(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) Just over 2,000 Dominion customers were without power in Arlington this morning.
Though there are small, scattered outages around the county after last night’s storms, the main outage is affecting the Shirlington, Fairlington and Claremont neighborhoods.
The County Board is set to consider a set of projects that would upgrade sidewalks and improve a small park.
Of the four, three focus on pedestrian improvements with an eye toward walkability for Arlington Public Schools students in the Bluemont, Columbia Heights and Fairlington neighborhoods. The fourth would fund improvements to 11th Street Park in Clarendon.
Grab a basket and brush up on your produce-scoping skills, it’s farmers market season once again.
A number of Arlington farmers markets have or will be opening for the season in the coming days, including:
Future of Fairlington Fire Station — “A community process to determine the future of Fairlington’s 1940s-era, one-bay fire station has been on hold during the COVID crisis, but may be tackled later in the year, a top community leader says. The Arlington government in late 2018 closed Fire Station #7 over concerns about the structural integrity of its flooring.” [Sun Gazette]
Arlington’s Affordable Housing Effort — “Some jurisdictions are building more homes than others. Of 10 localities analyzed by HAND’s Housing Indicator Tool, D.C. and Arlington County are closest to meeting some affordable housing targets recommended by the Urban Institute… For its part, Arlington County has excelled at adding more homes for low-middle-income households, but has built virtually none for the most vulnerable households in the last two years.” [DCist]
Reminder: In-Person School Resuming — Updated at 8:55 a.m. — “@APSVirginia elementary schools re-open for preK-2nd grade on Tuesday, March 2, followed by 3rd-5th + 6th (middle school) and 9th (high school) grades on March 9, then all returning students on March 16.” [Twitter, Twitter]
County Buying Fairlington Area Apartments — “A push to redevelop the Park Shirlington apartment complex in South Arlington has fallen through, prompting county officials to take the unusual step of buying part of the aging affordable community. Arlington leaders signed off on plans in late January to purchase about half of the property, located along I-395 near the county’s border with Alexandria. The county will end up paying about $27.9 million for 105 apartments on a 6.3-acre parcel should the deal close in August.” [Washington Business Journal]
In this week’s Neighborhood Spotlight, please join us as we give you a full breakdown of Arlington’s Fairlington neighborhood!
A gunshot was fired during a robbery in the residential Fairlington neighborhood last night, according to police.
The incident happened around 9:45 p.m. on the 2800 block of S. Buchanan Street, a couple of blocks from Abingdon Elementary.
Coyotes have been known to roam around Arlington, but sightings of the bashful wild canines are relatively rare.
Nonetheless, a coyote is causing a stir in the Fairlington area after being spotted multiple times around the neighborhood, according to posts on a local Facebook group.
Update at 9:10 p.m. — Power was briefly restored but is back off, according to a Dominion spokeswoman.
A few minutes after our system showed everyone was back, we had more outages. We are working on it. https://t.co/AVIm1tmvPj
Two residents of the Fairlington Arbor condominiums were told by the condo board to dig up their spooky gravestones that seek to lay bigotry to rest.
Katrina Reed and her husband Joe decked out their yard with six decorative gravestones, but they papered over the space for names of the deceased to bury hate, racism, religions discrimination, sexism, homophobia and white supremacy instead.
About Last Night’s Flyover — The two fighter jets that flew low and loud over Arlington last night, startling many, were participating in a flyover for the dedication of the new Eisenhower Memorial in D.C. [Twitter, Twitter]
Big Crane Coming to Amazon HQ2 Site — “There will be tower crane erection work this weekend, starting at 5 a.m. on Saturday, September 19 and 7 a.m. on Sunday, September 20. Work will be completed no later than 9 p.m. each day.” All southbound traffic on S. Eads Street will be detoured. [Twitter]
The Arlington County Board took a first step towards the future redevelopment of Shirlington over the weekend.
The Board approved a new “Shirlington Special General Land Use Plan (GLUP) Study,” which has been in the works since December 2017 after being requested by Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT), owner of the Village at Shirlington retail center.
