News

More than 1,000 Dominion customers are still without power following a round of strong storms Wednesday afternoon.

At the peak of the post-storm outages, the company reported more than 10,000 customers in the dark in Arlington County. As of 11:45 a.m. Thursday, that figure was down to 1,070. The outages are scattered throughout the county, with some concentrated in certain neighborhoods.


News

A proposal to expand public television station WETA’s Shirlington headquarters has been approved by the Arlington County Board.

The station is planning to construct a four-story addition between the existing office building, at 3939 Campbell Avenue, and its parking garage. The 17,000 square foot addition would then house the WETA studios that produce the national PBS NewsHour broadcast, allowing the current NewsHour studios to be razed and used to expand Jennie Dean Park.


Sponsored

This regularly scheduled column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. If you would like to work with Eli and his team in Northern Virginia and the greater D.C. Metro area, you can reach him directly at [email protected].

Question: How does home value appreciation vary in Arlington by property type?

Answer: The Arlington VA housing market has appreciated by an average price of 49% and a median price of 39% over a ten-year period, but that appreciation is not evenly distributed across all property types.

Detached Homes Appreciate Over 60%

Those who spend the most on a home benefit from the highest appreciation rates, with detached home appreciation of 60%+ over the course of a decade, and new detached homes appreciating the most of any property type, at 65%.

Condos Appreciate 1-2% Annually

The worst performing category over ten years in Arlington is the one-bedroom condo, with appreciation close to 1% annually and just 15% over ten years. Two-bedroom condos perform moderately better, with an average annual appreciation closer to 2% at 28% over ten years.

Townhouses are the Goldilocks Property Type

More expensive than condos and less expensive than detached homes, townhouse/semi-detached properties fall right in the middle of cost and ten-year rate of appreciation, coming in at 40% over ten years. (more…)


News

The Arlington County Board appears likely to consider a tax on plastic shopping bags later this year.

At the Board’s Saturday meeting, a volunteer from the group EcoAction Arlington spoke in favor of a five-cent tax on plastic bags, similar to that which has been implemented in D.C. and other cities, during the public comment period.


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News

Changes at Prosecutor’s Office — Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has announced a reorganization of her office to implement a “vertical prosecution” model. The new structure “requires that one prosecutor be assigned to each case from start to finish; it permits the assigned attorney to work early and closely with law enforcement, victims, witnesses, and defense attorneys.” The office has also recently stopped its courtroom involvement with certain types of minor traffic offenses. [Press Release, Twitter]

Man Pleads Guilty to Arlington Carjacking — “A Washington, D.C. man pleaded guilty today to his role in an armed robbery and carjacking that led to a high-speed police chase and resulted in injuries to two police officers. According to court documents, Jovan Doir Johnson, 30, together with another individual, obtained a stolen vehicle at gunpoint in Arlington and then used it to rob a 7-Eleven in Lorton.” [Dept. of Justice]


News

Four men have been arrested following a car chase and a pair of alleged carjackings.

The violent incidents happened Tuesday afternoon and evening. Police say three of the men, who are all 18 years of age, first knocked a man unconscious in a Ballston parking garage and stole his Honda Civic.


News

Update at 7 p.m. — Outages in Arlington are now down to just over 3,000 power customers, according to Dominion’s website. Affected neighborhoods include Pentagon City, the Columbia Pike corridor near Penrose Square, the area around Wakefield High School, Lyon Park, Virginia Square, and Old Glebe.

Earlier: The worst of this afternoon’s severe storm has passed, leaving thousands without power in Arlington in its week.


Around Town

On a hot summer day, gelato shop Amore Congelato in Pentagon City wants locals to celebrate the things to be thankful for: like express lanes.

The deal is part of a sponsorship by Transurban, the Australia-based company that operates the 495/95/395 high-occupancy toll lanes.


Opinion

“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.