SteveThurston

I started this web site about three-and-a-half years ago, and now it may be time to end it, for good.  Maybe.  I’m going to take some of the next four or six months to figure it out, and in that time, I will not be writing news for it.

I’m tired, to be fully honest.  This past semester at Montgomery College—my full-time job as a composition and journalism professor—was a long one.  I had to steal small pieces of time from many other parts of my life to write the HeraldTrib, this semester especially, and it showed in spotty, lackluster coverage, I thought. 

The blog started as a way to get a sabbatical from my teaching job.  The technology was new, and free, and Buckingham was not covered by the local papers, and the local papers were neither easily nor freely delivered to Buckingham, so I started a news site just for us.  I wanted it to be a chance, too, for me to try to tell news in a different way, more creatively.  And in the process, I was preparing my sabbatical application. 

Well, the sabbatical came, and the coverage was pretty good.  I picked up readers, and I think I have a good reputation in the county for even-handed coverage of the news.  The readership has never gotten to what I was hoping for, but the readers I have are some of the most dedicated—taking time out of their busy days to read new posts within minutes and hours.

I’ve been featured in a Washington Post story and on a Knight Foundation web site for citizen journalism.  Working on the HeraldTrib gave me the opportunity to work with the Connection Newspapers out of Fairfax County, and most recently I was a guest on WAMU’s Kojo Naamdi Show. 

But one particular feather in the cap eluded me.

About a year ago one of my sisters asked me what my plans for the web site were.  I told her how I felt like I was on the cusp of one trend in journalism: hyper-local coverage.  Newspapers all over the nation have carved niches out of their communities, given laptops to reporters, and told them to make an office out of their cars, their houses, their local coffee shops and bookstores.  Naples (Florida) Daily is one that has done this more than others, with dozens of reporters covering news with laptops and cell phones.  Just like me.

So I told my sister I did not want to miss whatever business opportunity might be out there.  I wanted to keep my site updated and good enough that I would be ready for whatever might come my way. 

“My business plan,” I said, only half-joking, and I can quote because I told many people this, “is for the Washington Post to buy me out or hire me.”

It was not much of a business plan, but I knew from a conference I attended in 2007 that the Post was thinking of people like me.  They had already created the hyper-local, online Loudoun Extra.  And from what people at that conference said, they were looking elsewhere.  I wanted to be big enough and good enough that they would have to see me when they looked. 

Over a number of months in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009, I had been thinking that I really should call the Post and tell them that if they were looking, so was I, and could we meet, when last spring, they called me and said, “We’re looking.  Can we meet?”  They talked to everyone in the Arlington journalism community from what I could tell, testing the waters for an online run at hyper-local journalism. 

After three interviews, it looked like my business plan, as far-fetched as it was, actually was going to work.  I thought I would not be heading back to Montgomery College in September. I would be the face (God help the viewers) of the new arlington.washingtonpost.com site.  However, the Post decided to go local in a different way and would not need me, as it turned out. 

I was disappointed to be sure, and going back to Montgomery College in September was tough, but I hold no hard feelings toward the Post (and if you change your minds, feel free to call!). 

So that business plan is no good anymore; I must find a new one.  That’s part of what I plan to do this winter and spring.  I’ll be looking at articulating a new plan, one that I can make clear to myself, my family, my readers and potential investors and advertisers. 

It might be that I cannot balance the three major elements of my life: family, work and the HeraldTrib.  It might be that I think up an idea that I would rather pursue.  It might be that I just enjoy the extra free time so much, nothing could peel me away from the Wii.  Right now, that last option seems most likely, but I always feel this way in December, and by mid-January, once my batteries are recharged, I feel like I can do everything. 

So thank you for reading, but it’s goodbye forever, for now.

Ballston

Comedy Sportz in the Ballston Commons Mall should have its use permit OKed by the county board at tomorrow’s meeting.  In their report, county staff said the comedy venue has operated in compliance with county regulations.  County staff has added one condition onto the club’s use permit: renewal of the the use permit applies only to Comedy Sportz; if they leave, the use permit does not transfer to the next organization to take the space.  Newcomers must apply for a new permit.  The county has been adding that as a new stipulation to all live entertainment venues.  The permit comes under review in another five years. 

