Ma rc h 3 1 - A p r i l 6, 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. 6
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week F.C. Arts All Member Show This Friday Over 70 artists will be participating in the 13th annual Falls Church Arts All Members Show opening this Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.
See News Briefs, page 8
A Brief History of the Falls Church News-Press On the week of its 25th birthday, News-Press founder and owner Nichola F. Benton chronicles the first 25 years of Falls Church’s newspaper of record.
F.C. Council Nixes Shields’ Plan to Add 2-Cent Buffer to Budget Talks O n the H unt
Most Speak Out For No Rate Hike At All This Time
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
sure, forbidding parking in the evenings to anyone who hasn’t been granted a pass. All residents in the Winter Hill Community Association area will be given passes for each of the vehicles they have registered at City Hall, as well as a booklet of temporary visitor passes. Signage announcing the restricted parking on Annandale Road, James Street and Gundry Drive behind the 280-unit West
In an unexpected move, the tax-conscious Falls Church City Council split a pair of critical votes Monday night by 5-2 margins to constrain its options for raising revenues for the coming fiscal year budget. The routine pattern is for the city manager to propose his budget — which Wyatt Shields did two weeks ago at $87 million with a 2.5-cent increase in the real estate tax rate (from $1.315 to $1.34 per $100 of assessed valuations) — but then to tack on a symbolic extra two cents to the tax rate as a formality by the Council to give itself proverbial “wiggle room” in crafting the new budget. That’s done because state law prohibits a governing body from raising the tax rate above its advertised rate. But this City Council was in no mood to signal anything about even a symbolic gesture to allow for unexpected developments, and abruptly voted down the suggestion from Shields that the twocent added cushion go into what the Council will now advertise as the budget proposal that it will deliberate on between now and April 25. Following a vigorous debate, the vote was 5-2 against Shields’ suggestion, with only Karen Oliver and Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly voting yes, and Mayor David Tarter, Phil Duncan, Dan Sze and Letty Hardi voting no. A subsequent motion was made to max out the advertised tax rate at $1.34, and it passed, 5-2, with
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See pages 19-22
David Brooks: The Sexual Politics Of 2016
These days we’re living through another great redefinition of masculinity. Today, both men and women are called upon to live up to the traditional ideals of both genders. See page 14
Press Pass with Judah and the Lion
The Nashville quartet Judah and the Lion entered the studio to make their sophomore album Folk Hop ‘N Roll, which was released on March 4, with the desire to remain artistically uninhibited. See page 32
EGG-CITED YOUNGSTERS by the hundreds raced for Easter eggs at the City of Falls Church’s annual hunt on the ground of Cherry Hill Park last Saturday. See more Easter egg hunt photos, page 28. (Photo: Claudette Brown)
Restricted Parking Plan Behind New West Broad Project OK’d by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.12-13 Comment......... 14-17 Sports..................18 Business News....29
Food & Dining......30 Calendar.........34-35 Classified Ads .....36 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........37 Critter Corner.......38
It will be a matter of weeks, instead of months, before Falls Church City Hall will begin to implement a new residential parking permit program for residents behind the nearly-completed West Broad Apartments. F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields promised this following a 6-1 vote of the City Council Monday night to amend the City code to establish
neighborhood-specific residential parking permit programs in the City. Some residents have already moved into the large-scale mixed use West Broad structure, and the Harris Teeter on its ground floor is due to open July 20. As the project is completed, pressure on available on-street parking options for the already parkingstrapped Winter Hill Community Association will escalate. The new parking permit policy will hopefully alleviate that pres-