Background
In its recent front-page editorial about the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the NY Times editorial Board stated:
Opinion
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The following letter to the editor was submitted by Bob Meyerson, a former Arlington resident, regarding development in the county and government spending.
The next day we conducted a poll, asking whether the County Board made the right decision. About 62 percent of 3,280 respondents said yes, while 38 percent said no.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an article entitled “How D.C. spent $200 million over a decade on a streetcar you still can’t ride.” The article details a decade-plus-long string of delays, questionable decisions and cost overruns.
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And to those who celebrate Christmas but haven’t picked up a tree or decorated yet, you could find yourself falling behind the holiday cheer. There are, however, plenty of opportunities for you to catch up, especially with the sunny weather expected this weekend.
There are holiday markets and festivals at churches and schools this weekend. Celebrating with an experience is another way to get into the spirit, either by going to a performance of The Nutcracker, bringing your family to a sing-along or attending a holiday concert. See our event calendar for details.
The week before Thanksgiving, County Board members Vihstadt and Garvey teamed up to question the closeout spending process. They asked the Board to at least delay the decisions on spending nearly $22 million in excess revenue till the new members were seated in January.
Kudos to Vihstadt for raising the issue as part of the closeout process and drawing more public attention to it. As Garvey noted, it would be “much better governance to make sure your spending goes through the budget process.”
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As the Washington Post reported on Nov. 25, the Arlington School Board is “moving toward a compromise” under which the historic desegregation events at the Stratford school site on Vacation Lane would be honored. However, under the compromise, the school building itself would not receive a formal “local historic designation” as demanded by the Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB).
This is the type of compromise the School Board should have reached much sooner.
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.
The following letter to the editor was submitted by Jane, an Arlington resident who works in Cherrydale.
It is in response to our article on the opening of a pop-up vintage gift shop in the Cherrydale storefront that was once slated to become a gun store.
You see them on local streets, usually in commercial districts: double-parked trucks making deliveries to local stores and offices.
Sometimes the trucks completely block traffic, as can be seen in the photo above, taken yesterday in Rosslyn. Other times, just a lane of traffic. In both cases, other drivers are inconvenienced and forced into a potentially hazardous situation: switching lanes mid-street or driving into an opposing lane of traffic.
Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!
Feel free to discuss what you’re thankful for this year — if you haven’t already — or any issue of local interest in the comments.
In actuality, the Saturday before Christmas is usually the biggest shopping day of the year. And with Cyber Monday and e-commerce encouraging online shopping, and Small Business Saturday encouraging shoppers to support local businesses, Black Friday may be losing its luster.
We wanted to check with those who are actually heading out to the malls and shopping centers today: how big are the crowds?
According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, holiday travel will be virtually unchanged this year, down 0.2 percent compared to 2014.
That’s despite lower gas prices and better weather — it’s supposed to be mostly sunny and cool this week, compared to the snowstorm that was predicted around this time last year.