The Arlington government plans to spend over $200 million on human services programs and personnel in the coming fiscal year, a new record high.
While officials are making some efforts to rein in the increase, they warn that local and national economic factors may force them to either add more funding or scale back existing initiatives as the year progresses.
Arlington’s congressman is throwing his support behind permanent flight traffic changes at Reagan National Airport following January’s fatal midair crash.
In a Friday letter, Rep. Don Beyer (D) and nine other lawmakers supported ending helicopter operations along the Potomac River between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when runways 15 and 33 are in use.
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 pool hall and bar in Clarendon’s former Silver Diner space has a new name.
Billiards, Bites and Beverages at 3200 Wilson Blvd is taking on a shorter new moniker: Clarendon 54. ARLnow readers spotted new exterior signs for the club last week.
A teenager from D.C. is facing several charges in Arlington after an early morning car chase.
A black Dodge Charger “that had previously eluded state troopers on multiple occasions” was spotted speeding on I-395 around 1 a.m., according to Virginia State Police, leading to a wild chase that ended in a crash on 15th Street S. in Crystal City.
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.
After a decade of business in Shirlington, family-owned Italian restaurant Osteria da Nino will close next month.
The restaurant’s last day at 2900 S. Quincy Street is Sunday, April 20, the Pino family owners shared in a Facebook post this weekend. It will offer Easter brunch and dinner service before closing for good.
A Clarendon resident is opening a new bookstore out of a renovated camper van, with plans to hit the road this summer.
Tessa Cannon is aiming to launch The Wandering Shelf, an independent mobile bookshop with about 700 fiction and nonfiction titles, later this spring. In terms of selection, she told ARLnow the store is focused on three categories: “cozy, fantastical and impactful reads.”
Safeguards are being put in place to ensure that county staff do not accidentally issue demolition and construction permits allowing the Melwood redevelopment to move forward before a planned historic-preservation analysis is done.
And that’s a process that could take a year.
A burst pipe has flooded and damaged Arlington County’s government headquarters in Courthouse.
The building at 2100 Clarendon Blvd is closed today and county government functions based there have been shifted to virtual operations, the county said.
Fence Falls on Metro Tracks — “I-66E and Metro have been shut down for a while near the East Falls Church Metro Station. Apparently fencing came down from the Washington Blvd. overpass onto the roadway and the rails. Metro confirmed a short time ago power is down allowing the fence to be cut.” [Dave Statter/X, WMATA/X]
Bar Goes Bananas After Buzzer Beater — The University of Maryland’s thrilling buzzer beater to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament electrified the crowd at Four Courts in Courthouse last night. [Ireland’s Four Courts/X]
Deluge of Delays at DCA — “Delays at Reagan National Airport tripled and cancellations spiked in the wake of January’s deadly collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter. Last month, 34 percent of flight arrivals were delayed — compared with 11 percent in February 2024. And more than 7 percent of flights were canceled, compared with half a percent last year. Delays have dropped in recent weeks, but since the crash more than 1 in 4 flights were late.” [Washington Post]
Layoffs at Local USAID Contractor — “An Arlington nonprofit focused on ensuring free and fair democratic elections around the world is laying off dozens of employees in the wake of the Trump administration’s moves to shutter one of its main funders, the U.S. Agency for International Development. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) eliminated 48 positions on March 2.” [WBJ]
Falls Church Tax Rate May Fall — Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields tonight is expected to propose a 2.5-cent drop in the real-estate tax rate for fiscal 2026, bringing it to $1.185 per $100 assessed valuation. The median tax bill for city homeowners would still rise about $400, or 3.4%, owing to increasing assessments. –Scott McCaffrey
Fmr. Federal Prosecutor Dies — “Former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber was found dead in Alexandria on Saturday morning, police said. She was 43… Police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue, a friend of the family told NBC News.” [NBC News, Jared Serre/X]
Va. Jobs for Feds Questioned — “In public appearances, the governor has been touting 250,000 unfilled jobs in Virginia as a way forward in a state that is home to more federal employees than almost any other. But an analysis of the openings shows little overlap between available private-sector jobs and the high-paid federal ones being lost in terms of salary, health insurance and other benefits.” [Washington Post]
Region’s Unemployment Rate Up — The DC metropolitan area’s unemployment rate for January was 3.1%, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data, up from 2.8% in December and 2.9% in January 2024. The number of those counted as unemployed (111,226) across the metro area was up 9.6% from a year before. –Scott McCaffrey
It’s Monday — Expect showers mainly before 8am, followed by cloudy skies eventually clearing to become mostly sunny with a high near 66. Southwest winds will be between 9 and 11 mph, gusting up to 22 mph. There is a 60% chance of precipitation, with rainfall likely less than a tenth of an inch. For Monday night, anticipate increasing clouds and a low around 43, accompanied by west winds ranging from 8 to 10 mph. [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.
