It’s Memorial Day weekend in Arlington.
The flags are in at Arlington National Cemetery, ‘Rolling to Remember’ participants are rolling up to local hotels, and the 35% of locals who say they’re traveling for the weekend have been keeping National Airport busy.
ARLnow staff photographer Jay Westcott has been out and about over the past day or so, documenting some of the scenes around the county. Providing an assist is Army photographer Elizabeth Fraser, whose photos of the “Flags In” event were published online by Arlington National Cemetery.
This was the 75th annual Flags In at the cemetery. More, below, from the U.S. Dept. of Defense.
An honored tradition.
Soldiers assigned to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” and other service members placed American flags at headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., in advance of Memorial Day.
This was the 75th anniversary of “Flags In,” during which service members adorn gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery to honor the nation’s fallen heroes.
We’re getting our first official look into the mostly completed first phase of Amazon’s HQ2 in Pentagon City.
Amazon shared photos this morning from inside the two-building, 2.1 million square foot office complex, located along S. Eads Street between 12th and 15th streets.
The photos are notable for what they don’t show: rows of cubicles for the thousands of employees that are expected to work from HQ2. Instead, the photos show richly appointed, lounge-like spaces, a cafeteria and food market, outdoor grills, the park space outside of the building, and other recreation opportunities like a billiards table.
Phase 1 of HQ2 has around 50,000 square feet of retail space, with more than a dozen businesses ranging from a bike shop to a doggy daycare to several restaurants and bars.
A grand opening for the new complex is expected in mid-June. The second phase of HQ2 — to include the distinctive, lush Helix tower — is delayed indefinitely amid economic uncertainty and continued work-from-home trends following the pandemic.
An Amazon-written media kit and fact sheet about HQ2 Phase 1, also known as Metropolitan Park, is below.
ARLnow is ringing in the New Year with a look back at 2022 through our photo and story archives.
Our photographer, Jay Westcott, compiled a slideshow, above, to encapsulate the stories and moments that made 2022 memorable and remind us of the sights and seasonal shifts that make Arlington home.
After two years of living with Covid, the last 12 months held a continuing return to normalcy in tension with a deepening divide over how Arlington should look and function. On discussions of housing shortages, pedestrian fatalities and fluctuating crime rates, there is a sense that something needs to be done — exactly what remains the question.
The “Missing Middle” housing study and proposed zoning changes embodied this tension the most. While never cracking the Top 20 stories of 2022, the county’s incremental steps toward legalizing housing types such as duplexes, three-unit townhomes and buildings with up to six or eight units in districts zoned exclusively for single-family homes roiled the county.
Residents staged rallies for and against the proposed zoning changes, broke anecdotal Planning Commission meeting attendance records, booed and hollered in a County Board meeting, opined about the “Arlington Way” and ginned up more interest in the Arlington County Board race — one that ultimately went for incumbent Democrat Matt de Ferranti.
In response, the Arlington County Board added community engagement sessions and directed staff to make a number of changes to the proposal, which members later said address some community concerns.
High-profile crashes, including two pedestrian deaths, led residents and the County Board to demand more action on traffic safety. But with crash causes as diverse as alcohol, high speeds, unspecified medical emergencies and sun glare, could slower speeds, road treatments and education ever eliminate pedestrian deaths and serious injuries?
Questions also remain about how prosecutors and judges should serve criminal justice. We took a close look at competing assertions about whether reform efforts led by Arlington’s top prosecutor, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, are tackling or enabling crime rates.
Still, Arlingtonians came together to mourn the loss of a man and a teenager who each left an indelible mark on their community.
Activist Kent Carter, who died protecting his girlfriend during a shooting on the island chain of Turks and Caicos, was remembered as a family man who led efforts to reform and establish community oversight of the police department. Washington-Liberty high school senior Braylon Meade, who died in a car crash involving a drunk teen, was remembered for leading his basketball team by example.
