February 8 – 14, 2018
FA LLS CHUR C H, V I R G I NI A • WW W. FC NP. C OM • FR EE
FOUN D ED 1991 • VOL. X X V I I NO. 51
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I����� T��� W��� F���� C����� R����� B��� P���� �� L��� �� U.S. According to the financial news and commentary web site 24/7 Wall St., the City of Falls Church ranks as the top jurisdiction to live in in the entire United States. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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The News-Press announced that the sixth-annual installment of The Little City’s tastiest seven-day event will take place March 19-25.
F.C. Activist’s Initiative Wins Support For Anti-Gun Violence License Plate Richmond House of Delegates Passes New Law, 89-8-1
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
and Don’s Beach Shack, Argia’s, and then a series of restaurants on the retail ground floor of their project, wrapping around it to the space they’ve designated for the Creative Cauldron theater group, did not win the wows from the Council they might have expected. Instead, at least three of the seven-member Council want more revenue-generating substance
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the well-intended activism of any individual cannot translate into major change. It’s been a year for that, resulting in huge changes in the makeup of the Virginia state legislature, for starters. Now, that has spilled over into a second year ushered in by the efforts of Falls Church’s Carol Luten and her collaborators to strike a big blow for gun control in Richmond with results that will be seen on roads, driveways and byways throughout the commonwealth. No bill with the slightest taint of restricting unbridled use and brandishing of guns ever had the slightest chance of making it out of the effectively-closed deliberations of subcommittees in the Virginia State Legislature until this year, when as the result of 15 new Democrats being swept into office last November, near parity has led to a perceptible attitude adjustment by everyone. With a new law passed to record the vote in subcommittees for the first time, the bill that Luten persuaded Falls Church-based Del. Marcus Simon to introduce to authorize a license plate option for Virginians that reads, “Stop Gun Violence,” cleared the committee by a vote of 18 yes, 3 no and one abstention. Subsequently, it came to the House floor and passed, 89-8-1, following an amendment to have proceeds from the plates go to mental health services. That was a move that Del. Simon opposed because, he said, it misplaced the issue, since only a small number of gun-related killings have been attributed to mental
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SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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During the 2016 presidential campaign, I went to Donald Trump rallies in the Midwest, the South and on the East Coast. At all of them, I’d ask Trump fans what was bothering them about American life. By far the most common reply was: too much political correctness. SEE PAGE 14
C������ � K������ �� L���� �� V��������’� D�� Just in time for Valentine’s Day, The Local Market’s Patrick Fleming tells the News-Press how to tempt the tastebuds of that special someone next Wednesday. SEE PAGE 8
FALLS CHURCH ACTIVIST Carol Luten is shown with Del. Marcus Simon at a recent festival in the City. Luten’s initiative and Simon’s legislative action have resulted in a new “Stop Gun Violence” license plate that will be available to all Virginia motorists once it passed the State Senate and is signed into law by Gov. Ralph Northam. (P����: C������� C���� L����)
Falls Church Council Concerned About Broad-Washington Plan
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
INDEX
Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes10–11 Comment ........ 12-14 Sports .................16
Calendar .......18–19 Classified Ads .....20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........21 Critter Corner......22
After passing muster with the Falls Church Planning Commission by a unanimous vote last month, and winning predominant kudos from the City’s boards and commissions, the 2.6-acre mixed-use redevelopment project three years in the making for the northeast section of the City’s central Broad and Washington (Rt. 7
& 29) intersection still drew some hesitancy from the City Council at a work session Monday night, although its final vote of approval is still not until April 9. While the development team was clearly pleased with their progress with the Planners and advisory board and commission groups, the Insight Property Group’s concept of a “restaurant row” girding the project including the existing State Theatre, Clare