Hawkers, a growing Asian street food restaurant chain, is looking to start serving in Ballston this summer.
First announced in July 2020, Hawkers had hoped to open its first Arlington location by the spring of 2021. But equipment and supply chain challenges delayed that goal by nearly an entire year, a Hawkers spokesperson tells ARLnow. The eatery is now targeting a June 2022 opening.
Alcova Heights Park is going to get a face lift.
The county is gearing up to award a $2.8 million contract to upgrade a number of facilities in the heavily used 13-acre park on S. George Mason Drive, a few blocks north of Columbia Pike.
Hello dear ARLnow readers, we at FireWorks have been busy since our ownership change discussing internally how we wanted to involve the community in our required rebranding.
The fantastic team at ARLnow was a natural fit for our passion for local journalism and our Arlington community. Please find below our short list of possible names for our store. We hope you will help us decide what should be our future name and then join us under our new banner as we rebrand, renovate, and improve our store to better serve our community.
The poll below is our short list of names but our full list is:
Preservation Legislation Shuffled — “After a subcommittee approved a measure being sought to give preservation advocates an additional voice in decisions made at the local level, but simultaneously stripped out some key provisions of the bill, its sponsor made a request. Would the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns, where the measure was being considered, agree to move the bill to the Committee on Courts of Justice, Del. Patrick Hope asked.” [Sun Gazette]
Don’t Drive Drunk on Super Bowl Sunday — “To keep spectators safe on the roads, the Arlington County Police Department is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to remind football fans everywhere that Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk… in 2019, there were 10,142 people killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes throughout the United States.” [ACPD]
Update at 4:15 p.m. on 2/11/22 — Arlington police have released more information about the threat. Police say an anonymous caller claimed to be armed with hostages inside one of the Yorktown High School bathroom, in what was later determined to be a false report. From ACPD:
The Arlington County Police Department continues to investigate a telephone threat to Yorktown High School. At approximately 1:26 p.m. on February 10, police were dispatched to the 5200 block of Yorktown Boulevard for the report of a threat. The reporting party advised dispatch that the Main Office had received an anonymous call from the suspect who was alleging to be a student and making threats to ‘shoot up’ the school. The school was placed on lockdown as police responded to investigate the credibility of the threat.
Join Arlington for Palestine and NAACP Arlington Branch for a movie night and community discussion about Israeli apartheid.
We will watch two short Palestinian films about life under Israeli apartheid, hear from a member of Arlington for Palestine about their trip to Palestine last year, and discuss together what all this means to us living in Arlington .
For the first time since mid-December, the past week has averaged fewer that 100 new, reported Covid cases per day in Arlington.
The seven-day moving average fell below the three-digit mark today and currently stands at 97. Four of the past five days have seen fewer than 75 cases reported in the county, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health.
A new childcare center could be coming to a gutted restaurant space between Clarendon and Courthouse.
Ladybug Academy LLC is requesting county approval to convert about 4,391 square feet of vacant, ground-floor restaurant space at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Cleveland Street into a daycare and preschool. The space at 2500 Wilson Blvd was home to Minh Vietnamese Restaurant until 2016.
Arlington County is looking to buy and eventually redevelop an office building on Columbia Pike.
The county says the vacant, three-story building at 3108 Columbia Pike would make a good home for both the Columbia Pike library branch — currently located on the ground floor of the Arlington Career Center — and affordable housing. Until that project materializes, it will serve as a parking lot.
New Organ Debuts Tomorrow — “The new organ [at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Virginia Square] cost $1.2 million… Opus 28 arrived in Arlington on Oct. 3, 2021. For three weeks, Pasi put together the 500,000 parts that constitute it. He spent the next two months ‘voicing’ the organ: doing the painstaking adjustments necessary to make everything sound just right.” [Washington Post]
Reminder: Pizza Boxes Can Be Composted — From Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services: “There’s No ‘I’ in Food Scraps: Arlington viewers of ‘The Big Game’ can give 110% and go all in in the green curbside cart: pizza crusts and boxes, wing bones and greasy napkins. You won’t be denied.” [Twitter]
A bipartisan bill that will allow parents to opt their kids out of masking rules at schools has passed the Democrat-controlled Virginia State Senate, despite opposition from Arlington’s senators.
The bill would take effect on July 1. If it were also to pass the House of Delegates and be signed into law by the governor, it would essentially make the local school boards’ recent, tentative court victory over Gov. Glenn Younkin’s executive order on masks in schools moot.
