On Nov. 16, County planning staff briefed the County Board on Phase I of the Missing Middle Housing Study.
Prior to the pandemic, County planners asserted that up-zoning to enable new Missing Middle (“MM”) housing would be a major contributor to ease Arlington’s affordable housing crisis.
Arlington has seen its share of school board members come and go the past few years. It is not because the work is not important or extremely worthwhile. No, it’s because there is nothing more personal to people than their children, as Terry McAuliffe found out the hard way. And, there is virtually no decision of consequence that can leave everyone happy.
School boundaries can leave parents fuming after spending $1 million or more to move into their preferred Arlington neighborhood. Every school budget almost certainly leaves something popular on the cutting room floor. Curriculum and classroom policy decisions can quickly inflame passions on both sides. Even the names of schools now generate extreme controversy.
Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
By Andrew Schneider
Happy Friday, Arlington. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!
Today might have been a light publishing day for us, but rest assured: we’re not hearing of much news happening locally, so you’re not missing much. Wish we could say the same about the stock market and the pandemic.
It’s late on a Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving.
Perhaps you’re starting to get ready for a Wednesday night out at the bars with your fellow locals. Or mentally preparing for a long day of parades, football, cooking, eating and dishwashing with family.
Modern Mobility is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
Arlington prides itself on its public engagement, but when there is a fundamental disagreement on the basic design of our streets, public engagement becomes a frustrating, repeated rehashing of the same arguments rather than a productive and collaborative conversation about what might make a particular street unique.
Arlington Public Schools (APS), like many school divisions, has had a substantial decline in enrollment since the pandemic began. But APS has not yet factored this into its estimates of future enrollment.
Enrollment projections are used for the APS budget, its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and boundary decisions. Because overestimating enrollment has significant financial implications, APS should base its next enrollment projections in part on actual enrollment for this year and last year.
The worst thing about working from home is being subjected to the near-daily onslaught of gas-powered leaf blowers.
The region is waking up to these noxious machines. The Arlington County Board took an important step on Tuesday, Nov. 16, when it appropriated funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to replace gas-powered landscape equipment with other options.
A cool and cloudy weekend is on tap after a brief reprise of early-autumn-like warmth on Thursday.
This was a busy news week, with everything from County Board meetings to a tour of the under-construction Amazon HQ2. The most-read stories of the past week are as follows.
Homeownership is one of the fundamental pillars of building wealth in the American economy.
In Arlington about 60% of our housing stock is renter occupied and new housing stock is almost all in rental housing development, with almost no new development of ownership housing stock.
This month, Virginia announced that school divisions can apply for “Onward Upward Virginia” grants to support literacy and math, “with targeted support for learners most impacted by pandemic disruptions, including students with disabilities, English learners, students who are economically disadvantaged, early learners, and those who are underperforming.”
The announcement of this grant shows that the State of Virginia continues to acknowledge the scope and magnitude of the effect of school closures:
The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
Virginia voters shook up the national political landscape two weeks ago by electing a Republican statewide ticket just one year after giving Joe Biden a 10% victory.
