By Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz
Early this year, the County Board and School Board voted to create the Joint Facilities Advisory Commission. I am honored to join 20 other Arlingtonians as JFAC members.
Opinion
It’s been quite a week for well-known national businesses getting set up in Arlington.
Some of our most popular stories have included the new Dunkin’ Donuts on N. Glebe Road, signs going up for a new McDonald’s in Rosslyn and Starbucks‘ impending move into Marymount University’s “Newside” building.
Arlington spent around $300 million building three new high schools over the past decade. The most logical solution to the need for additional classroom seats would be to add on to the existing structures.
The problem: those schools were largely planned when school officials were betting on studies showing school enrollments stable or going down, not up. As a result, little thought was given to the ability to expand those facilities at a later date.
Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
A grudging admission by a representative of the county’s department of parks and recreation at a civic association meeting last week underscores that DPR still has a very long way to go to improve its civic engagement practices.
By Rip Sullivan
This year’s General Assembly session saw one highly partisan bill after another pass both Republican-controlled chambers, with little or no apparent interest in seeking input from Democrats.
It appears Arlingtonians were looking for a lot of things to do this week, based on some of the top ARLnow stories.
A lot of readers were interested in the Capitals offering free yoga classes during the NHL playoffs (the second one is tomorrow), Heritage Brewing Company opening on Wednesday and a number of farmers markets opening for the season.
There are plenty of special Easter happenings including church services, egg hunts and brunches.
Although county community centers are closed on Sunday, parks will remain open to visitors who may want to hike, picnic or use playground equipment.
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Republicans in the General Assembly have rejected Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) call to expand Medicaid once again. The governor made the last minute push after Congress failed to pass a new plan in March. Here are four reasons to question the wisdom of passing expansion.
Congress could still partially repeal the law this year. Reports from Washington are that the American Health Care Act could be amended in such a way that it will have the votes to pass. If so, Virginia’s expansion would not be able to go forward even if it passed the General Assembly.
Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
ARLnow.com reported last week that one local resident has filed a request with Arlington’s Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board to designate the site on which the Ed Center and Planetarium are located as a “historic district.”
By Paul Friedman
Although it is a tragedy that remains fresh in our minds, this week will mark 10 years since the shootings at Virginia Tech that cost the lives of 32 people, physically injured at least 24 others and traumatized many more.
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Following Thursday’s strong storms — which spawned a rare Arlington tornado — and today’s chillier temperatures, the weekend should warm back up. That’s just in time for APS students’ first days of spring break.
Local small business news created quite a buzz this week, as long-time retailer Casual Adventure announced it will close and CarPool poured its final beers after months of surviving on borrowed time. Despite previous rumors of it “not doing well,” the owner of Clarendon restaurant Oz said that the Aussie-themed eatery has experienced a turnaround.
Just as with our county budget, no one can argue with a straight face that our school budget is strained. We are consistently tops in the region in per pupil spending.
In the past I have asked for an explanation of what makes up the difference between the reported $18,957 per pupil spending and the $22,032 of actual spending. Per pupil spending would increase by $564 under the proposed FY 2018 budget.