Selected "boring but important" recommendations that the county board will consider... 

County staff is asking the board to shuffle money in the county’s affordable housing budget.  County staff is asking that money in the Housing Reserve Fund and in the “Loan Repayments” lines of the budget to be put into the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.  County staff says that they anticipate requests for about $10 million in affordable housing development projects before the end of June.  Lumping all of this money into one pot will allow staff to better plan for the projects as they come.  About $11.4 million would end up in the AHIF fund.

County staff is asking that $24.5 million be allocated to the Arlington Public Schools, about $15 million goes to operations, the other $9 million to capital projects.  This is part of the regular process of carryover from last year’s budget.

County staff is asking that the county board “amend, react, and recodify,” provisions of the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance with regard to a number of facets of Historic Designation.  This went before the board last month for discussion last month.  Staff is now recommending a vote.  These are changes that staff has been working on since 2006 when the county made its Historic Preservation Master Plan.  The idea is consolidate and clarify the role of the Historic Affairs and Landmarks Review Board.

At the recessed meeting on Dec. 15…

The county board will consider its legislative package that will be sent with local politicians down to Richmond for the session that begins Jan. 13.

The package covers a range of issues such as access to higher education for immigrants; a higher fuel tax; and expanding the state’s hate crimes definition.

These notes are compiled from Arlington County Police Department crime reports.  They cover the reports in and around the Buckingham, Arlington Forest and Ashton Heights neighborhoods. 

Remember: this is the time of year for robberies, burglaries and auto break-ins.  Hide, store and lock-up your stuff!  A couple of the crimes below were burglaries of unlocked houses!–ST

Nov. 16:  Grand Larceny Auto, Possession, Assault on Police and others (Arrest), 300 block of N. Kensington St.   At 7:45p.m. police responded for a suspicious person. The suspect was found under the influence of narcotics and unclothed in a stolen vehicle. He assaulted officers at the scene before being arrested. Duy Nguyen, 32, was charged with Grand Larceny of an Automobile, Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Driving While Revoked, Indecent Exposure, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Assault and Battery on Law Enforcement. He was held without bond. 

Nov. 17: Stolen Auto , 3700 block of S. 2nd St.  License tag number: VA YGE2981.  The minivan is a 1995, green Plymouth Voyager.

Nov. 17:  Attempted Sexual Assault , 4400 block of N. 4th St.  At 6:30p.m., a woman walked into the laundry room of an apartment complex. An unknown suspect approached her and asked for sexual favors. When the woman turned to leave, he held her wrist. The victim fled the room and called police. The suspect was a white Hispanic male, around 30 years old, 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 170 pounds. He was wearing a black windbreaker jacket, khaki pants, and a hat.

Nov. 17:  Commercial Burglary , 600 block of N. Glebe Road.  At 3:30a.m., a man entered a business and stole items from an office. The suspect is a white male, 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 160 pounds. He was wearing a blue hooded jacket and dark grey pants.

Nov 21:  Burglary , 4700 block of Arlington Blvd.  Between 8p.m. on Nov. 21, and 2a.m. on Nov. 22, an unknown subject entered an unlocked house and stole several items. There are no known suspects.

Nov. 24:  Burglary , 4000 block of N. 9th St.  Between 7a.m. and 11a.m., an unknown subject entered an unlocked apartment and stole several laptop computers. There is no suspect description.

Nov. 25:  Larceny from Auto (Series), 900 block of N. Taylor St.  Between 11p.m. on Nov. 25, and 7a.m. on Nov. 26, an unknown subject broke into at least three vehicles. Various items were stolen. There are no known suspects.

Nov. 27:  Robbery , 800 block of N. Frederick St.  At 8p.m., a man approached a woman walking away from her car and demanded her purse. The suspect assaulted the victim and fled with her wallet. The suspect was an African-American male, 5 feet, 10 inches tall with an average build. He was wearing dark pants and a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up.

