Tomorrow, the Arlington County Board members will renew the annual tradition of previewing their priorities for the year. Unfortunately, the speeches can often be compared to a New Year’s resolution to go to the gym.
Before the speeches begin, the Board will need to elect a new Chairman. In recent history, the Vice Chairman has moved up to the center chair. But last year, Walter Tejada served in that role before announcing his retirement.
Where are those plans taking you? Many, no doubt, will stay in Arlington — either at home or at a bar, although Virginia ABC laws preventing establishments from offering an open bar puts a damper on the kind of parties one can attend at bars and clubs.
Many will also likely head into the District to take advantage of the myriad NYE parties, although transportation back is always a challenge. Wait for Metro, try to get one of the few available cabs, pay Uber’s top surge price, or designate a driver and try to find parking — the decision isn’t always ideal.
The high temperature today and tomorrow is expected to hover around 70 degrees. In the meantime, cloud cover will make it hard to spot Santa tonight, and Ol’ Saint Nick might want to bring a rain jacket, with storms and flash flooding expected.
A white Christmas is fairly rare in Arlington, and this year is no exception. On any given year, Arlington has around an 11 percent historic probability of having snow on the ground on Dec. 25. Anecdotally, cool and dry seems to describe the most common Christmas Day here.
The weekend is here. And it’s freezing.
The good news, for those who don’t need the Hollywood vision of a white Christmas to make the holiday merry, is that warmth will be returning. Forecasters say a record high temperature of 72 degrees is possible on Christmas Eve.
The price of a gallon of regular gasoline at the BP station, pictured here, has dropped to $1.91 from $1.97 just last month.
It’s tied for second-lowest price in the county, according to GasBuddy.com, with only Arlington Auto Service on Columbia Pike cheaper, at $1.83 per gallon.
This week, the County Board approved its package of priorities for the Virginia General Assembly to address. The report came in at 53 items in total.
Item number one of the entire proposal asked for the ability to levy taxes, including the BPOL tax. This is the tax on the privilege of owning a business based in Arlington. It taxes your gross receipts, not your gross profits. It should be phased out or abolished as soon as possible by Arlington to encourage economic development in the County.
By Mary Rouleau
Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.
Holiday parties are in full swing, holiday cards from friends and loved ones are arriving by the truckload and a potentially record-breaking holiday travel period is upon us.
How are your fellow Arlington residents doing, in terms of embodying the holiday spirit of patience, generosity, positivity and concern for one’s fellow man?
The County Board’s monthly meeting is tomorrow, and many conversations this week have been about what its members are expected to approve. Many of the items on the agenda focus on projects scheduled to take some serious steps forward in the next year.
Parks are certainly toward the front of the Board’s mind, having to consider awarding a contract to a construction company for the $1 million renovation of Tuckahoe Park and finalizing a land acquisition to continue expanding Benjamin Banneker Park.
The following letter to the editor was submitted by Dave Schutz, a 30 year Ashton Heights residents, regarding the Arlington Way.
Dear Editor: This letter responds to the Dec. 3 Progressive Voice column by Mary Rouleau.
Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.
This week, progressive Democratic leaders from the three DMV jurisdictions appeared on stage together at a Capital Region Business Forum held in McLean. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Maryland State Senate President Mike Miller were at times both cooperative and competitive in discussing how the region and each jurisdiction can move forward successfully.
Here we go again.
A few days ago, County Board Chair Mary Hynes wrote a letter to the Virginia Department of Transportation sounding an optimistic tone on the opportunity to work on HOT lanes inside the beltway on 395. Those lanes were part of the original HOT lanes project proposal in the region, dating back to Democrat administrations of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine in Virginia.
