June 6 – 12, 2019
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d e d 1991 • V ol. XXIX No. 16
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week New Downtown Park Gets Unveiled Monday
The recently revitalized and soonto-be renamed park located on W. Broad St. will get its ceremonious opening next Monday with a ribbon cutting and concert to inaugurate its music stage. See story, page 10
F.C. Concerts in Park Return This Month
Beginning June 20, the City of Falls Church will host its 27th annual Concerts in the Park series on Thursdays at 7 p.m. at Cherry Hill Park.
$500K in ‘Dark Money’ Roils Tuesday’s Primary for Commonwealth’s Attorney
Looking Toward the Future
Continued on Page 24
Continued on Page 5
The 26th Annual Tinner Hill Music Festival brings an all-new format and more to Falls Church this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. See special pull-out inside
Mason Soccer Squads Head to States
GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOL’S seniors wrapped up their high school careers this week, culminating with commencement ceremonies held at DAR Constitution Hall Wednesday night. The Class of 2019 is shown here just before they launched their caps into the air in celebration. (Photo: J. Michael Whalen)
Homestretch’s Fay Says ‘Affordable Housing’ Must Break Poverty Trap by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial................6 Letters..................6 News & Notes.12–13 Comment.14, 19–20 Sports............... 22 Calendar....26–27
Classified Ads... 28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword........ 29 Crime Report.... 30 Critter Corner.... 30 Business News.31
As the Falls Church City Council takes baby steps this summer to address the housing shortage crisis impacting the City, region and nation, action by area elected officials at the national and state level are beginning to escalate.
No longer is it the accepted wisdom that the development by Amazon of its HQ2 campus in Northern Virginia will barely impact the area for years to come. In fact, the impact is being solidly felt right now, taking the form of homeowners who might otherwise be selling, holding tight to their properties on the expectation that values will rise dramatically over
Falls Church News-Press
the coming period. This means that the availability of housing through the usual market turnover is already shrinking, driving prices up for housing of all shapes and sizes, and restricting the supply. This makes the problem of what has been called “affordable
Tinner Hill Music Festival This Saturday
See Sports, page 22
by Nicholas F. Benton
It turns out that next Tuesday’s Democratic primary election in the City of Falls Church and neighboring Arlington County is going to be of far greater consequence than previously thought. Campaign contribution data for the last two months made public by the Virginia Board of Elections this Monday has shown an eyepopping $583,237 has donated by a nebulous “dark money” Washington, D.C.-based source to a challenger in the June 11 primary in the race for ArlingtonFalls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney. According to the Washington Post, the money comes from billionaire George Soros, who has also lobbed another whopping $392,000 into Fairfax County in an effort to unseat the incumbent commonwealth attorney there. In Falls Church and Arlington, the $583,237 sum is far and away the most contributed in the race pitting its beneficiary, public defender Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, against two-term incumbent Theo Stamos. The contributions officially come from a Washington, D.C.based entity called the “Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee,” as current dark money rules do not require the disclosure of actual human contributors behind any nondescript PAC name. The big money puts challenger Dehghani-Tafti way ahead of
See News Briefs, page 8
Both George Mason High School soccer teams head to the state tournament this week with the girls looking for their 12th consecutive title and the boys seeking to end their dominant season with a championship.
Incumbents Saslaw, Stamos Face Stiff Ballot Challenges