This biweekly sponsored column is written by the experts at Gordon James Realty, a local property management firm that specializes in residential real estate, commercial real estate and home owner associations. Please submit any questions in the comments section or via email.
Whether you are managing your rental property on your own, or have hired a property manager, here are three things we at Gordon James Realty take into consideration when calculating the rental rate for a given property.
The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
Yes, Board Chair Garvey should have started the push for the Blue Ribbon Panel earlier. However, opponents effectively gutted the Panel when they were successful in delaying it. The Panel was supposed to bring a fresh set of eyes to a report due by December rather than leaving it to county staff. Fearing this independent review, status quo forces in Arlington carried the day — using Garvey’s hotly contested primary as a cudgel to do so. These special interests who lobby the Board are fine with spending tens of millions of dollars in the closeout process each year with virtually no public input. But empanelling a small group of people to provide input on a report due every five years is apparently a bridge too far.
On May 9, APS Superintendent Patrick Murphy presented his preliminary recommendations regarding how APS’ Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) could reduce APS’ 4,600 total seat deficit in 2025. Murphy’s preliminary recommendations reduced only 53% of that deficit.
On May 17, the School Board (SB) reviewed and discussed Murphy’s recommendations. Dissatisfied with Murphy’s priorities, the SB adopted its own series of “key points,” including:
By Mary Hynes
In theory, everyone is for transparency in government – residents, politicians and public servants, businesses, non-profits, and government workers.
You’ve heard the term NIMBY — Not In My Backyard — used as a pejorative to describe those who oppose new development near them, even though they might not be opposed to the same project elsewhere. In San Francisco, Seattle, New York and elsewhere, however, YIMBYs are starting to organize.
The Yes In My Backyard movement supports efforts to build more housing, with the goal of building enough housing that supply and demand find an equilibrium and people stop getting priced out of the housing market.
As long as you’re staying indoors during Saturday’s rain storm, we would love your feedback about the comment change we made last month. When we polled readers a week after the change, which requires that commenters have a Disqus account, most people were neutral to positive about it.
Has that changed at all? Let’s find out. Consider both your experience as a commenter and as a comment reader — overall, have the comments improved? — when casting you vote.
Now it’s time to revisit fall weather for a day and a half.
The good news, for those heading to Taste of Arlington tomorrow — have we mentioned Taste of Arlington enough this week? — is that the weather will be dry and sunny, if a bit cool and blustery.
By Andrew Schneider
For Progressive voice readers and commenters – and those of ARLnow’s other opinion columns — I invite you to tune it to a new program called Arlington Voices that I host on Fridays on Arlington’s very own low power community radio station WERA-LP (96.7 MHz on the FM band).
Last month, Arlington County unveiled its latest proposal for an Aquatics Center at Long Bridge Park. The County has dropped a few of the more excessive features from its last public proposal, but only after a firestorm of justified public opposition. The County also has acknowledged that the facility should be “community” focused, highlighting the relative lack of aquatics resources in South Arlington.
The latest Aquatics Center concept presents multiple unanswered questions needing resolution, e.g. who are the most likely users, has the clear demand for aquatics resources been equitably addressed? Fortunately, the County Board need not rush to judgment in the short period until the July adoption of the next CIP. Instead, the Board simply should incorporate into that CIP an appropriate dollar cap on what Arlington should spend on the revised Aquatics Center, permitting several more months of community discussion followed by a fall decision.
The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
When it comes to spending taxpayer dollars in Arlington, the year-end closeout process is most in need of reform. Not only does the County Board spend nearly tens of million per year in surplus revenues, but they do so with little public input – particularly when compared to the regular annual budget process.
The mercifully dry weather and mild temperatures will benefit tomorrow’s Walk for the Animals in Bluemont Park, which was included in this week’s Arlington Agenda.
Speaking of events, we’re letting our weekend readers hear first about a cool event we’re holding this month. It’s called WeWork, WeLive and the Future of City Living and it’s taking place on May 17. Book your ticket now, as space is limited and we’re expecting a lot of interest. For more on what we’ll be talking about, see our article on WeLive from earlier this week.
The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
Governor McAuliffe recently issued an executive order restoring to 206,000 felons who successfully completed their sentences the rights to vote, sit on juries, run for office and become a notary public.
