Of all Arlington’s neighborhoods, I nominate Hall’s Hill as the most transformed. This weekend I arranged a satisfying two-fer by taking the Walk Arlington official guided tour of that historically black area while enjoying the “Feel the Heritage Festival” celebration of African American history and culture. The annual event held [...]

We Buy Gold! We Buy Cars! Tax Help! Going Out of Business! Lose weight! Vote for (insert name of candidate here)! Temporary signs, which advertise businesses, community events, or political candidates, seem to be epidemic along some of our roadways. In an odd quirk, signage has been deemed by local [...]

Headline from a rival paper a couple weeks ago: ‘New Arlington County Board Chair to Focus on Affordable Housing.’ Headline from a rival paper yesterday: ‘D.C. Mayor Commits to Affordable Housing.’ Both these reports tell of government entities neighboring the City of Falls Church addressing one of the region’s most [...]

It’s halftime for the 2013 legislative session, and if you have been following any of the news coming out of Richmond it is obvious we did not get off to a smooth start. The Senate Republicans have gone out of their way to make extreme partisanship and excessive overreach their [...]

As parking grows scarcer in Arlington, normally angelic citizens get tempted to be scofflaws. The price, however, can be more than just a ticket—try a major hassle with a towing company that some call predatory. Leave it to Arlington to try to make this mess a bit more civilized. Hundreds [...]

I read with interest the Guest Commentary regarding the so-called “Kearney plan” in the Dec. 27 2012 issue of the News-Press. This commentary detailed a proposal to move Mt Daniel Elementary School to the current site of City Hall and to relocate City Hall/the City Library/local courts to a new [...]

$200,000 Fence Around George Mason High School is Knee-Jerk Reaction Editor, The rush to spend $200,000 to erect a fence around George Mason High school is a misguided, knee-jerk reaction to the Newtown shooting. A prudent deliberation would be aimed at cost-effective measures to reduce the risk of such an [...]

News photos of a 3 a.m. blaze on Manor Road show a hillside home completely engulfed in bright orange flames. Firefighters from the nearby station arrived in record time, but the horrific blaze took two lives, Laura Snyder-Gardner, a professor at Gallaudet University, and her teen-aged daughter, Mary Ann. The [...]

The numbers are in, at least preliminarily. The release of the big picture on City of Falls Church real estate assessment growth by City Hall this week, followed last week’s presentation by Falls Church School Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones’ assessment of what kind of added financial resources will be required [...]

A frozen-in-time document capturing Arlington circa 1952 came to me through a friend. The illustrated ad from the old Washington Star proclaimed, “Now open: One of the most distinctive developments in Metropolitan Washington real estate history.” For just $19,000-$27,000 (substantial cash required), Arlingtonians aspiring to own property adjoining the Washington [...]