School Board Chair Monique O’Grady will not be seeking reelection after her term ends this December, according to an announcement on her website.
The chair said on Sunday that she will work for a better future for all students through her term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2021. In her announcement, she said she wrote “with a heavy heart” after “much thought, consultation with my family, and careful consideration.” She declined to comment for this story.
It’s tough to run a restaurant or a fitness studio during the pandemic, but it’s even tougher to run an indoor children’s bounce gym.
Jumping Joeys, which opened at Market Common Clarendon (2800 Clarendon Blvd) just a few months before the pandemic, appears to have closed for good.
Arlington Spots with Great Fried Chicken — Washington Post food columnist Tim Carman lists three Arlington eateries among the seven serving some of the best fried chicken sandwiches in the D.C. area. The Arlington locations on the list are Queen Mother’s Fried Chicken, Etta Faye’s Fried Chicken, and Fuku. The latter two are “ghost kitchens,” available via delivery only. [Washington Post]
Regional Real Estate Record — “Average home-sales prices across Northern Virginia reached an all-time high in 2020, and total sales volume was second only to the pre-recession boom of 2005, as the market shrugged off COVID and the resulting government-imposed lockdown to see its first year-over-year sales increase since 2017.” [InsideNova]
A recent national report has revealed that rents in Arlington have dropped by 14.8% since last March, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by ApartmentList.com.
Arlington has had the seventh-largest decrease compared to other (much larger) markets, like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. D.C. had the fifth-largest decrease.
Pandemic-related data trends in Arlington are pointing in a positive direction, at least for now.
As of Tuesday morning, the average daily rate of new cases is 94, compared to a local pandemic peak of 123.4 average daily cases one week ago. Since Saturday, 340 new cases have been reported.
More Issues With Vaccination Effort — “Hoagland’s struggle to register for a vaccination started when he did not get a confirmation email back from Arlington County’s Health Department after adding his name to a virtual waitlist. After he got in touch with a representative who was able to confirm his spot in line, Hoagland learned that the county’s system is not able to push confirmation emails to anyone with a Verizon or AOL email account.” [WTOP]
Limited Vaccine Doses Available — “In a conference call with reporters on Saturday afternoon, the Virginia’s vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said after the current stockpile of over 900,000 first-round doses is exhausted, further doses may be slow coming. Avula said the commonwealth has been told by federal administrators that at least until sometime in March, there will be no more than 110,000 new first-round doses available per week for Virginians.” [WTOP, WRIC]
Acknowledging that “many residents are frustrated,” Arlington officials on Friday urged patience with the county’s vaccine distribution, while calling on the state for more doses.
The county has been facing scrutiny for what some see as a slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite receiving the first vaccine shipment before Christmas.
At the start of the pandemic, Arlington Kabob co-owner Susan Clementi spent 20 hours a day trying to coronavirus-proof her restaurant. She did not have time, or the financial knowledge, to navigate the Paycheck Protection Program.
When she tried to hire legal help, the application fees amounted to $5,000. Clementi realized she had to do it herself.
Local 911 Dispatchers Can Work Remotely — “On Wednesday, Jan. 13, the Arlington County Emergency Communications Center (ECC) became one of the first centers in the nation to implement capabilities that allow fire and emergency medical services (EMS) dispatchers and supervisors to deliver critical emergency communications services no matter where they are. Now, Arlington Fire-EMS dispatchers and supervisors are able work from a remote location, including from home.” [Arlington County]
Grocery Workers Unaware of Vaccine Availability — “Grocery store workers in Arlington can now sign up for Covid vaccine… But Arlington County is apparently not notifying grocery store workers about this option… At our local Arlington grocery store, a staff person in the management office indicated they were not aware of either option, when my wife and I called.” [Blue Virginia]
Arlington health officials are working to ramp up the pace of vaccinations, but the effort to vaccinate Arlington Public Schools staff has hit a snag.
School staff are set to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as part of Phase 1b of Virginia’s vaccination effort. But in a memo to APS employees this morning, Superintendent Francisco Durán acknowledged “frustration” over “technology issues [staff] encountered with the appointment process.”
Arlington County will be participating in a national event “honoring the lives we have lost to COVID-19” next week.
The event is happening at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, in connection with the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. The county is encouraging churches to ring their bells, businesses to light their buildings, and residents to put a lighted candle in a window.
(Updated at 11:45 a.m.) Arlington County Board members are asking why vaccinations are not going faster, amid a pace that would take more than two years to dose the county’s adult population.
This past weekend the county got the go-ahead from the state to start vaccinating those in the Phase 1b priority group. But questions remain about how exactly the county will push forward and why less than 2% of the county’s adult population has received a vaccine dose so far, one month after the first vaccine was authorized for use.
