Good Tuesday evening, Arlington. Today we published articles that were read a total of 20307 times… so far.
The following are the most-read articles for today — Jun 20, 2023.
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(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Commonwealth’s Attorney incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has defeated challenger Josh Katcher in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Dehghani-Tafti has 56% of the vote to 44% for Katcher, her former deputy, in the heated race for the top prosecutor of Arlington and Falls Church. That’s as of 8:40 p.m., with all but a few hundred provisional and late-arriving mailed ballots counted in Arlington. Polls closed at 7 p.m.
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: Why would anybody waste thousands of dollars each year on condo fees?
Answer: Most people associate paying condo fees with throwing money down the drain, but most people do not look at condo fees the right way.
In this June 20 article, the Wall Street Journal reported a study by Angi (formerly Angie’s List) that home maintenance and emergency repairs have increased by 85% and 175%, respectively, from 2019 to 2025.
By comparison, condo fees in Arlington increased by an average of just 32% from 2019 to 2025, making them a steep bargain for condo owners compared to other homeowners.
What Do Condo Fees Pay For?
For those who haven’t spent time studying condo budgets, some of the main expenses in a condo budget include:
- Maintenance, Emergency Repairs, and Utilities: general upkeep and operations of the building
- Reserves: a building’s savings account for major repairs or replacement of things like the roof, elevators, carpet, etc
- Property Management/Staff: contracts for a property manager, front desk, janitorial services, and engineer
- Master Insurance: this policy usually protects everything except your personal items and improvements within each unit
Arlington County’s pickleball plans continue to peeve particular people, prompting a potential project pause.
The Donaldson Run Civic Association (DRCA) sent a letter to the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) late last week expressing the belief the department did not sufficiently involve the civic association when making the decision to re-line several tennis courts for pickleball at Marcey Road Park in North Arlington.
The owner of garden apartments on the edge of the Fairlington neighborhood nabbed $46.6 million in federal loans to help keep the units affordable and fund upgrades.
Over the last two years, Standard Communities, which owns Park Shirlington (4510 31st Street S.), has been amassing funding — including from Arlington County — to keep the nearly 300 units on site affordable to people earning up to 60% of the area median income, while funding renovations and new construction work.
Running the Army Ten Miler or the fall half marathon? We’re kicking off our fall training programs with a free training run, followed by an introduction to training, and a chance to ask some coaches questions about your own training. Run is free. We’ll chat after the run at post-run coffee. We will have two distances: 4 miles and 7 miles. We will have pacers running everything from a 7:30 mile to a 12:30 run-walk, so everyone will have someone to run with. No need to RSVP, just come out and run!
Celtic House on Columbia Pike wants to expand, but it will have to go through the county’s historic review board first.
The pub confirmed to ARLnow over the weekend that it wants to add a whisky and bourbon bar, in a lower level space previously used by a now-closed dry cleaner. The original pub and the whisky bar will be connected by a staircase.
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(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) A young black bear, perhaps the one spotted near Windy Run Park over the weekend, is currently running through backyards in a North Arlington neighborhood.
The bear was seen hopping a fence and running through the yard of homes in the Leeway-Overlee neighborhood, not too far from the East Falls Church Metro station, around 11:15 a.m.
Growing community concerns and a visit from county code enforcement have prompted a local property manager to clean and secure its vacant storefronts on Columbia Pike.
Some retail bays at the Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center, on the 2600 block of the Pike, have stood empty for a year as the strip mall awaited redevelopment. That includes the former spaces of Atilla’s restaurant, apparel store Legends Kicks and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.
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Just under 10% of voters have cast ballots in today’s Democratic primary as of 9 a.m.
That includes 7% who voted early or by mail and 2% voting at the polls Tuesday morning, according to Arlington County election officials.
It’s Primary Day — Voting is now underway for today’s local Democratic primary. Links to candidate essays are as follows. Commonwealth’s Attorney: Josh Katcher and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti. County Board: Tony Weaver, Jonathan Dromgoole, JD Spain, Maureen Coffey, Susan Cunningham, and Natalie Roy. Sheriff: Jose Quiroz, James Herring, and Wanda Younger. State Senate: Barbara Favola.
More Bad Driving on I-395 — From Dave Statter on Monday: “The driver of a white SUV, going a bit faster than everyone else, lost control & went airborne for a moment after smashing into a guardrail on I-395N at Boundary Channel last night.” Statter on Saturday: “This Camaro sure took an interesting path. It came from the Rt 27 ramp to I-395S (from Col. Pike) & crossed 2 other ramps. The evidence shows up quite well on the @VaDOT cam.” [Twitter, Twitter]