County leaders got an earful about the proposed relocation of the Columbia Pike Branch Library at a town hall meeting last night.
“An angry standing room crowd” holding “signs and banners” loudly engaged library and county officials at the Arlington Career Center, a resident who attended the meeting tells us.
The East Falls Church (EFC) development plan calls for the creation of a “transit town” of neighborhood-oriented retail and restaurants, six to nine-story mixed-use buildings, and pedestrian-oriented walkable and bike-able streetscapes. Development is inevitable, EFC task force chairman Mike Nardolilli says, since the station will soon become the transfer point to Tysons Corner and the Silver Line. Members of the task force spent three years working on the plan and says it mostly incorporates ideas that most residents welcome, based on a neighborhood survey.
But according to one man, supporters of the plan are “passive sheep,” the task force wants “to limit our freedom,” and the proposed narrowing of Sycamore Street is “idiotic.” That invective, and any other criticism of the plan, was greeted by loud applause from like-minded folks in the audience, who were clearly in the majority.
Supporters of Matthew Berry have taken to the comment section of the local Republican politics website RedNoVA to vent their frustration.
Said one: “People I’ve spoken to in the last three days are shocked and disgusted by Murrays tactics… There is no better chance that I will [support] Murray than there is of Murray defeating Moran. Period.”
Why? Because the spot — boldly staked out between Baja Fresh and Chipotle — apparently wasn’t sitting well with management at Baja Fresh, who complained to Monday Properties, which was renting the space to District Taco.
Well, Osiris Hoil and his crew were back on the streets of Rosslyn this morning, bringing their breakfast burritos to the masses. They found a new spot on North Lynn Street, between Wilson Boulevard and 19th Street, according to their Twitter feed.
A group of civic activists has formed the “Coalition for Arlington Good Government” (CAGG) to push back against an effort to change Arlington’s form of government.
The group’s goal is “to inform Arlington residents about the negative impacts of the proposal behind the petition drive.”
The committee just issued a strongly-worded statement (below) and pointed us to a memo from Ron Carlee, the previous county manager, which talks about the limitations of the County Manager Plan of government currently in place in Arlington.
Here’s the full statement:
Del. David Englin (D) is firing back at someone who sent him a not-so-nice email last night. He forwarded the letter to supporters and asked for contributions to “send this person a message.”
Here’s the email Englin received:
The family of the late astronaut David Brown, for whom the David M. Brown Planetarium is named, has written a letter opposing Arlington Public Schools’ plan to close the 40-year-old facility, according to the Washington Post.
Brown was killed in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Brown’s brother, Douglas Brown, asked school officials why it’s necessary to close the only public planetarium in the country’s 10th-richest county.
Del. Adam Ebbin (D), who represents part of Arlington and Falls Church, invited imam Johari Abdul-Malik of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center to give today’s opening prayer.
Groups including the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force and the Traditional Values Coalition protested, citing Abdul-Malik’s comments about due process for Muslims arrested on terror charges, along with his mosque’s brief link to two of the 9/11 hijackers. In the past, Abdul-Malik has spoken out against violence and terrorism.
Neighbor will be pitted against neighbor at the Arlington Zoning Committee (“ZOCO”) hearing tomorrow night. The issue: parking recreational vehicles in the county.
Currently, the county’s RV parking policy is too stringent for some, who want to be able to legally park large RVs in their driveway, and doesn’t go far enough for others, who see RVs as an ugly, property-value-reducing blight on Arlington’s residential communities.
Update on 2/18 – Several public works crews were out on Military Road today. A police officer was posted at Military Road and 26th Road this afternoon to help Taylor Elementary students cross the street.
Huge boulders of ice, snow and road filth cover the sidewalks along Military Road in the Donaldson Run section of Arlington, near Taylor Elementary School, forcing pedestrians to walk dangerously close to fast-moving traffic on the busy commuter route.
