The cart flipped over this morning on the ramp from Lee Highway to I-66/Roosevelt Bridge in Rosslyn. On Twitter, District Taco blamed a broken tow hitch for the mishap.
“The life of a food trucker is not easy,” @districttaco lamented. “This is one of the problems that we have to face.”
State of the County Address — County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman delivered the annual State of the County address in Crystal City yesterday. “All indications are that we are well-positioned for the future,” Zimmerman told the crowd. “Demand is both strong and growing for transit-accessible, walkable urban communities.”[Sun Gazette]
Rosslyn Public Art Walking Tour — Take a self-guided tour of the eclectic pieces of public art around Rosslyn, thanks to a map provided by Arlington’s Cultural Affairs division. [Northern Virginia Magazine]
A FroZenYo self-serve frozen yogurt shop is under construction in Crystal City.
The store will be replacing a closed Quizno’s Restaurant, next to the Chipotle at 2231 Crystal Drive. No word on when it will be opening, but building permits are now posted in the windows.
Traffic lights are dark and homes and businesses are without electricity in the Rosslyn and Courthouse area this evening.
As of 5:00 p.m., Dominion was reporting more than 1,200 customers without power in Arlington. Rhodeside Grill tells ARLnow.com that they’re among the businesses without power in the area.
The last time the County approved significant changes to its Rosslyn Sector Plan was 1992. Now, nearly 20 years later, officials say changes are necessary to help with Rosslyn’s continued development from a mere “collection of office buildings” to “a more balanced neighborhood, offering residents and visitors shopping, recreation and cultural activities.”
The new Rosslyn planning effort will focus on improving transportation options, suggesting changes to Rosslyn’s building height regulations and developing “a more cohesive, functional parks and open space network.” The process will include numerous community input opportunities, facilitated by a dedicated “civic engagement professional” on the planning team.
The sweltering temperatures have prompted organizers of both the Ballston Farmers Market — held every Thursday in Welburn Square — and the Rosslyn Farmers Market — held Thursdays at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and N. Oak Street — to cancel.
Temperatures are expected to come close to the 100 degree mark today.
The video is long (nearly an hour) and the audio is low, but the county’s television channel has posted a video of an fascinating panel discussion on this history of rock and roll in Northern Virginia.
The two are vastly different in terms of use, writer Dan Malouff concluded, but yet are similar in concept. For instance, the High Line was once a freight rail line designed to transport goods to and from the city more efficiently than ground-level rail. Freedom Park, on the other hand, was originally meant to be an elevated highway to help move commuters into the District more efficiently than Wilson Boulevard and N. Lynn Street.
For those who weren’t around in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, the idea of Rosslyn’s “Loop Road Bridge” may seem a bit wacky. N. Lynn Street does get backed up at rush hour, but hardly enough to justify a whimsical, Disney World-esque elevated highway that ran in between skyscrapers and over existing roads, and which did nothing to alleviate traffic on the real bottleneck: the Key Bridge. At the time, however, transportation planners believed that the Loop Road Bridge was “the final piece to a road system that would reduce traffic in the Arlington high-rise district,” as Washington Post reported Charles W. Hall wrote in April 1993.
High Temperatures, High Humidity — With temperatures expected to soar to just below 100 degrees today, the National Weather Service has placed the region under a Heat Advisory. “Drink plenty of fluids… stay in an air conditioned room… stay out of the sun… [and] take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside,” NWS cautions. The area is also under a ‘Code Orange’ air quality alert, meaning that air pollution concentrations “may become unhealthy for sensitive groups.” [Weather Channel]
Rosslyn Concert Moved Indoors — Due to the excessive heat, the lunchtime concert that normally takes place in Rosslyn’s Central Space plaza has been moved to the Artisphere (1101 Wilson Blvd) ballroom. Local group The Joe Rathbone Trio will perform in air conditioned comfort from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
While the camera hasn’t been functional in years, its housing is still keeping a constant vigil at the busy intersection. Police tell us, however, that they’re planning on taking the camera down in about a month.
Arlington currently has four working red light cameras: NB N. Lynn Street at EB Lee Highway, SB Ft. Myer Drive at WB Lee Highway, NB N. Glebe Road at Fairfax Drive and NB Washington Blvd at Lee Highway. In Virginia, the fines from red light cameras are limited to $50.
After about eight years in business as Greenberry’s, the new owner of the coffee shop between Rosslyn and Clarendon has decided to go “indie.” Out is the Charlottesville franchise that just won a “Best of NoVA” award in the latest issue of Northern Virginia Magazine. In is “Bean Good: The Coffee Pub,” a brand of owner Shain Noorali’s own creation.
Without the legal constraints of a franchise, says Noorali, the cafe will be able to offer more items, including locally-roasted coffee, locally-sourced food and, of course, beer and wine.
The recognizable building has been sold to the B.F. Saul Company, the Bethesda-based developer behind the recent Clarendon Center project. Last week representatives from Saul presented their redevelopment plan to the North Rosslyn Civic Association. Under the plan, an eight story extended stay hotel will be built on the 1.2 acre site at the corner of Lee Highway and N. Quinn Street. The hotel will include eight stories of guest rooms on top of two stories of above-ground parking.
(The parking must be built above ground since the site sits on solid rock. The building will technically be ten stories high from the Lee Highway side, but will only be considered eight stories due to the steep elevation near the rear of the site.)
