Ma rc h 3 - 9 , 2016
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. X X V I N o. 2
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Trump Gets Only 15.68% in City of F.C.
While the winner Virginia-wide and in a total of seven states on “Super Tuesday” primary election day, Republican front runner Donald Trump garnered only 15.68 percent of Republican votes cast in the City of Falls Church. See News Briefs, page 8
Spring Real Estate Special Inside
The News-Press explores how school rankings affect home values, the Falls Church Victorian Society, a local real estate agent’s upcoming television appearance and more inside this special Spring 2016 Real Estate issue.
Undefeated Mason Mustangs Advance To State Boys Basketball Tournament K aine R allies for C linton 28-0 Going to This Saturday’s Match Vs. Graham HS
by Matt Delaney
Falls Church News-Press
who attended via telephone. “This was a tough budget, with no more money but more kids,” said board vice chair John Lawrence. “But we got it done in time and with consensus.” Board chair Justin Castillo chimed in, “Our mission is to provide high quality free K-12 education, with our ultimate accountability being to the students. We worked well as a board and I am pleased with the contributions of everyone.”
Undefeated at 28-0 for the first time in school history this late into a season, Falls Church’s George Mason High School Mustang boys basketball team enters the first phase of the state tournament this Saturday against Graham High School at 11 a.m. at Robinson High School in Burke. The Mustangs are in search of their first ever state title, which, if they win Saturday, they will pursue in semifinal and final games in Richmond on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12. It would mark the fourth time a Chris Cappanola-coached Mustang team would make it to the final four, beginning 15 years ago in 2001 and again in 2011 and 2012. This year’s Mustang team, while emulating the characteristic Cappanola model of team play and tough defense, also sports senior forward Robert Tartt who has already set a new career scoring record for boys basketball with 1,167 points, nudging ahead of Kenny Wilson’s mark of 1,164 points set back in 2000-01. At the start of the season, Cappanola’s team made their intentions crystal clear: win Virginia’s 2A State title. The sentiment was broadcast by players and echoed by coaches, but until about a month ago when the postseason tournaments began it was still just an idea (albeit, a bold one) waiting to gain traction with wins over quality competition. Now, after claiming the Conference 35 and 2A Region East titles in convincing fashion, the Mustangs look to cement a
Continued on Page 4
Continued on Page 28
See pages RE-1 – RE-8
David Brooks: The Movement Mentality
It feels like people clumped themselves into intellectual movements more 30 years ago than they do today. See page 12
Press Pass with Amelia White
Amelia White’s new album Home Sweet Hotel talks about the ups and downs of life on the road for a touring musician. But White, who was born and raised in Arlington, will soon be returning to a place she calls home. See page 29
U.S. SENATOR TIM KAINE speaks with 8th Congressional District Democratic chair Margo Horner prior to a rally for Hillary Clinton on Columbia Pike last weekend. Kaine’s name continues to be floated as a potential vice presidential running mate should Clinton secure the Democratic nomination. (Photo: News-Press)
Falls Church School Board Adopts Its Budget With 5.4% Increase by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.10-11 Comment...12-14, 23 Calendar.........24-25 Food & Dining......27
Sports..................28 Business News....31 Classified Ads .....32 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........33 Critter Corner.......34
By a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the Falls Church School Board adopted a budget for the coming fiscal year that will seek a 5.4 percent increase in the transfer from the City, a number almost identical with what Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones proposed to kick off the board’s budget deliberations in January. The School Board voted for a total operating budget of $48,623,400, a five per-
cent increase over this year, that includes a requested transfer from the City of $40,362,000, up by 5.4 percent from this current year’s $38,298,700. “This is almost unheard of, for a School Board to be in such concurrence with the Superintendent on the budget,” Hunter Kimble, the School’s chief financial officer, told the News-Press after Tuesday’s vote. The vote was 6-0, with one member Erin Gill absent due to illness and another, Phil Reitinger, whose vote counted,
PAGE 2 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
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PAGE 4 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
THE FALLS CHURCH SCHOOL BOARD present at Tuesday’s meeting which adopted its next year’s budget request is shown with Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones (second from left). (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. School Board Adopts Budget Identical to Superintendent’s Plan Continued from Page 1
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Reitinger added, over the speaker phone, “We did the best for our students by doing the best for our teachers and for the means for them to do [their] jobs.” Jones’ recommendations made in January called for an overall 5.4 percent increase in the requested transfer of funds from the City, almost half the 10.75 percent that the principals and department heads asked for but more than the City Council had hoped for. Her recommendations provided increases of $716,800 to maintain class sizes, $487,600 for fixed costs, $634,600 for teacher compensation and $281,700 for staff and administration compensation. Maintaining class sizes involved the addition of three classroom teachers, two special education teachers and two behavioral specialists. Adding $634,600 for teacher compensation would recalibrate the scale of competitive teacher salaries in the region to bring Falls Church within three to five percent of neighboring Arlington. “We’re adding new staff faster than ever in our history because of enrollment growth pressures,” Jones said, and “the craft of teaching is changing more rap-
idly than ever in our history, making professional development critical.” Such a bare bones budget recommendation actually marked a significant cut in expenditures per student over the last decade, taking inflation into account. In fiscal years 2007 and 2008, the schools provided an average of over $14,000 per student, but that number tumbled to under $12,000 in 2011 and grew to over $12,000 last year, with an almost identical amount for this coming year. Over that period, total school operating budget revenues have grown by $12,723,925, and salaries, benefits and wages have grown $12,057,977 over that same time frame, including adding 45 new teaching positions, leaving only $665,948 in additional dollars for everything else, such as maintenance and upkeep, materials, supplies, electricity, gas, technology, books, curriculum materials, professional development, buses, fuel and so forth. Enrollment in the Falls Church public schools has ballooned from 1,871 students in the 2006-2007 year to 2,600 projected for next fall. Dr. Jones’ priorities were informed, she said, by what the community, in a survey, defined as the top priorities for the schools
which included keeping class sizes low and staying on track to close the teacher pay gap. “We have made tremendous progress over the past three years in both of these areas,” Jones said. The School Board budget adopted Tuesday, the details hammered out at a work session Saturday morning, modified Dr. Jones’ recommendations only marginally. It added $19,700 for a “topped out bonus,” an additional half-time teacher for the gifted and talented, an increase of $27,500 for additional instructional supplies, $50,000 for a CO project assistant and $10,000 for a teacher workforce climate survey. It cut from the Superintendent’s budget $10,000 for legal services, $50,000 for a communications assistant and $98,400 from the contingency fund. The School Board budget now goes the City Manager, who is required by law to add it without changes to his City operating budget recommendation to the City Council that will be forthcoming in two weeks, including whatever changes in the real estate and other tax rates may be required to achieve a balanced budget overall, which the City Council will have until the end of April to shape for the coming fiscal year that will begin July 1.
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
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uses along Four Mile Run within the City are predominantly autooriented, low-density businesses with little dedicated open space. Land value is nearly four times the value of the improvements in the area. A majority of parcels along W. Jefferson Street along the stream are owned by one family (Jennings—Ed.), so that a parcel consolidation in the area is feasible.” In terms of the value of a serious restoration effort, the report contends, “The restoration is a timely and necessary endeavor for Falls Church to preserve natural ecosystems, create a vibrant, mixed-use district, strengthen the pedestrian and bicycle network, and promote a healthier lifestyle for residents. A restored stream with an expanded buffer will not only enhance quality of life, but will also improve stormwater runoff management, re-establish native plants and wildlife in and around the water, and reduce pollution.” It sounds like they’ve
n
A fifth contribution to the City of Falls Church’s visioning and future planning resources came last month from the Virginia Tech Graduate Planning Studio, this one focused on the potential development of the Four Mile Run stream that cuts through the City, and the considerable benefits that could accrue from it. The study, like others Virginia Tech has provided to the City from its Northern Virginia campus adjacent the City, dealing with the Eastern Gateway, the Little City Center, West Jefferson Street and the Gordon Road triangle, does not take into consideration any of the politics associated with what it would take to carry out the vision, such as who owns impacted property. But the studies have set the imaginations of planners and public officials ablaze, and caused the best of them to push the limits of
the so-called “art of the possible.” “The restoration of Four Mile Run in the City of Falls Church will improve water quality, create new parkland, provide impetus for mixed use redevelopment along the stream, and add value to the City through higher taxes and enhanced quality of life,” the report begins. “Near the headwaters of the stream, the Falls Church segment of Four Mile Run is impaired with E coli and other pollutants and overgrown with invasive species, and its banks are incised and eroded. Numerous plans and studies have called for the stream’s restoration and creation of adjacent parkland and a trail along with W. Jefferson portion of the stream,” the report’s authors note. While acknowledging some aspects of the political issues that would be faced, the report focuses on the positive values associated with the restoration, and even estimates what it might cost. It notes at the outset, “Current land
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
2.2 square miles. Therefore, restoration of Falls Church’s component of the stream will have a big impact on the quality of everything downstream from it. The Virginia Tech report suggests that improvements such as it is proposing would cost approximately $12 million, including $6 million for stream restoration, $4.9 million for land acquisition and nearly $600,000 for park development. A land banking fund, public-private partnership, tax increment financing, industrial revenue bonds and other options exist to help in the parcel consolidation and redevelopment effort, it says. The report in its 53-page entirety is accessible from the City of Falls Church website, listed under “Concept Plans.”
been paying attention to everything citizens of Falls Church say they want! It adds, “In addition to environmental benefits, parks and open space add significant economic value through increased property taxes and by spurring new development...It is time to take action on a sustainable plan for a reenergized stream corridor.” Near the headwaters of the stream, the City of Falls Church enjoys a small portion of the Four Mile Run roughly corresponding to a portion between its eastern boundary and the northwestern boundary with Arlington County. The stream runs entirely through Arlington, spilling into the Potomac River. The watershed of the stream encompasses much of the eastern part of Falls Church’s
O
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 5
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Vol. XXVI, No. 2 March 3 - 9, 2016 • City of Falls Church ‘Business of the Year’ 1991 & 2001 • • Certified by the Commonwealth of Virginia to Publish Official Legal Notices • • Member, Virginia Press Association •
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WWW.FCNP.COM The Falls Church News-Press is published weekly on Thursdays and is distributed free of charge throughout the City of Falls Church and the Greater Falls Church area. Offices are at 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046. Reproduction of this publication in whole or part is prohibited except with the written permission of the publisher. ©2016 Benton Communications Inc. The News-Press is printed on recycled paper.
E D I TO R I A L
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Something All F.C. Agrees On
One thing all 13,500 citizens of the City of Falls Church apparently agree upon – all except 246 of them, that is – is that Donald Trump should not be the next president of the U.S. The results from Tuesday’s “Super Tuesday” primaries in Falls Church show that of all the votes cast, 4,164 in all according to the Virginia State Board of Elections, only 246 went to Trump, the winner nationally who appears to be closing in on the GOP nomination for president. For the 246 who voted for Trump at Falls Church’s three precincts (plus absentees) Tuesday, 1,323 who cast ballots in the Republican primary voted against him. Of course, all 2,595 ballots cast in the Democratic primary voted for somebody else, too. So, if Trump wins the presidency in November and begins to erect a high wall between the U.S. and Mexico, maybe the City of Falls Church can do the same, to keep Trump out, and maybe even secede. Citizens could emigrate to Canada, where the new prime minister has made it easier to do, or Cuba for those who prefer milder weather. Planes can’t take off from Falls Church, at least not yet, but helicopters could probably make the trip. Of course, the City could join with neighboring Arlington in this (and thus gain access to Reagan National Airport and the Pentagon), because the returns there were almost identical, as percentages go, to those in the Little City. That would also make it possible to mount a navy, something the land-locked City of Falls Church, except for its meager Four Mile Run tributary creek, can’t credibly do by itself. Eastern parts of Fairfax County would also probably want to join our adventure, maybe all of the Mason District, and we’d pitch to include the Mosaic because we’d need the Target. Sadly, this would abandon the rest of Virginia to a preponderance of Confederacy revivalist forces, and with Trump in the White House, the South probably would rise again. Bob Marshall would be the governor, and he’d probably offer Trump to move the nation’s capital back to Richmond. But what choice would we have? If this sounds fantastic, it is, of course. But it is not so far off from how thousands think in Texas, where “Secede!” has been a rallying cry on license plates for a century. Truly, the prospect of a Trump presidency naturally gives rise to a lot of crazy thoughts, though honestly we’d never seriously propose giving up on this great American democratic experiment. We’d be silenced and hauled off by Trump’s gestapo before that would ever happen. But the good news is that Tuesday’s election has shown that Falls Church citizens have finally found something almost everybody agrees upon, at least for now. Wouldn’t it be nice if that signaled a new trend? Keep this in mind as we war over where to put bus shelters and such.
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Yes, Predatory Towing Hurts Local Merchants
Editor, Yes, local merchants, Roger Freeley is correct that predatory towing hurts local businesses. I learned my predatory towing lesson the expensive way. Occasionally we had been visiting restaurants in the Ballston area until once for a Sunday brunch we could find no street parking, so we parked in a halfempty parking lot where all but one of the businesses were listed
as being closed for Sunday. We walked across the street to a restaurant, enjoyed our brunch and came back to find our auto had been towed. We have never been back and never intend to purchase anything in the Ballston area. Consequently, we order items on the internet, drive to a mall for restaurants and shopping and visit local shops and restaurants if they are within easy walking distance.
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6. Give “value received” for every dollar you take in. 7. Make the paper show profit if you can, but above all keep it clean, fearless and fair.
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City Council and merchants, I am sure this has happened many times over when outsiders have visited the City of Falls Church. David Blanchard Falls Church
Winter Hill Association Does Not Oppose New Bus Stop Editor, We would like to correct the record regarding an article in the News-Press on February 25, 2016 stating that the Winter Hill Community Association opposes a bus stop on Broad St. in front of
the new Harris Teeter. The association has not been made aware of any concerns within our community about this bus stop, we have never discussed it at a board meeting, and we have certainly not taken any kind of official position opposing it. The association and individual leaders within our community have had a collaborative relationship with HITT/Rushmark and Falls Church City officials throughout the planning and construction process of the Harris Teeter and 301 W Broad apartments. Diane Bartley Vice President, Winter Hill Community Association
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
CO MME NT
MARCH 3 - 9, 2016 | PAGE 7
G � � � � C � � � � � �� �� National Area United Way’s Community Commitment B� R���� A����-H������
United Way of the National Capital Area has been working on a new strategic vision to focus extensive resources on creating the highest quality of life and opportunity for communities throughout the region. This five-year, $10 million investment is called the Community Commitment and it’s focused on addressing challenges in the areas of education, financial stability and health of residents throughout the Capital community. Over the course of the past several months, the United Way NCA leadership team conducted conversations with leaders in the most underserved areas of our region, as well as community members anxious for a leg up to lift them into opportunities to aid their rise into stability and success. The team found glaring gaps in essential services that could make the difference for so many of our underserved neighbors. The result is a five-year, $10 million dollar investment in our community to address these challenges. The Community Commitment’s value proposition is to identify the most pressing problems and bring the right partners to the table to move the needle, build lasting impact and achieve results. The daily reality for residents living in the national capital area is that 30 percent of households do not have enough savings to survive for three months without income.
