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8-7-2025

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August 7 - 13, 2025

Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free

Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 26

The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia

F.C. Council A NIGHT TO REMEMBER To Mull Big Change for Garbage ‘Fairer’ 3-Tier Individual Fee Structure Proposed

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

This Monday, Aug. 11, the Falls Church City Council will convene at Berman Park at 6 p.m. to participate in a ribbon cutting calling attention to improvements made to the much beloved neighborhood park located between 229 Kent St. and 234 Irving St. It will highlight the new playground equipment provided and pedestrian crossings adjacent to the park. Then the Council will come to City Hall to meet closed to the public at 7 p.m. to obtain legal advice. The regular business meeting will convene at 7:30. Two foci of this meeting will be on modifications to the City’s Solid Waste Policy and affordable living policies. On the second matter, the Council will consider extending criteria for income-based exemptions to City real estate taxes to assist more retired, disabled and lower-income households. The more consequential policy will involve a major modification in the City’s policy for collecting waste that over 3,000 household addresses in the City currently have picked up every week from their curbs. The new plan that the Council discussed at its work session last week and will take up officially this Monday involves a shift away from including the cost of the service in the general real estate taxes that all citizens and

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THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH Police Department and Sheriff ’s Office hosted a highly attended National Night Out event in Cherry Hill Park Tuesday night. The annual event drew flocks of families to learn about aspects of public safety and meet their public safety personnel. See page 9 for more photos from the event. (Photo: News-Press)

Many New Restaurants Opening, But to What?

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

At a recent lunch hour, the long-time manager of a highly regarded, somewhat upscale restaurant in downtown Falls Church turned and looked to the barren tables and empty chairs in the well-appointed room. There was not a single other person there to eat. “Where is everybody?” she asked, exasperated.

Sadly, this is an increasingly common scenario, not only in Falls Church, of course. And, in this region, it looks as if it’s only going to get worse as the extensions expire on thousands of federal workers and federal contract workers in this region who’ve lost their jobs to Trump. The restaurant revenue decline has already begun, but by October it is expected that the impact of the closings and firings is going to peak, with no

recovery in sight. While rather pro forma efforts have been underway to address the problem in Virginia, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine took matters on with a roundtable this week hosted by the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association in Burke, where he heard from restaurant and hospitality owners directly that they are at a breaking point, with not only federal layoffs, but rising costs, worker short-

ages and immigration enforcement, all the consequences of Trump policies, threats to their industry. Among the top concerns raised were the aggressive immigration enforcement, which they said is deterring immigrant workers from showing up for shifts, rising costs due to tariffs, credit card processing fees, and the spread of

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