A proposal to redevelop a Lyon Village church as affordable housing for LGBTQ+ seniors continues to get pushback from some neighbors.
Clarendon Presbyterian Church has been seeking to redevelop its property at 1305 N. Jackson Street in partnership with True Ground Housing Partners. Conceptual site plans filed last May depict a six-story building with 102 units, as well as a church and childcare center totaling 8,530 square feet.
Arlington prosecutors have declined to pursue charges against a convenience store employee accused of slashing an alleged shoplifter with a knife.
The 24-year-old employee faced two misdemeanor charges stemming from the Dec. 16 incident, in which he allegedly pursued and confronted two men who left a 7-Eleven in Arlington Heights without paying for beer and other items.
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…)
The First Four games of March Madness continue tonight (Wednesday), with American University facing Mount St. Mary’s at 6:40 p.m.
Arlington and Falls Church are home to no shortage of venues to watch the game while enjoying a happy hour. Here are a couple places to find food and drink deals, watch parties and some friendly bracket competitions.
A new nightlife attraction with karaoke and Chinese cuisine is open in Crystal City.
Lantern Restaurant & Bar opened at 320 23rd Street S. late last month, debuting a nearly 5,500-square-foot space decked out with high quality sound systems and LED lights. The venue is currently taking reservations, owner Shen Zhao told ARLnow.
*Mamistad Groups meet IN PERSON-only the introductory Zoom call is virtual. :)
Pregnancy and new mom groups are a lifesaver when it comes to normalizing those feelings we just can’t be prepared for.
A new cafe with cozy seats, neon signs and a playful disco theme is now open in Crystal City.
Coffee Republic opened last week at 3130 Potomac Avenue, on the ground floor of Azure National Landing apartments. The shop sells espresso drinks and food in addition to organic coffee beans and grounds.
Falls Church residents are less satisfied with their roads than they used to be, a new survey suggests.
Still, they continue to have a generally positive view of city services and their community’s overall quality of life.
Two key Arlington government advisory panels have been asked to focus less on trying to vet individual capital projects and more on a big-picture approach.
Since that request comes from County Manager Mark Schwartz, it may have the force of a directive — albeit one politely delivered.
Cold Case Murder Arrest — “PGPD Cold Case Unit charges man for 1979 murder of 31-year-old Kathryn Donohue of Arlington. The suspect is 82-year-old Rodger Zodas Brown of North Carolina.” [Washington Post, WTOP, PGPD/X]
Lidl Lot to Remain Parking — “Lidl is kicking the can down the road on the long-approved office development of a parking lot it owns near its U.S. headquarters in Arlington, leaving a hole in the stretch of Potomac Yard known as National Gateway for the foreseeable future.” [WBJ]
Pedestrian Struck on Langston Blvd — A woman was struck by a driver on eastbound Langston Blvd at N. Bryan Street yesterday around 4 p.m. She was bleeding and suffered at least an arm injury, according to initial reports, prior to her being taken to a local trauma center. [ARLnow/X]
Truck KOs Traffic Light — “Follow the white pickup. Watch until the end. Check out the traffic signals. The traffic signals are still out at S. Glebe and I-395.” [Dave Statter/X, Arlington Alert/X]
Crash Concerns in F.C. — “Falls Church continues to see high numbers of traffic-related injuries, with 175 reported in 2024—making it the third-worst year in the last eight. A new analysis of city crash data highlights that nearly all injuries occur on key 25-30 mph cut-through roads, and the first traffic fatality since 2010 underscores the urgent need for proven safety improvements.” [Falls Church Pulse]
More Fuel Storage at DCA — “Reagan National Airport is planning to increase storage capabilities for on-site jet fuel by some 50%, or by 1.6 million gallons, as passenger totals for the at-capacity Arlington facility continue to break records.” [WBJ]
Ballston Building Sold for Loss — “A Brookfield fund recently sold an office building in Arlington for $47 million, at a loss. The real estate giant unloaded the eight-story building known as Arlington Medical Center at 1005 N. Glebe Road…It had acquired the property, home to a 1980s-era,148,000-square-foot office, formerly called Fairgate at Ballston, in 2021 for $50.15 million.” [WBJ]
Another Acquisition for Local Firm — “Arlington government technology contractor Redhorse Corp. has acquired a Kensington-based Department of Defense contractor in a bid to deepen its capabilities. Redhorse’s acquisition of The Mannakee Group is its second in the three years since it landed a minority investment from McLean’s Blue Delta Capital Partners.” [WBJ]
It’s Wednesday — Expect a mostly sunny day, reaching a high of around 74, with southerly winds at 8 to 13 mph in the morning, and potential gusts up to 18 mph. The night will turn mostly cloudy, with lows around 48, and southeast winds at about 10 mph, gusting up to 22 mph. [NWS]
A woman was rescued Tuesday evening after driving into the Potomac River along the GW Parkway.
The incident happened shortly before 7 p.m. on the Parkway between the 14th Street Bridge and Memorial Bridge. A crowd gathered along the Mt. Vernon Trail as U.S. Park Police and good Samaritans helped to pull the driver to shore.
