Utilitarian Arlington may not look like a hothouse for musical talent. But over the decades, we’ve spawned our share of tunesmiths and instrumental notables. I’ve assembled a rough list with a little help from my friends. Perhaps most legendary is Virginia-born Kate Smith, the alto who belted out Irving Berlin’s [...]

As the Falls Church City Council was expected to five a preliminary approval to the establishment of a new Storm Water Utility with a separate storm water utility fee billed on the basis of every 200 feet of impervious area on a property in the City. Among other things, being [...]

The deadline for the Governor to amend, veto or sign the 813 bills sent to him by the General Assembly from the 2013 session has passed. We are now learning which bills he has signed into law, which ones he has vetoed and the amendments he has made. He is [...]

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors received a report from its Human Services Council during a budget meeting on Monday, and the news was not good. Council Chairman Kevin Bell noted that the cumulative impact of several consecutive stringent budgets has resulted in a critical juncture for the community, balancing [...]

On March 5, after almost two months of presentations, discussion, hearings, analysis, and deliberation, the Falls Church City School Board adopted an operating budget for the 2013/14 school year (FY14) of $40,937,800, an 8.6% increase over the current year. Of this, the School Board is requesting a transfer from the [...]

It is slowly dawning and emerging in the public discourse over the latest City of Falls Church budget that choices here are, albeit in miniature, reflective of choices on a grander scale effecting national and global economies. In the big picture, it is clearer how alternative approaches – austerity versus [...]

Who knew that Arlington for months has been home to a cutting-edge experiment in cinema innovation? If you’ve caught a flick recently at the AMC Courthouse theater, you couldn’t miss that you were transported to movieland while lying on a plush, Barcalounger-type recliner. Unless you fell asleep (the fault of [...]

Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia is building better communities through affordable home ownership. Now, more than ever before, we believe that affordable home ownership is needed in Northern Virginia. Our local economy is better than most in the country, and yet the high cost of housing is creating a [...]

 To Make Broad Walkable, We Need a New Stop Light Editor, Let me propose a critical next step in the ongoing effort to make Falls Church City’s downtown a genuinely pedestrian-friendly environment: we must demand a traffic light, and two wide, well-marked, pedestrian-friendly crosswalks, at the intersection of Broad St. [...]

Just in time for Spring and a return to daylight saving time, the arts are blooming in Mason District. Whatever strikes your fancy – music, dance, watercolors, weaving and textiles – opportunities abound to expand your right brain creativity. The Art at the Mason District Governmental Center program features “A [...]