Congratulations on making it to Friday, everyone!
It’s a been a busy week for everyone, and especially those trying to catch up on all things Amazon.
Opinion
Arlington needs to replace its World War II-era water mains faster than it’s replacing them. A sampling of what’s been happening:
Crystal City
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Arlington’s new Pet of the Week is Bitey, a one-year-old dog mysteriously born from a Bernese mountain mother and miniature poodle father.
Here is what Bitey’s owner, Dan, had to say:
In a split decision last week the Arlington School Board voted to require Chairman Goldstein to inform the County Board they need more money in the upcoming budget via an increased tax rate.
Serving on a local school board may be the toughest job in politics. There is nothing more personal to a parent than what happens to their children. That means even modestly controversial decisions come with the knowledge it could produce a heightened outcry from the community. And that undoubtedly puts significant pressure on our School Board members to make it look like they are doing something in the face of Superintendent Murphy’s proposed budget priorities.
It was an April Fools’ Day joke, but an interesting one.
The Rosslyn Business Improvement District, riffing off the much-ballyhooed but not-actually-happening Rosslyn-to-Georgetown gondola proposal, floated an idea: a zip line over the Potomac.
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Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.
In the upcoming June 11 primary, one of the local races in Arlington is for the Democrat who will run for Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church. Progressive Voice asked each candidate for this office “What is the main differentiating factor between you and your opponent in relation to progressive values?”
The work week is over and spring is now fully upon us. But this writer worries you all might have missed ARLnow’s very own celebrity encounter in between the start of baseball season and cherry blossoms.
Today (Friday) yours truly was retweeted by none other than Captain Kirk himself.
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In an earlier column, I discussed an ARLnow.com story quoting County Board members on why Arlington should up-zone major portions of the County to improve housing affordability. (Up-zoning = approving more dense development than permitted by current zoning.)
Like many other jurisdictions, Arlington should deploy tools to measure the fiscal impacts of development
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The next four weeks will be all budget, all the time for the County Board. The Board will hold five work sessions with the County Manager and two public hearings before arriving at the April meeting to approve the fiscal year 2020 budget. The two public hearings provide you with an opportunity to give feedback to the Board about the levels of spending and the level of taxation.
Those who are concerned about items impacted by potential cuts, and some of those who think other spending increases are not enough, will bring a contingent of supporters to speak out at the April 2nd budget hearing. The Board will hear plenty of speeches asking for more money to be spent, and few, if any, asking for spending restraint. Multiple people will “understand budgets are tight” while making their pitch. It is unlikely anyone will point out that a proposed 4.7% spending increase is not really tight.
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By Claire Noakes
If you think it is hard getting a reservation at the popular restaurant Komi, you haven’t tried enrolling your elementary school children in the APS Extended Day program. Parents mark their calendars and set midnight alarms because the stakes are high for a limited number of slots. Yet, for two years in a row, the vendor failed, the website crashed and parents became frantic, staying up late at night or missing work to line up in person on registration day.
Late last week, a mini legal bombshell dropped: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring issued an opinion that Arlington County can, in fact, initiate a renaming of Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1) within its borders.
After years of unsuccessfully pushing for state legislation to allow it, the Arlington County Board can now just go ahead and pick a new name for “J-D Highway” and ask the Commonwealth Transportation Board to make it so, bypassing the change-resistant General Assembly.
It’s Friday everyone! This means the end of a busy week for Arlington with news about everything from transit updates to whether Arlington really does recycle its glass and how Amazon may already be affecting real estate development.
It’s also been a week for Arlingtonians making their voices heard — whether that’s by signing petitions to save high school crew teams or literally singing on The Voice.