Opinion

Community Matters: Getting to the Root of the Matter

By Krysta Jones

This weekend, I was preparing to give a speech on racial equity and I decided to get an image consultation.

The session started off well and towards the end, we discussed what hairstyle I should wear. I have been in the process of exploring different styles including natural styles. The consultant recommended that I wear a wig, as she saw me in a longer, straighter style. While one could argue that a wig might be more complimentary to my look for this event, we have to question why one would think it would be a better option.

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Making Room: Dense Housing is Sustainable Housing

By Jane Green
Average Annual Household Carbon Footprint in 2013 (UC Berkeley CoolClimate Network)

Making Room is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

From flash floods in Arlington to wildfires on the West Coast, climate change is an increasing threat to life and property. This is not a future problem, but a current crisis. We have only a few years to reverse human-made emissions.

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Most-Read Arlington Stories of the Week: Sept. 24, 2021

By ARLnow.com
Arlington County Fire Department on the scene of a kitchen fire at Dama on Columbia Pike on Thursday (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 6 p.m.) It’s a Friday afternoon and the start of what promises to be a gorgeous, basically perfect early fall weekend.

Here’s wishing lots of sunshine and quality time out of the house for our readers over the next couple of days.

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What’s Next: A Path to Undergrounding Our Power Lines

By Nicole Merlene

An increase in extreme weather events and community power usage has made the need to modernize our power grid’s resilience a pertinent topic of discussion.

For that reason, it is past due for Arlington to update its 15-year 2002 Underground Utility Plan and for the Virginia Legislature to have Dominion spend some Strategic Undergrounding Program funding to underground main lines in urban/suburban corridors instead of exclusively undergrounding suburban/rural tap lines as is current practice.

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Peter’s Take: Amid Plummeting Test Scores Due to Virtual Learning, APS Attention Diverted to New Virtual Program

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

As ARLnow reported, APS unveiled plummeting 2020-2021 SOL test scores just days before the academic year began. Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction concluded that Virginia’s SOLs “tell us… students need to be in the classroom without disruption to learn effectively.”

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Poll: Fall Is Here… Which Seasonal Change Do You Dread the Most?

By ARLnow.com
A landscaping crew blows leaves from an apartment complex in Westover (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

Yes, fall is here and Mr. Autumn Man is again walking down the street with a cup of coffee, wearing his signature sweater over a plaid collared shirt.

Last month we found that after an especially warm and stormy summer more than two-thirds of poll respondents were “suffering summer fatigue” and ready for the start of fall. A few years ago we also established the kinds of autumnal things that readers most look forward to: the leaves changing color, fall festivals, playoff baseball and going to pumpkin patches and orchards.

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The Right Note: September Highs and Lows

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

School is back in session and Arlington’s Public Schools had some bad news to deliver. Last week we learned that enrollment at the beginning of the school year is off by nearly 2,200 students from projections in the current budget — from 29,100 projected to 26,932 actual.

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Most-Read Arlington Stories of the Week: Sept. 17, 2021

By ARLnow.com
Demolition has leveled the former Summers restaurant in Courthouse (staff photo)

A nice late summer weekend is on tap as we start to dry out tonight after a soggy couple of days.

Autumn officially begins on Wednesday, and the forecast currently shows high temperatures in the 70s for the entirety of next week, so enjoy the final vestiges of summer while you can.

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