It’s the afternoon before Christmas Eve and all throughout Arlington, things are getting quieter.
Whether you’re celebrating the holiday here, out of town or not at all (except perhaps the traditional Chinese takeout and movie evening), we hope you have a great holiday weekend. Also, we hope you booked your pie reservation early.
On Tuesday Arlington’s seven-day moving average of Covid cases set another record.
Just shy of 200 people are testing positive for the virus in Arlington each day, on average, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. Lines for local Covid testing sites stretch around multiple blocks. And yet, people are (mostly) still traveling for the holidays, dining at restaurants and generally living their lives.
Arlington is, in some ways at least, a place of contradictions. That’s the subject of this month’s local editorial cartoon.
Want to see all of Mike Mount’s weekly cartoons? Join the ARLnow Press Club.
You would be forgiven for feeling that the end of this week has March 2020 vibes.
It’s of course different, given that most people are vaccinated and the health implications are not as nearly dire as the outset of the pandemic. But the continued drip of news about rapidly rising rates of new Covid cases and well-known people contracting the virus — whether the CEO of Southwest Airlines or any number of NFL players and coaches — definitely stirs up memories of the NBA, Tom Hanks and that fateful day.
One of Arlington’s greatest assets is our highly educated population and range of knowledge in various policy topics. With my last column on ARLnow, I want to encourage you to pick something that you are passionate about in our community, and participate in our local government process. As a society, we would be better off with fewer keyboard warriors and more doers.
Commissions & Advisory Groups
This is my final ARLnow Peter’s Take column.
As announced earlier this month, ARLnow.com will be adopting a new approach to presenting opinions. I look forward to their new approach.
As the readers of ARLnow know, this is the final week for regular opinion columns. First, let me say thank you to Scott Brodbeck for asking me to do this nine years ago.
Drafting the last one is a bitter-sweet moment for me. Along with Peter Rousselot, I have been writing faithfully since January of 2013 when his first column was published just hours before mine.
Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the authors’.
By Progressive Voice Editors
The school-to-prison is the most misunderstood phenomenon in Arlington, even amongst the highest levels of leadership. School board and county officials, including law enforcement and the former Commonwealth Attorney, have vehemently denied that the school-to-prison pipeline exists in Arlington.
They acknowledge the phenomenon but contend that it exists elsewhere, but “not here.” Such narrow-mindedness is troubling. Perhaps it is cognitive dissonance that causes them to recoil at the mere suggestion that our affluent county with its highly educated residents and top-ranked schools is complicit in the school-to-prison pipeline. It is.
Before checking out for the holidays this month, check out the winners of the Winter 2022 Arlies!
You voted, we counted and the results are in. Below are the listed winners in each of the 17 categories, which included favorite coffee shop, title company, brunch spot, spa, ARLnow commenter and more.
Modern Mobility is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
With my final Modern Mobility column I’d like to look back at the last few years and look ahead to the next few.
Community Matters is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.
My father and I recently visited Bridgeport, Alabama, a small town located in Northeast Alabama near the state’s border with Tennessee. My father recounted many memories of his time in Bridgeport in the mid-1960s, largely impacted by segregation and poverty. He noted that of the 11 members of his 6th grade class, only two eventually went to college.