Nov. 27: Stolen Auto , 600 block of N. Glebe Road.  License tag number: CA 8L00583.  The truck is a 2002, maroon Dodge Ram. 

Nov. 27:  Burglary , 100 block of N. Cleveland St.  Between 4:30p.m. on Nov. 27, and 8:30p.m. on Nov. 28, an unknown subject broke into a house and stole several items. There is no suspect description.

Nov. 28:  Robbery , 4200 block of N. 4th St.  At 1:45a.m., a group of unknown teenagers assaulted a man. They also stole his cell phone. The suspects were all African-American males wearing dark clothing.

Click the icons and lines for more information. Red=Person-to-person crime; Yellow=person-to-structure or vehicle crime; Blue=stolen vehicle or vehicle tag; Purple=vehicle-to-vehicle crime; Aqua=miscellaneous. A dot in the icon indicates more than one suspect or victim. All place marks are approximate. Click here to view larger map.View a larger map

Quick Review

Yuja Wang, the 22-year-old impresaria pianist, played the world premier of  Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center last night.  It was the second of three compositions, with Rimsky-Korsakov's suite from "The Snow Maiden" and Tchaikovsky's "Winter Daydreams" rounding out the evening.

Before the performance of Higdon's piece, because it is rare that orchestras “get to touch a living, breathing composer,” guest conductor Andrew Litton brought Ms. Higdon to the stage and asked a few questions.  He said technology allowed him to ask how many notes were in the piano part of the concerto.  19,861. 

I love the piano, and I was hoping for a delight.  Honestly, as fun as it was to watch Ms. Wang’s hands dance over the keyboard, and she hit all of those notes, it did not thrill me.  A technical marvel at that many notes in 30 minutes, I felt that Ms. Wang’s hands were performing in a new version of the “Dancing Shoes”—she just could not stop.  As well, in the 27th row, it was difficult to hear the piano during sections when the orchestra was in full swing. 

This was the first composition for the piano that Ms. Higdon composed, and it may have just gotten away from her.

Washington Post reviewer Anne Midgette this morning has a great paragraph about this in an otherwise positive review:

“If it had a flaw, it was that it was so constant it almost paled through a kind of sameness: Clusters of rapid notes yielded again and again to rapid sliding glissandos, light-fingered and evanescent, like the cluster of ripples that changing breezes send across the surface of reflecting water.”

Composer and performers alike received a standing ovation, but I admit that I do not put much stock in those—they seem to come every night.

One more show if you want to hear it.  Today 1:30p.m. Given that the seats were not full last night there might be tickets left.

News and opinion about potential redevelopment along Glebe, gentrifying Arlington, and the calendar

Owners of “West Ballston” are still talking…

I stayed at the Arlington County Planning Commission meeting until 12:15a.m. (that’s midnight, plus 15 minutes, whew), to hear this line from commissioner Steve Cole: “The three, parcel owners are talking to one another and are working…to move forward.” 

The parcels are the land in the 500 and 600 blocks of N. Glebe Road on the west side—the land filled with the Harris Teeter, the American Service Center body shop, and the Goodyear Tire and Auto store. 

I reported in July that the planning commission was speaking with the owners of those three parcels (collectively being called “West Ballston”) who apparently are looking to redevelop all along that site.  Those early plans would move or expand the businesses, creating underground or garage parking, retail space and apartments, commissioner Terry Serie said in July.

The news since then: zip.

Honestly, sticking around Monday night (or early Tuesday morning, actually) was worth it.  This is the first news I have heard about this project since July, and though the news was not really newsy, I was glad to know what was what.  When I know more, you’ll know more.

Related story

• Possible Big Changes Along Glebe (July 2009)

One little side note from the capacity planning study…

There’s a graph in the capacity planning study that shows the racial make-up of Arlington, in total numbers of people.  (See Wonk in Wonderland to find out more about that study; click the photo above to see the chart from that report)

The white population has pushed us over the 200,000 mark.  While the total numbers of minorities has stayed about the same, white people have increased quite a bit.  Arlington actually is gentrifying, whether we like it or not.

I've been updating the calendar quite a bit...

