Jun e 3 0 - J u l y 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 No. 19
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Library Referendum Gets Preliminary OK
By a 7-0 unanimous vote, the Falls Church City Council Monday gave a preliminary approval to the placement of a bond referendum on the ballot in November for an $8.7 million renovation and expansion of the Mary Riley Styles Public Library. See News Briefs, page 9
A Look at F.C.’s New ‘Play Streets’
WMATA Chief in F.C.: ‘We Want to Develop at West F.C. Metro Station’ Evans Says He’s Eager to Co-Op With City of F.C.
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
With approval from the police and fire departments and coordination by other city agencies, Falls Church’s new “Play Street” initiative closes a section of a road to traffic so children and adults can have more space for play and activity.
constructed soon right along the Route 7 corridor where the service has been terminated. The residents were all from the Winter Hill condominiums located smack in the center of the City and most utilizing the bus stop at the corner of West Broad (Rt. 7) and S. Virginia Avenue. As of Sunday, June 26, they and other bus riders were notified by a flier posted at the
High-powered Washington, D.C.-based leaders of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority crossed the Potomac to bring their crisp black business suits and impeccable hairdos to the Falls Church City Council’s public business meeting Monday to provide an articulate briefing and take questions from the public on the Metro Rail System’s disruptive but necessary “SafeTrack” program of dangerously overdue repair work. It reminded some of a scene from the “Men in Black” movies with the dapper agents reporting on a reclusive, misbehaving and unwieldy alien (the Metro Rail System) loose in the area. But Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) board chair Jack Evans, a veteran of the Washington, D.C. City Council, WMATA acting chief operating officer Jack Requa, accompanied by two equivalently outfitted young aides, made the news of most interest to the City of Falls Church when they expressed veritably unqualified support for putting WMATA’s 36 acres beside the West Falls Church Metro station into play for dense commercial development, possibly in cooperation with Falls Church’s designs for its Campus Development Project in the same neighborhood. F.C. Councilman Phil Duncan kicked off that discussion when he told Evans and Requa that “we
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See page 8
David Brooks: Revolt of the Masses
Anybody who spends time in the working-class parts of America notices the contagions of drug addiction and suicide, and the feelings of anomie, cynicism, pessimism and resentment. See page 14
Press Pass with Roosevelt Dime
Roosevelt Dime just wants you to put on your red shoes (or otherwise fancy shoes) and “hide away” your blues, as they profess in their new single off their new EP that’s due out Tuesday. See page 25
JACK EVANS, longtime Washington D.C. City Councilman and chairman of the board of WMATA, spoke to the Falls Church City Council Monday night about the Metrorail’s “SafeTrack” program and added his interest in potentially working with Falls Church on developing around the West Falls Church Metro site. (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. Citizens Protest as 2 Bus Routes Discontinued on Rt. 7 by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index Editorial..................6 Letters..............6, 26 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 14-17 Calendar.........20-21 Food & Dining......23
Sports..................24 Business News....27 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........29 Critter Corner.......30
Just as massive disruptions of Metrorail service are impacting the region, due to the socalled “SafeTrack” program to repair the vastly outdated system, the same governing agency, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit System (WMATA) has abruptly terminated two of its three bus service lines along Route 7 between the West and
East Falls Church Metro stations in the City of Falls Church. A half dozen impacted City residents showed up at the Falls Church City Council meeting Monday night to protest directly to WMATA’s chairman Jack Evans and acting chief operating officer Jack Requa who were there to brief the Council on the Metro “SafeTrack” effort. They noted that three new large scale mixed use projects are just now being completed or will be