February 23 - March 1, 2023
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • V o l . X X X III No. 2
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
Life In The Fast Lane
Assessments for F.C. Up 4.6%, Beating Expectations Commercial Real Estate % Overtakes Residential by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
“Due to market growth of residential properties and completion of new commercial projects,” summary numbers for real estate assessments in the City of Falls Church jumped by 4.64 percent, 1.7 percent higher than projected, as released by City Hall yesterday. Individual assessments won’t be mailed out until possibly the end of March, according to a City press release. The total taxable assessed value for all properties in the City, as of January 1, 2023, is $5,329,726,700, an overall increase of ($236.11 million) or 4.64 percent from January 1, 2022, it was announced. City Manager Wyatt Shields told the News-Press that the rise in assessments was about 1.7 percent higher than expected, due mostly to increases in commercial real estate values. He noted that commercial values
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THE MERIDIAN BOYS VARSITY SWIM TEAM took home the State Title at the 2023 Virginia High School Class 3 Championship, held this past Friday in Richmond, Virginia ( Photo: Leah Kirk)
A Spirited Commonwealth Attorney Race for Falls Church by Charlie Clark
The one time-colleagues vying to be Commonwealth’s Attorney for Falls Church and Arlington present a contrast in resumes and in approaches to the national reform movement known as restorative justice. Incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, who won an upset victory in 2019 on a reform agenda, was confronted
this November by a challenge in the coming June Democratic primary by Josh Katcher, whom she had named as deputy commonwealth’s attorney before he resigned in disillusionment last August. Both active Democrats (the winner of their primary is often a shoo-in against Republicans in November), the two in interviews with the News-
Press claim similar goals but differ markedly in backgrounds and styles. Dehghani-Tafti, who grew up poor in an Iranian immigrant family, brought 18 years as a public defender to the elected position. She sees herself as a “change agent” battling establishment resistance to principles deployed by allies around the country seeking to focus pros-
ecutors’ resources on violent crimes while approaching smaller crimes with rehabilitation and improved case follow-up. Katcher, with more than a decade in the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, has prosecuted hundreds of cases, including 50 jury trials in the
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Inside This Week ‘Diagnosed’ Review
Patricia Leslie reviews Creative Cauldron’s “Diagnosed,” the premiere, powerful drama of the theater’s “Bold New Works” of Women’s Voices. See what Leslie has to say about this performance on mental health, race and gender. See Page 9
Celebration of Life for Eileen Levy
This past Sunday, many Falls Church residents gathered to remember the impressive life of Eileen Hecht Levy. See how locals remember Eileen with various kind words and tributes. See Page 10
Index
News Briefs...............................................2 Comment................................................5,8 Editorial......................................................6 Crime Report.............................................8 School News...........................................11 Calendar.............................................12,13 News & Notes.........................................14 Business News.......................................15 Classifieds...............................................17