News

A woman crushed by a falling tree on Pimmit Run Trail last month was later pronounced dead at the hospital, ARLnow has learned.

The incident happened around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, near the Arlington-Fairfax County border. Two people were walking on a relatively remote section of the trail when “a tree fell striking one of the individuals,” U.S. Park Police said.


Sports

The Washington-Liberty Generals need victories in their final two regular-season games to outright win a third straight Liberty District football championship.

But it won’t be easy. The first-place Generals (7-1, 4-0) are set to face tough opponents following a bye week.


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 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…)


News

A paranormal investigator and researcher of strange happenings in Northern Virginia is hosting a series of talks at Arlington Public Library starting today (Monday).

Alex Matsuo, the author of “Haunted Northern Virginia” and other books about supernatural mysteries and explorations, will speak about “scientific ghost hunting” at Glencarlyn Library from 6:30-7:30 p.m. today.


News
“No Kings” protest in Ballston on Saturday (courtesy Randy Swart)

Courthouse Hotel for Sale — “The owner of an Arlington extended-stay hotel is abandoning its plan to convert the property to residences and is now looking to sell the property instead. Five years after winning approval for the conversion, Fulton, Maryland-based Sunburst Hospitality has tapped KLNB and HREC Investment Advisors to market for sale the 187-room Arlington Court Suites Hotel at 1200 N. Courthouse Road.” [WBJ, Bisnow]

Rowdy Group in Ballston — “Police and EMS called a short time ago to Ballston Quarter for a large crowd, a fight, and one injured. The group of young people left the mall heading east on Wilson Blvd. and then south on N. Randolph with @ArlingtonVaPD watching closely.” [Dave Statter/X]

Prosecutor Still Supports Jones — “Jay made the point better than I have the last few days: the AG, arguably even more so than the governor, is the office that can effectively protect Virginia communities from the President’s authoritarian rampage. We can’t think that electing Spanberger alone will be enough.” [Parisa Dehghani-Tafti/Bluesky]

Mail Ballot Deadline — “The last day to request a mail ballot for the November 4, 2025 General Election is next week on, Fri. Oct. 24 at 5pm! All registered voters are eligible to vote by mail.” [Arlington Elections/X]

Diocese on Abortion Amendment, IVF — “Since the 2022 Dobbs ruling returned the regulation of abortion to the states, abortion proponents have been on the march. They successfully enacted extreme abortion policies through ballot initiatives approved in 14 out of 17 states, amending their state constitutions. Unless we act, Virginia is next.” [Arlington Catholic Herald, Diocese of Arlington]

Funding for Local Company — “Lightshift Energy, an Arlington-based developer of battery energy storage projects, said it has landed a new $75 million credit facility… it will use the funds to support its pipeline of energy storage projects across the East Coast, at a time when the U.S. is experiencing increased demand for energy storage.” [Potomac Tech Wire]

More EDVA News — “Fresh from indicting two of Trump’s top political targets in her first three weeks on the job, interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan this week continued to push prosecutors at her Eastern District of Virginia office to move quickly to charge another politically sensitive case: a Democratic state lawmaker who has been under investigation since the Biden administration, according to three people familiar with the discussions.” [MSNBC]

Lanternflies Threatening Va. Wine — “If you needed another reason to crush those spotted lanternflies, here’s one that may hit close to home: they’re threatening your wine. The spotted insects have developed a taste for grapevines — their favorite host after the tree of heaven.” [Washington Post]

New Legal Notices — Restaurants seek on/off-premise ABC mixed-beverage license; objections due 30 days. [Public Notices, Public Notices]

It’s Monday — Expect a sunny day with highs near 65 degrees and west winds blowing at 13 to 15 mph, gusting up to 28 mph. The night remains clear with lows around 44 degrees, and the west wind slowing to 6 mph before becoming calm during the evening. [NWS]

Today’s Morning Notes are brought to you by Industrious. ARLnow has been in an Industrious office for years and we love the convenience — you get to focus on your work rather than worrying about brewing your own coffee or keeping the copy machine stocked. Industrious has several Metro-accessible coworking locations in Arlington.


Event

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.


Sports

The end result was a familiar story when the Wakefield Warriors and Yorktown Patriots met in their annual all-Arlington high-school football showdown.

With the bleachers full on both sides, Yorktown won for the 29th straight time over Wakefield with a 45-6 victory Friday night (Oct. 17) on the Warriors’ home field in Liberty District action.


Around Town

Good Friday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.

🕗 News recap

The following articles were published earlier today — Oct 17, 2025.

Since it’s Friday, we’ve also compiled a list of the most-read articles of the week, below.

  1. Top White House official selling Arlington home after activists write chalk messages on sidewalk (194338 views)
  2. UPDATED: Key Bridge closed for hours Thursday evening (49236 views)
  3. Lost Dog Cafe to close on Columbia Pike this week after months of declining sales (19011 views)
  4. Man seen fleeing on 14th Street Bridge after chase found dead in river (10371 views)
  5. APS enrollment drops by 1.1%, leading to staffing tweaks at numerous schools (8362 views)
  6. New models depict ‘Arc de Trump’ monument on Arlington side of Memorial Bridge (8187 views)
  7. JUST IN: Intersection blocked in Clarendon after vehicle overturns in crash (7811 views)
  8. TRAFFIC ALERT: Key Bridge closed again Friday (8769 views)

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Saturday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

Here are the events planned for Sunday:

🌤️ Saturday’s forecast

Expect mostly cloudy skies to gradually clear up and bring sunshine with a high around 71 degrees. The calm wind will transition into a southerly breeze at 5 to 7 mph during the afternoon. As for Saturday night, it will be mostly clear and a low of approximately 55 degrees, accompanied by a southeast wind around 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“Peace begins with a smile.”
– Mother Teresa

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.

We hope you have a great weekend, Arlington! If you have something to say about an issue of local note not covered today, feel free to post it as a letter to the editor on our new forum. 👋


News

While a debate among the candidates for Virginia Attorney General focused on violent rhetoric, a debate watch party in Arlington descended into physical violence.

Police were called to Mister Days on N. Highland Street around 6:45 p.m. Thursday after a fight broke out at the debate watch party held by the Arlington County Republican Committee. A video posted online, which includes explicit language, shows a man being restrained and ordered to leave the restaurant while a female companion records the incident and is later also ordered to leave.


News

As it celebrates its namesake’s birthday this week, an American Legion post in Arlington View is working for more visibility across Arlington and the region.

At almost 80 years old, American Legion Dorie Miller Post 194 & Auxiliary Unit is one of several American Legion posts named to honor Doris “Dorie” Miller, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.


News

McDonald’s has torn down a wall with a decades-old mural depicting local Black history while replacing its restaurant in Hall’s Hill.

The fast food chain, which demolished its former location at 4834 Langston Blvd to construct a more “modernized” restaurant in its place, cited structural concerns in its decision to remove the mural’s concrete wall.