As evidenced in this year’s gallery, construction hummed along, as Washington-Liberty High School expanded, apartments were built and the first phase of Amazon’s second headquarters prepares to open next year.
Amid all this, the pandemic receded farther into the rear view window for many. Masks became optional in schools, county facilities and on Metro and airplanes earlier this year. Arlington County permanently closed its public vaccine clinic a week before Christmas and has shuttered testing sites.
Yesterday (Thursday), many of you said 2022 was better than 2021. We at ARLnow wish you an even better 2023.
The residents of N. Jackson Street in Ashton Heights have again outdone themselves.
The street, which traditionally hosts some of the most elaborate Halloween decorations in Arlington, scaled back its festivities during the pandemic but does not seem to be holding back this year, with witches, pumpkins, skeletons and ghosts galore.
“Halloween is a treasured tradition in our community,” Scott Sklar, president of the Ashton Heights Civic Association, told ARLnow in 2020.
Those who want to view the spooky street in its full frightful foliage can walk the blocks between Wilson Blvd and N. Pershing Drive, which are not far from both the Clarendon and Virginia Square Metro stations.
The clang of carnival rides, the beaming smiles of children, and the sweet smell of fried food. Yep, the familiar sights, sounds and scents of the Arlington County Fair are back.
The county fair, which opened Wednesday and runs through Sunday, features a number of new and unique attractions this year, in addition to long-time favorites like the ferris wheel, the giant slide and the various boardwalk games.
Our Jay Westcott went last night and snapped the photos you see above.
The pandemic, now nearly 2.5 years old, has bent time in weird ways.
For many, a prolonged period of mostly staying at home — particularly in 2020 — made time seem to go by faster, with fewer memorable milestones like vacations, nights on the town, visits from friends, etc.
For others, particularly parents with children at home, time has dragged on with seemingly endless grinds of remote schooling, remote work, Covid quarantines, etc.
And then there are those who have experienced combinations of both, making certain pandemic-era things feel like ages ago and some pre-pandemic things seem recent.
That sense of time’s variability came to mind as we asked ARLnow staff photographer to spend a recent Covid quarantine picking out his favorite photos of the past two years. See for yourself whether some of these moments feel ancient or like yesterday, despite the actual dates being close together.
Time considerations aside, here’s what Jay had to say about how he selected the photos above from the thousands he has taken.
Picking favorite pictures is kind of like picking favorite children. Do I account for how much of a pain in the ass it was to get in the spot to take the picture? Do I account for the breaking news that made me miss a dinner date? How about the time I was rear-ended on Wilson Blvd, do I take that into account, too?
Seasoned photo editors will tell you that none of that matters, at the end of the day all that counts is the answer to one question: Is it a picture? Does it tell a story?
Included here are storytelling pictures that I feel represent my style and how I see Arlington. It’s a beautiful, sometimes complicated, place to live. And the pandemic has exposed all sorts of issues and shortages. But it’s the best place I’ve ever called home, and I’m proud to be here documenting it in pictures. Okay, maybe one or two are included because of what it took to make them. ;-)
A time-honored, pre-Memorial Day tradition took place at Arlington National Cemetery this morning.
More than 1,000 soldiers with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard, as well as servicemembers from ceremonial units of the other armed forces branches, fanned out over the cemetery’s 640 acres to place 260,000 flags next to headstones and niche rows.
The annual “Flags-in” mission takes only four hours to honor every individual laid to rest at the ceremony, including our nation’s fallen military heroes.
ARLnow staff photographer Jay Westcott and other members of the media were able to get a glimpse of the marvel of solemnity and logistics today around dawn, as birds chirped on a cool, overcast morning.