A number of events are coming along (look to the right-hand colum of this page to find out what they are).  Feel free to add your own event, or email it to me, and I'll put it up.  Santa comes to Lubber Run to meet Arlington Forest kids on Friday (see the calendar for more).  I will be out of town, so if someone snaps photos, feel free to post them here.

Click the "Post" menu above to add calendar items, photos or stories.

As always, thank you for reading. (And please tell your friends to read!)

Opinion

The Arlington Public Schools Board is going to have to put real thought into two options for easing capacity: build new schools or switch to a year-round schedule.  We just do not have a enough space to continue on as we are, says a 98-page report by MGT of America Inc., a consultant the school board hired.  Although the report does not suggest any option as a favored one, under all of their plans, the projected capacity of schools just looks bad.

Given how stinking expensive schools are to build, I think the county really needs to give a close look at year-round schooling.  In terms of capacity issues, it might just be the silver bullet. 

Which brings me to my first major aside: Why did MGT not show a chart of capacities if Arlington pursued year-round schooling?  In their report, they basically went through a number of different models for eleviating crowding—the 6/7ths model, the programming model, etc., and then they showed the effect of each model on capacity per school (click here to see the report). 

Although they wrote about year-round schooling and said in terms of capacity it was quite effective (though they knew of its draw-backs in terms of disrupted family life) they did not provide capacity numbers under that model.  If I could be at tonight’s school board meeting, which I cannot, the question I would ask is what are the per-school capacity numbers under a year-round plan?

Although the consultants did not give me the chart I needed to see if year-round really is the panacea I think it might be, on page 57 the chart and analysis of the hypothetical year-round system are good.  I need to see the projections per school, however, because I need to see why Barcroft Elementary School, the system’s only year-round school, is projected to be at and over capacity in just a few years.

Obviously, this would be huge undertaking, and I am not sure that I would vote for it once more analysis was completed. 

But this is what I like about it: if the hypothetical plan is an accurate analogy, our capacity goes from 100 percent and above (that is over capacity) in most schools, to well under capacity, the 80 percent of capacity range.  Think about what every school could do with that kind of extra space.  (Barrett Elementary School’s projection hits 119 percent capacity in 10 years.)

We would not have to raise class sizes to do this. 

Children would not learn until June, forget until September, and start to learn again after Labor Day.  With shorter vacations, they would stay more focused on their education.

The drawbacks as I see them (and some are hightlighted in the report) are significant, but not insurmountable.

This would be a huge adjustment to family life.  One big worry in the report is that one student in a family would be on a schedule in middle school different from his or her siblings in elementary or high school.  That is, one has a vacation from Thanksgiving to Christmas, the other has Christmas to New Year’s day.  The way I would handle this is that every household in a planning unit (those are pieces of neighborhoods that the school administration uses for planning) would be on the same schedule regardless of school. 

Teachers might have some large concerns regarding classroom use if students on different schedules are in the classroom on the same day.  I am thinking here of chemistry labs that have to have experiments set-up for students just starting a unit, and others who are ending it on the same day.

Summer school, summer jobs, summer camps and sports leagues would be disrupted.  No doubt.  But we are no longer an aggrarian county, so the need for working crops all summer is gone.  I am not exactly sure how this would be handled, but nationally, other schools do this, so let’s look at how they handle this issue.

I’m not saying that I would definitely vote for this should the choice be offered, but I think it’s time for a good, hard look.

“How you doin’ sugar? Happy Thanksgiving!” Associate Pastor Lynn Carter said as Diana Dean fixed a plate of leftovers from the buffet to take with her.  “You keeping out of trouble?” she joked.

“Yep,” replied Ms. Dean.

“Did you get enough to eat?”

“Yes,” Ms. Dean said yesterday, bundled up in a blue LL Bean jacket and baseball cap, her Safeway bag full of a mix of items, and now the food.  She said, “I come at five o’clock everyday.”

Thirteen turkeys cooked, pounds of canned green beans, trays and trays of mashed potatoes and stuffing with quarts of gravy.  Diners served themselves or were served by others at the long buffet table, then sat at the tables that held about 150 people.

