Arlington’s namesake U.S. Navy ship recently hosted a cruise for first responders and family members of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Participating 9/11 first responders included active and retired personnel from Arlington County and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Also invited on the trip from Norfolk Naval Station were several members from the Arlington Emergency Communications Center who supported rescue efforts at the Pentagon.
The race for four seats on the Falls Church City Council is underway.
Incumbents Laura Downs and David Snyder have already qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot. Several other aspirants, including incumbent Marybeth Connelly, have started the process of qualifying, city elections director David Bjerke told ARLnow.
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…)
HQ2 Hiring Slows — “Amazon’s most recent application to Virginia for taxpayer subsidies said that its confidence it would meet that jobs target had dropped to a “moderate” level, according to a copy of the application obtained through a public records request. Every previous annual Amazon report to the commonwealth detailing its job growth at the HQ2 site noted a “high” level of confidence in the employment goal.” [Washington Post]
New DCA Crash Details — “As they flew south along the Potomac River on the gusty night of Jan. 29, the crew aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter attempted to execute a common aviation practice. It would play a role in ending their lives…. an air traffic controller at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport alerted the crew to a regional passenger jet in its vicinity. The crew acknowledged seeing traffic nearby. One of the pilots then asked for permission to employ a practice called ‘visual separation.'” [New York Times]
Man Charged After Crash — “A man has been charged after crashing into a building and a telephone pole in Arlington Saturday, according to the Arlington Police Department. Police say officers received reports of a single-vehicle crash at 12:16 p.m. in the 900 block of S. Rolfe Street. There, a truck could be seen smashed against a brick building.” [DC News Now]
Another Rainy Day I-395 Wreck — “When it rains, you can almost guarantee a crash on I-395S just after the Arlington Ridge Road overpass. Hydroplaning there seems to be something you can count on.” [Dave Statter/X]
Laid-Off Feds Starting Businesses — “There are thousands of federal workers and contractors in Greater Washington like Bishop who have lost their jobs as the Trump administration has moved swiftly to shrink the federal civilian workforce and slash government spending. Laid-off workers need new jobs, but some of them are deciding this time, it might be better to be their own boss.” [WBJ]
State GOP Candidate Drama — “Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has asked Richmond-area radio host John Reid to withdraw as the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor after GOP researchers found sexually explicit posts online that they believe are connected to Reid, according to two sources familiar with the situation.” [Richmonder]
It’s Monday — Expect sunshine and a high temperature near 75 during the day In the evening, it will be mostly clear with a low around 54. [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.
The Yorktown Patriots (8-6) split two games with their Arlington public-school neighborhood baseball rivals in recent days, defeating the Washington-Liberty Generals, 4-2, then losing to the Wakefield Warriors, 8-4.
The win over W-L was the Patriots’ 15 straight against the Generals (10-6).
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.
In a seesaw girls softball game, the Yorktown Patriots eventually pulled away and defeated the host Washington-Liberty Generals in an all-Arlington neighborhood high-school clash.
Yorktown won the Liberty District contest, 20-9, after trailing by scores of 3-0, 5-2 and 9-6.
Arlington Babe Ruth turns 40 this year, and there is an event scheduled to celebrate the anniversary of the junior-age baseball league for players ages 4 to 12.
The event — to be held Saturday, May 3 from 5 to 9 p.m. at Barcroft Park — also will serve as the league’s opening ceremony.
Despite their 3-6 record, don’t count out the Yorktown Patriots in boys lacrosse just yet this season.
Their record is below .500, but the schedule for the young Patriots has been brutal, one of the toughest in the state, so far during the spring high-school campaign.
Bishop O’Connell High School graduates helped two different Division III women’s college soccer teams enjoy significant postseason success in recent weeks.
Sophomore midfielder Sophie Viscovich helped the Washington University in St. Louis Bears win the national championship, finishing with an unbeaten 23-0-2 record.
No athlete was busier for the Washington-Liberty Generals than Camille Walker during the recent Gainesville Cardinal Classic track-and-field meet.
The senior’s top finish in the multiple-team meet at Gainesville High School was a 17th in the girls discus. She also placed 18th in the triple jump, 19th in the 100 hurdles, 22nd in the shot put and 43rd in the 100 dash.
