September 21 – 27, 2017
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. XXVI I NO. 31
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The News-Press Fall Real Estate special edition is here with features on the commercial real estate market, how the internet is affecting the industry, Falls Church home sales statistics and more. SEE PAGES 13 – 20
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The Mason Mustangs dominated on the ground against Nelson County last Friday in the team’s first Bull Run matchup of the season. SEE SPORTS, PAGE 24
McAuliffe Visits F.C. for 1-66 Launch & City Officials Meet FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
INDEX Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 Business News .....8 News & Notes10–11 Comment ..12, 21-22 Food & Dining.....23
Sports .................24 Calendar .......26–27 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........29 Critter Corner......30
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe came for his first visit to Falls Church yesterday since his election almost four years ago, and made the most of it with a ringing speech at a ribbon-cutting unveiling the first group of 10 new multimodal transportation options along the I-66 corridor inside the beltway, subsumed under an overarching “I-66 Commuter Choice” moniker. He then retired for a half-hour briefing by City of F.C.
officials on the campus development project that will include a new high school (if a bond referendum passes in November) and 10 acres of economic development. McAuliffe has only until the end of year to end his one term as governor (Virginia is now the only state in the union that restricts a governor to a single term). As of January, after four years in the governor’s mansion in Richmond, he will presumably move back into his McLean home, and there are rumors that he’s considering
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
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WHILE ITS DOORS HAVE YET TO OPEN, Liberty Barbecue was crowned the winner of the 2017 Taste of Falls Church last Saturday, winning the judges over with its brisket and queso sliders. More on last weekend’s event in Food News, page 23. (P����: M��� D������)
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
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Vetoes in Debate
a run for the presidency in 2020. He braved the heat in the parking lot of the Northern Virginia Graduate Center to hobnob with regional and Falls Church officials, and after the formalities, take his time chatting with citizens, the media and a classroom of government students from the next-door George Mason High School. Staff members of the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Department of Rail and Public
SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
SEE PAGE 22
120 Discriminatory Bill
Democratic Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, now running for governor in the upcoming November election, took his Republican counterpart Ed Gillespie to task for his association with unpopular GOP politicians to the north and south, in Washington, D.C. and in Richmond, in a head-to-head debate hosted by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce in Tysons this Tuesday. Gillespie centered his arguments on what he contended is the decline of the economy of Virginia under current Governor Terry McAuliffe. The decline, he said, is the single most important issue in the election. That contrasted wildly with what Northam said are among the accomplishments of the McAuliffe administration which, he said, include bringing to Virginia “a record setting 215,000 new jobs, over $16 billion of capital investment, a decline in unemployment from 5.4 percent to 3.8 percent, the lowest in nine years, with wages and salaries up over 12 percent.” Gillespie’s claims of a stagnant Virginia economy also ran afoul of Gov. McAuliffe himself, when asked to comment on Gillespie’s remarks at a public appearance in the City of Falls Church yesterday afternoon (see story, this page). “Poor Ed, what’s he got to talk about?” McAuliffe quipped to the News-Press. “He served in the (former Governor Bob) McDonnell administration, and they weren’t able to do half of what we’ve done. So he has nothing to say, so he reverts to fake
According to the rules of the “Oxford-style” debate that was conducted Sunday, proponents favoring the passage of the $120 million George Mason High School bond referendum won over their antagonists.
It looks as if John McCain’s Senate colleagues are going to test him once again. And the health insurance of millions of Americans depends on the outcome.
Gillespie Ducks Issue of