Around Town

Mixed Signals During Fire Alarms at Senior Facility — During fire alarms at The Jefferson senior living facility in Ballston, a recorded voice tells residents to evacuate the 21-story building via the stairwell. Except, for safety reasons, most residents are supposed to remain in their condo with the door shut. This has confused some elderly residents, who risked injury by attempting to walk down long flights of stairs during fire alarms. While acknowledging the inconsistency, both building management and the fire department say they can’t change the recorded message due to “liability” reasons. [Washington Post]

Politico Reporters to Speak at Rosslyn Lecture Series — Politico White House reporter Julie Mason and congressional reporter Jonathan Allen will be the speakers at Rosslyn’s “Rooms with a View” lecture series next week. Mason and Allen will discuss “Washington’s divided political landscape” and take questions from the audience. The event is free (RSVP required). It will be held on Thursday, May 19, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Boeing conference center at 1200 Wilson Boulevard. [Rosslyn BID]


Opinion

Mother’s Day is big business in the U.S.

Between the cards, the flowers, the brunches and all the other accoutrements, Sunday’s little holiday for mom will have many local businesses seeing green. Of course, it’s the thought that counts, not the price tag — but we were wondering how much you were planning on spending on your own mother this weekend.


Around Town

The restaurant, at 5723 Lee Highway, received its state alcoholic beverage permit today, according to owner Osiris Hoil. That means the eatery — which has thus far been limited to serving soda, juice, water and coffee — will be able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo tomorrow (Thursday) with cold cervezas.

We also learned today that District Taco is planning on opening a second brick-and-mortar restaurant by the end of the year. The restaurant will open somewhere in D.C. proper, Hoil confirmed.


News

Above: A look back at last year’s presentation of a steel beam from the World Trade Center at Arlington County Fire Station 5. Firefighters from Fire Station 5, in Pentagon City, were among the first to respond to the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

School Budget Approved — The Arlington County School Board has approved a new $475 million budget for FY 2012. The budget funds pay raises for teachers and staff, expands professional learning activities for teachers and eliminates ‘early release Wednesdays’ at four elementary schools. It also includes $1 million to study options for addressing the school system’s looming capacity crisis. [Arlington Public Schools]


News

Zimmerman said that the board and county staff have been listening to feedback from business owners, many of whom bemoan the county’s sign ordinance as too restrictive. The county is still in the process of collecting comments on its web site and some additional sign focus groups are in the works, Zimmerman said.

County staff will work with a consultant to review the feedback and to review “best practices from around the country on sign regulation.” A draft copy of some of the regulation changes should be ready for review by the board and community groups in July. If all goes well, Zimmerman hopes to have the new sign ordinance ready for adoption “in the fall.”


News

In 2010, developers began construction on more than 600,000 square feet of retail and office space, while construction wrapped up construction on another 600,000 square feet of space. Construction started on 477 multifamily (apartment and condo) units, while 1,438 units were completed.

A majority – 68 percent – of on-going commercial construction last year took place in Ballston. A similar majority of the multifamily construction – 67 percent – took place on Columbia Pike.


Around Town

The total estimated economic impact for local businesses: $400,000. Total estimated hotel tax revenue: $11,250.

Each year, dozens of such specialized industry events quietly come to Arlington, spend bundles of money and leave without most residents even knowing they were here. All told — while there’s no official accounting of it — there are likely hundreds of meetings, conventions, tour groups and reunions that stay in Arlington hotels on an annual basis. And there are millions of dollars to be made from those gatherings — by hotels, restaurants, taxi companies and the county government.


News

If such a shutdown were to happen, Moran says he believes that furloughed federal employees would not be reimbursed for their time off due to Republican opposition to such a move. A shutdown could last several weeks and have a “severe impact” on the local economy, Moran warned.

“This is very, very, serious,” Moran said. “Federal employees need to understand that this is not 1995, when we closed down… and [employees] were fully reimbursed.”


News

Arlington County recently approved a building permit that will allow the market to build Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms — one step in the beer garden approval process. The other step will come on May 14, when Westover Market goes before the county board to ask for a live entertainment permit, which is necessary in order for the beer garden to host musical acts.

At the moment, the market is only permitted to seat nine people in the beer garden, which used to host large neighborhood gatherings.


News

On Thursday night Arlington County held a small business ‘listening session’ at Clarendon Ballroom. More than 50 business owners showed up to tell county staff what they like and don’t like about how the county treats small businesses.

The event was part of County Board Chair Chris Zimmerman’s year-long push to make Arlington more small-business-friendly. Zimmerman gave the opening and closing remarks at the event, but it was county planning and economic development staff who led the group discussions that were the evening’s main substance.


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