‘Tis the season for holiday parties — and the season of wine and beer bottles, sauce jars, you name it.
It is somewhat of a misconception that Arlington recently stopped recycling glass. We really have just started recycling glass in a different and more efficient way.
(Updated at 3:40 p.m.) “There was a single light on that I couldn’t turn off. I didn’t sleep while I was there.”
Below I will detail a discussion I had with someone, who for the purpose of this column I will refer to as “Alex,” about their time three years ago in the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center, located in Alexandria. The facility houses children and adolescents from Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church.
Laws protecting Virginia renters finally went into effect this month. Thanks to an update of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the 60% of Arlingtonians who are renters will be realizing sweeping protections and seemingly basic rights in our day to day lives.
Arlington should see this as an opportunity to take a leadership role in implementing this law by creating a civil landlord-tenant specific court docket. In D.C., this type of court parallels their small claims court and does not require the burden of attorney fees that are often too great of a hurdle for renters.
As technology changes, we must reframe our mindset on public transportation, specifically our bus systems.
Metro and ART Bus ridership have continued to decrease annually while the use of rideshare and mobility services such as Uber, Lyft, and Bird scooters have skyrocketed.
Antiquated Prohibition-era laws are still alive and well in Virginia.
These regulations have become a burden on restaurants and entertainment-oriented businesses operating in the Commonwealth. For Arlington and Northern Virginia at large, this means lost business opportunities to competitors in Washington, D.C. that don’t have to abide by such outdated regulations.
High speed rail isn’t just a pipedream. But to make it a reality in Arlington, it will require a new bridge.
In the next decade or two, high speed rail lines will shuttle passengers between Richmond and D.C. in less than an hour. A train ride between Arlington and Baltimore will take the same amount of time as taking the Metro to Union Station. This will only happen, however, if we approve and fully fund the Richmond to D.C. Long Bridge rail project.
My name is Nicole Merlene and I’d like to welcome you to my new column, What’s Next with Nicole. Thank you to the ARLnow team for inviting me to write this regular opinion column.
I plan to write about a wide range of topics that impact our community. My hope is to not only provide a forward-thinking perspective on current policy considerations, but also to shed light on less publicized topics.
