Protected bike lanes on Fairfax Drive are a project whose time has come.
It’s a critical link that would connect commercial areas, parks, and trails to thousands of Arlington residents. It deserves a place in Arlington’s next 10-year Capital Improvement Plan.
The summer Arlies continue this week with two categories. First, the result’s from last week’s voting.
Your favorite real estate agent for sellers is Liz Lord, followed by Kristin Francis Team and Paul Cachion.
Last week I moderated a conversation on Covid-19’s impact on Black women and girls, specifically around health and education. It was an important discussion, and the topic naturally raises questions about data collection.
We highlighted several topics including the current vaccination rates, the myths preventing someone from taking the vaccine and how some students have benefited emotionally and psychologically from learning in a virtual environment, away from the pressures and microaggressions they face at school. In order to find solutions to these challenges, good data collection is critical.
The Langston Boulevard Corridor (formerly Lee Highway) runs along the southern portion of Arlington’s most expensive and exclusive neighborhoods.
The lots are large, the homes cost a fortune and rental options are few. Arlington County is considering zoning changes along Langston Boulevard that would allow new types of housing, including duplexes, triplexes and small apartments that would be attainable as rental or ownership for moderate-income Arlingtonians.
If readership is any indication, it seems like a lot of Arlington residents have the same itchy red insect bites described in this week’s most-read story.
It was, in fact, a busy week for readership given that we’re in peak summer vacation season. Speaking of which, August begins on Sunday — enjoy summer while it lasts! Saturday in particular should be a perfect summer day.
It’s not a good year to be an allergy sufferer.
“Allergy season in North America has been the lengthiest and the most severe in decades,” Axios reported yesterday. A number of factors are making allergies worse, from climate change lengthening the pollen-producing season to an overabundance of pollen-producing male trees in urban areas.
It’s long past time to get big money out of our politics in Virginia.
During her 2020 Presidential campaign, Senator Elizabeth Warren explained why we need robust campaign finance reform: “[B]efore the legislative process even starts — lobbyists and billionaires try to buy off politicians during elections. Candidates and elected officials often spend hours and hours a day doing call time with big donors, instead of learning about policy and working for their constituents.”
As expected, the County Board put more pressure on Arlington taxpayers’ checkbooks at its July meeting. The Board voted unanimously to adopt a prevailing wage for contracts over $250,000. That is expected to add 15% to the cost of almost everything we build and buy moving forward.
Then the Board voted to increase our annual debt service obligations by $10.7 million by authorizing an additional $86 million in bonds. Technically the voters will have to approve it in November, but local Democrats will endorse the bond measures on their sample ballot which means it is all but certain to pass. Presumably, the latest round of borrowing would have cost taxpayers just $75 million before the prevailing wage vote.
The Arlies continue today with a two new categories, but first, the results of last week’s voting.
Your favorite preschool/daycare is Trinity School of Early Learning on Columbia Pike, followed by Overlee Preschool on Military Road and Maria Teresa’s Babies Early Enrichment Center on 23rd Street S.
After its first set of finalists to replace the current county logo fizzled, Arlington officials went back to the drawing board and asked for more design submissions.
Now the county is seeking feedback on 10 proposed logo designs, eight of which are new and two of which are holdovers from the first iteration of the process.
Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the authors’.
By Anne deLeon and Mary Byrne
The capacity crunch at Arlington Public Schools is not as dire as it once was, particularly after the pandemic, but there is still a need for more school seats in certain areas.
One place where a school might be needed: the National Landing area, where hundreds of new apartments are planned and where the nearest elementary school — Oakridge, in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood — is getting increasingly overcrowded, according to APS projections.
