By Nicole Merlene
Outside of voting, most Arlingtonians do not participate in local civic life. Even fewer study key planning documents such as the Arlington Community Energy Plan or the Rosslyn Sector Plan.
Opinion
The Arlington County Board must act now to enable the Joint Facilities Advisory Commission to perform its primary long-term planning role with respect to two large parcels of land on Carlin Springs Road: the Kenmore Middle School site and the Urgent Care site.
JFAC recently has been asked to dedicate some of its attention to helping Arlington Public Schools and the county with a phased facility and site development plan for the Career Center site.
But inevitably, breaking news does happen in Arlington. We are a county with some 230,000 residents, a major airport, rail lines, Metro tunnels, highways, bridges, a river, government offices and one of the world’s largest office buildings — things happen here.
We know that one thing readers like about us is that we are often the first to report breaking news. But our email subscribers are often slow to see that breaking news, since by design they only get an update once a day.
Not everyone gets the day off work, of course. There are essential workers — cops, nurses, bus drivers, etc. — who work no matter what the holiday. Then there are organizations like ours, which swap Columbus Day with the day after Thanksgiving, thus trading today for a four-day Thanksgiving weekend, which many employees prefer. There also might be some who do not treat Columbus Day as a holiday out of principle.
But just how large a portion is off today? Who is enjoying a three day weekend, compared to those who are working?
The first full weekend of October starts with excitement for Washington Nationals fans, as the team begins its playoff series against last year’s World Series winners, the Chicago Cubs.
Another big event taking place this weekend is the 33rd annual Army Ten-Miler on Sunday. A number of roads will be closed in Arlington to accommodate the race.
Autumn might have officially arrived on September 22, but weather in the 80s and 90s since then has had some people still stuck in summer mode. Despite the weather roller coaster, some people are going full steam ahead into fall and embracing fall activities.
A number of events in Arlington over the coming weeks are fall-themed, such as Columbia Pike Fall Fest on Saturday or the Howl O’ Ween Walk to the Rescue on Sunday. But there are plenty of traditional fall activities you might enjoy that aren’t necessarily an organized event, such as looking at the changing colors of fall foliage or picking apples and pumpkins. Or maybe you’re a sports buff and at this time of year you most enjoy watching playoff baseball.
In Progressive Voice last week, Delegate Alfonso Lopez expressed the opinion that redistricting reform is the only way Democrats can push their agenda through the Virginia General Assembly. Redistricting reform, he argues, would result in Medicaid expansion, a minimum wage increase and more education funding.
Surely Delegate Lopez knows Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in a majority of the House of Delegates districts in November of 2016. Despite the existence of a majority of Clinton districts, Republicans currently hold a 66-34 majority in the House. And, I have noted before, Virginia Senate Democrats drew their own district lines in an attempt to maintain a majority, but voters gave Republicans the majority instead.
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By Michelle Winters
In 2015, the Arlington County Board adopted its first-ever Affordable Housing Master Plan. Two years in, how are we doing?
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Last week, County government added an item to the County Board’s agenda for its October 21 meeting.
This item seeks Board approval of a resolution authorizing:
If you frequent Clarendon or other highly-populated Arlington neighborhoods, you’ve likely encountered them: flourescent-vest-wearing young people stopping passersby to solicit support for the environment, civil liberties, or other causes and organizations.
They’re usually friendly, though persistent, working in teams to ensure no one walks by without a pitch. Even intensely looking down at one’s phone and/or wearing headphones does not seem to discourage many from approaching as you walk down the sidewalk gauntlet.
From 1992 to 2012 I did a monthly home entertainment column on the movie pages of Playboy. I would review several B-movies or direct-to-tape (later, direct-to-disc) films, with the occasional A-list movie.
There are few bigger thrills than getting your first paycheck with an embossed “bunny head” on it signed by Hugh Hefner’s daughter, Christie. (Hef led the way in empowering women; his daughter was chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises. His considerable philanthropy for women’s rights and free speech is largely unnoticed, and he liked it that way.)
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A few weeks ago, Peter Rousselot revisited the issues surrounding launching or expanding a business in Arlington. If you missed it, you should definitely read the story about the business owner who had to install a front door system three times before getting it approved because two inspectors gave them different interpretations of the code.
The conclusion we can draw from the piece is that for years of promoting itself as a world class community, Arlington is still woefully short of offering world class service to businesses who wish to call Arlington home. This is unless you are a big name company who promises two hundred new jobs, in which case, Arlington will probably pay you to locate your business here.