Opinion

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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Ed Talk: Education is the Foundation for a Strong Democracy

By Maura McMahon

It is increasingly important in today’s world of global interaction and social media that our youth have the tools they need to thoughtfully discern their individual beliefs and political positions.

While Webster’s dictionary simplistically defines “education” as “the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools,” this definition from dictiontary.com better reflects what we need from our educational institutions today: “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.”

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Modern Mobility: How Close Are We to Premium Transit on the Pike? (Part Four)

By Chris Slatt

“Is it BRT if it doesn’t have dedicated lanes?”  That was a hot topic of conversation in 2013 and I can’t finish out my series on Pike Premium Transit without digging back into the most controversial aspect of the Columbia Pike Streetcar debate.

If you need a refresher,  Part 1 introduced what was envisioned for the Pike Premium Transit Network. Part 2 looked at progress on features to improve bus travel time. Part 3 examined the planned convenience & dependability features.  Today, I’ll take a look at the most controversial feature that was ever discussed for Columbia Pike’s transit system.

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Community Matters: Let’s Help Our Youth Get in “Good Trouble”

By Krysta Jones

John Lewis was a 23-year-old leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee when he delivered his speech at the March on Washington in 1963. In his speech he criticized political leadership, highlighted the plight of citizens victimized by police brutality and called for changes to voting laws.

“To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we must say that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually but we want to be free now,” Lewis said. Today, our youth are leading the way with that same urgency.

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Making Room: How Arlington Can Diffuse the Eviction Time Bomb

By Jane Green

Like many states throughout the country, Virginia suspended evictions during the public health emergency caused by Covid-19. This was an essential step for protecting vulnerable community members during this pandemic. Evictions are damaging not only because they remove a person from their home, but they also make it difficult for the person to get a lease in the future. To have a resilient community that can survive this pandemic, we need to keep everyone housed.

Advocates like me thought that Arlington evictions would be put on hold until July 21. As late as the July 7 Housing Commission meeting, the people who are generally the most plugged-in thought the moratorium would be extended. Instead, the Arlington General District Court started hearing unlawful detainer (eviction) cases at the beginning of July and there are 112 cases scheduled for Thursday, July 30.

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