It would be easy to blame closing down shop on COVID-19, but Jojo Tchalekian doesn’t. When Sam Torrey Shoe Service at 5267 Lee Highway closes on July 31 after 75 years in business, Tchalekian says it will be a long time coming.
Tchalekian is closing down the brick and mortar location that he and his father took over in 1986 from the original owners — who founded the store in 1945 — but he said he will continue to work on garment repairs remotely.
Fox News in Arlington — “An apparently news-starved fox has taken matters into its own paws and has been spotted stealing copies of the Post from the porches of unsuspecting Arlington residents.” [Washingtonian]
In-Person Census Visits Starting — “To achieve a complete count, Census Takers will begin conducting home interviews. Starting the week of July 20 — nearly three weeks before the nationwide August 11 launch date — Census Takers will be visiting homes in Arlington, including an estimated 27,000 households that have not yet responded to the 2020 Census.” [Arlington County]
(Updated at 11:40 a.m.) Arlington’s Lee Highway Alliance, with the county’s blessing, is embarking on a renaming process for Lee Highway.
In a press release this morning, the nonprofit said it will be convening a working group to compile a “shortlist” of new names for Lee Highway, which will be sent to the County Board for consideration. The county is expected to coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions on the name.
Hotel-to-Apartment Project on Hold — “A proposal to convert the Arlington Courts Suites extended-stay hotel in the Courthouse area to apartments is on hold, at least for now. The project had been slated for County Board consideration on July 18, but has been deferred until at least October at the request of the applicant, citing ‘economic concerns about the project due to the COVID-19 emergency.'” [InsideNova]
Controversy Sparks Idea for Fundraiser — A local man has raised more than $140,000 “after starting a GoFundMe page to buy Goya Foods products and donate them to local food pantries after critics called for a boycott over pro-Trump comments from Goya’s CEO. ‘People are seeing in the news a double standard for one political view,’ 27-year-old Casey Harper of Arlington, Va., told FOX Business.” [Fox Business, GoFundMe]
Amid the pandemic, Arlington County is sifting through which planning processes are ready to continue moving forward and which ones are being delayed.
The County recently announced that it is still moving forward with plans for updating guidelines for development in Pentagon City, a relatively time-critical issue with Amazon’s permanent HQ2 under construction nearby.
As Cowboy Cafe (4792 Lee Highway) adds new outdoor seating, as temporarily allowed by the county, co-owner Jim Barnes wanted to spruce out the exterior of the restaurant a little.
The result: a towering, colorful mural currently being painted onto an empty brick wall.
Washington-Lee High School in Arlington is now Washington-Liberty. Robert E. Lee High School in Fairfax County will be getting a new name, after a vote yesterday. Jefferson Davis Highway, meanwhile, is now Richmond Highway.
Is it time for Lee Highway — also known as Route 29 — to get a new name?
(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) Surprise! Arlington is about to get a major restaurant opening in the midst of the pandemic.
Cafe Colline, a neighborhood French bistro from prolific local restaurateurs Ian and Eric Hilton, is set to open for takeout next Thursday, June 25. Both phone and online orders will be accepted.
Police are looking for a man who broke a window at a fast-food restaurant along Lee Highway last night.
The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. on the 5000 block of Lee Highway, according to Arlington County Police. The restaurant is not named but that block is home to a Wendy’s.
A woman in her 70s was run over by her own SUV in a store parking lot along Lee Highway this afternoon.
The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store at 4505 Lee Highway. Initial reports suggest that the woman parked and got out of the vehicle, which then started rolling away; her leg was reportedly run over by the SUV as she tried to chase it down.
After attempting to pivot to online classes during the pandemic, the Adagio Ballet School of Dance at 4720 Lee Highway is closing.
“With regret, Adagio Ballet, Inc. is closing after 16 years,” the school said in an email, which was forwarded to ARLnow. “This is an extremely sad time for us, because we consider our instructors, staff, students and students’ families to be our family and will greatly miss them.”
A Maryland man was kicked out of a rideshare vehicle and later arrested after inappropriate sexual conduct, according to Arlington County Police.
The incident happened Saturday afternoon, around 2:30 p.m. Police were dispatched to westbound I-66 near the Rosslyn tunnel, after getting a call about a man that had exposed himself.