For these households, a single emergency like the loss of a job could very quickly put them at risk of losing their housing. In fact, nearly 12,000 people in our region are sleeping in shelters or on the street at any
“The challenges in our community are many but so are the opportunities to collectively solve them.” given time. Looking across the region, one in six households can’t afford enough food. One in six children in Virginia, one in seven children in Maryland, and nearly one in three children in the District live in poverty. The challenges in our community are many, but so are the opportunities to collectively solve them. United Way NCA’s Vision and Community Commitment Goals: Financial Stability – to provide 100,000 residents with services that remove barriers to financial stability and affordable housing. Education – to prepare 12,000 Title I middle school students (of high poverty schools) to transition to high school performing at grade level and on track to succeed. Health – Recognizing that health is central to academic achievement and individu-
als’ and families’ ability to achieve financial stability, United Way NCA’s commitment is to embed health programs and partnerships in our work and act as strong proponent for public policies meant to strengthen the health of the communities throughout the region. We’re already seeing results. Through our community school model, we are bringing together partners to create results in the lives of students in our region. For instance, at Buck Lodge Middle School, 23 percent of students measured improvement in their grades in English with 66 percent of the students maintaining a C or better in these classes. 25 percent of students improved their grades in math with 56 percent of students maintaining a C or better in these classes. 26 percent improved their attendance rate and this is just one examples of the impact we’re making. As we expand the program, we anticipate seeing similar results for middle school students throughout our community. We are working with partners throughout the region, such as Prince George’s Community College, to open Financial Empowerment Centers – one-stop shops to assist hard working people achieve financial stability with access to services like: • Free tax preparation • Financial coaching • Credit and housing counseling • Access to free or low cost banking products
• Budget management and; • Entrepreneurial services Since the fall of 2015, nearly 200 people have accessed services through our Financial Empowerment Center partnership with Prince George’s Community College. We are in the planning stages of the second Financial Empowerment Center and will be sharing details as soon as they become available. This past October, we organized the DC region’s first Project Homeless Connect, which served nearly 300 people in our community who are experiencing homelessness. The one-day resource fair brought together nonprofit organizations and local service providers from across the city, who provided free medical, podiatry, housing services, identification, employment and other services, all under one roof. The feedback from the community is encouraging the United Way NCA to be audacious about our goals and move to a community investment model focused on lasting and measurable impact. The simple truth is, we are no longer your grandmother’s United Way. Our commitment to our area is not to stop until we light a bright future for every one of our fellow neighbors. Rosie Allen-Herring is president and chief executive officer of United Way of the National Capital Area.
Q������� �� ��� W��� Should the Falls Church City Council approve the School Board’s budget increase request? • Yes • No
Last Week’s Question:
Should Falls Church’s top priority be to complete projects that have already been approved by the City Council?
• Don’t know
Log on to www.FCNP.com to cast your vote
FCNP On-Line polls are surveys, not scientific polls.
[WRITE FOR THE PRESS] The News-Press welcomes readers to send in submissions in the form of Letters to the Editor
& Guest Commentaries. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 350 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four weeks. Guest Commentaries should be no more than 800 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four months. Because of space constraints, not all submissions will be published. All submissions to the News-Press should be original, unpublished content. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, grammar and accuracy. All submissions should include writer’s name, address, phone and e-mail address if available.
Email: letters@fcnp.com | Mail: Letters to the Editor, Falls Church News-Press, 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church 22046 | Fax: 703.340.0347
PAGE 8 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
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While the winner Virginia-wide and in a total of seven states on “Super Tuesday” primary election day, Republican front runner Donald Trump garnered only 15.68 percent of Republican votes cast in the City of Falls Church this week, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections. His total of 246 votes came in at almost a third of the total for Marco Rubio (707 votes for 45.06 percent of the total) and also behind John Kasich with 367 votes for 23.31 percent). Ted Cruz had 191 votes. A total of 1,569 voted in the Falls Church Republican primary at the City’s three voting precincts (plus absentee). On the Democratic side, a total of 2,595 votes were cast with 1,587 for Hillary Clinton (61.16 percent) and an even 1,000 for Bernie Sanders. Confirming the fears of many Republican leaders for Trump’s general advance, GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock of the neighboring McLean 10th District was challenged by Democratic challenger LuAnn Bennett yesterday to explain her silence in the face of the Trump victory in Virginia.
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A petition filed last fall in the Arlington Circuit Court against the Falls Church School System by four parents was finally dismissed in its entirety “with prejudice” (meaning it cannot be appealed or resubmitted) in a pretrial hearing in the court last Thursday. The petition, submitted by the chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee and unsuccessful School Board candidate Becky Smerdon and others, had alleged unlawfulness in revisions the School Board made last August to policies regarding citizens advisory committees. Following on this development, the Falls Church School Board voted unanimously to proceed on a request received from its Special Education Advisory Committee to either dissolve the committee or to remove two members. The board voted 7-0 to task its member Michael Ankuma with investigating the matter and reporting back at the board’s March 15 meeting for prospective action.
Car Accident Sends Woman to Hospital A car accident on Little Falls Street in Falls Church resulted in an older woman sent to a local hospital and two cars damaged, with one completely flipping over, at just before 2 p.m. last Friday, according to an officers at the scene. Little Falls Street was closed between Park Avenue and Great Falls Street while officers and a tow truck cleared up the accident. According to Susan Finarelli, the City’s public information officer, the woman’s car hit another that was parked and unoccupied, and flipped over. A car rolled over outside of City Hall last Friday. (Photo: The News-Press arrived on the scene as the Robert Mothershead) two cars, a Nissan Sentra sedan and a Honda Civic hatchback, were being loaded on to a tow truck from Henry’s Wrecker Service, based in Fairfax. The Honda Civic was the car being driven at the time of the accident and was badly damaged as a result of the collision and flipping. The windshield was smashed in, windows were smashed out and the passenger side of the vehicle was scratched and dented.
Escapee From Mental Facility Sought Fairfax County and Virginia State police are seeking the public’s help in locating a man who escaped from the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute, located at 3302 Gallows Road in Falls Church Monday. Staff at the mental health facility noticed Michael Marshall, 33, was missing from the facility at around 6 p.m. on Monday. According to police reports, Marshall has been known to exhibit violent behavior. A detention order has been issued for his immediate apprehension and return to the facility. Police described the man as black, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 235 pounds with black hair and glasses. Police said that Marshall could be on foot in the Annandale-Falls Church area near the mental health facility, but has ties to the area near Seqouia Farms Drive Michael Marshall. (Photo: Fairfax Co. Police) and Woodfield Dr. in Centreville and the Sterling area. Police asked that anyone who sees or has information on Marshall’s whereabouts contact police immediately at 703-691-2131 and asked that those who see him in public exercise caution.
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Community News & Notes Ring Found During Trash Pickup on Sleepy Hollow Parishioners from St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Annandale were picking up trash along Sleepy Hollow Road on Sunday afternoon when their priest made a surprising find. Amid the cigarette butts and beer bottles was a ring. “At first I thought it was plastic,” said Father Jeff Shankles, who serves the congregation on Columbia Pike. But it wasn’t. The ring does not appear to be of great value, “but it might be of sentimental value to someone,” Shankles said. The church applied several months ago to care for a milelong stretch of Sleepy Hollow Road through VDOT’s Adopt-aHighway program. Parishioners were taking advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures Sunday to do their first cleanup. Anyone who has lost a ring
along Sleepy Hollow Road near Valley Brook Drive may email the church office at info@stalbansva. org and describe it to claim it.
McLean Rotary Club Donates To Local Children’s Center The Rotary Club of McLean presented a check in the amount of $2,000 to Kathy Banks, executive director of the Falls ChurchMcLean Children’s Center, at its weekly meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 23. The Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center was founded in 1968 with initial support was provided by the Rotary Club of McLean. When the children’s center opened, there were 15 children enrolled. That number has now grown to 78. In a press release about the donation, the Rotary Club of McLean said that it “is pleased to help provide support to the Center’s
mission of providing high-quality early childhood education to lowincome, working families in Falls Church and the McLean area of Fairfax County.” For more information, visit mcleanrotary.org.
F.C. Daisy Scouts Visit Girl Scout CEO in New York City Daisy Scouts Rayne Hammerschmidt and Ava Lambert from Falls Church Troop 3850 recently went to the Girl Scout headquarters in New York City, where they met Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. In addition to meeting Chávez, Hammerschmidt and Lambert toured the brand new interactive visitor’s center at the headquarters.
Volunteers Sought for April Recycling Extravaganza The City of Falls Church is
FALLS CHURCH DAISY SCOUTS Rayne Hammerschmidt (left) and Ava Lambert (right) visited the Girl Scout of the USA headquarters in New York City, where they met Anna Maria Chavez (center), CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Hammerschmidt and Lambert, who are members of Falls Church Troop 3850, toured the new interactive visitor’s center at the headquarters during their visit. (Courtesy Photo)
seeking volunteers to help with its Recycling Extravaganza, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 2 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Recycling Center at 217 Gordon Road. Volunteers are need to help sort and bag clothing and textiles, inventory bicycles, direct traffic and break down cardboard. During the Recycling Extravaganza, Falls Church City residents bring hard-to-recycle items, like clothing, shoes, printers, fax machines, bicycles, eyeglasses and medical supplies, in for recycling. For more information and a full list of the items that will be accepted at the Recycling Extravaganza, visit fallschurchva. gov/604/Recycling-ExtravaganzaCollection-Events. Those who are interested in volunteering for the event can email recycling2@ fallschurchva.gov for more information.
Falls Church Leaf Mulch Loading Day Slated for April 9 The City of Falls Church will be giving out free mulch on April 9 from 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Recycling Center at 217 Gordon Road during its Leaf Mulch Loading Day. During the event, City of Falls Church operations staff uses heavy equipment to load open bed vehicles with the City’s highquality leaf mulch. Participants must sign a waiver prior to loading. The leaf mulch is the endproduct of 5,000 cubic yards of leaves vacuumed from city streets in the autumn. Removing and recycling the leaves into mulch provides a far more cost-effective solution than hauling and disposing of them. For more information, visit fallschurchva.gov/429/LeafMulch.
THE ROTARY CLUB OF MCLEAN recently presented a check for $2,000 to the Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center at its weekly meeting. Lynn Heinrichs and Glenn Yarborough of the McLean Rotary Club, Kathy Banks, executive director of the Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center and John McEvilly, president of The Rotary Club of McLean Foundation, stand with the display check at the meeting. (Courtesy Photo)
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Falls Church Author Publishes ‘Life’s A Joke’
Falls Church-based author Dr. J. T. Dock Houk released a new book, Life’s a Joke, on January 4. It is being published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. The book, a collection of jokes, autobiography and personal philosophy, compiles four books – It’s All About Me, My Life with a Girl, Kids and Pets and Life Around Us – recounting 1,162 jokes, funny anecdotes, and descriptions of Sunday morning comics, clippings of which Dock has been collecting for several decades. “What I mean to convey by saying ‘life is a joke’ is that humor has helped me over some of the rough spots by showing me a side of life that either explains what I am feeling, or gives me a glimpse of something I also see,” Houk said in a press release about the book. “Humor, whose visual expression is often a joke, makes me smile or even laugh out loud. And sometimes, if you don’t laugh, you might cry.”
Washington Business Journal Honors F.C.’s Darryl Varnado Falls Church resident Darryl Varnado, executive vice president and chief people officer for the Children’s National Health System, was recently named a Washington Business Journal Minority Business leader. The honor is designated for business leaders and owners in the Washington, D.C. area, who demonstrate drive, creativity and success. Varnado is listed among 25 business leaders in the area and accepted an award on stage on Sunday, Feb. 28 during an honoree event at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. Varnado received this honor for his creative and successful contribu-
tions to the employee population at the Children’s National Health System and his passion for providing employees with the best workplace so they are better able to take care of patients. Most recently, he developed a Paid Parental Leave Policy that offers new families enhanced leave benefits at full salary continuance outside of their standard short-term disability time. “Darryl is truly a champion for Children’s National employees. His push for enhanced family leave benefit options is just one of the many ways in which he puts employees’ needs first,” said Children’s National Health System President and CEO, Kurt Newman, MD. “This award is well deserved, and we are proud to have Darryl leading our workforce strategies.”
Art and Frame of Falls Church Hosts Concert, Classes Art and Frame of Falls Church at 205 W. Jefferson Street is hosting two classes and a concert at the beginning of March. On Saturday, March 5 there will be a Drawing for Cartoonists class for teens at Art and Frame at noon. The class, which will be taught by School of Visual Arts grad Emily Kay Jolkovski, will cover all the drawing skills necessary for cartooning, including perspective, life drawing, anatomy and collecting photo reference. The class costs $30. Later that day Art and Frame is hosting Michael Clem of Eddie from Ohio, who will play a show in support of his new album Fifty Clementines. The doors open for the concert at 7 p.m., the show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets cost $20. On Wednesday, March 9, Art and Frame is hosting a Basic Drawing and Cartooning class for adults at 8 p.m. At that class, Jolkovski will teach different skills
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MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 11
FALLS CHURCH’S OWN Miles Butler (left) is coming back to town this Saturday. The 2010 George Mason High School graduate who’s been in New York City for college and his burgeoning acting career is here on an international tour of the highly acclaimed musical for kids, “Alexander Who’s Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move,” written by local author Judith Viorst. (C������� P����) every week, from basic perspective to building a full, detailed comic page. Adults of all ages and skill levels are welcome. The class costs $30. For more information, visit artandframeoffallschurch.com.
NoVa Community College Hosts Open House March 4 Northern Virginia Community College will showcase its career and technical education programs in the Ernst Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus on Friday, March 4 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Representatives from all the school’s campuses will provide information about many career and technical programs including air conditioning and refrigeration, automotive, construction management, dental hygiene, fire science, hospitality management, massage therapy, music recording, nursing, phlebotomy, photography, veterinary technology, welding and more. There will also be staff mem-
bers available to answer questions about attending Northern Virginia Community College. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Cindy Klink at 703-530-2826 or cklink@nvcc.edu.
McLean Community Center Announces March Events The McLean Community Center recently announced its March schedule of events, which include a production of a popular children’s novel, a trip to Philadelphia and a public hearing on programs. The Alden Theatre production of “Sideways Stories from Wayside School” starts on Saturday, March 5 and runs through the next Sunday, March 13. The show runs on Saturday and Sunday both weekends at 3 p.m. Tickets for the production, which is best for children ages 7 and up, are $10 for McLean Community Center tax district residents and $15 for everyone
else. On Monday, March 7, the McLean Community Center is organizing a trip to the 2016 Philadelphia Flower Show. The event will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Tickets for the trip are $130 for McLean Community Center tax district residents and $135 for everyone else. The cost covers deluxe motor coach transportation, tickets to the flower show, a morning snack and driver’s tip. The McLean Community Center Governing Board will host at Public Hearing on Programs on Wednesday, March 23 at 7 p.m. At the hearing, residents of the Center’s tax district who attend the meeting can voice their opinions on current Center offerings and make suggestions for improving current programs and/or adding new initiatives. For more information or to see the full slate of the McLean Community Center’s March events, visit mcleancenter.org.
