The drive started on Saturday and will run through Dec. 4, collecting new or gently used blankets and winter coats for donation.
There are two locations in Arlington where residents can bring items to donate:
Courthouse Plaza
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The owners of Pho Deluxe, which has locations in Fairfax and Tysons Corner, told ARLnow.com that Toscana Grill is closing April 1, after which they will move in.
They hope to be open a month afterward at 2300 Clarendon Blvd, facing Courthouse Plaza.
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The restaurant will close down for a month before re-opening as “Courthaus Social,” a beer garden with an expanded patio outside the location at 2300 Clarendon Blvd. The plan to close Velocity 5 and reopen as a beer garden has been around for nearly two years after new owners bought the location of the regional chain, which opened in Courthouse in 2009.
“We were trying to find the perfect concept,” one of the co-owners, Nema Sayadian, told ARLnow.com today. “You realize you have to find your own identity, and that’s what we were struggling with.”
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(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) The large surface parking lot between the Arlington County Justice Center and Courthouse Plaza appears destined to become open, green space at some point in the future.
Last night, county planners presented three concepts to the community as part of the Envision Courthouse Square outreach process. All of the concepts included using the space the surface parking lot occupies as a sort of town green, with pedestrian and bicycle paths crisscrossing the area in different patterns.
The workshop will be held on the third floor of the office building at 1310 N. Courthouse Road from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The public will see three draft design concepts for the area that include plans for open space, building location and design, cultural resources, circulation (moving cars, pedestrians and bicycles through the area) and sustainability.
After the workshop, county staff and the Envision Courthouse Square Working Group will take the community’s recommendations and, along with county planning staff, formulate a draft revision to the 1993 Courthouse Sector Plan Addendum, to be brought before the Arlington County Board this winter.
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The survey was conducted as part of the county’s “Envision Courthouse Square” initiative, which is trying to get the public involved in the process of planning the future development of the 9-acre area surrounding the county’s large surface parking lot.
That lot in particular was the subject of many survey respondent’s suggestions, who desire to see it become an underground parking lot with a different use for the surface area up top.
In December, county staff recommended that Velocity 5’s popular outdoor patio be forced to stop serving food and drink at 11:00 p.m., in response to “community concerns about noise.” That’s despite a report from the police department saying that noise complaints were down by 50 percent.
The owners of Velocity 5’s Courthouse location, which changed hands in early 2013, rallied supporters via social media after learning of the staff recommendation. Dozens showed up at the Dec. 17 County Board meeting where the proposal — part of the renewal of Velocity 5’s live entertainment permit — was under consideration. The Board ended up deferring the proposal until January to allow staff more time to work with the owners.
The Italian restaurant’s website, SpaghettiYaFace.com, was recently updated to say the restaurant was closed for good. However, that site was maintained by Joe Smith, who was managing the restaurant the last two years.
Smith’s contract with Toscana’s owner ended last week, but the restaurant, located in Courthouse Plaza (2300 Clarendon Blvd), has continued operations. Manager Nargis Mughal said some changes are planned, including a new menu.
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Arlington County held a brief ceremony at Courthouse Plaza Wednesday morning to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Dozens of police officers, sheriff’s deputies and civilian observers gathered to partake in a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m., the moment when, 12 years ago, a plane hit the Pentagon, killing 184 people inside.
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A section near N. 15th Street, close to the AMC Theatres, appears to be finished and crews have moved farther into the plaza. Just looking around the area reveals that there’s a significant amount of brick that hasn’t even been torn up yet, much less replaced. The project is already nearly a year behind schedule.
Some business and restaurant owners are frustrated with how long the project has taken, and how it has driven away customers. Toscana Grill Operating Partner Joe Smith said the construction has definitely hurt his business. With the warm weather, the restaurant has set up tables outdoors. However, the usual area for outdoor dining is currently reduced because it’s partially blocked by the brick work.
On the surface, it doesn’t appear that much progress has been made on the project since then. We spotted a small construction crew working on the big patch of bare ground in front of the AMC movie theater and the county government building yesterday afternoon, but it’s not clear what exactly they were doing.
Residents, needless to say, aren’t happy with the state of affairs.
We’re told by a source that the project will most likely not be completed this month, the anticipated completion date that TBD.com reported in February. No official word yet on how much longer the project might take. Multiple calls seeking information from the owner of Courthouse Plaza, Vornado Charles E. Smith, have gone unreturned over the past week.
Courthouse Plaza is the home of restaurants, small shops, a movie theater, a hotel, county government’s main office building and a Courthouse Metro entrance. The project has resulted in a gauntlet of fences around the plaza, and the displacement of some outdoor seating, but access to businesses and Metro has been maintained.