A Lao and Thai eatery in Arlington has captured Washington Post praise once again in a list of the D.C. area’s 40 best restaurants.
Longtime food critic Tom Sietsema lauded Padaek, located at 2931 S. Glebe Road in the Arlington Ridge Shopping Center, both for its offerings like fried blue catfish with tamarind-pineapple sauce and for its ambience.
Arlington County government offices will be open but those in Falls Church, along with the state and federal governments, will be closed this Monday, Oct. 14.
The federal and state governments observe the day as Columbus Day. The state government also marks it as Yorktown Victory Day.
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…)
Total Party Leaving Arlington — “Total Party, one of the last remaining businesses being displaced from the Crystal City Underground, is readying to relocate to larger space in D.C. after a run of nine years in the subterranean space at 1750 Crystal Drive. The shop’s slated to close at 6 p.m. Dec. 31, and plans to reopen March 1 from the former Dress Barn space at L’Enfant Plaza in Southwest D.C., per owner Lorenzo Caltagirone. … He wanted to stay in Arlington County, if not specifically in Crystal City, but couldn’t find suitable space.” [WBJ]
Planting Trees at Schools — “Arlington County students are about to breathe easier as 100 new trees are planted on school grounds will ensure they have plenty of fresh air for all their outdoor shenanigans The county’s Department of Parks and Recreation’s Urban Forestry Office is working with Arlington Public Schools to get the trees planted on school grounds. The project is funded by the Virginia Trees for Clean Water Grant Program.” [WUSA 9]
Columbia Pike Apartments Acquired — “Shoreham Capital recently acquired a two-building apartment community in Arlington for $51 million, its second acquisition in Northern Virginia, both this year. An affiliate of the West Palm Beach, Florida-based privately held real estate firm bought the 227-unit Infinity Apartments, at 955 S. Columbus St. and 4990 Columbia Pike, on Sept. 26.” [WBJ]
Robbery in Ballston — “4200 block of Fairfax Drive. At approximately 6:10 p.m. on October 9, police were dispatched to the report of a robbery by force. Upon arrival, it was determined Suspect One entered the business, collected merchandise and exited without payment. An employee confronted the suspect outside the store and attempted to recover the stolen items during which Suspect One struck them before fleeing the scene on foot with Suspect Two, who waiting outside the business.” [ACPD]
Harris Supporter Event in F.C. — “Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi was on hand to greet an assembly of prominent Falls Church area Vietnamese-American community leaders at the City’s elegant new restaurant, Nu, in its still unfolding Founder’s Row 1 center yesterday morning for a roundtable conference focused on the economy. The event was organized to ‘highlight Vice President Kamala Harris’ New Way Forward.'” [Falls Church News-Press]
It’s Friday — Expect sunshine and a high of around 68 degrees, accompanied by a northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. In the evening, the sky will remain clear with temperatures dropping to approximately 48 degrees. [NWS]
Good Thursday 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 — Oct 10, 2024.
Here is what’s going on Friday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect sunshine and a high of around 68 degrees, accompanied by a northwest wind between 5 and 8 mph. In the evening, the sky will remain clear with temperatures dropping to approximately 48 degrees, and a southwest wind of around 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“All great achievements require time.”
– Maya Angelou
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.
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.
Arlingtonians with an eye to the sky were treated to the northern lights tonight (Thursday).
Reports of visible aurora borealis in the D.C. area started coming in around 7:30 p.m. While visible to the naked eye, the auroras could be more clearly seen on long exposure photos.
No matter what happens from this point, the Bishop O’Connell Knights already have achieved a season of firsts.
Through 11 games, the girls high-school field hockey team stands 10-1, with that number of wins being the most in a single season for the private-school squad.
Two tall refurbished trophies, named for individuals for the first time, were presented to the winning girls and boys high-school teams at this year’s annual Arlington County cross-country championship meets the afternoon of Sept. 24 at Bluemont Park.
The girls trophy is now named for former Washington-Liberty High School director of student activities Carol Callaway. The boys is named for former longtime Yorktown High School cross country coach Mark Stripe, who coached Yorktown for more than 25 years.
Arlington high schools have a full week of sports ahead.
Three public-high-school football games will be played tonight (Oct. 10) instead of Friday night (Oct. 11) to accommodate observances of Yom Kippur.
A Fairfax-based investment group has acquired a majority stake in Beyer Auto Group.
Open Road Capital closed a deal today (Thursday) on the family business of U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the congressman confirmed with ARLnow.