Earlier today, soldiers from @USArmyOldGuard, along with service members from @USMC, @USNavy, @usairforce, and @USCG, placed U.S. flags at every gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery as part of #FlagsIn.#HonorThem
U.S. Army photos by Elizabeth Fraser pic.twitter.com/07hKqQfz5B
— Arlington National Cemetery (@ArlingtonNatl) May 26, 2022
This Memorial Day weekend also brings a new tradition: the public getting a rare opportunity to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“Due to the public’s overwhelming positive response to the Flower Laying Ceremony during the Tomb Centennial Commemoration in November, ANC is inviting the public to once again honor our service members by placing flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider,” the cemetery said earlier this week
The inaugural Flowers of Remembrance Day is taking place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
More about the event from a cemetery press release, below.
There are few people who know more about how Columbia Pike has changed in recent years than Lloyd Wolf, director of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project.
Since 2007, Wolf and a team of photographers, interviewers and community activists have spoken with hundreds of residents and taken thousands of pictures of South Arlington’s main thoroughfare.
As part of the project, they’ve kept a running blog, published books, and conceived numerous exhibits all aimed at discovering what makes Columbia Pike so special.
Wolf and his team of now-five include Dewey Tron, Xang Mimi Ho, Lara Ajami and Sushmita Mazumdar. They have documented a Bangladeshi-American car parade, a Thanksgiving dinner for new Ethiopian immigrants, a local Piedmont blues style guitarist along with dozens more celebratory moments and personal stories.
“The Pike is this nexus of immigration and diversity. And people are basically getting along and we thought ‘This is something we really should examine in-depth,'” Wolf tells ARLnow about how the project got started more than a decade ago.
Columbia Pike has a well-earned reputation for being among one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country. It’s estimated that there are people from more than 130 countries speaking at least a hundred languages living on or in the Columbia Pike corridor. Famously, the Pike and its corresponding 22204 ZIP code has gotten the nickname for being the “world in a ZIP code.”
Wolf says one of the most gratifying aspects of the project for him is the ability to listen and learn about cultures and communities from around the world; the traditions, the rituals, the successes, and the challenges. Plus, his team is made up of people whose backgrounds include being Syrian, Vietnamese, Laotian and Japanese.
To Wolf, this perfectly encapsulates what makes Columbia Pike so special.
“If we weren’t doing this project, maybe we wouldn’t have a chance to meet. I have this line ‘This is what peace looks like,'” he says. “To the Pike, people come. It’s not perfect, but by and large, the groups interact well.”
This is a testament to the Arlington community as a whole. In a county where diversity is valued, appreciated, and celebrated, Wolf notes, differences don’t divide but unite.
“I’ve heard immigrants say that ‘I don’t feel different here because everyone is different,'” he says.
However, like much of Arlington, it’s no secret that Columbia Pike is physically changing, with a number of major development projects set to be completed in the near future.
And, recently, Wolf has set out to explore how these changes might impact the communities he’s spent years documenting.
For the first time in nearly three years, Arlington experienced a significant snowfall.
Starting very early yesterday morning and finally tapering off in afternoon, preliminary estimates suggest that the county got close to seven inches of snow.
The storm brought power outages, closures, the suspension of bus service, cancellation of trash pick-up, and numerous skidding cars.
It was a very bad day to be on the roads, with the Arlington and VDOT crews unable to pre-treat the streets because the storm started off as rain.
It's been a hot minute since our area has seen accumulating snow like this, so we wanted to give a little refresher to those who haven't gotten their "snow legs" back just yet… 😉 pic.twitter.com/vwjbPdbxom
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) January 3, 2022
As of Tuesday morning, Arlington County snow crews — their ranks thinned by Covid absences — were tackling neighborhood streets after spending most of Monday treating and clearing main roads.
Phase 3 of cleanup will continue throughout the day, particularly on residential streets. A window of afternoon temps above freezing will help. Will be a great opportunity to shovel any sidewalks that weren't cleared yesterday. https://t.co/DuInmAUGlm #ArlWX pic.twitter.com/9GKyL8Rl6X
— Arlington Department of Environmental Services (@ArlingtonDES) January 4, 2022
Despite the challenges, with everything that the region has been dealing with lately, the snow also brought a considerable amount of joy to some.