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PAGE 12 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
NATI O NA L
The Movement Mentality
It feels like people clumped themselves into intellectual movements more 30 years ago than they do today. There were paleoconservatives and neoconservatives. There were modernists and postmodernists; liberals, realists, and neoliberals; communitarians and liberation theologians; Jungians and Freudians; Straussians and deconstructionists; feminists and post-feminists; Marxists and democratic socialists. Maybe there were even some transcendentalists, existentialists, pragmatists, agrarians and Gnostics floating around. Now people seem less likely to gather in intellectual clumps. Now public thinkers seem to be defined more by their academic discipline or by their topic, than by their philosophic school or a shared vision for transforming society. The forces of individualism that are NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE sweeping through so much of society are also leading to the atomization of intellectual life. Eighty years ago engaged students at City College in New York sat in the cafeteria hour upon hour, debating. The Trotskyites sat in one alcove and the Leninists sat in another, and since the Trostkyites were smarter and won the debates, the leaders of the Leninist faction eventually forbade their cadres from ever talking to them. But today we live in a startup culture. There’s great prestige in being the founder of something, the lone entrepreneur who creates something new. Young people who frequently say they don’t want to work in some large organization are certainly not going to want to subsume themselves in some pre-existing intellectual label. The Internet has changed things, too. Writers used to cluster around magazines that were the hubs of movements. On the Internet, individual posters and tweeters are more distinct, but collectives of thinkers are less common. The odd thing is that it was easier to come to maturity when there were more well-defined philosophical groups. When there was a choice of self-conscious social movements, a young person could try them on like clothing at the mall: be an existentialist one year and then join a Frankfurt School clique the next. This was a structured way to find a philosophy of life, a way of looking at the world, an identity. Eventually you found what fit, made a wager, joined a team and assented to a belief system that was already latent within you. When I joined National Review at age 24 I joined a very self-conscious tradition. I was connected to a history of insight and belief; to Edmund Burke and Whittaker Chambers and James Burnham. I wanted to learn everything I could about that tradition – what I accepted and what I rejected – as a way to figure out what I believed. When you join a movement – whether it is deconstructionist, feminist or Jungian – you join a community, which can sometimes feel like family in ways good and bad. You have a common way of seeing the world, which you want to share with everyone. When you join, people are always pressing books into your hands. Believing becomes an activity. People in movements take stands, mobilize for common causes, hold conferences, fight and factionalize and build solidarity. There are opportunity structures for young people to rise and contribute. First you set out the chairs for the meetings; later you get to lead the meetings. Young people find that none of the mentors is perfect, so they can’t be completely loyal to any particular leader, but they can be loyal to the enterprise as a whole, because it embodies some real truth and is stumbling toward some real good. The whole process arouses the passions. Today universities teach “critical thinking” – to be detached, skeptical and analytic. Movements are marked by emotion – division and solidarity, victory and defeat. There are fervent new converts, and traitors who “break ranks.” There are furious debates over strategy; the future design of society is at stake. There are inevitably love affairs and breakups. People learn ardently, with their hearts. As in any love, there’s an idealistic early phase, then a period of disillusionment, and then, hopefully, a period of longer and more stable commitment to the ideas. The movement shapes one’s inner landscape. It offers a way to clarify the world; a bunch of books to consult if you need to think through some problem. Of course there is often rigidity and groupthink, but people can also be smarter when thinking in groups. For example, movements pool imagination. It’s very hard to come up with a vision so compelling that it can provide a unifying purpose to your life. But such visions emerge in a movement collectively, and then get crystallized by a leader like Martin Luther King. It all depends on taking steps that are less in fashion today: committing to a collective, accepting a label, keeping faith, surrendering self to a tradition that stretches beyond you in time.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
David Brooks
Planet on the Ballot We now have a pretty good idea who will be on the ballot in November: Hillary Clinton, almost surely (after the South Carolina blowout, prediction markets give her a 96 percent probability of securing her party’s nomination), and Donald Trump, with high likelihood (currently 80 percent probability on the markets.) But even if there’s a stunning upset in what’s left of the primaries, we already know very well what will be at stake – namely, the fate of the planet. Why do I say this? Obviously, the partisan divide on environmental policy has been growing ever wider. Just eight years ago the GOP nominated John McCain, whose platNEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE form included a call for a “cap and trade” system – that is, a system that restricts emissions, but allows pollution permits to be bought and sold – to limit greenhouse gases. Since then, however, denial of climate science and opposition to anything that might avert catastrophe have become essential pillars of Republican identity. So the choice in 2016 is starker than ever before. Yet that partisan divide would not, in itself, be enough to make this a truly crucial year. After all, electing a pro-environment president wouldn’t make much difference if he or (much more likely) she weren’t in a position to steer us away from the precipice. And the truth is that given Republican retrogression and the GOP’s near-lock on the House of Representatives, even a blowout Democratic victory this year probably wouldn’t create a political environment in which anything like McCain’s 2008 proposal could pass Congress. But here’s the thing: the next president won’t need to pass comprehensive legislation, or indeed any legislation, to take a big step toward saving the planet. Dramatic progress in energy technology has put us in a position where executive action – action that relies on existing law – can achieve great things. All we need is an administration willing to take that action, and a Supreme Court that won’t stand in its way. And this year’s election will determine whether those conditions hold. Many people, including some who should know better, still seem oddly oblivious to the ongoing revolution in renewable energy. Recently Bill Gates declared, as he has a number of times over the past few years, that we need an “energy miracle” – some
Paul Krugman
kind of amazing technological breakthrough – to contain climate change. But we’ve already had that miracle: the cost of electricity generated by wind and sun has dropped dramatically, while costs of storage, crucial to making renewables fully competitive with conventional energy, are plunging as we speak. The result is that we’re only a few years from a world in which carbon-neutral sources of energy could replace much of our consumption of fossil fuels at quite modest cost. True, Republicans still robotically repeat that any attempt to limit emissions would “destroy the economy.” But at this point such assertions are absurd. As both a technical matter and an economic one, drastic reductions in emissions would, in fact, be quite easy to achieve. All it would take to push us across the line would be moderately pro-environment policies. As a card-carrying economist, I am obliged to say that it would be best if these policies took the form of a comprehensive system like cap and trade or carbon taxes, which would provide incentives to reduce emissions all across the economy. But something like the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would use flexible regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on major emitters, should be enough to get us a long way toward the goal. And as I said, no new legislation would be needed, just a president willing to act and a Supreme Court that won’t stand in that president’s way, sacrificing the planet in the name of conservative ideology. What’s more, the Paris agreement from last year means that if the U.S. moves forward on climate action, much of the world will follow our lead. I don’t know about you, but this situation makes me very nervous. As long as the prospect of effective action on climate seemed remote, sheer despair kept me, and I’m sure many others, comfortably numb – you knew nothing was going to happen, so you just soldiered on. Now, however, salvation is clearly within our grasp, but it remains all too possible that we’ll manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And this is by far the most important issue there is; it, er, trumps even such things as health care, financial reform, and inequality. So I’m going to be hanging on by my fingernails all through this election. No doubt there will be plenty of entertainment along the way, given the freak show taking place on one side of the aisle. But I won’t forget that the stakes this time around are deadly serious. And neither should you.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
NATI O NA L
The GOP & Its Frankenstein
This Super Tuesday, when indeed for all intents and purposes the die was cast for this year’s U.S. presidential election, I was reminded by a friend of a quote from the late great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “History will have to record that the great tragedy of this period of social transformation was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” While the GOP and Democratic front runners – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – extended their leads this Tuesday to the particular and deepening mortified consternation of the Republican establishment and its puppet masters, the real challenge presented by the outcomes was the marked contrast between the levels of turnout by Republican (way up) compared to Democratic (way FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS down) voters. This poses the real challenge for anyone who wants to stop Donald Trump. The biggest mistake about him so far is to consider him to be the problem. No, as distasteful as he is, he’s only the face of the problem. The root of the phenomenon lies with those in the nation’s rank-andfile who are so adamantly backing him. Until this is fully understood and effectively addressed, Donald Trump will not be stopped. He will not be stopped! It’s been shown that none of the other GOP candidates satisfy the hunger, the fear and the anger that is fueling the Trump campaign. Ted Cruz is too ideologically strident and crazy, more dangerous than Trump, actually. Trump backers want promises that they can imagine would satisfy them, not fundamentalist purism. Marco Rubio is too adolescent. Besides, his name ends in a vowel, which is anathema to many of the racist backers of Trump. What a remarkable state of affairs for the GOP! The train is out of the station, and Trump is virtually unstoppable now. He’s the perfect manifestation of Frankenstein’s monster that Mary Shelley wrote about 150 years ago. The GOP and its Wall Street and military industrial complex backers started cobbling together their Frankenstein’s monster years ago, in the summer of 2009, just six months after President Obama was first inaugurated. That was when Dick Armey’s Washington, D.C.-based so-called “Freedom Works” sparked the angry national base of the Republican party which had just lost to the first-ever African-American president in the midst of the GOP-instigated Great Recession. A Wall Street insider only months before had coined the phrase, “Tea Party,” as the title for this fabricated insurrection, which was made real by a combination of the panic that had been set loose in the land with the Crash, and residual and very real racist sentiments. This “grass tops” movement – it did not spontaneously arise from the grass roots, but was orchestrated from the top – was unleashed against Obama’s efforts at health care reform in a wide series of ugly quasiviolent interventions at congressional town hall meetings that summer of 2009. Now, that “Monster of the Id” (remember “Forbidden Planet?”) has evolved to a new level, animated and orchestrated by a man with the dark talent to manipulate it effectively. That man is Donald Trump. The GOP, with all its lying efforts to unleash the worst, most regressive elements of an aging rural white male demographic against Obama, the animating core of this monster, rightfully fears all this which it has created is turning against it and coming back to kill it, and the more it is attacked by the “establishment,” the angrier it becomes. Democrats, who’ve been the victims of this unsavory concoction for the last seven years, could just sit back and smile, watching this monster eat its creator. But there’s a real problem with that, namely that such an untamed force could actually take over the country. The horrifying prospect of this actually happening truly needs to light a fire under anyone who’s against it. Anyone and everyone. The Democrats’ voting numbers were down Tuesday because rather than a real clash, the Clinton-Sanders choice is more between aspects of the party’s identity, not seriously clashing with it. That said, Democrats had better be gearing up for the battle of their lives later this year.
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 13
Nicholas F. Benton
Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.
‘I’m Not a Super Predator’ Days before Hillary Clinton thundered to an overwhelming victory over rival Bernie Sanders in South Carolina, a young, proudly queer, black activist, Ashley Williams, was in Charlotte, North Carolina, plotting an action that would make a statement of its own. She was planning to attend a private Clinton fundraiser in Charleston, South Carolina, and confront the candidate about her support of policies – specifically the 1994 crime bill – that contributed to the explosion of racially tilted mass incarceration in this country. Williams and her friends decided to make a sign – but what to put on it? They toyed with phrases from a now infamous speech Clinton gave in 1996 in which Clinton said: “We need to take these people on. They are often connected to big drug cartels. They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators: no conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.” They settled on a NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE phrase and over a couple of hours they blocked out the letters on a pillowcase. Williams practiced in a bathroom mirror folding the banner into her bra and whipping it out. But it was too thick. So she cut away the back half that had no writing. Perfect. The night of the event, she nervously made her way through security with her secret banner hidden away, and took up position near where she assumed Clinton was to speak. As soon as Clinton descended the stairs of the mansion, took the microphone and began her remarks, Williams turned to the crowd and unfurled her banner. Then she turned to Clinton, who was confronted with her own worst words: “We have to bring them to heel.” On the video of the encounter, recorded by a friend of Williams who accompanied her to the event (After all, in this age, an action without a video is like a tree falling in the forest with nobody around to hear it), an exchange follows: Williams: “We want you to apologize for mass incarceration.” Clinton: “OK, we’ll talk about…” Williams: “I’m not a super predator, Hillary Clinton.” Clinton, obviously caught off guard, struggles to find an appropriate response as Williams continues
Charles M. Blow
to pressure her and the crowd begins to grumble, “That’s inappropriate,” and the Secret Service closes in on Williams. Then Clinton says something about answering for her statement and mass incarceration in general that left me flabbergasted: “You know what, nobody’s ever asked me before. You’re the first person to ask me, and I’m happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me, dear.” Could this be true? How was this possible? How is it that of all the black audiences she has been before in the interceding two decades, and all the black relationships she has cultivated, no one person ever asked her what this young graduate student was asking? In that movement, I knew that the people of my generation had failed the people of Williams’. Her whole life has borne the bruises of what was done, largely by Democrats, when I was the age she is now. She said she has grown up knowing families and whole communities devastated by vanishing black people, swept away into a criminal justice system that pathologized their very personage. That night, Williams forced a reckoning. For it, Williams has been viciously, and I believe, unfairly attacked as a political operative on a hit mission, all of which she denied to me in detail during our phone interview on Saturday. She also said that Sanders was wrong for actually voting for the bill. Perhaps most stinging was Bill Maher, who used an expletive to call protesters like Williams “idiots,” and said: “People need to learn the difference between an imperfect friend and a deadly enemy. You want to tear Hillary Clinton down? Great. Then enjoy President Trump.” But this is a false choice, one too often posed to young activists who insist on holding power accountable. It’s the same argument they hear from the police: Allow us to operate in your communities with impunity and abandon or the criminals will do so to even more devastating effect. Following this line of reasoning, silent absorption of pain and suffering is the only option. I wholly reject that. After the encounter, Clinton said in a statement published by The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart: “Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today.” The statement isn’t really an apology for championing the bill itself, and as such, I find it wanting. But at least Williams’ action provoked a response that many of us who came before her failed to demand. For that, Ashley Williams, and activists like her, should be celebrated for shaming silence.
CO MME NT
PAGE 14 | MARCH 3 - 9, 2016
A Penny for Your Thoughts
News of Greater Falls Church By Supervisor Penny Gross
Budget – Part III: Last week’s joint budget meeting between the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax County School Board was civil, but hardly cordial, as school board members lectured Supervisors about school needs, and Supervisors parried with all the other community needs that also are funded by the county budget – police, fire and rescue, human services, libraries, parks, public works infrastructure, both visible and underground, and many more. A quality public education system is Fairfax County’s highest priority, which is why the Board of Supervisors invests more than half the annual county budget in our school system. We also must ensure that taxes are affordable, another county priority. We must live within our means. Fairfax County is wealthy, but that wealth is based on household income, which is taxed at the state and federal level, not by the county. Nearly all other sources of revenue – cigarette tax, personal property tax, hotel room tax, for example – are controlled or capped by state law, which provides little or no relief for homeowners and taxpayers, or their governing bodies. At the joint budget meeting, school board members pleaded for more than the four-cent tax rate increase recommended by the County Executive, to support the school transfer and provide additional flexibility to address other critical needs. Some said that a dime increase would be preferable. At-Large School Board member Ryan McElveen took Superintendent Karen Garza to task, noting that she had not included all of
the school system’s needs in her budget. If all the more than $300 million in needs were to be met, including providing each student with a computer, he said it would require not one dime, but two dimes! There were no takers for his suggestion. Each additional cent on the tax rate generates about $23 million. For the individual homeowner, that same one-cent increase adds about $53 to their tax bill. On Tuesday, following a vigorous debate, the Board of Supervisors approved my motion to advertise the County Executive’s recommendation of four cents, or $1.13 per $100 valuation. Two other motions had failed: new Supervisor Dan Storck (D-Mt. Vernon), a former school board member, moved a six-cent increase, but his motion garnered only three yes votes. Budget chairman Jeff McKay (D-Lee) had offered the original motion for a five-cent advertisement, which failed on a 5-5 vote. Recognizing the significant split on the Board, as well as our imperative to advertise a tax rate as required by state law, I made a substitute motion to advertise the County Executive’s original recommendation of four cents. That motion passed seven yeas, three nays. The four-cent advertisement permits some flexibility in discussion and decision-making by the community and the board, but will restrict severely the ability to provide additional school funding. A late day maneuver to reconsider the Board’s action failed on a 5-5 vote. Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.
Congressman Beyer’s News Commentary
Economic Growth Through Smart Investments By Donald S. Beyer
Last month, the White House Office of Management and Budget released President Obama’s final budget to fund the government through fiscal year 2017. Funding the federal government is ultimately Congress’ obligation, but the President’s budget serves as an indication of his priorities, what direction he feels the country ought to take. President Obama’s last budget is structured around perhaps the best idea of his presidency: America’s economic growth through smart investments in our future with financial commitments to scientific research, clean energy, infrastructure improvements, and education. It’s a blueprint to a better future that addresses our most important problems while seeking to maintain American economic and military leadership in the 21st century. Specifically, President Obama’s budget invests in: • Fighting Climate Change: funding for research to develop new, clean energy sources, funding to accelerate adoption of clean energy sources, and aid to developing and emerging economies to invest in development that reduces carbon pollution.
