News
Cappuccino machine at Portofino’s Restaurant in Crystal City (Flickr pool photo by Jason Gooljar)

Thank You, Savannah! — Today is the last working day for Savannah Taffe, ARLnow’s spring semester intern. Thank you to Savannah for her hard work over past few months.

Rosslyn WeWork May Be in Trouble — “CoStar Group Inc., which became a WeWork landlord earlier this year when it bought an Arlington high-rise office building, wants a court to reject WeWork’s attempt to extend the time it has to review its existing lease under its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The D.C. real estate data company filed a motion April 18 saying the coworking giant does not have cause for such an extension.” [Washington Business Journal]

Local Space Tries to Lure WeWorkers — “To all Rosslyn We-Workers: you don’t deserve this uncertainty — it’s not what you signed up for. But there is a new, more certain, accommodating, and affordable alternative just steps away: Office Evolution Arlington-Rosslyn. If you want to keep your business in the neighborhood, we want to help you do that.” [LinkedIn]

Peterson Gets Union Endorsement — From a press release: “Today, Tenley Peterson is pleased to announce the endorsement of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO (NoVA Labor). Tenley Peterson is seeking the Democratic nomination for an open seat on the Arlington County Board in 2024.”

Nonprofit Hoping for Obsolescence — “Fifty years since its founding, Offender Aid & Restoration (OAR) is now gazing a half-century into the future. It is a future, organization leaders hope, where its services will no longer be needed… OAR’s social-safety-net services (which cover Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church) provide support to those who are, or may become, involved in the criminal-justice system.” [Gazette Leader]

WHS Is Arlington Track Champ — “The Boys and Girls outdoor track teams both won Arlington County Championships on Tuesday evening. The Boys defended their 2023 title and the Girls improved on a close 2023 second-place finish.” [Wakefield Warriors]

Hot Summer Predicted — “D.C. is expected to have a hotter-than-usual summer, according to new forecasts and scientific research… D.C., along with areas spanning from Florida up to southern New Jersey, has a 40% to 50% chance of an unusually hot summer.” [Axios]

It’s Thursday — Expect partly sunny skies today with a high near 61 and a north wind of 6 to 8 mph. Thursday night, the weather will be partly cloudy, and temperatures will drop to around 43, accompanied by a southeast wind at around 6 mph. [NWS]

Flickr pool photo by Jason Gooljar


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

A parent association is asking Arlington Public Schools to change its policy of providing every student with an iPad or MacBook.

Arguing that the devices are bad for children’s mental development and needlessly expensive, Arlington Parents for Education wants the Arlington School Board to roll back funding for them this budget cycle. It is requesting an end to the one-to-one policy for students in pre-kindergarten through 2nd grade, a reduction in devices for 3rd through 5th graders and a transition to PC laptops for grades 6 and up.


Around Town

Arlington is home to three of the top 250 sports bars in the United States, according to a new set of rankings.

The list, published by betting site BetUS, is based on three simple factors: beer price, hamburger price, and a Google review average.


News

The D.C. area’s council of governments wants to get at least half of the region covered in trees.

After years of shrinking tree cover, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) adopted a goal earlier this month of maintaining a minimum canopy of at least 50% throughout the D.C. area. It is calling on local governments including Arlington to commit to a similar goal.


Around Town

Clarendon may be getting another boba tea shop and a new sushi joint.

A little over a year after ObyLee Winery and Coffee Shop closed, a new tenant filed a permit to open a bubble tea shop called Bobolicious in the same space, per county records.


News
Clouds over the US Air Force Memorial (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

New Restaurants Announced — “Dolan Uyghur leased 2,485 square feet at the Quimby on 23rd, a 440-unit building formerly known as The Buchanan at 320 23rd St. S… Joining it at Quimby are Lantern Restaurant and Bar, which has leased about 5,450 square feet and will be part Chinese restaurant and part karaoke bar; and La Posada, from the team behind Don Pancho Mexican Grill, which has leased 5,458 square feet and will be serving up Tex-Mex-style food.” [Washington Business Journal]

Crystal City Robbery Arrest — “1700 block of Crystal Drive. At approximately 6:50 p.m. on April 22, police were dispatched to the report of a robbery just occurred. The preliminary investigation indicates the male suspect entered the business, approached the counter and engaged an employee in conversation before allegedly stealing money from the register. A lookout for the suspect was broadcast and Metro Transit Police located the suspect in Washington DC and took him into custody.” [ACPD]

Deer Discussion Nears — “Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia will host an online program – ‘Strategies for Dealing with Deer’ – on Friday, May 3 at 10 a.m. Master Gardener Kathie Clements will discuss strategies with a focus on deer behavior and how knowing their habits can lead to developing effective ways to protect gardens.” [Gazette Leader]

‘Bookstore Crawl’ Planned — “As part of Independent Bookstore Day, locally-owned bookstores in and near Northern Virginia will team up to host a bookstore crawl to boost visits to their businesses.” Participating stores include One More Page Books at 2200 N. Westmoreland Street in East Falls Church. [Patch]

Investment Firm Sees High Demand — “An Arlington private equity firm has closed its second fund and it looking to deploy $325 million into ‘lower middle-market companies’ in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years. GEF Capital Partners, based at 1300 17th St. N. in Rosslyn, originally sought to raise $250 million for its US Climate Solutions Fund II investment vehicle.” [DC Inno]

It’s Wednesday — Expect scattered showers in the early morning, clearing up to a mostly sunny sky with a high near 70 degrees. A northwest wind will blow at 9 to 14 mph, gusting up to 21 mph, with a 30% chance of precipitation during the day. The night will be partly cloudy, with a low temperature around 43 degrees, accompanied by a north wind at about 10 mph. [NWS]