Opinion

The Right Note: Mixed Messages

By Mark Kelly

In a hastily called meeting before their traditional August break, the Arlington County Board passed an emergency ordinance that prevents groups of four or more from standing closer than six feet to each other in marked public spaces. There was no public discussion or input prior to the surprise announcement.

Under the ordinance, my family could not wait at a traffic light together even if we are wearing face coverings, without the risk of a $600 fine. However, we could walk into a restaurant and sit together without face coverings. Fellow columnist Chris Slatt rightly called it a mess.

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Morning Poll: How Much Are You Spending at Local Businesses?

By ARLnow.com

A lot of local businesses are hurting during the pandemic.

Any business that relies on people congregating inside is having a tough time — restaurants, gyms, events organizers, etc. The economic hardship has hit ancillary businesses as well: dry cleaners, for example, are struggling due to few people going to offices and formal events.

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Ed Talk: Learning Pods

By Abby Raphael

As the school year begins online for students across the country, parents face the challenge of supporting the educational needs of their children while working at their own jobs.

This challenge is real for all working parents. But the opportunities that parents have to meet their children’s needs vary greatly depending on socio-economic status.

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Health Matters: Depression and Anxiety Rise During COVID-19

By Dr. George Hwang

The summer heat has arrived and despite holding our collective breath, the coronavirus has not miraculously disappeared. In persevering through a shutdown, a three-phase reopening, and now an emergency ordinance to limit sidewalk traffic, we have learned that we are resilient — but the cracks are starting to show in our population’s mental health.

In fact, nearly 30 percent of Americans are experiencing symptoms of clinical depression as of late July, compared to 6.6 percent last year based on a recent National Center for Health Statistics and Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. The numbers for anxiety closely mirror with 36 percent compared to 8.2 percent last year. The number of online mental health screenings has increased 400 percent. Perhaps the most alarming — albeit uncited — statistic comes from CDC director Robert Redfield, who stated that there have been far greater suicides and drug overdoses than COVID deaths among young people since the lockdown.

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Modern Mobility: Arlington’s Emergency Sidewalk Ordinance is a Mess

By Chris Slatt

On Friday, the County announced a new emergency ordinance prohibiting pedestrians from congregating on sidewalks in groups of more than three people or ever being less than 6′ apart from any other person.

Targeted quite plainly at young, mask-less patrons waiting in tightly-packed lines for long periods of time outside of Clarendon bars whose capacity has been limited by social-distancing requirements, the ordinance seems well-intentioned but flawed in concept.

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Community Matters: How Much Diversity is Enough?

By Krysta Jones

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” — Brene Brown

Those of us who are working to intentionally increase diversity in Arlington are consistently striving to achieve the right balance, in the right way, at the right time. Which diversities are the right diversities? How do we measure progress on diversity? Are diverse people held to a different standard? Are they sometimes expected to be twice as good, but also given more allowances when those in power are searching for diverse representation?

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Making Room: Why We Need New Housing and New Trees

By Jane Green

We lost a tree in my neighborhood during the storms last month. It was a large tree that provided shade for the nearby tennis and basketball courts. It will take decades for a new tree to provide that benefit for the park. But as a forward-thinking community, we plant trees now knowing that they will provide shade in the future.

This is an apt metaphor for housing affordability. We need to build new housing now so that we have older homes that will be affordable for middle-income families in the future. Therefore, when we evaluate our zoning policy or a site plan, we shouldn’t only judge it by the cost of the new housing that will be produced, but also on the cost of the older housing that it will become.

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ARLnow Weekend Discussion

By ARLnow.com

It’s the last day of July. August is hours away and fall is within sight — mercifully, given the heat wave over the past few weeks.

This post is being written in advance (even editors need a half day of vacation sometimes) so without knowing the topic of today’s Beermonger post, a word of caution to beer fans: stock up on your shandies now, before you know it they’ll be gone and only Oktoberfest and pumpkin seasonal beers will be on the shelves (if they’re not there already).

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Peter’s Take: APS Faces Challenges in Virtual Reopening

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com

On July 14th, APS chose the best of a bad series of options by deciding to reopen schools 100% virtually.

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The Right Note: Questions for Our Leaders

By Mark Kelly

Two weeks ago, Arlington Public Schools abruptly reversed course and decided to start the school year with all virtual learning.

As a reminder, in a June school survey 73 percent of Arlington parents indicated they would be comfortable sending their children back with safety protocols in place. As of mid-July, approximately two-thirds of parents had already signed their children up for the hybrid in-person model.

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