The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) is considering various ideas to keep cars from blocking Arlington’s designated bus lanes.
Nearly a decade after the county and Alexandria inaugurated the region’s first dedicated bus-only travel lanes, ticketing motorists who get in the way remains decidedly low-tech.
Arlington officials say they’re aware of deficiencies affecting pedestrians and bicyclists along stretches of N. Glebe Road between I-66 and Langston Blvd.
“The sidewalks belong to a different era — terrible and definitely not adequate,” County Board Chair Takis Karantonis said on Saturday.
When Eddie Kaufholz and his family moved to Arlington nearly five years ago, they were not thinking about starting a business. They wanted to live in a place that was diverse, interesting and full of opportunity, with a school system they could rely on. Arlington fit.
In the years that followed, working out of a home office off Columbia Pike, he consulted with organizations across Northern Virginia and around the country: nonprofits, advocacy groups, mid-sized companies, agencies of various sizes. The work itself was good. But somewhere across all those projects, he started to notice a pattern.
”The agency model has gotten really bloated,” Kaufholz says. ”Layers, handoffs, middle management. The senior people who pitch the work often disappear once it starts. The idea with PILLAR was to strip all of that down; keep senior people on the work, approach each client with humility and care, do world-class strategy and execution, and pass the efficiency back to the client instead of absorbing it as agency margin.”
That thinking, slowly, became PILLAR, the Arlington-headquartered creative, communications and marketing agency Kaufholz founded.
PILLAR, he says, is built on an old idea. ”An idea that has always been possible but rarely practiced: that an agency should be structured to serve the work itself.” The team that delivers the work is assembled around the specific needs of each client and only stays as long as the work calls for them.
”The senior strategist on your kick-off call is the senior strategist writing your messaging,” Kaufholz says. ”Every person on a project is there because the work specifically calls for them.”
PILLAR’s recent work has spanned human rights, executive leadership, higher education, advocacy and direct-to-consumer ecommerce. The roster has included national nonprofits, a national multimillion-dollar direct-to-consumer brand and a number of institutions navigating significant moments of strategic change. The model is built to scale up to be the agency of record for a national brand, or to scale down to design a logo for a neighborhood nonprofit. PILLAR takes equal pride and care in both.
What Kaufholz did not understand when he started, he said, was how much the County itself would matter in making any of it possible. (more…)
Ballston Development Approved — “Penzance, a leading owner, operator and developer in the Mid-Atlantic region for over two decades, has received approval from Arlington County for its proposed redevelopment of Ballston One at 4601 N. Fairfax Drive. The approved plan will convert the existing office building into a vibrant new residential community.” [Press Release, WBJ]
More on Crystal City Conversion — “JBG SMITH… has received approval from Arlington County to transform more than 550,000 square feet of vacant office space across two out-of-service National Landing office buildings into a 195-unit apartment building and a 344-room, dual-branded hotel.” [Press Release]
Food Hall Replacing Brown’s — “The oldest business in Falls Church will be replaced by the hottest new thing in food halls. Wonder, the food hall concept featuring recreated recipes from celebrity chefs and nationally known restaurants, has filed paperwork to open at 100 W. Broad St., replacing Brown’s Hardware, which closed earlier this year.” [WBJ]
Business Sustainability Partnership — “The Arlington County Board voted to approve a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Arlington County and Ceres, formalizing a strategic partnership for the development and implementation of the Arlington Corporate Climate Leaders (ACCL) program to be launched later this year.” [Arlington County]
Crash at Tricky Intersection — “A driver running a red signal appeared to have caused a crash yesterday at the newly revamped intersection of Army Navy Drive & S. Hayes Street in Pentagon City… In the view from my driver’s seat, you can see how that right turn signal lines up with my car. I was in the same lane as the driver in the video.” [Dave Statter/X]
New Certification at MU — “Marymount University has launched its new Workday Pro Platform Administrator Certification, becoming one of only two higher education institutions in the nation to partner with global cloud-based software leader Workday to offer certification programs to the public.” [Press Release]
Economic Diversification Plans — The Northern Virginia Chamber has released a plan to diversify the region’s economy away from federal jobs, attracting investment and creating jobs in key industries like AI and biotech. The initiative aims to address economic challenges from recent federal workforce cuts and will advocate for strategies such as affordable housing and child care. [WBJ]
PSL Date Announced — “The unofficial start of fall has a date: Tuesday, August 26, when Starbucks will bring back the Pumpkin Spice Latte… the latte’s actual launch date is four days later than last year’s, and marks the latest release since 2022.” [Axios]
Smoke Today, Heat Later — “We could have just a bit of haze in the sky… courtesy of wildfire smoke from Canada. But it shouldn’t be enough smoke to greatly impact air quality… Enjoy this less hot and humid weather while it lasts. Sweltering heat is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday.” [CWG]
It’s Tuesday — Expect sunshine and a high of around 85 with a gentle northeast wind at 6 mph. Tonight the sky will be mostly clear, with the temperature dropping to around 68. [NWS]
Good Monday 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 — Jul 21, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Tuesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect sunshine and a high of around 85 with a gentle northeast wind at 6 mph. Moving onto Tuesday night, the sky will be mostly clear, with the temperature dropping to around 68. The east wind at 6 mph will become calm as the evening progresses. See more from Weather.gov.
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
– Winston Churchill
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Carlos César Rodríguez joins NCE for a luminous performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, “Elvira Madigan,” celebrated for its elegance, lyricism, and timeless appeal. Artistic Director and violinist Leo Sushansky takes center stage in Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, a cornerstone of the violin repertoire, offering a deeply personal and passionate interpretation of its sweeping romantic lines.
The program is further enriched by Florence Price’s Adoration, a work of profound beauty and spiritual warmth, and Johan Svendsen’s Romance, cherished for its lyrical charm and expressive simplicity.
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking aim at the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office following a recent immigration arrest in Courthouse.
David Cabrera, an undocumented immigrant who pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of Arlington teenager in 2014, was detained by ICE agents outside the Arlington County magistrate’s office earlier this month.
Sounds of summer are coming to Shirlington this week with the start of a new yacht rock cabaret.
“Sailing: Yacht Rock” premieres tomorrow night (Tuesday) at Signature Theatre, featuring the melodies of Christopher Cross and quintessential yacht rock tunes like “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” and “What a Fool Believes.”
A gun-toting cyclist and a trio of package thieves are being sought by Arlington County police after a pair of weekend incidents.
The first happened just before 3 a.m. this past Saturday, in the Lyon Village neighborhood near Clarendon.
Jet is a sweet bull terrier with a heart as big as his head and a second lease on life after being rescued from euthanasia.
Jet is a two-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix currently in foster care and available for adoption through Laila’s Legacy Animal Rescue.
A new food hall in Rosslyn will celebrate its grand opening this week with a ribbon cutting, giveaways and live music.
Wonder, a new celebrity chef-partnered food hall at 1771 N. Pierce Street, opens for business at 4:30 p.m. this Thursday. The new hall hosts over a dozen vendors, including exclusive Wonder partners and restaurants from across the country.
