By Emma Violand-Sánchez
On the morning of Thursday, August 24, I stood at Courthouse Plaza next to Lizette A., an extraordinary young woman, as she led a press conference to announce that she and 10 other Dreamers and their allies would spend the weekend marching from Charlottesville to Richmond to advocate for the immigrant community.
The unofficial end to summer is almost here. Not the calendar season, mind you, but the fun part of summer where schools are out, pools are open and vacations are taken.
Some Arlingtonians maximize their summer fun by taking long vacations abroad, to the beach or to visit family. Others keep their nose to the grindstone and take some vacation days here and there.
Before we get to our most popular stories this week, here are some you may have missed:
The solar eclipse last Monday afternoon got many of you excited, and brought a lot of superb photos.
Not a single member of the House of Delegates from Arlington received an endorsement from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the nation’s largest organization of small businesses. To be fair, not a single Democrat in Virginia received one of NFIB’s 53 endorsements.
While NFIB’s legislative priorities of lower taxes and a common sense regulatory environment does not regularly line up with the Democratic policy agenda, it makes one think, how are Democrats doing when they can implement their own agenda?
As ARLnow.com previously reported, Arlington County has posted a draft civic engagement action plan.
You should read the current two-page draft plan outline, and submit comments by September 13 using the comment form.
By Paul Friedman
It was said by some that Barack Obama’s election and presidency was a reflection that America had become a post-racial society.
News related to the events in Charlottesville last week has dominated local Arlington happenings in the past few days.
But in happier news, you may hear cannon fire around Fort Myer on Saturday evening for the U.S. Army Band’s annual 1812 Overture concert. And the Arlington County Fair is underway, wrapping up up Sunday.
Activists called for Lee’s name to be removed from W-L at the Arlington School Board meeting on August 17, in the wake of this past weekend’s events in Charlottesville.
Board members announced they would study the names of all current and future schools in the county and decide if any should be changed.
As a result of numerous complaints about predatory towing practices, Arlington passed towing restrictions which required business owners to sign off on each tow.
The ordinance met resistance from some in the business community who felt the “second signature” requirement was unduly burdensome.
By Graham Weinschenk
At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, I stood in front of the Arlington School Board along with fellow members of the Student Advisory Board leadership team and declared that we had just experienced “The Year of the Student” in the Arlington Public Schools.
On July 11, Arlington posted a “Preliminary Draft” of its new Public Spaces Master Plan. This draft reflects considerable thought and effort. I encourage you to provide your comments by the newly-extended August 31 deadline.
The PSMP (p. 2) seeks to provide the foundation for:
Activists are also expected to call for Lee’s name to be removed from W-L at tonight’s Arlington School Board meeting, in the wake of this past weekend’s events in Charlottesville, sources tell ARLnow.com.
When I was a student at Washington-Lee, I clearly remember being taught in history class that Robert E. Lee “did not fight for slavery; he fought for Virginia.” I didn’t make much of it until I left Virginia for college. Many of my classmates thought it was strange that I went to a school named after the leader of the Confederate Army and that there was a highway that ran through my hometown honoring Jefferson Davis. These were racist slave-owners who rebelled against the American government and Abraham Lincoln, they told me. I shrugged and didn’t make it much of it.