For the people who organized and ran the Thanksgiving meal yesterday at the Arlington Assembly of God church at 4501 N. Pershing Dr., the 20-year tradition is “a special day” but for the past six years has been but one of the 200-plus dinners they serve weeknights, from 5:00 to 6:30p.m.

It’s a hot meal every night, with homemade soup on Wednesdays.  Summer is usually the slowest because people can find work then, said Janet Tyson who runs the kitchen and is the mother of Ms. Carter.  Fall always has more than summer, but this year it’s a little worse, as other providers have found.

Arlington Food Assistance Center on its web site reported that they served 1,038 families each week between July of last year and June of this year, handing out 2.2 million pounds of food.  Their October newsletter reported, “Our current average of over 1,200 families means we’re serving about 3,500 individuals—2,200 adults and 1,300 children—each week.”

Ms. Tyson concurred. 

“We’ve noticed this fall it’s picked up,” she said, adding they average about 100 to 110 people each evening, based on the number of clean plates taken.

“One time last year, we had 157, and that was the highest,” Ms. Tyson said.

Although it started primarily with the church providing the food, they have gotten guidance from the county government and from programs such as AFAC which eventually led the church to area restaurants. 

Now, the church gets unused food regularly from area Chipotle restaurants, and desserts from Safeway grocery stores.  That has made life much easier on Ms. Tyson, she said.  And the food fits the largely Latino dinner guests. 

It is all run by volunteers, some from the church, others from the rest of the community.

“I come up here and help when I can,” said Ray Skinner a native of Arlington who lives in Springfield.  He is a tall man whose brindled dog “Tigger” snaked around the human- and chair-legs on Thanksgiving.  “I needed something to do in the evenings besides watch TV and drink beer.”  He said he goes to the church because they helped him find work.  The people "pray for me, not on me," he joked.  The church has as many as 200 people attending Sunday services and about 150 members, Ms. Carter said.

Mr. Skinner is quick to say that some of the people who come for the meals are looking for handouts, do not want to work, or like sleeping on the streets.  But he said they cannot be helped if they are physically unhealthy, and a hot, wholesome meal can help with that.

“We’re going to help them get healthy first,” he said.

The meals might be pulled pork from Chipotle on hamburger buns with rice and beans, a tossed salad, and something sweet for dessert.  Other times, they will spice up that same food from Chipotle and make it teriyaki or something else fun and different.  Usually the church has enough food for people to take some to go.

However, the church’s mealtime has seen some growing pains when in the spring of last year, Ms. Carter met with community leaders, police and people from the Chatham condominium, about diners who were trespassing and panhandling on Chatham property.

Still, Ms. Carter clearly sees it as part of the church’s calling, saying, “The people of the church are wonderful” and have generously given food or money over the years. 

But she aims her sights higher than that, too.  They have been able to help the homeless and hungry over the years because, “The Lord just provides.”

News and opinion about parks and park budgets

Lubber Run Amphitheatre has a programming budget for next summer…

The good news is that the Lubber Run Amphitheatre has a $10,000 programming budget for next summer.

The bad news is, the amphitheatre has no stage lights (they were removed earlier this year, the county fearing that they would fall on someone), and the stage itself is a bit squishy. 

The cost to repair those, for which there is no budget, is somewhere between $60,000 and $200,000, said Susan Kalish, the public relations and marketing manager for the county’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources.  In an email, she wrote the county cannot tighten the cost estimate because there are “too many what ifs” in the renovation or redevelopment prospects.  Just about anything from simple repairs to a total rebuild might be required, she wrote, adding that DPRCR is examining the stage.

The capital improvements budget that would have covered repairs was gutted earlier this year, from $3.2 million to $200,000 for the entire county, and the amphitheatre is not a high enough priority to get the $200,000.  The amphitheatre’s programming budget of $20,000 over two years was dropped to $0 earlier this year, and then the county board reinstated $10,000 after it was too late to be used this past summer, Ms. Kalish wrote.

All is not lost, however, as temporary lighting could be rented, and the stage can support weight, just maybe not a large-scale production.