• Education: strengthening Pell grants, reforming student loans, funding expanded job training, working towards universal preK, and providing two years of community college tuition to all responsible students. • Health and Scientific Research: the President’s “moonshot” initiative to cure cancer, a new program to fight the prescription drug and opioid overdose epidemic, large increases in funding for scientific and biomedical research at the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and new funding initiatives to help improve mental health. • Infrastructure: funds to repair railways, roads, and bridges, initiatives to protect water supplies, new funds to strengthen federal cybersecurity, increasing dependence on smart-grid infrastructure to increase energy efficiency, funding to spur the development of clean energy infrastructure and construction of renewable energy sources. • Economic Opportunity For All: tax cuts to help cover childcare costs for working families, strengthening and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, funds to encourage states to establish paid leave pro-
grams, modernizing unemployment insurance, increasing access to and portability of retirement programs, directing funding to finally end homelessness by 2020. The President’s vision would accomplish all of this, fund the Overseas Contingency Fund to a level necessary to support a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS, and even achieve $2.9 trillion in debt reduction over alreadyagreed-to spending cuts by making the wealthiest among us shoulder their fair share of the tax burden. I believe that this plan represents both a smart way to grow our economy and the right thing to do to promote fairness, equality, and opportunity for all Americans. Unfortunately House and Senate leadership broke with a decades-long tradition, rejecting the opportunity to hear from Office of Management and Budget Direct Shaun Donovan on President Obama’s budget. All of us have differences of opinion when it comes to solving the problems that face us, but the American people expect Congress to work together to provide solutions. We cannot bridge these divisions when we refuse the opportunity for open debate.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Senator Dick Saslaw’s
Richmond Report We are moving toward adjournment in a rapid stride to the finish. March 12 is the scheduled close of the 2016 General Assembly. Many bills are waiting to be voted on, and the debates continue in committee and on the floor. Reconciling the amendments to the budget bill are the top priority these days. Education Teachers are the frontline of knowledge for Virginia’s children. This year both the Senate and House are committed to giving our educators a long overdue pay raise, even if it comes without a local match. Additionally, we hope to fund these raises in 2016. As I highlighted in this column in January, addressing the skills gap and building a competitive workforce are both crucial for economic development in the state. To that end I’m pleased both the House and Senate versions of the budget focused heavily on funding for K-12 education and industry credentials. Careers are shifting towards technical fields, requiring us to rethink curricula for high school and postsecondary students. We must better prepare students for the multitude of jobs in new and rising industries such as cyber security and advanced manufacturing. Offering alternatives to the workforce apart from the traditional four-year degree should also address some of the escalating student debt that is strangling the next generation. Economic Development The General Assembly has been focused on growing and diversifying the economy. Make no mistake about the urgency of climbing out of the recession and the impact of sequestration on Virginia’s economy. The Port of Virginia, which serves as Virginia’s global gateway through interconnected waterways and railroads, has turned the corner and is once again operating in the black. The Port processed 2.3 million shipping containers in 2014 and remains the only U.S. East Coast port with Congressional authorization for 55-foot depth channels. These two facts alone underscore the need to support the Port with robust funding. Its growth is a positive sign for the Commonwealth and we should
continue to invest in its expansion. Another international gateway in the Commonwealth, Dulles Airport, has suffered a decline in travel and is in danger of losing its status as a major airline hub. To address this potential crisis, the Senate is looking to provide $50 million to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to decrease enplanement costs. This ultimately should reduce prices for the consumer, spur travel demand, and afford Dulles an opportunity to restructure its debt so the airport can offer the best travel experience and the best prices. ID/DD Waivers There are currently more than 10,300 Virginians with intellectual and developmental disabilities on the waiting list for community based care. Virginia is attempting to remedy this problem by reforming the Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and Developmental Disabilities (DD) waiver program. These waivers provide medical and non-medical services for the disabled. However, while the cost of services and equipment has increased, the available funding has remained the same, making it so that ID/DD waivers are not fully supporting those who rely on them. This leaves many Virginians at the mercy of a waiting list that continues to grow and unable to afford the care they need to be able to live at home. The Senate has proposed an amendment that would use the new Individual and Family Support Services waiver to shorten the waiting list and also decrease per person costs. Ultimately, it would begin to cover the costs of those on the waiting list early, which in turn would reduce the need for expensive hospitalization or institutionalization by making payments easier on the family and preventing caregiver burnout. The new waivers would be designed specifically for the needs of the patient and would add more flexibility. Senator Saslaw represents the 35th District in the Virginia State Senate. He may be emailed at district35@senate.virginia. gov.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
SPRING 2016 | PAGE RE-1
Real Estate Spring 2016
F.C. Victorian Society Working to Preserve Heritage of Little City by Matt Delaney
Falls Church News-Press
A power clique had assembled on Oak Street, but they weren’t interested in the power we associate with storied antagonists. For the Victorian Society of Falls Church knowledge is the greatest power of all, as they’re caretakers of the city’s historical lineage and the progressive identity that defines it. An upper-echelon of past and present members chatted in the parlor of the Mount Hope house – Midge Wang, co-founder and program chair; Keith Thurston, another co-founder; former president Linda Lau and current president Terry Hooper; and Gus
Knapp, membership chair. As you might’ve guessed, the group promotes the Victorian Era’s (1837-1901) heritage in Falls Church because of that period’s significance to the area. “The interesting thing about Falls Church is that it grows up in the Victorian Era as a bedroom community for Washington D.C.,” Lau said. “It was after the Civil War that Falls Church really got populated and that was the buildout of Victorian homes,” Thurston added. “The preponderance of the built history of Falls Church is of the Victorian Era and the houses that are here really influenced the houses that were built around them.”
The Victorian Era’s stamp on the community is still visible today as over 90 houses from the period densely populate a 2.2 square-mile radius. Impressive, given that it’s been over a century since the Victorian Era was in full swing, but the Victorian Society of Falls Church wasn’t founded until 1995 – who was shepherding this history before their formation? In short, everyone was. Growth during the Victorian Era gave citizens a sense of belonging to Falls Church and the proud oversight of that growth laid the foundation for the city.
Continued on Page RE-2
THE COOPER-FLAGG HOUSE at 206 E. Jefferson Street was built in 1889. It is a Queen Anne style house with classic lines and a tower to provide light and air circulation. The house has won several awards for its restoration. (Photo: Drew Costley/News-Press)
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R EA L E STATE
PAGE RE-2 | SPRING 2016
Over 90 Victorian-Era Homes Still Stand in Falls Church City
Continued from Page RE-1
“Falls Church is not as transient as the rest of Metro Washington. Our statistics of being born, living and staying here are significantly better,” Thurston said. “Creating a township in the Victorian Era [started] the selfgovernance model [that’s] the centerpiece for [our] community.” “It’s fascinating that we haven’t changed,” Wang added. “If you look around the state there are towns that had a factory…and everything revolved around that business, but when it closed they became ghost towns. Falls Church is exactly what it was then – a community for middle-level exec-
utives of the government. There’s not many places like that.” Today’s residents remain financially invested in the city’s history as Victorian houses usually sell faster and at higher prices than regular homes. And some of the homes have been converted into historical sites or are being used as office buildings. The Cherry Hill Farmhouse, for example, is a historical site used for many of the City’s and Victorian Society’s events throughout the year. Built in 1845, the Cherry Hill Farmhouse is a Greek Revival-Farm House style structure whose deed was held by many different hands before it was given to the City of Falls Church in 1959.
The earliest record the Victorian Society has of the house is that its property was deeded to John Tramwell in 1729. In 1845, William H. Harvey bought the 66-acre farm and built the house, as it stands today. Guided tours of the farmhouse are given Monday – Thursday between 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. and on Saturdays (April – October) from 10 a.m. – noon. Private tours are available for groups of ten or more. Another example is the Everhart-Marshall House, which was built in 1895 by local builder Weston Turner. The EverhartMarshall House is a Greek Revival-Modified Queen Anne style home. Today the building is
THE CHERRY HILL FARMHOUSE was built in 1845 by William H. Harvey. After changing hands several times, the farm house, a Greek Revival-Farm House, was given to the City of Falls Church in 1959. (Photo: Drew Costley/News-Press)
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
THE EVERHART-MARSHALL HOUSE was built in 1895 by local builder Weston Turner. It is a Greek Revival-Modified Queen Anne style home. Today the building is used as office space, housing three separate law offices. (Photo: Drew Costley/News-Press) used as office space. But the preservation of Victorian style homes doesn’t quite do the the Victorian Era justice in the eyes of Society members. The group is known for their imaginative living history programs where members will don period attire to perform civilian Civil War re-enactments or fashion shows. The result is an engaging form of education that rivals the conventional wisdom of historical text. “When you come out and talk to somebody, they may listen and interact, but when you have a group of people dressed correctly in that period it spurs a lot of interest,” Wang said. The popularity of the Society’s programs extend beyond city limits and attract history aficionados from all over the country as a result. “Not everybody in the Victorian Society of Falls Church is from the city,” Lau said. “We reach out to a lot of different areas and we’ve worked closely with [them] and a variety of their events. By doing the liv-
ing history for these events we’ve brought attention to the historical aspects of Falls Church.” While the Victorian Society has been well-received by most of the city’s inhabitants, there is one cloud that lingers in minds of every member: who to entrust their passion among newer generations. “A lot of us are worried that younger people aren’t interested in history,” Thurston said. “They don’t get exposed to history other than the facts they have to memorize in school,” Knapp added. “But when they get a chance to see it, they actually do get interested because it’s something they haven’t really thought about.” Groups founded on reprising the past seem destined to end in the future, but, just like Falls Church, the Victorian Society proves to be dynamic. The Society intended to pay homage to the Victorian Era with their existence, but in reality, their crafty maintenance of a dwindling niche represents Falls Church’s progressive nature better than any re-enactment.
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Open House Sunday March 6, 1-4
SPRING 2016 | PAGE RE-3
Spring is just around the corner – and so are these listings!
Two Falls Church Homes (almost) Ready for You! Coming Soon 2727 Welcome Drive This spacious home sited on a lovely lot in the McLean HS district offers 4BRs 3BAs, recreation room plus a garage. Featuring just refinished hardwood floors, new appliances & professionally painted throughout, it is a house you’ll be proud to call home. On market mid March • Mid $600s
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PAGE RE-4 | SPRING 2016
R EA L E STATE A Falls Church News-Press Advertorial
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
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S���� L������, W������� R������� Susie and her family have lived in Falls Church City for more than 30 years. Her two sons were born and raised here and are “lifers” of the Falls Church City Public Schools, having started at Mt. Daniel in kindergarten and graduated from George Mason High School. During her years in the Little City Susie has been involved in so many Falls Church City activities that her husband refers to her as a “professional volunteer.” She has worked in each of the Falls Church City schools, her church, Capital Caring and local political campaigns. Susie loves being involved and being able to meet so many people in this community and her connections and familiarity with various groups and people make her a great asset to her customers. Susie really believes that Falls Church City is a unique and special place, recommends it as a great place to live and loves to share the reasons why with people who are new to our town and are planning to move here. Susie is honored to work with people who are looking for a new home or making plans to sell their current home. She takes pride in always providing the attention and service her clients deserve.
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T��� M�K�����, K����� W������� Tori McKinney moved to Falls Church City in 1998 and initially owned a concert promotion firm where she worked with New Orleans bands to produce shows throughout the East Coast. In 2005, Tori reentered the real estate industry, having previously enjoyed a 10-year real estate career in the Boston area. Tori brought the ROCK STAR with her, as she promises “ROCK STAR Service” to all of her clients. As a resident of the Little City for nearly two decades, Tori believes a sense of community requires active participation and she leads by example. Tori actively supports: Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, Creative Cauldron/Falls Church Arts, Falls Church Education Foundation, FIRSTFriday/Art-a-Lot, Tinner Hill Blues Festival, and Taste of Falls Church. She also is Vice Chair of the Housing Commission, a member of Business in Education, named Pillar of the Community by the Falls Church Chamber, named one of the Top Producing Real Estate Agents by Washingtonian magazine, and for the 4th consecutive year, has been voted Best Real Estate Agent in the Falls Church News-Press “Best of Falls Church.” As a tireless Falls Church advocate, Tori has helped countless families buy and sell homes over the past 10 years. Tori puts her heart and soul into the Falls Church community and gets so much in return.
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T������ T������, S���� S������� Theresa has a thorough understanding of our local zoning ordinances and state code, regularly putting that knowledge to use for her clients. She helps her clients fully understand all of the rights, privileges and limitations of their property. Improvements and structures are, no doubt, important but they are secondary to the value and potential of the underlying land – particularly in high-dollar areas such as Falls Church. Theresa has a passion for thoughtful infill development and making the most of hidden investment gems in wonderful locations. Theresa Sullivan Twiford, Smith Schnider 4075 Wilson Blvd, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203 307-413-2872 • smithschnider.com
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
R EA L E STATE
SPRING 2016 | PAGE RE-5
F.C. Boasts Stellar Home Value-School Quality Ratio by Patricia Leslie
Falls Church News-Press
Do Falls Church property owners get for what they pay for? In terms of property taxes, school and home values, residents surveyed say yes. Property owners believe the Falls Church schools are well worth the taxes they pay, and home buyers willing to pay the prices, agree. In its 2014 profile of home buyers and sellers, the National Association of Realtors reported that 29 percent of buyers said good schools are deciding factors in their purchasing decisions, and 22 percent said proximity to good schools is important, too. When it comes to national rankings, Falls Church schools are near the top. Of about 13,500 school districts in the U.S. and in a listing of the 100 best districts in the nation, the Falls Church School District ranked 83, reports Niche which has been tracking and analyzing education statistics figures since 2002. Falls Church scored second best school district in the state, after Arlington, which was ranked 44th nationally. (Fairfax County came in at 279 nationally.) Of all public high schools in Virginia, the city’s George Mason High ranked fifth (the same ranking by U.S. News & World Report). Other city schools included in the report were Mary Ellen Henderson Middle, fifth in the state in middle schools, and
Thomas Jefferson Elementary at 17th. Although area home sale prices have been relatively flat recently, latest information from real estate tracking services Trulia and Zillow show home median prices in Falls Church are anything but low. For zip code 22046, prices range from $655,200 – $712,500, and for zip code 22043, $551,000 – $555,000. Long and Foster Real Estate reports the Falls Church median home sales price is $747,000. Like Falls Church resident Joe Muskett said, it’s a matter of “location, location, location,” and to be sure, he threw in another “location.” “This is all about resale, too,” said Muskett, a coach and educator who has lived in the Falls Park neighborhood for 22 years. The Musketts have raised four children here, all grown. While he washed his truck and scrubbed tires in his driveway, Muskett’s grandson scampered around his feet. “People complain that we have high taxes which you can’t deny, but where are you going to find resale values and schools like we have inside the Beltway? Here, it’s as good as it gets.” Falls Church has “great schools and a great community,” but the town is starting to take on some citified airs, Muskett said, an opinion shared by others. Over near the library on a grey day, Robyn Roche was out walking. She and her family have lived in their house off the W & OD Trail for 20 years.
THIS HOUSE AT 407 S. SPRING STREET is located in the same zip code as Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, which is ranked in the top 20 in elementary schools in the state. (Photo: Patricia Leslie/News-Press) “I sometimes pinch myself, I’m so grateful to be here,” Roche said. She’s a chief financial officer for a trade association and has a daughter in the tenth grade at Mason. “Part of the reason we are here is because of the schools, and I understand why taxes are high. “My only concern is the fiduciary responsibility of the folks in the city administration.“
THIS TOWNHOUSE COMMUNITY is located on Haycock Road across the street from George Mason High School, the fifth highest ranked public high school in Virginia, and has two units that are listed for under $600,000. (Photo: Drew Costley/News-Press)
“I wonder if they’re mindful of the amount of money coming in,” and she questions whether “the spirit of the city” is deteriorating. On Parker Street, Gale and Anne Sommers were outside unpacking their car. They think taxes are “reasonable,” but they are also concerned about the city’s growth. Anne Sommers is a parttime office assistant for Falls Church schools who said Thomas Jefferson Elementary is “jam packed.” She is troubled about the many new residents who are moving into rentals, coming for the schools and “squishing three people into a one bedroom apartment.” She said the schools are crowded and becoming more so: “We get calls every day.” “The schools are great,” she said, and her husband agreed. Falls Church taxes are “pretty consistent with what Fairfax and Arlington pay,” Gale Sommers said. When the couple decided to buy a bigger house almost 20 years ago, they couldn’t find anything affordable inside the city, so they added onto their house where they have lived for 37 years and raised their children. Taking down Christmas lights from a tree outside their home on Kent Street were Jon and Mary Sanford who kept a close eye on their son, Henry, 5, a kindergar-
tener at Mt. Daniel Elementary riding his bicycle around on the quiet street. The Sanfords are government employees and she is “happy to pay taxes for good schools. I am fine with taxes,” Mary Sanford said. “I have no complaints about what we have to pay for taxes relative to the kids in the community getting a good education.” Before Henry came along, the Sanfords lived in Alexandria where “the schools aren’t good,” and where their residence was zoned for a school which failed to meet accreditation standards. Eight years ago, the Sanfords “stumbled” upon their house in Falls Church which they bought and remodeled. They knew the house was in a good school district which made moving to Falls Church attractive, especially if they ever decided to have children. Mary Sanford praised Mt. Daniel and the teachers. “The ratio of teachers to kids is fantastic,” she said. Henry’s class has 19 students with a teacher and a paraprofessional. Henry pulled up to the curb on his bike and stopped riding long enough to confirm his mother’s statements. “I couldn’t be happier living here, “said Mary Sanford, “and I couldn’t be happier with [the] school experience so far.” There’s no place like home… and good schools.
