Falls Church officials are considering whether to allow public safety aides to issue parking tickets, direct traffic and respond to abandoned vehicles.
Under current Falls Church city code, only sworn law enforcement officers have the ability to conduct parking and traffic control.
By TARA COPP Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army’s history is closely tied to its cavalry units, those soldiers who rode into battle on horseback. But the service announced Tuesday that it’s moving toward a future without the ceremonial horses and will put most of them up for adoption.
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…)
A working group on affordable housing met last week to explore possible solutions to ever-spiraling costs for Arlington’s low- and moderate-income households.
Though the hour-long meeting on July 1 didn’t resolve any core issues, members suggested that pushing developers to provide more funding to the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund might be the best way to get more apartments built in Arlington.
Join us on August 1 between 10 AM to 2 PM for a drop‑in event for the whole family! Explore our Dojo—the high‑tech, STEAM‑driven space where you can dive into activities like MakeCode Arcade, Roblox, Minecraft, robotics, 3D printing, drones, VR, and more. While you’re here, take advantage of our amazing enrollment specials, or simply enjoy a fun day of coding, meeting new friends, high fives, and plenty of Hi‑Yahs!
Arlington’s new School Board chair is promising to protect community values she sees as under threat from the state and federal governments.
Bethany Zecher Sutton’s colleagues unanimously selected her to chair the School Board at a meeting yesterday (Tuesday), replacing Chair Mary Kadera.
Due to the extended period of extreme heat forecasted for the next several days in our area, the Civic Jam event originally scheduled for Friday, July 3, 2026, has been postponed to Friday, July 24, 2026.
Commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary of the United States of America at Civic Jam! Celebrate the City of Falls Church’s diverse community, civic engagement, and classic summer fun. Jam out to live, local music, sip on local brews, enjoy tasty treats and eats, and a full evening of festivities for all ages on Friday, July 3, 2026, from 6 to 10 p.m.
Beyer Highlights Research Cuts — “Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) joined scientists from across the nation on Capitol Hill [on Tuesday] to showcase research that has been halted due to grant cancellations by the Trump administration.” [ALXnow]
Local Singles Turning to AI? — “Last year, Match reported that AI in dating was still in the early phases, with 6% of single daters using it in some capacity. This year, 18% of single Virginians have had a romantic AI companion. The number is even higher in D.C. (28%).” [Axios]
Adult Sites Slow to ID in Va. — “Virginia was among the first states to require age verification for adult sites, but an Axios review found progress has been slow. Of the top 57 active [adult video] sites listed… Only four asked Virginians for age verification with a government-issued ID, as the 2023 law mandates.” [Axios]
Another Flood Watch Today — “Numerous showers and thunderstorms capable of producing very heavy rainfall are expected again Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday evening. A Flood Watch has been issued for locations to the east of the Blue Ridge for Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday evening.” [NWS Baltimore-Washington/X]
It’s Wednesday — Expect showers and thunderstorms mainly after 4pm, with otherwise mostly sunny conditions and a high near 91. Wednesday night, showers and thunderstorms are likely. The night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 72, and a 60% chance of precipitation. [NWS]
Good Tuesday 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 8, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect showers and thunderstorms mainly after 4pm, with mostly sunny conditions and a high near 91. The calm wind will become south around 6 mph in the afternoon, with a 30% chance of precipitation. Wednesday night, anticipate likely showers and thunderstorms before 2am followed by a slight chance of showers between 2am and 5am, and again after 5am. The night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 72, south wind at 3 to 5 mph, and a 60% chance of precipitation. New rainfall amounts could range between a tenth and a quarter of an inch, with higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. See more from Weather.gov.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle
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.
Construction on a new four-track bridge, meant to expand rail traffic between Arlington and D.C., is expected to get underway later this month.
The $1 billion undertaking by the development firm Skanska and infrastructure company FlatironDragados is on track to begin in the coming weeks, Skanska announced in a press release yesterday (Monday).
For Arlington Democrats, the number to beat on Nov. 4 is 51,465.
That’s the difference between the number of votes cast in the county, in 2021, for Democrat Terry McAuliffe (73,013) over Republican Glenn Youngkin (21,548). McAuliffe lost that race, falling short by about 64,000 votes statewide.
A series of free outdoor movie nights on Columbia Pike begins this Friday with “The Wizard of Oz.”
Columbia Pike Movie Nights are coming to two outdoor plazas on Fridays and Saturdays this summer. Hosted by the Columbia Pike Partnership, the series will provide weekly movie screenings at the Arlington Mill Community Center and Penrose Square Apartments until late August.
At Northern Virginia Family Services (NVFS), one of the region’s largest and most established human services nonprofits, we believe every child deserves to walk into the classroom on the first day of school feeling confident, prepared, and ready to learn. But for many local families, the excitement of a new school year is overshadowed by the financial stress of buying school supplies. By helping families meet this essential need, we can ease financial pressure and give students the tools they need to succeed from day one.
This summer, NVFS is bringing together individuals, businesses, and community partners from across Northern Virginia, to provide new backpacks and essential school supplies to more than 1,500 local students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
