The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
It is hard to put into words exactly what to make of the past week for Democrats in Richmond. If someone had pitched the storyline to a Hollywood producer, it might have been rejected as too unrealistic.
By Gizem Korkmaz
Local governments are awash in ever-growing streams of administrative data. From school registrations to property tax transactions and records of every call made to 911, these data provide opportunities to build insights to meet people’s needs and prepare for the future.
It’s been a week full of snow, but spring-like conditions are possible this weekend.
Once the snow flurries finish tapering off, the forecast calls for temperatures to rise into the 40s and 50s for the weekend, with even warmer days possible next week.
On Tuesday (Jan. 29), the County Board approved a contract for a new A/V system for the Aquatics Center.
It first appeared from a reading of a county staff report (Item 23 at pp. 2-3) that the “soft costs” of the new A/V system were being paid for out of a total of $3.2 million in “new funding.”
Last week, I questioned the political wisdom of newly minted Arlington County Board Chairman Christian Dorsey’s comments regarding just how hard, or not hard, a Board member should work.
Dorsey pondered aloud just what a member’s role should be and questioned whether it was a good thing for someone serving on the Board to go above and beyond the call of duty. He called this hard work “not helpful.”
By Wilma Jones Killgo
Arlington neighborhoods are facing a multitude of challenges as the divergent interests of organizations and the people who live near them are decided by the County Board.
The Newseum is selling its Pennsylvania Avenue home of the last 11 years to Johns Hopkins University and is now looking for a new location.
A museum of the journalism profession and the First Amendment, the Newseum first opened in Rosslyn in 1997 before moving to the District in 2008. Its Rosslyn location was featured in the TV show The West Wing and later, after the Newseum decamped for D.C., became the short-lived Artisphere.
Keep your eyes peeled for a few snow flurries tonight, but it’s shaping up to be a mostly clear weekend.
Forecasters say the sun should be out for most of the weekend, though temperatures won’t get above the 40s.
This week the Sun Gazette reported on the question of whether the County Board would take advantage of the once in four years opportunity to raise their pay without a public hearing. Chairman Dorsey is quoted as saying, “I don’t actually think it’s appropriate this year.”
Libby Garvey, who has openly advocated moving toward a full-time salary for Board Members in the range of $100,000, offered a slight glimmer of hope by characterizing it as “unlikely.”
By Laura Saul Edwards
I wholeheartedly support an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution and while there are many reasons to fight for it, here are three that are important to me.
In her summation at the end of the County Board’s Jan. 12 Amazon “Listening Session” at the NRECA building, Board member Katie Cristol said she wished there were a magic lever to pull which would produce affordable housing. Her regretful conclusion: there is no such lever.
But our Board is focused intently on looking for levers to make housing more affordable — even if those levers aren’t magical.
There’s another storm on the way this weekend — but it’s not shaping up to be anything like last weekend’s blizzard.
Forecasters are calling for another small batch of rain and perhaps even some snow to roll through tomorrow (Saturday), but it shouldn’t be anything too disruptive.