R EA L E STATE
PAGE RE-6 | SPRING 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
F.C. Realtor Stacy Hennessey To Be Featured on HGTV by Liz Lizama
Falls Church News-Press
Ranked among the top 10 beaches in the world and the best in Central America, according to TripAdvisor, West Bay Beach in Roatan, Honduras, draws many scuba diving enthusiasts like Falls Church realtor Stacy Hennessey and her son, Ryan. The two travelled to the island to learn how to scuba dive and ended up falling in love with the beautiful beaches and friendly locals. As a realtor, Stacy was immediately interested in purchasing investment property, so the “House Hunters International” film crew followed her along for the journey. “I’m in real estate, so I constantly look at prices,” said Stacy of her decision to search for a vacation home while in Roatan. She connected with an agent in the area who showed her and Ryan homes in West Bay Beach. “I told myself if one comes up in the market within our price range, we’ll do it.” While the first trip proved unsuccessful, Stacy scored a deal when she returned to Roatan for the second time. “They dropped it $100,000 – this one unit,” said Stacy. “It was a no-brainer to be honest because it was affordable. I knew what the rents were per week and that I could make money off it.” Stacy primarily rents the 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom waterfront condo on VRBO.com, a popular vacation rental site, but also works with an on-site management company. In the last few months, she refurnished the home, painted and replaced the countertops. “I think if you’re going to use it as an investment property, you really need to find a good property manager and go that route,”
said Stacy. “For me, I was lucky because I worked with a property manager to find the rental. That way you really learn the market.” She advised prospective buyers to visit VRBO’s website to check on rental prices and calendars to see how often similar units are booked. In addition, she recommended checking on flight schedules and routings. “You have to find out how easy it is to get there, like how many flights are going to the island, because if it’s not many flights, you are going to have a hard time booking your property,” said Stacy. “Put yourself in the shoes of the renter, and it’s all about location,” she added. Noting the high cost of electricity on Roatan Island and a nearby well to supply water to her unit, Stacy also stressed the importance of becoming familiar with the property’s utility sources. Though laws differ in every country, Stacy said Americans can own property in Roatan but cannot take out a mortgage, so purchases must be in cash. Stacy relies on her management company to handle regular cleaning and maintenance of her unit but urges owners not to rely solely on management companies to handle the marketing. “Your pictures – it’s worth spending money on a professional photographer and market it yourself through VRBO,” she said. “You can Airbnb too, it’s popular now.” Stacy and Ryan admitted being nervous to see themselves on television when it airs Mar. 16 on HGTV, but the mom and son duo very much enjoyed the 22 hours of filming for House Hunters International. “It was really fun, and they were incredibly professional,” said Stacy of the HGTV crew.
LOCAL REALTOR STACY HENNESSEY recently bought this home in Roatan to use as a vacation rental. Hennessey’s search for a Roatan property was documented on the HGTV show “House Hunters International.” The house has a waterfront deck, a pool and a hammock for maximum relaxation. Hennessey (center) speaks with potential buyers during an open house in Falls Church in the photo on the right. (Photos: Courtesy of Stacy Hennessey & Liz Lizama/News-Press)
“It was great spending time with Ryan too and doing something completely different.” For Ryan’s part, he was initially less interested with the real estate, but more with scuba diving. “I was enjoying the island for what it was, and when she brought the
up that she was seriously interested in a place, of course I supported,” he said. “Anyone would be supportive of that. Of course I would love to come back here a million times.” The episode begins in Falls Church where Stacy’s daughters,
Rebecca and Taylor, are also featured. Stacy, who recently purchased a four-unit property in Annapolis, Maryland, with plans to rent out for almost double the mortgage, will return to Roatan in the next few weeks to vacation with friends.
presents the 4th Annual
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R EA L E STATE
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Real Estate
SPRING 2016 | PAGE RE-7
Top Falls Church Home Sales
December-February
#1 $1,899,990
#2 $1,760,000
#4 $1,646,105 #3 $1,650,980 Top 5 F.C. Home Sales December 1, 2015 - February 29, 2016 Address BR #1 2154 Crimmins Ln. 6 #2 1218 Ellison St. 6 #3 2143 Crimmins Ln. 6 #4 6519 Manor Ridge Ct. 6 #5 2134 Emilys Ln. 5
FB
6 4 6 6 5
HB 1 2 1 0 1
List Price
$1,899,990 $1,795,000 $1,665,855 $1,646,105 $1,519,900
Sale Price
$1,854,990 $1,760,000 $1,650,980 $1,646,105 $1,499,900
Zip
22043 22046 22043 22043 22043
Date Sold 1/28/16 1/15/16 12/18/15 12/28/15 2/2/16
Source: MRIS, Inc.; Photos: Falls Church News-Press
#5 $1,499,900
R EA L E STATE
PAGE RE- 8 | SPRING 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Falls Church Area Housing Market — 4th Quarter 2015 Report Zip Code
Area
Average Price
Number of Homes Sold
Average Days on Market
22046
Falls Church City
$726,333
48
48
22041
Bailey’s Crossroads
$428,190
69
57
22042
Sleepy Hollow
$489,136
98
47
22043
Pimmit Hills
$701,252
85
50
22044
Lake Barcroft
$467,000
30
57
Home Sales Vs. 1 Year Ago
Home Prices Vs. 1 Year Ago
Change in # of Homes Sold: 4Q ‘15 vs 4Q ‘14
Change in Average Home Price: 4Q ‘15 vs 4Q ‘14
-5.88%
Change in Falls Church City (22046)
+2.46%
Change in Falls Church City (22046)
+27.78%
Change in Bailey’s X-roads (22041)
+19.48%
Change in Bailey’s X-roads (22041)
+5.38%
Change in Sleepy Hollow (22042)
+4.65%
Change in Sleepy Hollow (22042)
+11.84%
Change in Pimmit Hills (22043)
+25.58%
Change in Pimmit Hills (22043)
-3.23%
Change in Lake Barcroft (22044)
-2.52%
Change in Lake Barcroft (22044)
Source: Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. Copyright © 2016 Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
A nyt hing
b ut
S traigh t
GOP = Trump, Trump = GOP It is looking more like Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. This should surprise no one, with this pompous monstrosity the logical conclusion of four decades of divisive Republican rhetoric and bigoted policies. Where else did the delusional party elite think this Frankenstein experiment was headed? This week offered a vivid example of Trump’s extremism. At one rally, he confronted a protester by repeatedly asking if he were a Mexican. At another event, Trump teased the riled crowd while they chanted, “All Lives Matter,” in gleeful defiance of the Black Lives Matter movement. At just the right moment, Trump gave the rabid audience the bloody red meat they so desperately desired when he uttered their racist refrain, thinly disguised as a statement of equality: “All Lives Matter,” Trump disdainfully bellowed. After his Super Tuesday victories, Trump daftly pivoted from offending to pretending. In surreal fashion, he somehow claimed with a straight face that he was a “unifier” who would “expand the Republican Party.” In a sense he is correct, in the span of a week he was lauded by former KKK leader David Duke and extremist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who said he liked Trump because the Jews did not own the sort of selffunded businessman. No doubt Mel Gibson is probably waiting in the wings deciding when to drop a strategically timed endorsement. Equally disingenuous to The Donald Show, is House Speaker Paul Ryan’s pathetic attempt to cast the Republican Party’s values as squarely at odds with the Party’s likely nominee. Looking stern and deeply troubled, Ryan said at a press conference that Trump’s rhetoric was a “fundamental break from conservative orthodoxy. This party does not prey on people’s prejudices.” Who is Paul Ryan kidding? If it weren’t for divisive wedge issues, serial gay bashing, the racist Southern Strategy, attempts to suppress voting rights, and now anger at Mexicans, Muslims, and Black Lives Matter – what would be left of the GOP? Who would vote for them? Half the party apparatus has become metastasized prejudice in search of policy and politicians who are willing to support bigotry under the auspices of opposing political correctness. The other half are the selfish party elite who embraced and enabled the rabble so they could get tax cuts and become even richer. In that sense, the GOP country club establishment literally sold out the future of the Republican Party and by extension America. Still, the double talk and cynicism of Paul Ryan is breathtaking. In the mid-1970’s GOP leaders lavished praise on anti-ERA campaigners like Phyllis Schlafly. In the late part of the decade they endorsed Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and when that hate group deteriorated, they embraced Ralph Reed’s Christian Coalition. In the 1988 presidential race, the Republican Party accepted the nutty televangelist Pat Robertson as a legitimate candidate. In 1992, commentator and known anti-Semite Pat Buchanan spoke of the Culture War at the GOP convention in Houston, while Vice President Dan Quayle bashed Murphy Brown and spoke of “family values.” In the 2000 presidential race, George W. Bush won with voter suppression efforts, particularly in Florida. He won reelection in 2004, in part, by having Karl Rove place nasty, gay bashing ballot infinitives in swing states that constitutionally banned marriage for same-sex couples. John McCain added to the GOP’s decline by offering his vice presidential nomination to Sarah Palin, who talked of her exclusionary “real America.” Let’s also not forget that party elites and the Koch brothers gave rise to the Teabaggers, who brought new level of classlessness and vitriol into the American political system – much of it directed with racial ferocity at President Barack Obama. To paraphrase singer Ani DiFranco – as bad as Trump’s GOP is, it’s actually worse than it seems. In South Carolina, a CBS News exit poll found that 75 percent of Republican voters supported banning Muslims from the United States. A PPP poll found that a third of Trump voters support banning gays and lesbians from the country. Twenty percent said Lincoln shouldn’t have freed the slaves. Vox reports that Matthew MacWilliams, a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst did his dissertation research on authoritarianism. “People who score high in authoritarianism, when they feel threatened, look for strong leaders who promise to take whatever action necessary to protect them from outsiders and prevent the changes they fear,” said the researcher. MacWilliams found that authoritarianism was the most common and predictable trait for those who embraced Trump’s candidacy. The Republican Party is Donald Trump and Donald Trump is the Republican Party. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to dupe you into ignoring more than 40 years of ignoble history.
Wayne Besen
CO MME NT
Our Man in Arlington By Charlie Clark
If you marked last year’s 50th anniversary of the “Sound of Music” movie, you laid eyes on a star who grew up in in Arlington. Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich von Trapp, went on to a continuing career in film, TV and stage as an actor, writer and director. Even before he sang in those disciplined formations with Julie Andrews, the child actor had performed in the “Lord of the Flies” film. He would go on as a TV regular in “Gunsmoke,” the late 1970s version of “Spiderman” and “Dallas.” When I reached him by email at his eight-acre spread in Sydney, Australia, Hammond was happy to recall his formative years attending Arlington’s Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown schools. “I loved growing up there, in a much simpler time,” he said, recalling homes first on N. 28th Street and then Albemarle. “My brother and I had paper routes” for the Washington Post and the Evening Star. “Your parents thought nothing of kids going off on their bikes pre-dawn and throwing papers onto front-door steps. We’d play ball, or go on our bikes or explore the woods. It all seemed very safe.” Hammond’s first theatrical experience was playing a rabbit in “Hansel and Gretel” at a school in Maryland, followed by narrating a Thanksgiving pageant. “My brother and I staged mixed-media
performances at our home, which always seemed to end with putting kids in the wheelbarrow and taking them on a thrill ride,” he said. At Jamestown Elementary School, he performed in “Stuart Little.” (His classmate, Steve Lay, now a consultant in Falls Church, recalls going to Hammond’s home to rehearse and how his friend “Nicky,” as the years went by, would regularly go away to act and then return in a new grade.) At Williamsburg Jr. High, Hammond acted in “The Mouse That Roared.” An influential teacher Hammond remembers was his sixth-grade instructor “Miss [Lois] Rettie.” She was likely responsible for the warm good-luck card signed by classmates Hammond received when he arrived in Puerto Rico to film “Lord of the Flies,” a 10-week commitment that caused him to miss graduation. Like any Arlingtonian of the period, Hammond has memories of Robertson’s Five and Dime, Nachman’s bicycle store and “Saturday matinees at the Glebe movie theater, probably where I saw my first movie, `The Wizard of Oz.’ The witch throwing the fireballs was too much for a fouryear-old,” he said, “and I ran up the aisle to the lobby where my brother fixed the problem with a grape soda.” Hammond attended Yorktown High (class of 1967) for a year before transferring to Bethesda’s Landon School, where his father taught. Then at 17 it was off to
C i t y o f Fa l l s C h u r c h
CRIME REPORT Week of Feb. 22 - 28, 2016 Petit Larceny, 1115 W. Broad St. (Perfect Detail) On Feb. 22, a male, 21, of Falls Church, was arrested for Petit Larceny. Smoking Violation, 6757 Wilson Blvd. #16 (Le Mirage Café) On Feb. 22, a male, 53, of Falls Church, was cited for Smoking In a Non-Designated Area. Driving Under the Influence, 300 block Shirley St. On Feb. 24, a male, 40, of Falls Church, was arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Larceny from Building, 1000 block N. Roosevelt St. On Feb. 24, trash receptacles were reported stolen. Larceny from Building, 900 block S. Washington St. On Feb. 25, cash was reported stolen from an unattended
wallet. Larceny from Vehicle, 100 block W. Broad St. On Feb. 25, a car window was smashed and a wallet was stolen from the victim’s vehicle. Narcotics Violation, 7124 Leesburg Pike (George Mason High School) On Feb. 25, a 14 year-old male, of the City of Falls Church, was arrested and released on summons for Possession of Marijuana. Larceny from Building, 905 Park
MARCH 3 - 9, 2016 | PAGE 23 Princeton and a career in the limelight. Hammond returns to Arlington once or twice a year. His mother lives near Rock Creek Park and his brother across the Potomac in the Palisades. The anniversary of “Sound of Music” kept Hammond busy with greetings from old friends and cast mates. “I have done appearances for Twentieth Century Fox and Rodgers and Hammerstein in Hollywood, Salzburg and Sydney,” he said. He paired up with Andrews for a southern hemisphere tour that included showings of home movies his mother took on the set. “I’m doing a Rogers and Hammerstein concert with the symphony here in June,” he said. “So we’re not done yet.” *** Which of you longtime locals remembers the Twin Bridges Marriott? It stood off the George Washington Parkway at the gate to Crystal City from 1957-1990, the first hotel in what would become the international Marriott lodging empire. I recall it mostly as the site of my Yorktown High School senior prom, June 1971. But around the country, the landmark goes down as the place where musician Lowell George died of a heroin overdose, June 29, 1979. His band “Little Feat” had just performed at Lisner Auditorium. When I hear anyone perform George’s song “Willin’,” which came out around the time of my prom, I picture the old Twin Bridges, for baby-boomers an Arlington fixture. Ave. (St. James Church) On Feb. 26, a jacket was reported stolen. Smoking Violation, 6763 Wilson Blvd. #9 (Café Tien) On Feb. 27, a male, of Arlington, was cited for Smoking in a Non-Designated Area. Narcotics Violation, 100 block Little Falls St. On Feb. 28, a male 24, of College Park, MD, was arrested and released on summons for Possession of Marijuana. Driving Under the Influence, 400 block W. Broad St. On Feb. 28, a female, 22, of Alexandria, was arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Larceny from Vehicle, 300 block Gundry Dr. On Feb. 28, personal items were reported stolen from an unlocked vehicle.
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PAGE 24 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
Community Events
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Early Literacy Center. Explore educational and manipulative items to teach early literacy through play on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday every week. This program is for ages birth to 5 years. No registration required. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 11 a.m. – noon. & 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. 703-248-5034. Spanish Language Storytime with Communikids. Children ages 2 – 5 can drop-in for Spanish storytime with Communikids. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 3 – 3:30 p.m. 703-248-5034. Thursday Evening Book Group. The Thursday Evening Book Group will be discussing A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
1-on-1 Computer Tutoring. Receive personalized assistance using computers, Internet and e-books. Registration required. To schedule an appointment, stop by the reference desk or call 703-2485035. Mary Riley Styles Public
Send community event submissions to the News-Press by e-mail at calendar@fcnp. com; fax 703-342-0347; or by regular mail to 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
Library’s Conference Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10 a.m. – noon. 703-2485035.
SATURDAY, MARCH 5
F.C. Farmers’ Market. Vendors offer fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables, cheeses, meats, baked goods, plants, and wine. City Hall Parking Lot (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). Free. 9 a.m. – noon. 703248-5077. NoVa Teen Book Festival. More than 20 authors wil take in the third annual NoVa Teen Book Festival featuring author panels and breakout sessions throughout the day. The event will feature a keynote speech from bestselling teen author Holly Black. Washington-Lee High School (1301 N. Stafford St., Arlington). Free. 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. novateenbookfestival.com. Concert. Choralis’s chamber choir, Echos, presents “At One with Creation and Creator” – music spanning centuries and continents. The Falls Church Episcopal (115 E. Fairfax St., Falls Church). Free – $50. choralis.org.
