County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti formally announced his reelection campaign this week, and he has already picked up a challenger in the June primary.
Both de Ferranti and returning candidate James DeVita announced their bids for County Board at a Wednesday meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.
Bennett-Parker Gets Key Endorsements — Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) on Thursday picked up endorsements from Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39) and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) in her quest for the seat being vacated by Ebbin in February. “Our commonwealth will be stronger with Elizabeth Bennett-Parker in the Virginia Senate,” said Ebbin, who is resigning to take a position in the incoming Spanberger Administration. Spanberger called Bennett-Parker “a dedicated and effective leader who listens and delivers.” [Bennett-Parker for Senate]
Wreaths Out This Weekend — “Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) and Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery (SAHNC) in Washington, D.C. will hold their annual removal of wreaths, known as Wreaths Out, on Saturday, Jan. 10, beginning at 8 a.m. Thousands of visitors are expected to help remove approximately 265,000 wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery… The high volume of visitors at ANC may create traffic congestion and delays on nearby streets and at the cemetery’s entrances.” [ANC]
Suspect Arrested After Foot Chase — “S. Frederick Street at Columbia Pike. At approximately 7:44 p.m. on December 30, officers observed a wanted suspect (associated with case number 2025-12190211) traveling in a vehicle and conducted a traffic stop at Columbia Pike and S. Frederick Street. The suspect ran from the vehicle and, following a foot pursuit, he was taken into custody. During a search of the vehicle, a firearm was recovered.” [ACPD]
ACPD on Capitol Plaque — “Senate… approves resolution to (finally) hang Jan 6th plaque honoring police,” including the Arlington County Police Department. “It’ll hang in US Senate (w/ approval of GOP Leader John Thune) until Architect of Capitol finds permanent location.” [Scott MacFarlane/X]
Childhood Vax Rates — “D.C.’s child vaccination rate doesn’t meet the herd immunity threshold, per new data analyzed by the Washington Post… D.C.’s vaccination rate for kindergarteners sits at 92.7%. The only other DMV jurisdiction to fall below the 95% herd immunity threshold is Alexandria City (88.3%).” [Axios, Washington Post]
Ruthie’s Second Location Opening Soon — “It doesn’t appear to be long before a local favorite will begin serving diners in Fairfax Corner. Ruthie’s All-Day, a restaurant brand offering Southern comfort food, is targeting March to open its newest location — its first in Fairfax County.” [FFXnow]
D.C. Traffic Camera Changes? — “The Transportation Department is seeking to scrap the use of automated traffic enforcement cameras in Washington, a move that would cost the city millions in lost revenue but would likely be cheered by many drivers in the nation’s capital. The proposal, authored by DOT and sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget… seeks to outlaw speed, red light and stop sign cameras throughout the city as part of the upcoming surface transportation bill.” [Politico, Washington Post]
Credit for Compass — “An affiliate of Robert Haft, the longtime D.C. businessman and father of Compass Coffee CEO Michael Haft, has agreed to loan his son’s company up to $450,000 to ensure it has enough cash to follow through with its restructuring.” [WBJ]
More on Golf Course Takeover — “The National Links Trust retained Williams & Connolly to help fend off a Trump takeover of Washington’s historic public golf courses, sources familiar with the matter (who were not authorized to speak on the record) tell Axios… the president wants golf course architect Tom Fazio to redesign East Potomac, with a potential new name: ‘Washington National Golf Course.'” [Axios]
It’s Friday — Rain is possible after 4pm with clouds increasing and a high near 56. South winds between 6-10 mph and gusts up to 20 mph. On Friday night, rain is more likely after 1am, with temperatures dropping to around 49. Southwest winds of 5-8 mph will shift northwest after midnight, and there’s a 70% chance of precipitation. New precipitation amounts could range between a tenth and a quarter of an inch. [NWS]
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 much of an impact do you think the ROAD to Housing Act will have on housing affordability in Arlington?
Answer: The Road to Housing Act became law ten days ago, with the stated goal of improving housing affordability in the United States.
I don’t see many policies in the Act that will improve affordability in the Arlington/Northern VA/DC Metro markets, outside of incentives for more affordable multi-family housing, but there are policies that should improve affordability in other markets that are more saturated with institutional investors that own swaths of single-family homes (e.g. Atlanta and Phoenix) and for manufactured/mobile homes.
