(Updated at 4 p.m.) In Arlington, 2016 was a year that was filled with local stories that were tragic, triumphant or just plain weird.
We’re counting down the top 20 most-read articles of 2016 this week.
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top stories
ARLnow.com is holding its fifth anniversary bash in Crystal City tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
If you haven’t booked your tickets yet, you can still do so through 5:00 p.m. on Eventbrite. Tickets will also be available at the door.
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As part of the lead-up to the party (hosted at the Crystal Tech Fund offices, pictured, in Crystal City), we’re taking a trip down memory lane to the year we launched.
That year, 2010, featured lots of memorable local stories, some of them downright weird. Do you remember…
What have followed are five years of continuous local news coverage, from tiny articles about potholes that no other news outlet would report on to big scoops that quickly have become international news.
As part of our five year anniversary, we’re looking back (in no particular order) at some of the defining Arlington stories of 2010. Some are weighty and easily remembered. Others, not so much.
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Happy new year, Arlington!
You’ve waited patiently for this post, and here it is, just hours before 2014 comes to a close and a new year of local developments is ushered in. (Those of you who receive our email newsletter may be seeing this on Jan. 1, in which case feel free to ignore this pointless introduction.)
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It was a momentous year for Arlington, as demonstrated by the second of our three “Top Stories of 2014” posts.
Perhaps the biggest Arlington story of the year, in terms of local policy significance, came in at No. 6 on our list (which ranks the most-read articles of 2014). The year’s only homicide in Arlington County also made this list.
It’s time again for our annual list of most-read stories of the year.
Readers gravitated toward stories comical and serious, from signs that look like genitals to car crashes and elections. The year turned out to be an historic one, with unprecedented election results and massive policy shifts. It also proved that Arlington readers care just as much about local politics as they do about drunken shenanigans.
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So far this week we’ve taken a look at top stories #6-10 and #11-15 for the year — now it’s time for the top 5.
The following stories received the most page views on ARLnow.com in 2012. All of these articles, with the exception of No. 5, benefited to varying degrees from links from national websites like Drudge Report and Reddit.
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Continuing our Top 15 list of the most-read Arlington stories of 2012, today we present numbers 6 through 10.
Page view counts for each article are listed in parenthesis. So far this year, ARLnow.com has recorded more than 12 million page views, up from 7.2 million in the same time period last year.
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Today we begin our annual countdown of the top stories in Arlington in the past year.
The list reflects the articles with the most page views in 2012. Crime was a major theme this year, whereas the story selection was a bit more varied last year. Unlike in years past, not a single restaurant-related article made it on our list. (At #28, with 9,687 views, the news that World of Beer was coming to Ballston was our most-viewed restaurant story.)
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5. Ambulances Dispatched to Rosslyn Metro Station (11,936 views) — On Oct. 11, a man jumped in front of an Orange Line Metro train (see #4), forcing a shutdown of the busy rail line during the evening rush hour. The Rosslyn Metro station got so crowded as a result of trains offloading there that police were called in for crowd control. Cops arrived and found riders nearly falling off the jam-packed platform. There were also people seen gasping for breath as they rode up the station’s long escalators, according to police radio traffic. Fearing a possible gas leak and stampede situation, police called in a mass casualty response from several neighboring jurisdictions. Numerous ambulances and fire engines converged on the station, gridlocking traffic in Rosslyn. In the end, it was only a precautionary move — one person was treated after suffering an asthma attack, but no other injuries were reported.
3. Car Explodes in Penrose (12,431 views) — When a white BMW exploded just a block or two from a secure military facility in Penrose, many people assumed the worst. Those fears of foul play were exacerbated when heavily-armed police officers arrested a young man in a nearby apartment building. In the end, however, no one was injured and the explosion turned out to be an accident: it was a welder’s acetylene torch that exploded.