SUNDAY, MARCH 6
“Extreme Realities” Film Screening & Panel Discussion. The League of Women Voters of Falls
&
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Church is hosting a screening of “Extreme Realities,” with a panel discussion to follow. Proceeds will benefit local voter service activities. George Mason High School (7124 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). $15 – $35 in advance; $40 day of the event. 3 p.m. lwvfallschurch.org. Syrian Relief Benefit Concert. Enjoy the beautiful music by local musicians while helping children in need. Performers include Arlington Children’s Chorus, a vocal duet from Classical FX (Washington National Opera chorus members), pianist Sejoon Park and more. All proceeds will go for the relief of Syria’s refugee children.Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church (3241 Brush Dr., Falls Church). Free; donations will be accepted. 4 p.m. saintpatricks.us.
MONDAY, MARCH 7
Preschool Storytime. Stories, finger plays and songs for children ages 2 – 5 on Monday and Thursday every week. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10:30 – 11 a.m. & 3 – 3:30 p.m. 703-248-5034. Rain Barrel Gardening. Lily Whitesell, Watershed Specialist, Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, will give a
talk about rain barrel gardening at the Falls Church Garden Club’s monthly meeting. American Legion Post 130 (400 N. Oak St., Falls Church). Free. 7:30 p.m. 703533-1945.
TUESDAY, MARCH 8
Senior Books Discussion. A general book discussion geared toward seniors. The book being discussed at this session is The Lady in Gold by Anne-Marie O’Connor. Open to all. No registration required. Mary Riley Styles Public Library Conference Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. 703-248-5030. Preschool Storytime. Songs, movement, and stories for ages 18-36 months. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave. Falls Church). 10:30 – 11:15 a.m. 703248-5034.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9
1-on-1 Computer Tutoring. Receive personalized assistance using computers, Internet and e-books. Registration required. To schedule an appointment, stop by the reference desk or call 703-248-5035. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Conference Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 2 – 4 p.m. 703248-5035.
Theater Fine Arts THURSDAY, MARCH 3
“Constellations.” On paper, the romance between Marianne and Roland seems improbable, if not impossible: she’s a theoretical physicist; he’s a beekeeper. If there were only one universe, they might not be together. But in a quantum multiverse, unlimited versions of their relationship can unfold. Written by Nick Payne, one of Britain’s most innovative playwrights, “Constellations” plays with choice and chance, and charts the limitless possibilities of one relationship. Through March 6. Studio Theatre (1501 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20 – $50. 8 p.m. studiotheatre.org.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
“Road Show.” Based on the real-life Mizner siblings, “Road Show” follows the dreamer and
the schemer’s quest for the ever elusive, shapeshifting American dream. From the Klondike gold rush to India, Hawaii, Guatemala, New York and �inally the real-estate boom of Florida’s Boca Raton, the dazzling pace scours not only the map, but also forty years of boom-and-bust and brotherly love (or hate). Through March 13. Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington). $40 – $97. 8 p.m. sigtheatre.org
SATURDAY, MARCH 5
“The Dancing Princess.” A group of princesses, each more beautiful than the last, are locked in their room each night, but in the morning, their dancing shoes are completely worn through as if they had been dancing all night! Join Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theater Ensemble as a young knight attempts to �ind out the princesses’ secret in a musical adaptation of this
classic Grimm tale. Through March 20. ArtSpace Falls Church (410 S. Maple St., Falls Church). $14 – $16. 7:30 p.m. creativecauldron.org.
“Alexander Who’s Not Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move.” Falls Church’s own Miles Butler is part of the cast of this performance of the highly acclaimed book by local author Judith Viorst. Alexander has just received some really bad news. His dad has taken a job in a new city, which means that he and his family are moving. Alexander already knows that he’ll hate it, so he decides that he won’t move. But, with a little help from his family, he learns that home is “where your family is, where you’re with the people who love you best of all.” One day only. The Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center (51 Mannakee St., Rockville). $4 – $7. 11 a.m. montgomerycollege.edu/departments/ reppac.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
CA L E NDA R
live_music&nightlife THURSDAY, MARCH 3 Q C������. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $22.50 – $29. 6 p.m. 703-255-1566. P�� G���� � R���� R����� B��� ���� W��� B����. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $40. 7 p.m. 202-265-0930. W� W��� P������ ���� M� � K���� ��� C���� P������. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $10 (Backstage). 7:30 p.m. 202-6677960. I������������ G����� N���� ��������� B���� G���, L��� R��������, M��� D���� ��� A���� K������. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $25 – $27. 8 p.m. 703-2551900. B�������� R������ ��������� R�� H������� ���� T�� C���� T������� B���. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $12. 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. B������ R�����. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). 9:30 p.m. 703-237-8333.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
S���� F������. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $20 – $25. 6 p.m. 703-255-1566. A����� A�����. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington St., Falls Church). 6 p.m. 703-532-9283. B���� C�����. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). $12 in advance; $15 day of the show. 7 p.m. 703-237-0300.
T�� A�������� R�����. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $22 in advance; $25 day of the show. 8 p.m. 703-255-1900. D����-B� T�������. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $35. 8 p.m. 202-265-0930. T�� W����� S��� �� ��� 21�� C������ ��������� M������� D���� L�����, J����� S���� M�������, M�������� A���� N� ��� D��������. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $12 in advance; $15 day of the show (Backstage). 9 p.m. 202-667-7960. T����� R����� ���� B���� D�� P����. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 9 p.m. 703-522-8340. 1958: A D���� P���� ��������� ��� ����� ��� ������ �� P�����, M������ ��� M������ J������. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $10 in advance; $12 day of the show (Mainstage). 9:30 p.m. 202-667-7960. T�� L���� L��� S��� ��������� D����� M�������, TJ F�������, K�������� J�����, D���� M����, N������ M�G��� ��� J��� K������. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $5 in advance; $8 day of the show. 10 p.m. 703-255-1566. JMM. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). 10 p.m. 703-2378333.
SATURDAY, MARCH 5
A����� O’D��. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington St., Falls
Church). 6 p.m. 703-532-9283. L��� � M�������� ���� S������ H�����. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15 in advance; $18 day of the show. 6:30 p.m. 703-2551566. C���� S�������. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $25 – $27. 7:30 p.m. 703-255-1900. 90� N���� ���� DJ S��� R��. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St., Falls Church). Free until 10 p.m.; $5 after 10 p.m. 8 p.m. 703-237-0300. B������ ��� S��������� C�������� C����� F��������� ��������� 51 P��, P������� P�������, M��� R���� ��� F���� H���. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. A������ D����� ���� J��� S��������. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $15 (Mainstage). 9 p.m. 202-667-7960. I����������. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). 10 p.m. 703-237-8333.
SUNDAY, MARCH 6
S���� Y�����: C��������, W��� ��� S���. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15. 1:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. M������ �� ��� P����������� O��������. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $35. 3 p.m. 703-2551900. S��� � M���� ���� B���� D����. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $12 – $20. 6 p.m. 703-2551566.
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 25
R� R� R��� ���� S�� C��� ���� PWR BTTM. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $22. 7 p.m. 202265-0930. A������ P����. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 8 p.m. 703-522-8340.
MONDAY, MARCH 7
C���� ���� S������� ��� D�. R�������’� F�����. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 – $15 in advance; $13 – $15 day of the show. 6:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. D����� P���� ���� C��������. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $10 (Backstage). 7:30 p.m. 202-667-7960. I�� U�� N������ ���� T����, E���������� ��� DJ S�� S���. Iota Club and Café (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 8 p.m. 703-522-8340.
TUESDAY, MARCH 8
C���� C����� B��� ���� N� B����, A������� H���� ��� Y���� H����. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 – $15 in advance; $13 – $15 day of the show. 6:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. R�� C���’� G����� P���� ���� P���. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $12 (Backstage). 9:30 p.m. 202-667-7960.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9
OWEL ���� B����� ��� P����� I��’� S��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $12 – $20 in advance; $15 – $20 day of the show. 6 p.m. 703-255-1566.
P������� A����... Saturday, March 12 – Celtic Music Concert. Musicians will perform on fiddle, banjo, guitar, bouzouki and bodhran in the intimate atmosphere of the Cherry
Hill Farmhouse parlor. Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave., Falls Church). $15 in advance; $20 at the door. 8 – 10 p.m. 703-248-5027.
Thursday, March 17 – Author Talk. The Washington Post national baseball correspondent Barry Svrulga will celebrate the paperback release of The Grind:
Inside Baseball’s Endless Season. One More Page Books (2200 N. Westmoreland St. #101, Arlington). Free. 7 p.m. onemorepagebooks.com.
Saturday, March 26 – Easter Egg Hunt. Join the City of Falls Church Recreation and Parks Department for this annual family celebration. Children dressed in
their spring finest can hunt for candy and special eggs in Cherry Hill Park and have their photo taken with the Easter Bunny! Please bring a basket – the City will supply the candy, fun and happy springtime memories. Children ages 11 and under can participate in a make-your-own-candy-bag craft project. Cherry Hill Park (312 Park Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10 a.m. – noon. fallschurchva.gov/Easter.
C������� S���������� Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information. Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.
Email: calendar@fcnp.com | Fax: 703-342-0347; Attn: FCNP Calendar Mail: Falls Church News-Press, Attn: Calendar, 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046
PAGE 26 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
FO O D &D I NI NG
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 27
Bangkok 54 Offers Delicious Dining, Hip Atmosphere
BY DREW COSTLEY
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
Bangkok 54 is one of the coolest restaurants in Arlington’s upscaling Columbia Pike corridor, but it has been open for much longer than the developers and gentrifiers have been transforming the area. Whereas Rincome Thai Restaurant, which is across the street from Bangkok 54, is homey and familial, Bangkok 54 is hip and cool.
Bangkok 54
2919 Columbia Pike Arlington 703-521-4070 Hours: Sunday - Thursday: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Friday & Saturday: 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. Still, on a weekday lunch shift earlier this week, patrons of all walks gathered to dine on the restaurant’s tasty Thai treats. There were young professionals, Arlington County employees, older folks all grubbing out in Bangkok 54’s frilly dining room. There are tasteful decorations hanging from ceilings and
gold statues sitting in the windows. The overall vibe is more downtown than suburb, but that brings a diverse flavor to the Columbia Pike corridor. Also, the storefront is unassuming, so it still fits in with the look of the rest of the commercial space it’s surrounded by. First of all, the Bangkok 54 has a great weekday lunch deal, with 12 entrees to choose from, each of which cost $7.95. It’s in the price range of fast casual restaurants like Chipotle, but the quality of the food and ingredients is much higher because it’s an actual restaurant, not a fast food spot. And if you don’t have time for a long lunch, no need to worry – the wait staff at Bangkok 54 is attentive and courteous and the food is prepared and delivered to the table quickly. The food doesn’t suffer because of the speed of the service at Bangkok 54. The dishes have great presentation. And they’re tasty, too. Among the winners that you can’t get just anywhere are the Thai Curry Puffs ($6.95) on the appetizer menu. With deep-fried breaded pouches filled with potatoes in curry spices, the Thai Curry Puffs are a delicious starter. The dish comes with a sweet, light sauce with jalapenos and cucumbers to
perfectly complement the puffs. There are nearly 50 entrees to choose from at Bangkok 54 and there is a vegetarian menu with 11 dishes to choose from. One of my favorites on the vegetarian menu is the Red Curry Jae ($11.95), which consists of fried tofu, Thai eggplant and mixed vegetables in a red curry sauce with sweet basil. The dish is a dreamy marriage of savory and spicy, with enough kick for the heat lover. Most recently, I tried the ChiliBasil Fried Rice ($10.95 – $14.95) and was pleasantly surprised. Fried rice usually reads as pedestrian to me, but because the dish included two of my favorite ingredients, chili and basil, I decided to give it a try. Bell peppers, onions and fresh basil, mixed with your protein of choice, stir-fried with fiery chili basil sauce, the dish is subtle, but flavorful. There is an active schism in my group of friends, mostly Arlington natives, over which Thai spot – Rincome or Bangkok – is the best on the block. Although Rincome Thai Restaurant is my favorite of the two Thai eateries that share the same neighborhood, Bangkok 54 is a great date night spot, or somewhere to go if you want to make a good first impression.
THE THAI ICED COFFEE AT BANGKOK 54 is sweet and fullbodied. It’s among the best in the region. (P����: D��� C������/ N���-P����)
Monday - Thursday Join us for Happy Hour
703-534-4200 6641 Arlington Boulevard, Falls Church Va 22042
www.FDBEATERY.com
(4:30 - 6:00 pm) 1/2 price house wine by the glass all tap beer and select appetizers (not to be combined with other promotions)
Tuesday Night
(after 6:30 pm) 1/2 price all bottled wine
Wednesday Night
We appreciate those who serve! Military Appreciation Night
(after 6:00 pm) 20% off your dine-in check (with your active military ID or active DOD ID)
Thursday Night
The Iconic Frozen Dairy Bar, a fixture in the Falls Church area since 1950 is still very much a part of our business.
March 10, March 24 and April 7 Acoustic Thursday at FDB with Wires and Wood The Gravel Road Duo
Sunday Brunch 9:30 am - 2:00 pm
SPO RTS
PAGE 28 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Mustangs Ready for Attempt at State Championship Continued from Page 1
historic 28-0 season with a state title in a two weeks. Expecting them to be fazed by the challenge would be a mistake. “We’re ready,” senior forward Robert Tartt said, before he jokingly backtracked out of superstition. “We’re gonna have a good chance this year.” A “good chance” might be an understatement. The Mustangs, victories cover a spectrum of results, ranging from utter dominance to surprise contenders, and have kept the players honest on the court. The 2A Region East tournament was no different. After fending off a late rally by Bruton High School to clinch a 68-63 win on Thursday, Feb. 25, the Mustangs pummeled Bluestone High School in the tournament final 69-42 on Saturday, Feb. 27. Bruton nipped at Mason’s heels all night. Going into halftime tied at 28 apiece, the Mustangs jumped ahead by eight to end the third quarter up 49-41, but Bruton’s fire was yet to be doused. The Black Panthers outscored Mason 22-19 in a frenetic final frame though they failed to eclipse the Mustangs’ lead. Saturday’s final was anything but exciting. Bluestone took the lead on one occasion – their first bucket on their first offensive possession – but failed to make the game interesting from then on. Mason ended the first quarter up 20-13 and built on their lead to enter halftime 39-27. Bluestone
had success from beyond the arc to start but lost their edge when confronted by Mason’s amorphous zone defense. The Mustangs outscored Bluestone 30-15 in the second half, seizing a comfortable enough lead that starters were pulled with minutes remaining to give reserves some playing time. A sound approach to the game complemented by an awareness of their opponent’s flimsy morale made the Region final an easy, if not weird, way to go out on top. “Game plan was perfect. They had no answers for us inside and once we went zone they were completely finished,” head coach Chris Capannola said. “I figured it’d be nip-and-tuck the whole way because this is regional hardware you’re playing for [but] they seemed very ‘out of it.’ That’s not our fault, we gotta step on the gas on a team like that.” Tartt was less perplexed when reflecting on the surprise absence of a competitive game last Saturday. “A little [shocked] in the beginning, but then it just felt normal because we’ve done this to a lot of teams. We work harder than all the teams we’ve played so far, and that really helped [against Bluestone],” Tartt said. It’s cliché to say, but with the state tournament matchup against Graham, everything that’s happened before this weekend’s game is null and void. Thankfully Graham provides a soft entry into the tournament
MASON SENIOR ROBERT TARTT goes for two against Prince Edward County during the Region 2A East tournament. He recently broke the school’s career scoring record for boys basketball. (Photo: Drew Costley/News-Press) for Mason. Going 17-6 on their season, they’re tied with Bruton for the worst record among state tourney entrants. Furthermore, the team has been slumping with two consecutive losses to other tourney teams, Gate City High School and Dan River High School. These are all good signs for Mason, but by no means are guarantees. The Mustangs received their toughest postseason test against Bruton, proving records only determine seeding – not
results – in tournaments. Room for error is slim against Virginia’s best and win-or-go-home situations add another layer of pressure for Mason, who’ve already placed the onus upon themselves to be state champs. But this Mason team may a notch above the title contenders of old. Their depth is unmatched, employing an eight-man rotation that can outlast and outplay contenders in all phases of the game. This year’s legendary win-streak
surpassed their previous season’s 23-1 start that had Falls Church in an uproar. And while three games stand between them and their coveted goal, the team has never lost sight of what got them here. “Some of the things it looks like we’re running a special play [but] we’re not, it’s just basketball,” Capannola said. “They know each other so well it looks good [and] they just love to play and love to compete.”