“I love it,” Javed Malik told ARLnow, peering up at the falling flakes at Penrose Square. “It’s a beautiful, gorgeous day.”
In Ballston, kids and adults alike were spotted pulling sleds to the nearest hill. Pedestrians were reclaiming the covered streets as their own, snapping selfies and looking up at the snowy sky.
Persi George, from California, had never seen anything like it in person before.
“I’ve seen it before in the movies,” she said with a laugh standing in front of her apartment building along Columbia Pike. It’s a little softer than she expected, but that doesn’t dampen her enthusiasm as she prepares to make her first snow angel. “I’m in love with it.”
Yesterday was also set to be the first day back to school after the long holiday break with Arlington Public Schools continuing to commit to in-person instruction. That didn’t happen because the storm cancelled classes across Arlington and the region. School is cancelled today, too, with an expected refreezing overnight.
At least one teacher is breathing a sigh of relief. With Covid cases on the rise, likely due to holiday gatherings, the two extra days off provides more time for students to get tested.
“This couldn’t have been more well-timed. Coming back from the break, we are all worried about the rising case numbers,” Arlington high school teacher Josh Folb told ARLnow. “Hopefully, this gives people more time to get tested and… isolate, if needed. I haven’t talked to a teacher yet, and I’ve talked to a lot today, that isn’t grateful [about the snow days].”
There remains a chance it will snow again this week, Thursday night to Friday morning, though it’s not expected to dump as much snow as Monday’s storm.
ARLnow is ringing in the New Year with a look back at 2021 through our photo archives.
We compiled a slideshow to encapsulate this year and recall some of the stories and moments that made 2021 memorable.
This year, Arlingtonians celebrated local heroes, pushed for and saw cultural changes and said goodbye to venerable institutions — all against the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic.
Olympic swimmer Torri Huske received a hero’s welcome home from Japan, while “superwoman” Mariflor Ventura received accolades for her local mutual aid efforts.
Arlington removed vestiges of Robert E. Lee’s legacy, renaming Route 29 Langston Blvd and replacing the county logo depicting his house with one that ARLnow readers helped bring about. Teens protested how public school administrators handle complaints of sexual assault while bus drivers demonstrated for better pay and treatment. Locals picked up free cannabis seeds after private use was legalized.
But 2021 was the end of an era for some beloved Arlington institutions: Inner Ear Studios, the recording studio for Minor Threat and Fugazi; Clarendon watering hole Whitlow’s on Wilson; the Highlander Motel; and a few (arguably) historic estates.
Amid all that, the pandemic continued to run its course. After a chaotic start, the county helped to administer the vaccine to tens of thousands of residents. Locals started eating out again, kids returned for in-person school, and there was optimism about a return to normalcy over the summer — until that faded with the Delta variant and, now, Omicron.
And we almost got a gondola — or, at least, that’s what some want to believe.
With that we’ll step aside for the long weekend and see you back here on Monday, in 2022. Happy New Year, Arlington!
Things that go bump in the night have resumed their haunting of Arlington, including the famed N. Jackson Street in Ashton Heights, ready to scare trick-or-treaters.
And some decor ARLnow found is frighteningly topical. On N. Vermont Street a skeleton can be seen holding a sign that reads, “I did my own resurch.”
The pandemic caused residents of N. Jackson Street to rein in their usually elaborate displays in 2020, but this year neighbors along Arlington’s favorite street for trick-or-treating have filled their porches and yards with ghouls and goblins ahead of Halloween with gusto.
“Dismembered” body parts hang from trees, while skeletons frolic on swing sets and drive cars, and busts of Kiss frontman Gene Simmons — in full “demon” makeup — give one porch a retro demonic edge.
Another home in the 100-year-old neighborhood blew the competition out of the water with a pirate scene dredged up from Davy Jones’ Locker, complete with cannons.
Know of any other elaborate Halloween displays around town? Post some photos in the comments.
