-in is unclear.
Arlington County police have gotten a new best friend, one that’s specifically trained to sniff out firearms.
Earlier this week, the Arlington County Police Department announced they’ve welcomed K9 Loki to the force.
Arlington County is one of the top 15 safest “cities” in the United States, according to a new set of rankings.
The number crunchers at SmartAsset looked at violent and property crime rates, as well as rates of vehicle-related deaths, drug-related deaths and excessive drinking. They ranked Arlington at No. 11, below No. 10 Yonkers, New York, No. 6 Alexandria and No. 1 Frisco, Texas, among others.
Reparations Instead of Missing Middle? — “Arlington residents and their descendants who were harmed by past housing policy decisions could see greater benefits from a reparations program than from a policy that calls for simply increasing the number of housing units in the county, according to an opponent of the county’s Missing Middle housing plan. Arlington County could consider establishing a program of reparations through its housing policy, featuring down-payment assistance to these residents, said Jim Schulman, executive director of the Alliance for Regional Cooperation.” [Patch]
Payments to Amazon Delayed — “Amazon.com Inc. could have received its first HQ2-tied incentive payment from Virginia this July, based on its payment schedule with the commonwealth — but it has yet to apply for any funding, pushing disbursement at least three years into the future, the Washington Business Journal has learned. The e-commerce and cloud computing giant’s memorandum of understanding with Virginia requires it to formally apply for cash incentives based on its local hiring progress and capital investments, payments that could reach $750 million by 2039.” [Washington Business Journal]
A residential redevelopment planned for a four-story office building, bank drive-thru and parking lot on Columbia Pike is now heading to the Arlington County Board.
On Monday night, the Planning Commission unanimously voted its approval for a project that would tear down the Bank of America building at 3401 Columbia Pike, at the northwest corner of S. Glebe Road and the Pike, next to the Wendy’s. It will now head to the Arlington County Board, which is slated to consider the project at its meeting next Saturday, Feb. 18.
A police chase ended last night in Arlington with a state trooper injured and the alleged fleeing driver in custody.
The chase started on I-395, when a Virginia State Police trooper’s automated license plate reader flagged a Cadillac that was wanted by Fairfax County police. During the chase, a trooper’s vehicle was rammed and crashed along northbound I-395 in Arlington.
A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to assault after he threatened and stole the keys of a dump truck driver following a crash on the GW Parkway.
The road rage incident happened on Nov. 1 along the Arlington portion of the Parkway. It was prosecuted in federal court since it happened on National Park Service land.
Rosslyn Station Evacuation Last Night — From Dave Statter: “@ArlingtonVaFD arriving minutes ago at Rosslyn Metro confirming haze of smoke in the station & checking for source of the problem. Passengers reported hearing a loud pop or explosion under a train. Rail traffic shut down.” [Twitter, Twitter, Twitter]
Late Night Pentagon Pile Driving Irks Some — From Dave Statter: “It appears after a couple nights of this neighbors complained to @ArlingtonVaPD. It made me chuckle, as I’m sure its does you, that anyone thinks local police have even the slightest chance of getting it stopped. No matter how many decibels, that noise complaint is DOA.” [Twitter]
