Falls Church carjacking suspect (photo courtesy City of Falls Church)
The case involving the man who allegedly went on a carjacking and assault spree through Falls Church and Arlington is moving forward.
Last week — eight months after his arrest — he was identified as Garrett Reeves, of Lorton, according to Susan Finarelli, a public information officer for the City of Falls Church Police Department.
The Lee Heights Shops in May 2023 (via Google Maps)
It’s been a banner year so far for online holiday shopping.
Fresh records for online shopping were set on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s some question, however, as to whether the online holiday shopping growth — in total up 7.8% from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to Adobe — is a good sign or bad sign for brick-and-mortar merchants.
The concrete spheres and steel poles of Dark Star Park create more than a striking sculpture. Photo by Elman Studios.
Visitors gather each year to witness the annual Dark Star Park Day alignment. Photo by Elman Studios.
Dark Star Park in Rosslyn, designed by artist Nancy Holt, was created to connect art, time and place. Photo by Elman Studios.
Every year, for just a few minutes, one of Arlington’s most iconic works of public art comes to life exactly as its artist intended.
On Saturday, Aug. 1, at approximately 9:32 a.m., visitors will gather in Rosslyn to witness the annual shadow alignment at Nancy Holt’s Dark Star Park (1979–84). At that precise moment, the shadows cast by the sculpture’s spheres and poles align with permanent shadow forms embedded in the ground—a phenomenon Holt designed to commemorate the anniversary of Rosslyn’s founding.
The alignment lasts only a few moments, but it has become a beloved Arlington tradition, drawing residents, visitors, artists and architecture enthusiasts alike to experience the intersection of art, astronomy, and history. If the weather cooperates, the park transforms into a striking demonstration of how light, time and place can become part of a work of art.
Created between 1979 and 1984, Dark Star Park was Arlington’s first County-commissioned public artwork and remains one of the nation’s earliest examples of integrated public art—where sculpture, landscape architecture and the surrounding environment function as a single work. Rather than placing an object within a park, Holt made the entire park the artwork, incorporating spheres, pools, steel poles, tunnels, earthworks and carefully positioned plantings into an immersive landscape.
Nancy Holt (1938–2014) was a pioneering artist whose work spanned poetry, film, photography, land art and large-scale public sculpture. Throughout her career, she explored perception, time and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Dark Star Park remains her most significant urban installation and one of the few major works by the artist that can be experienced in an accessible city setting.
Whether you’ve attended for years or have never visited before, Dark Star Park Day offers a rare opportunity to experience a public artwork that changes with the movement of the sun—and reminds us that some of the most memorable moments in art happen not inside a museum, but out in the world around us.
Dark Star Park Day
When: Saturday, Aug. 1, beginning around 9 a.m.; shadow alignment at approximately 9:32 a.m. Where: Dark Star Park, 1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Rosslyn
View from the W&OD trail bridge over Langston Blvd (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
American Legion Drama — “Bob Romano has been Post 139’s field manager and coach the last 13 seasons, leading the team to district championships and state-tournament berths. He has heard he will not be permitted to return to the team, if one is fielded… Along with two other past commanders, Romano filed a complaint with the American Legion Department of Virginia, on issues related to the Post’s operations, he told the GazetteLeader. As a result, Post 139 is being investigated by the state and temporarily lost its charter, but got it back.” [Gazette Leader]
New Leader for Planning Dept. — “Samia Byrd has been named Arlington County’s next Director of Community Planning, Housing and Development (CPHD), beginning on Jan. 3, 2024. In this new role, she will provide vision and leadership for the next generation of land use regulations, plans, development policies and practices, housing, and community and neighborhood planning programs. Samia will succeed Claude Williamson who is retiring at the end of the year after a 26-year career with the County.” [Arlington County]
Police are investigating back-to-back reported armed robberies in the Arlington Mill neighborhood.
The robberies happened around 2:30 p.m. on the 800 block of S. Frederick Street. Initial reports suggest that a masked man with a semiautomatic handgun separately robbed two people of cash.
The back of Westover Taco (staff photo by James Jarvis)
Tacos are closer to being served in Westover, just in time for the holidays.
After a nearly 4-month delay, Westover Taco at 5849 Washington Blvd — previously the home of the Forest Inn, a long-time dive bar which closed in June 2022 — is set to open around mid-December, per the company’s Instagram account.
Arlington Chorale concert at Westover Baptist Church December 2022 (courtesy of Dennis Pitman)
The Arlington Chorale is gearing up to bring a long-lost musical piece to life at its holiday concert next Saturday in Westover.
The community choir plans to perform familiar classics, including “Good King Wenceslas” and “Gloria.” However, it is also adding what it says is a rarely performed composition to its repertoire: ‘The Ballad of the Brown King.”
A rendering of the proposed Goodwill redevelopment (via Arlington County)
Plans to redevelop the Goodwill near Route 50 — with affordable housing, childcare and a new store and donation center — have received a relatively warm reception, per a recent survey.
Goodwill and AHC Inc. propose to replace the existing Goodwill Retail and Donation Center in the Alcova Heights neighborhood with a 6-story apartment building with 128 units of affordable housing, a new store and donation center and a 3,300-square-foot childcare facility.