George Mason HS Scholastic Bowl Team Places 3rd at VHSL Tourney
by Jessie Beddow
Falls Church News-Press
Months of preparation and hard work led up to Saturday, February 27, when seven eager students headed to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg to attend the annual Scholastic Bowl State Tournament. The Mustangs’ Scholastic Bowl team came in third place in the state for group 2A. In the first round, they lost to 2A West Region champions, and eventual state champions, Central-Wise 245-165. This set up a rematch from the Region final against East Region champions Maggie Walker. The rematch was a much closer
game, as the Mustangs led after the first tossup round, fell behind in the team round, and had a comeback in the tossup round that fell just short as Maggie Walker prevailed 205-185. This loss set the Mustangs up against West Region runner-up Tazewell to decide who would take third place, and Mason jumped out to a big lead in the opening tossup round and then coasted to a 230-155 win. “We didn’t win all of the games we played but the ones we lost were still really competitive and we managed to get a really close game going against Maggie Walker, which is our biggest rival,” said junior
Scholastic Bowl team member Annie Parnell. The Mustangs had very balanced scoring with all four starters taking multiple tossups, led by junior Jimmy Ferguson, followed closely by fellow juniors Annie Parnell and Joseph Snitzer and senior Cole Casteel. The season started out with apprehension due to losing five seniors who helped lead the team in the past. “Throughout this year we have really been focusing on rebuilding the team and getting more people interested in carrying it out,” said Parnell. The State Tournament demonstrated the team’s persever-
GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOL’S Scholastic Bowl team went 19-4 this season, took the Bull Run District title, won the Conference 35 title and placed second in the Region 2A East tournament. (Photo: Courtesy of FCCPS Photo/Ty Bird) ance and success after having to rebuild the team. “Third place in the state was a great result for a team that graduated five seniors last year, and so started this year with very little experience,” said Jamie Sharff, a social studies teacher at Mason
and the Scholastic Bowl team head coach. The team had a successful 19-4 record this season and collected the Bull Run District title, the Conference 35 title and came in second in 2A East Region competition.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
A RTS&E NTE RTA I NME NT
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 29
March
4
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Frida
Drive-By Truckers 9:30 8 p.m. 815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.
202-265-0930 • 930.com
6
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Sund
Ra Ra Riot with Sun Club 9:30 7 p.m. 815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.
202-265-0930 • 930.com
Anthony Pirog Iota Club and Café 8 p.m. 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington
703-522-8340 • iotaclubandcafe.com
7
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BY DREW COSTLEY
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
Singer/songwriter Amelia White’s new album Home Sweet Hotel talks about the ups and downs of life on the road for a touring musician. But White, who was born in Arlington and lived there for 13 years during her childhood, will soon be returning to a place she calls home. “I was born in Arlington, Virginia and my parents are native Virginians, so I love Virginia,” said White, who now lives in Nashville. “It’s my home. It’s sort of where it all started for me.” White is coming back to Virginia for a performance at Jammin’ Java on Tuesday, March 15 to support her new album, which was released in early February. Although Home Sweet Hotel is actually leading her back to one of the places she grew up, White started writing the album in a Days Inn in Allentown, Pa. “The album is about the double life that touring musicians lead,” White said. “We kind of have this life where we have to make the road your home and it’s a completely different life. AMELIA WHITE. (P����: S����� H������) And if you’re lucky you have a life at home. White said that, despite the less glamorous “So it’s kind of like something the album explores in depth. It’s not a shallow picturing aspects of being a touring musician, she has to of it, but how that feels from the inside and share the gift of music with people. “The way I look at it is that it’s your duty to then coming home to love.” She gave an example of the ups and downs share it with people whether it’s ten people or she’s experienced as a touring musician from one 10,000,” White said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do, so just do it and shut up.” of the last times she was in Northern Virginia. The feedback that White has gotten for “It’s fresh in my mind. I was opening for Brandy Clark at The Birchmere,” White said. what she shared of her life on Home Sweet “And then the next night I was playing a really Hotel has been positive. Several publications crappy house concert where there were like eight in Europe and the United States have written people and the hosts were asking me to help great reviews of the album, her first since she released Old Postcard in 2014. move the furniture and get ready for the show. “I’m excited. I really feel like it’s prob“I mean it always looks like you’re doing really well to other people, but honestly some- ably my strongest album [in] a while,” White times you’re duct taping the tire to the car. It’s said. “Somebody mentioned that it tops my a strange life. It’s strange and it can be really last strongest album, which was Black Dove great. I don’t want to paint too bad of picture of in 2006, just as a whole piece of work. So I’m excited. It seems like people are digging it.” it because obviously I love it.”
According to White, the title track on the album was the one she started writing in the Days Inn in Pennsylvania and it’s pretty much a completely true account of what was going on that day, even down to the spicy chicken that’s mentioned on the song. She said that she was feeling kind of dark when she wrote that song. “You know, it can be calling strange hotels your home for about a third or half of the year,” White said. “You get a strange disconnected feeling from life. “And it’s interesting, you know the feeling you get when you’re flying on a plane – what are you and who are you? There’s a strange lack of identity that you feel, but definitely not when I’m on stage. That’s the one thing that keeps me solid.” • For more information about Amelia White, visit ameliawhite.com.
Dougie Poole Black Cat 7:30 p.m.
These singles whet the appetites of the FCNP editorial team this week: Nicholas Benton – I’ll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday
1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.
202-667-7960 • blackcatdc.com
Jody Fellows – Timber by Pitbull
Drew Costley – Funky Broadway by Dyke & the Blazers
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
School News & Notes
GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOL senior class president Carolyn Worley (center, wearing scarf) stands with her Early Childhood Education class and students at the Arlington Career Center. The Arlington Career Center offers vocational, technical, academic and enrichment programs for high school, middle school and elementary school students. (Courtesy Photo)
ZACH ELLIS (LEFT) AND MARY CATHERINE DONOVAN were named Mr. and Mrs. Mason last Friday, Feb. 26. As part of their duties to their respective crowns, they will ride in the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade later this year. (Photo: Carol Sly)
F.C. Residents Earn Academic Honors Across the Nation Several Falls Church residents recently earned academic honors from colleges, universities and other academic institutions across the nation. Ashley Alexander made the dean’s list at Elon University, where students must earn at least a 3.5 grade point average with no grade lower than a B- to make the list. Diane Arnos, Fabio Vera Crespo, Rachel Frenkel and Michele De Mars made the dean’s list at Tufts University, where students must earn at least a 3.4 grade point average to make the list. Paige Blackford was named to the dean’s list at Paul Smith’s College. Matthew Charles Brehm, Augusta Jumana Charters, Morgan Elizabeth Eldred, Meghan Nicole Enzinna, Amanda Michelle Meszaros and Addison Marie Oliver made the dean’s list at Longwood University, where students must earn at least a 3.5 grade point average to make the list. Camila Simons made the dean’s list at Northeastern University, where students must earn at least a 3.5 grade point average to make the list.
Longfellow Students Compete In National Science Bowl Students from Longfellow Middle School are competing in
the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s National Science Bowl regional competition on Saturday, March 5 at the Jefferson Lab, located at 12000 Jefferson Ave., Newport News. The National Science Bowl is a nationwide academic competition that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science and mathematics. Middle and high school student teams from diverse backgrounds are comprised of four students, one alternate and a teacher who serves as an advisor and coach. These teams face off in a fast-paced question-and-answer format, being tested on a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, Earth science, physics, energy and math. The team from Longfellow will be competing against 20 teams from across the state for a chance to compete at the national level during the Science Bowl, which will be held from April 28 – May 2 in Washington, D.C. The winner of the national competition will win prizes for the team members and their schools. Among the prizes up for grabs at the national competition are adventure trips to Alaska and national parks across the country to learn first-hand about science in the field, as well as trophies, medals and supplies for their schools’ science departments.
Falls Church’s Sandy Hoang Receives Research Grant Falls Church resident Sandy Hoang is among a group of University of Virginia students who have received a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award for projects they will execute this summer, according to a press release sent out by the university. Hoang, a third year biology and art history major, will be researching the spatial orientation of stem cell division linked to the timing of neural stem cell elimination, which ultimately controls brain development. “The Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in a core purpose of the University by creating and advancing new knowledge,” said Brian Cullaty, director of undergraduate research opportunities at University of Virginia’s Center for Undergraduate Excellence. “The program aspires for these student-faculty collaborations to make an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.”
based approach to learning and discovery through science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. More than 300 students and parents came to campus to take part in fun, interactive STEAM-based challenges such as building the tallest spaghetti tower that supported a single marshmallow, creating a lunar lander that prevented a marshmallow from bouncing out when it landed, or building foil boats that held the most plastic bears afloat. Participants used their creativity to paint works of art based on NASA images of our galaxy and used problem-solving skills to make working popsicle-stick windmills and paper airplanes that carried the most weight. “STEAM initiatives are becoming an increasingly important part of our curriculum at Langley because they help students develop the collaborative design-thinking and problemsolving skills they will need to succeed in today’s ever-changing world,” says assistant head of
school Kathleen Smith. “The STEAM Fair provided a great way to showcase STEAMbased activities, inspire students of all ages to create and innovate in new ways, and bring together teachers, students, and parents for a wonderful community building event.”
George Mason HS Graduate Studying Abroad in China Falls Church resident Allison G. Cunningham, who graduated from George Mason High School, is participating in an offcampus study abroad program during the spring 2016 semester through St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. Cunningham is participating in St. Lawrence University’s spring off-campus program in China. Cunningham is one of over 1,500 students at St. Lawrence University who study off campus at some point during their undergraduate experience at either one its international or domestic study abroad program sites.
Over 300 Attend Inaugural STEAM Fair at Langley School The Langley School hosted its inaugural STEAM Fair on Saturday, Feb. 6 to celebrate the school’s interdisciplinary, inquiry-
THESE SEVEN MASON STUDENTS – (left to right, front) Kristen Kay, Annie Parnell, Lydia Gompper, (left to right, back) Annie Castillo, Alice Castillo, Lucy Hoak and Helen Kraft – recently won the Regional Scholastic Art and Writing competition. (Photo: Carol Sly)
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
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B������� N��� � N���� Front Porch, Studio Center Combine Operations The Front Porch (817 W. Broad Street) and The Studio Center (920 W. Broad Street) are consolidating Falls Church operations and moving all inventory to The Back Dorr (2711 Dorr Avenue,) in Merrifield. An inventory liquidation sale with items up to 80 percent off furniture and décor, will take place Saturday, March 5 from 10 a.m.– 6 p.m. All repairs in process are being completed. For more information, email shop@ FrontPorchFurnitureRescue.com.
RE/Max West End Now Open in Falls Church RE/MAX West End has opened at 710 W. Broad Street in Falls Church. Louise Molton is the principal broker and owner while Kristin Sharifi is the associate broker and Bruce Turner is the managing partner. The team of experienced agents working out of the nationally branded boutique brokerage plans to host community events, support local businesses, and serve as a resource for homeowners in the community. For more information, visit www.MoltonRealEstate.com.
F.C. Dentist Debuts New Website NOVA Premier Dental in Falls Church has updated its website in order to better highlight Dr. Peterson Huang’s general dentistry skills and reflect his certification as a Dual Board Certified Prosthodontist. Dr. Huang offers advanced treatment plans for the construction of corrective restorations and prostheses to restore proper function and esthetics of the mouth, face, and jaw. The practice has also launched a Facebook page for information on Dr. Huang’s specializations and industry news. NOVA Premier Dental’s website can be viewed at www.novapremierdental.com and its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ novapremierdental.
Cossio Joins Long & Foster’s Falls Church Office Marlene R. Cossio has joined the Long & Foster Real Estate office in Falls Church. Cossio will specialize in working with homebuyers and sellers. Cossio is working to complete Long & Foster’s LEAP Path program, an extensive training course for newly licensed sales associates, as well as associates returning to the field of real estate. The program’s curriculum covers contracts, agency, prospecting, business planning, finance and working with buyers and sellers. Cossio holds membership in the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. For more information, visit LongandFoster. com.
F.C. Chamber Hosting Networking Breakfast Next Thursday The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce is hosting an informal networking breakfast on Thursday, March 10 from 8 – 9 a.m. at the Original Pancake House, 7395 Lee Highway. The meeting is open to anyone interested in meeting local business leaders. There is no charge for the event although attendees are to pay for any food and drink they order. For more information, visit www.FallsChurchChamber.org.
Cartoon Drawing Classes Hosted by Art & Frame Falls Church Art and Frame of Falls Church is hosting two cartoon drawing classes, one for teens and the other for adults. The teen class will take place on Saturdays from noon – 1 p.m. while the adult class will take place Wednesdays from 8 – 10 p.m. Both will be taught by cartoonist, illustrator, and SVA graduate Emily Kay Jolkovski. For more information, call 571-201-5501 or email jolkovski.emilykay@gmail.com. Art and Frame of Falls Church is also hosting a Monroe Bay Concert featuring Michael Clem on Saturday, March 5 at 7 p.m. For more information about the consert visit www.monroebaywine.com. Art and Frame is located at 205 W. Jefferson Street in Falls Church. Business News & Notes is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at sally@ fallschurchchamber.org.
MARCH 3 – 9, 2016 | PAGE 31
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HOME IMPROVEMENT Handyman Service
BU S I N E S S & S E RVI C E DIR EC TORY
All repairs, plumbing, drywall, doors, windows, rotted wood, siding, gutters, lighting + more FREE estimates, insured Call Doug (703)556-4276
CLEANING SERVICES
ACCLAIMED CARPET CLEANING 5 Rooms Deep Cleaned: $135 Carpet Stretching 24/7 Emergency Water Damage We Clean the White House AcclaimedWaterDamage.com
www.novahandyman.com
Call Mike 703-978-2270
JOSEPH HOME IMPROVEMENT
Drywall • Paint Exterior / Interior, Bath & Kitchen Remodeling, Basements, Ceramic Tile, Deck, Fences. Patios, Electric, Plumbing, Clean Garage, All Kinds of Hauling. www.josephhomeimprovements.com Joselozada27@yahoo.com Joseph Cell 703-507-5005 Licensed Work Tel 703-507-8300
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
A Cleaning Service since 1985
Insured, Bonded and Licensed Independently owned Commercial & Residential
703-892-8648
www.acleaningserviceinc.com
House Cleaning
House Cleaning Service
Phone 571-235-4295 703-920-3767
Available 7 days a week Weekly - By Weekly - Monthly or by Time Move Out - Move In • 14 years Experience Good References • Senior Discount For Further Information: Call Susy • Cell (703) 901-0596
Quality Service at Fair Prices Great References and Excellent Work! Satisfaction Guaranteed Free Estimates
Get 10% off labor with this ad
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
[must be presented at first consultation]
OTHER SERVICES COMPLETE LAWN & LANDSCAPE SERVICES Want a new Look? With Spring Cleanup, Weeding, Trimming, Flowers and Mulching. BUILD THE PERFECT LAWN Pre Emergent Weed Control Aeration, Reseeding Proper Mowing
Robert Beatson II
Attorney/Accountant, Former IRS Attorney Admitted to DC, MD, VA & NY Bars
All Federal, State, Local & Foreign Taxes Individual • Business • Trusts • Estates • Wills
703-798-3590 or 301-340-2951
R
www.beatsonlaw.com
Free Estimates
classads@fcnp.com
Gabriel 703-691-2351
fcnp.com
GEORGIA'S SMALL ENGINE REPAIR SERIVCE
classads@fcnp.com
fcnp.com
We come to your home and repair lawn mowers, chainsaws, snow blowers, weed whackers, generators, even small tractors!
Call: 571-212-0712
C L AS S I F I E DS Cemetery Plots SIX CEMETERY PLOTS National Memorial Park in Falls Church at bargain prices. Will sell for about half of going price! More information call 1-719543-0315.
Help Wanted SEASONAL GARDEN CENTER MERCHANDISER Bell Nursery, a nationally recognized grower/vendor is looking for hardworking people to stock our products at a garden center near you. Must be flexible for weekend work. For job descriptions and locations go to www.bellnursery.com/careers.
Lost LOST IRAQI PASSPORT Type G in the name Havin Salahaldin Abdulrahman in Falls Church, Virginia. If found please call 571-337-7100.