The Local Conversation Needs to Change
If we are going to improve affordability in our market, most of the change has to be done locally/regionally, not nationally, but it requires a paradigm shift in how we discuss and solve for housing affordability.
Affordability Disconnect: Near Term Expectations Not Realistic
A disconnect between housing affordability expectations and reality prevents the right community and political conversations from happening. We expect/demand housing affordability immediately, ignoring the difficulty, and consequences, of achieving it that quickly.
Stable and healthy housing affordability is a long-term process requiring gradual change over a 10-15+ year period.
Demand-Side Solutions Won’t Work
Demand-side solutions, such as lower interest rates or easier financing, artificially inflate home values, as seen during the COVID-era housing boom and early 2000s. They are not a good long-term solution to affordability because they push values even higher (along with your property taxes) and affordability gets worse when rates/lending normalize and no longer provide artificially low monthly payments.
Supply-Side Solutions Are Not Immediate
Most policy discussions focus on supply-side solutions: building more/faster and denser housing (e.g. Arlington’s Missing Middle/Expanded Housing Option), incentivizing more existing home sales, or disincentivizing concentrated ownership by companies and individuals. Econ 101 tells us that more supply = lower prices = affordable housing (winner winner!).
This is the only path to stable, long-term housing affordability…BUT, at current interest rates, prices must drop 30-35% in the United States to become affordable, at current income levels. A 30-35% drop in home values would devastate the economy, so a supply-side solution won’t (shouldn’t) provide immediate affordability. (more…)
Good Thursday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Jan 8, 2026.
Here is what’s going on Friday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Rain is possible after 4pm with clouds increasing and a high near 56. South winds between 6-10 mph and gusts up to 20 mph. On Friday night, rain is more likely after 1am, with temperatures dropping to around 49. Southwest winds of 5-8 mph will shift northwest after midnight, and there’s a 70% chance of precipitation. New precipitation amounts could range between a tenth and a quarter of an inch. See more from Weather.gov.
“Success is not just about making money. It’s about making a difference.”
– Kathy Ireland
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
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A reported single-vehicle crash took out a pole and a sidewalk bench in Clarendon this afternoon.
Police responded to the intersection of N. Highland Street and Clarendon Blvd around 3:10 p.m. after the driver of a blue Toyota sedan struck the light pole just outside of Four Sisters Grill.
Join the Rosslyn BID and Arlington Arts at the 34th Rosslyn Jazz Fest 2026 featuring live jazz, food trucks, local vendors, and family-friendly activities in the heart of Rosslyn! This year’s lineup is bringing a diverse mix of performers and bands redefining the jazz music genre including Plena Libre, Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars, Parlor Greens, and Dogo du Togo & the Alagaa Beat Band.
A Fairlington-area bakery’s sign advertising a conservative political club has left a bad taste for some local residents.
The sign posted in the window of Great Harvest Bread Company at 1711 Centre Plaza has attracted hundreds of comments on the Reddit page for Northern Virginia and the private Fairlington Appreciation Society Facebook group this week.
Arlington police and firefighters teamed up to rescue a distraught man on a lower rooftop of the Axios building in Clarendon this morning.
Police were called to the office tower at 3100 Clarendon Blvd — headquarters of the national news organization and previously of ARLnow — just before 10:30 a.m. for a report of a man on a fourth floor rooftop suffering a possible panic attack.
Despite days of preparation under their new head coach, the Washington-Liberty Generals came away unsatisfied in a recent match against a perennial Liberty District girls basketball power.
The visiting Generals led the Langley Saxons by five points early in the third quarter, but lost 49-41 to the defending district and 6D North Region tournament champions in the Jan. 5 high-school contest.
Northern Virginia lost 8,200 jobs as the commonwealth shed tens of thousands of federal workers between November 2024 and November 2025, new data shows.
Non-farm employment in Northern Virginia was down 0.5% as of November, according to data that the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement reported yesterday (Wednesday). The commonwealth as a whole, meanwhile, had lost 22,400 federal jobs year-over-year — an 11.5% decrease.
A jewelry store billed as “a real-life Etsy shop by women entrepreneurs” is relocating from Maryland to Ballston.
Dov & Company is targeting a February opening on the first floor in Ballston Quarter (4238 Wilson Blvd), across from Drybar, according to signage posted in the mall.
