Around Town

Good Wednesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.

🕗 News recap

The following articles were published earlier today — May 15, 2024.

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

🌧️ Thursday’s forecast

Expect isolated showers after 2pm, with mostly cloudy skies and a high around 76. The north wind will blow at 10-14 mph, gusting up to 21 mph, and a 20% chance of precipitation. For Thursday night, it will remain mostly cloudy and cool down to around 58, with a gentle northeast breeze at 6-8 mph. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

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.


Sponsored

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…)


News

Plans to build an affordable housing development near Crystal City could take a key step forward next week despite a neighborhood association’s objections.

A request to advertise hearings on a possible land-use amendment for the Melwood property in Aurora Highlands is scheduled to go before the Arlington County Board on Tuesday. At issue is the possibility of shifting the site’s zoning designation from “public” to “low-medium residential” — bringing a proposal to build 104 units of affordable housing “within the realm of consideration,” a county report says.


Around Town

Lao and Thai restaurant Padaek, which opened last October in the Arlington Ridge Shopping Center, won some acclaim from the Washington Post today.

The Post included the eatery at 2931 S. Glebe Road on a list of the best new restaurants in the region.


Event

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.


Events

An event aiming to connect military veterans to AI-related opportunities is coming to Arlington this week.

The Vets in AI launch event, taking place at Microsoft’s Rosslyn office on Thursday, is one of the first forays into the D.C. area for the San Francisco-based nonprofit VetsinTech. As emerging technologies play an increasingly prominent role in both the public and private sector, Vets in AI seeks to create education, employment and entrepreneurship pathways for people with military backgrounds.


Around Town

An office building right across from the Clarendon Metro station is finally filling some vacant retail bays.

The owner of the office tower at 3101 Wilson Blvd just announced three new retail tenants on the ground floor: bakery and cafe chain Paris  Baguette, nostalgic confectionary chain Kilwins, and wellness clinic chain Relive Health.


News

Former Clarendon mainstay Mister Days Sports Rock Cafe is set to reopen in June with only slight changes to its concept and dining options.

Under the leadership of its original owner, Bobby Lee, the restaurant aims to revive aspects of the beloved sports bar atmosphere that patrons enjoyed at its previous Clarendon location — now home to The Renegade — before Mister Days closed in 2019.


News
Looking east down Wilson Blvd from the pedestrian bridge in Ballston, on a rainy day (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

We’re #1 for Retirement Income — “Arlington, Virginia, ranked highest in retirement income, followed by Cambridge, Massachusetts, and The Woodlands, Texas, according to a SmartAsset analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2022 1-year American Community Survey. Three of the top eight large cities with the highest incomes were in the Washington, DC, area.” [Business Insider, SmartAsset]

Wine Shop Coming to Crystal City — “The popular Flight Wine Bar that shuttered in Chinatown late last year is reconstituting itself as a retail store in Crystal City. The 2,175-square-foot Flight Wine Shop is slated to open by the end of the year at The Grace, the multifamily building developed by JBG Smith Properties at the larger site known as 1900 Crystal Drive in Arlington.” [Washington Business Journal]

Arlington By the Numbers — From the Dept. of Environmental Services: “It’s #InfrastructureWeek. Seriously. Some Arlington numbers.” Stats cited by DES include 22 million gallons of wastewater treated daily and 1,400 tons of glass collected at recycling stations annually. [Twitter]

County Board Election Guide — “Your ballot will look a bit different because of ranked choice voting, and the results on election night likely will too. Last year, Arlington elections officials released the tally of the first-choice votes on Election Night, but county residents had to wait until Friday for the preliminary tabulation of the results.” [WAMU]

Clement Wants More Federal Offices — “Clement also referenced an executive order made by President Carter in 1978. ‘The order stipulates that whenever a federal agency relocates, it must give priority to an available space located in a city’s central business district rather than in a suburb,’ Clement said – and in this case, Arlington is counted as part of the central core rather than suburbia… ‘If elected, I am going to insist upon it,’ she said.” [Gazette Leader]

Karantonis Makes Endorsements — Arlington County Board Vice-Chair Takis Karantonis has endorsed both JD Spain and Tenley Peterson in the Democratic County Board primary. [Twitter, Twitter]

Board Member Is Hiring — From Maureen Coffey: “I’m hiring!!! This aide role will support me day to day. Have you ever wanted to see how local gov works and also have a cool hip boss? This is your chance!! Job includes admin, emails, scheduling w/significant opportunities for research/policy projects.” [Twitter]

F.C. Approves Tax Rate Decrease — “The FY2025 General Fund budget, inclusive of Schools and General Government, totals $137.8 million. The budget provides for a 7% growth for the General Government expenditures and local funding for City schools. The approved budget reduces the real estate tax rate by two cents from $1.23 to $1.21 per $100 of assessed value. The median homeowner’s real estate tax bill will increase by $174 or 1.5% with the rising assessed value of homes in the City due to market appreciation.” [City of Falls Church]

It’s Wednesday — Expect showers and possible thunderstorms after 2pm, alongside patchy fog from 7am to 2pm, with a high near 65, and a northeast wind of 8-10 mph. Precipitation is 80%, and new rainfall may reach up to three quarters of an inch. On Wednesday night there’s a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a low around 59. [NWS]


Around Town

Good Tuesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.

🕗 News recap

The following articles were published earlier today — May 14, 2024.

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

⛈️ Wednesday’s forecast

Expect showers and possible thunderstorms after 2pm, alongside patchy fog from 7am to 2pm, with a high near 65, and a northeast wind of 8-10 mph. Precipitation is 80%, and new rainfall may reach up to three quarters of an inch. Wednesday night, there’s a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, a low around 59, and a north wind at 8 mph. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”
– Yehuda Bauer

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

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.