Public Notice ABC LICENSE SRM FOODS, INC. Trading as: Saffron 1077 West Broad Street, Falls Church, Virginia, 22046-4610. The above establishment is applying to the VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (ABC) for a Wine and Beer On Premises license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages. Sanjay Mandhaiya, Director. NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www.abc.virginia.gov or 800-552-3200.
classads@fcnp.com
PUBLIC NOTICE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA VOLUNTEERS who live in the City of Falls Church are needed to serve on the boards and commissions listed below. Contact the City Clerk’s Office (703-248-5014, cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov, or www.fallschurchva.gov/BC) for an application form or more information. Requests for reappointment must be made through the City Clerk. Applications are accepted until the end of the month. Vacancies advertised for more than one month may be filled during each subsequent month before month’s end. Architectural Advisory Board Board of Equalization Environmental Services Council Historic Architectural Review Board Historical Commission Human Services Advisory Council Retirement Board Tree Commission Regional Boards/Commissions: Fairfax Area Disability Services Board Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board Long Term Care Coordinating Council Workforce Investment Board (Business Representative)
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA The City Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, March 14, 2016 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard on the following: PUBLIC-PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES INFRASTRUCTURE ACT PROPOSAL TO CONSTRUCT A GROUP HOME FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ON THE CITY-OWNED PROPERTY AT 366 NORTH WASHINGTON STREET (MILLER HOUSE) Proposals may be viewed at Housing and Human Services, City Hall, 300 Park Ave.,
Suite G04, Falls Church. Contact: Dana Lewis 703-248-5170 (TTY 711). All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-2485014 (TTY 711). CELESTE HEATH CITY CLERK
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA The Board of Zoning Appeals of the City of Falls Church, Virginia will hold a public hearing on March 17, 2016 at 7:30 PM in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, for consideration of the following subject: New Business a. Special Use Permit application U157916 by Sellaperumage Ruth Shaw to allow a home daycare, not otherwise permitted by right, on premises known as 1004 N. Roosevelt, RPC #53-212-011 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1B (Medium Density Residential). The City of Falls Church Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Monday, March 7, 2016 at 7:30 PM in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 300 Park Avenue, to consider the above referenced two Special Use Permit applications Information on the above applications is available for review at: Zoning Office 300 Park Avenue, Suite 300W Falls Church, VA. 703-248-5015 (option 1) zoning@fallschurchva.gov This location is fully accessible to persons
with physical disabilities and special services or assistance may be requested in advance. (TTY 711)
classads@fcnp.com
We are pleged to the letter and spirit of Virginia’s policy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the Commonwealth. We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap. All real estate advertised herein is subject to Virginia’s fair housing law which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.” This newspaper will not knowingly accept advertising for real estate that violates the fair housing law. Our readers are herby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. For more information or to file a housing complaint call the Virginia Fair Housing Office at (804) 367-8530. Toll free call (888) 551-3247. For the hearing impaired call (804) 367-9753.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of Virginia’s policy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the Commonwealth. We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap. All real estate advertised herein is subject to Virginia’s fair housing law which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.” This newspaper will not knowingly accept advertising for real estate that violates the fair housing law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal fairhousing@dpor.virginia.gov. opportunity basis.Email: For more information or to file Website: www.fairhousing.vipnet.org a housing complaint call the Virginia Fair Housing Office at (804) 367-8530. Toll free call (888) 551-3247. For the hearing impaired call (804) 367-9753.
A RTS&E NTE RTA I NME NT
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Crossword
ACROSS
By David Levinson Wilk 1
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© 2016 David Levinson Wilk
Across 1. Bewildered state
1. Bewildered state 5. Lands’ End competitor 10. Remini of “The King of Queens” 14. U2 bassist Clayton or longtime U.S. congressman Clayton Powell 15. Sci-fi character whose first name, Nyota, meaning “Star” in Swahili, was revealed in a 2009 film 16. Its alphabet reads from right to left 17. “The medical practitioner just ingested a brand of antiperspirant!” 20. Pose, as a question 21. Features of some jeans 22. Like some forest ground 23. Mommy’s triplets? 24. Kimono securers 26. “The decayed material just ingested four parts of a car!” 33. First name in late-night 34. Carpentry tools 35. Thurman whose mother, Nena, was briefly married to LSD guru Timothy Leary 36. Small bills 37. Raise the price of, at an auction 38. Goes down 39. Dietary std. 40. Aid in finding sunken ships 41. Rand McNally publication 42. “The good friend just ingested Ajax!” 45. Tales of old 46. Small amount? 47. ____, Bonaire and Curacao (Caribbean’s ABC islands) 50. Elisabeth of “Cocktail” 52. Eurozone peak 55. “The cotillion honoree just ingest-
MARCH 3 - 9, 2016 | PAGE 33
ed Time, People and GQ!” 59. Candid 60. Unlocked? 61. Restful places 62. Like some details 63. Most common blood designation 64. “Chop-chop!”
DOWN
1. Word from a crib 2. Commotions that arise from turning a soda backwards? 3. Cy Young Award winner Greinke 4. CPR pro 5. Legal scholar 6. “Good show, old ____!” 7. Monotonous routines 8. Prior to, in poems 9. Crumple (up) 10. His last film, “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” was released in 1959, three years after his death 11. Goofs 12. Citrus drinks 13. Louisiana’s Long 18. Financial guru Suze 19. Gives off 23. Flight figures, for short 24. “As if!” 25. Toot 26. Mixed martial artist Rousey who was the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal in judo 27. 15-time NBA All-Star who announced his retirement on Twitter 28. Show clearly 29. ____ wave 30. 100 kopecks
CHUCKLE BROS BRIAN & RON BOYCHUK
5. Lands' End competitor
31. Put in prison 32. Lip 33. The “C” of FDIC: Abbr. 37. Participant in an 1899 conflict 38. Popular online crafts site 40. Brown ermine 41. Gets the pot started 43. Only U.S. state capital whose last two letters are its state’s postal abbreviation 44. Subject of the 1987 biography “Cory: Profile of a President” 47. Words following “work like” or “sick as” 48. Towed-away auto, maybe 49. Lyft competitor 50. Hit the mall, say 51. “____ goes!” 52. Polly, to Tom Sawyer 53. Actress Dunham 54. [Hey, you!] 56. Ballpark fig. 57. “____ will be done” 58. Certain sib
10. Remini of "The King of Queens"
Last Thursday’s Solution
C R O W D
L I T H O
I L U V
T I G E
K H A M A S T
Sudoku
A D R A G
P E A T B O S G L A N T O O E N N D Y A A Y
C A S H D E N Y
A N T O N I A
B Y R N E
E M A G
N A A D A B E R E I A F O R E N U L N G L O
E P C O T
T H E W A V B E O K I M A A R G E E A R R Y
R I N G D A L I
C A R O L E R
O V E N
C E C D I R I Y V E E M B E Y N
S T I A N T G K A H N
S T A G
A M I L E
H E R T Z
By The Mepham Group
Level: 1 2 3 4
14. U2 bassist Clayton or longtime U.S. congressman Clayton Powell 15. Sci-fi character whose first name, Nyota, meaning "Star" in Swahili, was revealed in a 2009 film 16. Its alphabet reads from right to left 17. "The medical practitioner just ingested a brand of antiperspirant!" 20. Pose, as a question 21. Features of some jeans
1
22. Like some forest ground 23. Mommy's triplets? 24. Kimono securers 26. "The decayed material just ingested four parts of a car!"
LOOSE PARTS
DAVE BLAZEK
33. First name in late-night Solution to last Sunday’s puzzle
NICK KNACK
1
© 2016 N.F. Benton
3/6/16
Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk. © 2016 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.
LO CA L
PAGE 34 | MARCH 3 – 9, 2016
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
C������ C�����
BACK IN THE DAY
laz y The dog. c k q u i fox sly p e d jum e r o v lazy the g . d o is Now time the all for o d g o to cows
20 s Yearo Ag
e c o mthe to of aid i r t h e re. pastu w N o the is e t i m all for o d g o to cows e c o mthe to
20 � 10 Y���� A�� �� ��� N���-P���� Falls Church News-Press Vol. V, No. 51 • March 7, 1996
Falls Church News-Press Vol. XVI, No. 1 • March 9, 2006
It is no the timw e for g o all o cows d to go to the aid of the pa stu ir re. *** **
10 Year s Ago
Thr ow it up. Pour it up It now is the time for all go od cows to go the to aid
Council Begins Work On New Budget Monday with Lasso’s Report
Citizens Take F.C.’s BZA to Court for Restraints on New McMansion
Although its broad outlines have already been made public, the full contents of the coming fiscal year budget proposed by Falls Church City Manager David Lasso will be unveiled for the first time at the City Council meeting this Monday at 7:30 p.m. Lasso has already indicated the budget will have “zero growth” on the City side, although there will be no significant program cuts.
Two large homes now under construction side by side next to the historic Tallwood estate on E. Broad Street, combined with a court action filed by citizens against the City’s Board of Zoning Appeals to restrain the size of a large new home under construction on Ridge Place, have sent the Falls Church City Council scurrying for legal ways to limit the “McMansion” explosion in the City.
Blanche Fischer Brown Dies at 94 Blanche Fischer Brown, a teacher, administrator and private school owner in the City of Falls Church for 34 years, died on Monday, Feb. 29 at age 94 in Kill Devil Hills, NC. Fischer began her teaching career in 1945 at Miss Thompson’s Primary School in the City of Falls Church while her husband was in the Pacific during World War II. Upon the retirement of the owner, Edith Thomspon, she and her husband, William A. Fischer, purchased the school name in 1948. The school was reopened at 7219 Lee Highway in Falls Church for the 1948 school year with Blanche Fischer as owner director and kindergarten teacher. The 1949 school year began on 13 acres of land they purchased, known as Holiday Hill, in the Tyson’s Corner area. A swimming pool was added and in the summer it operated as a very successful summer camp. That location now houses The Colonies Condominiums on Old Meadow Road in McLean. In 1964 the land as sold and Fischer became the director of the Falls Church Episcopal Day School. She held that position, while teaching kindergarten, until her retirement in 1979. In addition to her 34 years of teaching kindergarten, Fischer taught Sunday school at the Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church. Upon her retirement, she and her husband moved to Lake of the Woods near Fredericksburg. She continued her passion for golf, which she had learned at the Country Club of Fairfax. in 1980, her husband passed away and in 1982 she married Melvin Brown, who died in 1997.
BLANCHE FISCHER BROWN (C������� P����)
Born on December 19, 1921 in Buena Vista, Ga., Blanche lost both of her parents by the age of six. She met her first husband while he was on a college geological expedition in 1939. In addition to her service as a kindergarten and Sunday school teacher, Fischer was a founding member and hospitality chair of the Falls Church Woman’s Club, won the Exception Contribution to the Activities to the Society award from the The American Society of Photogrametry in
1973, was the president of the Northern Virginia Private School Association in 1974 and 1975 and publicity chair and hospitality chair for the Virginia Association of Early Childhood Education. A Washington Post reporter, who was also the parent of a kindergartener, once wrote an article called “A School Play Chases The Humbugs,” which complimented Fischer, the writer and director of the play. Those who knew her would say that Blanche Fischer Brown was known by all to “chase the humbugs.” Fischer is survived by her daughter, Judy Fischer Dressendorfer and her son-in-law John Dressendorfer of Vienna, her son Jeff Fischer and her daughter-in-law Diane Fischer of Kill Devil Hills, NC, four grandchildren – Trevor Soloff, Ashleigh Soloff, Kevin Fischer and Todd Fischer, seven greatgrandchildren and one great-great grandson. A funeral service will be held in Kill Devil Hills, NC and a celebration of life and burial service will be held on Monday, March 21 at 11 a.m. at the Falls Church at 115 E. Fairfax Street.
THIS IS MADISON, a Coton de Tulear, who would be camouflaged by the snow it wasn’t for its jacket. Madison and Riley, who was featured last week, didn’t let winter storm Jonas hold them back from taking a stroll around Winter Hill. Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be! Send in your Critter Corner submissions to crittercorner@fcnp.com.
Takeout can eat up your savings. Pack your own lunch instead of going out. $6 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $19,592. That could be money in your pocket. Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.
MARCH 3 - 9, 2016 | PAGE 35
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Directory Listings: Call Us at 703-532-3267
n
ACCOUNTING
Diener & Associates, CPA.. . . . . . . . . 241-8807 Eric C. Johnson, CPA, PC . . . . . . . . . 538-2394 Mark Sullivan, CPA. . . . . . . . . . . 571-214-4511 HBC Tax and Accounting . . . . . . . . . . 459-6794 Hahn & Associates, PC, CPAs. . . . . . 533-3777 n
ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES
Falls Church Antique Company . . . . . 241-7074 Antique Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-9642 n
ATTORNEYS
Mark F. Werblood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9300 Sudeep Bose, Former Police Officer. 926-3900 Janine S. Benton, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . .992-9255 n
AUTOMOTIVE
Beyer Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5000 Koons Used Car Outlet . . . . . . . . . . . 533-3363 n
BANKING
Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co.. . . 519-1634 BB&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-3505 TD Bank/www.TDBank.com. . . . . . . . 237-2051 n
BOOK BINDING
BCR Binders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9181
3 months - $150 6 months - $270 1 year - $450
BUSINESS DIRECTORY n
CLEANING SERVICES
Maid Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823-1922 Acclaimed Carpet Cleaning . . . . . . . . 978-2270 Claure. Zenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571-235-4295 A Cleaning Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892-8648 n
DENTISTS
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ENGINES
Georgia’s Small Engine Repair . 571-212-0712 n
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EYEWEAR
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FLORISTS
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FRAMES
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Art & Frame of Falls Church . . . . . . . 534-4202 n
GIFTS
Stifel & Capra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407-0770 n
HANDYMAN
Doug’s Handyman Service. . . . . . . . . 556-4276
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PHARMACY
Broad Street Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . 533-9013 n
PHOTOGRAPHY
Gary Mester, Event, Portraits. . . . . . . 481-0128 Mary Sandoval Photography . . . 334-803-1742
INSURANCE
n
REAL ESTATE
Merelyn Kaye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .790-9090x218 www.helpfulmortgage.us . . . . . . . . . . 237-0222 Casey O’Neal - ReMax . . . . . . . . . . . 824-4196 Rosemary Hayes Jones. . . . . . . . . . .790-1990 The Young Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356-8800 Tori McKinney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867-8674 Shaun Murphy, Realtor . . . . . . . . . . . 868-5999
LAWN CARE MASSAGE
Dr Gordon Theisz, Family Medicine. . 533-7555
n
Academy of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938-8054 Foxes Music Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-7393
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MUSIC
PET SERVICES
Apex Pet Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532-8012 Feline Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920-8665
HOME IMPROVEMENT
MEDICAL
OPTOMETRIST
Dr. Alison Sinyai, Family Eye Care . . 533-3937
www.healthybyintention.com.. . . . . . . 534-1321
Falls Church Florist, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 533-1333 n
Vantage Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-0565 Jazzercise Falls Church. . . . . . . . . . . 622-2152
HEALTH & FITNESS
Lawn and Landscape Services . . . . . 691-2351
Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-6500 n
n
Allstate Home Auto Life Ins. . . . . . . 241-8100 State Farm Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5105
EQUIPMENT RENTAL/SALE
VA Outdoor Power Equipment . . . . . . 207-2000 n
Your Handyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571-243-6726
FC Heating & Air Service . . . . . . . . . . 534-0630 Joseph Home Improvement. . . . . . . . 507-5005 Picture Perfect Home Improvements 590-3187 One Time Home Improvement. . . . . . 577-9825
Family Dentistry, Nimisha V Patel . . . 533-1733 Dr. William Dougherty . . . . . . . . . . . 532-3300 n
1 Line Maximum
(30 characters + Ph. #, incl. spaces)
TAILOR
Tailor Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-8886
TAXES
John Palmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-8780 Beatson Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798-3590
All numbers have a ‘703’ prefix unless otherwise indicated.
Are you searching for a better job or a more reliable car? Have you outgrown your apartment? Are you looking to get rid of that old couch and chair sitting in the garage?
Whether you’re buying or selling, the Classifieds has it all. From automobiles and employment to real estate and household goods, you’ll find everything you need in
the Classifieds. Put the Classifieds to work for you, and inch even closer to your goals.
classads@fcnp.com • 703-532-3267
PAGE 36 | MARCH 3 - 9, 2016
Proudly Presenting
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Bringing the power of the RE/MAX national brand to your main street! RE/MAX West End ~ your neighborhood residential real estate brokerage.
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Mary Barrett Director of Marketing and Special Events
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Absolutely beautiful 4 bed/3.5 bath colonial in desirable Broadmont.Beautiful private yard with stone patio and screened porch. Walk to Metro. Offered at $1,175,000
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Phone: 703 244-1992 Email: louise@moltonrealestate.com
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