Ms. Kalish said that she had a great conversation about this earlier this month with people at the Arlington Forest Civic Association in which people threw ideas around without rancor, discussing many options such as having movie nights at the amphitheatre, running daytime programming only or even moving the programming to a temporary stage on the Lubber Run Community Center parking lot (at the corner of N. Park and N. George Mason drives).

The $10,000 will cover about four to six performances, and no decisions have been made about which will be run, Ms. Kalish wrote.  In a full year, the stage might see performances up to three times a week from June to September.

My take: the Buckingham Community Civic Assocation needs to ask Ms. Kalish to come to the January meeting.  In fact, I don’t think any of the neighborhoods in the area (Ashton Heights? Ballston?) would want to be outside this discussion.  If the stage is unusable, then how that money is spent will really be up in the air.  Everyone is going to want to be heard on this. 

I’ll admit, too, to liking the whole movie night idea.  One of my first experiences of the amphitheatre at least a dozen years ago was a night of “educational” films aimed at high schoolers from the 1950s and 60s.  You know the type: how to look on a date, how to act around adults, how best to study, that sort of thing.  Lots of fun. 

I know DPRCR people read this blog, so feel free to drop me an email, or post a comment about what you’d like to see.  Or, tell a story about your favorite time at the amphitheatre. 

 “Common Green” park on N. 4^th Street has a development budget…

Ms. Kalish also said in last Friday's interview that the park under development on N. 4^th Street, the “Common Green,” in front of the Madison at Ballston Station apartment building, does have a budget.  I reported last week that, although it was being planned, there was no money to build it until at least 2011. 

Ms. Kalish did not have details on the size of the budget or the schedule for building the park when we spoke, but she said the plans are ahead of schedule according to the planners she spoke with.  She is looking into the schedule and budgetary plans for that park. 

When she gets back to me, I’ll post it here.  Sorry for the confusion on this; neither Ms. Kalish nor I was sure how the mistake came about.

Related Stories…

• Lubber Run Amphitheatre to lose lights, October, 2009
• HeraldTrib Today Nov. 15, 2009

Inaugural president Patrick Hope steps down after two terms.

Arlington Oaks resident Cathy Wolfe was unanimously elected president of the Buckingham Community Civic Association at the bi-monthly meeting Monday Nov. 16. 

She is only the second president of the group which formed six years ago.  She replaces out-going president Patrick Hope who won election to the Virginia House of Delegates earlier this month and said he could not remain as president of the BCCA after the November meeting.

Mr. Hope is credited with forming the group, and at the meeting, people spoke of the many accomplishments the group has seen over the years, especially given all the development in Buckingham.

Not the smallest accomplishment was producing the 2006 Buckingham Neighborhood Conservation Plan, which serves as a blueprint for improvements to be made in the community.  Part of the planning included a huge survey of hundreds of Buckingham residents, English- and Spanish-speakers alike.  

Having an NCP gives a community access to county funds that they otherwise would not be able to use. Pedestrian improvements to the N. Thomas Street at N. Henderson Road intersection were paid for through those funds.  Other intersections along N. Thomas, N. Carlin Springs Road and N. Park Drive are priorities in the plan.

Also, the BCCA was instrumental in creating the Buckingham Plaza at the corner of N. Henderson Road at N. George Mason Drive.  The small park across the street from K.W. Barrett Elementary School was a tough project to complete since the county and the schools had to be brought to the same page with little incentive to do so.

But what he is most proud of is “building a relationship with the people that live in the rental units…and people in the Latino community.”

“I think the future of Buckingham is bright,” he said.  “I’m so proud to be a Buckinghamster!” 

 Related stories and files

• Buckingham 2006 NCP 
• "Buckingham Plaza" Dedication (click then scroll down to see the story), Sept. 2006
• N. Thomas at N. Henderson, Planning in March 2008; and Work in May 2009

The Sun Gazette ran a nice piece about the relationship between Culpepper Gardens and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (both inside the HeraldTrib's reading area), so I am linking to the the Sun Gazette story here.