Residential real estate assessments in Falls Church City tanked this past year, down an average 5.5% for single family homes, and 6.5% for residential condominiums. Overall, assessments were up by slightly less than 1%, mostly due to new residential and commercial construction. See News Briefs, page 7
An Arlington Circuit Court judge yesterday signed off on the certification of a referendum question proposing a charter change to limit residential use on any future or pending mixed-use development project that will now appear on the May 6 City of Falls Church municipal election ballot. See News Briefs, page 7
Some women in their 30s, 40s and early 50s who favor Barack Obama feel that women have moved past that menare-pigs, woe-is-me, sisters-must-sticktogether, pantsuits-are-powerful era that Hillary’s campaign has lately revived with a vengeance. See page 11
When a frumpy governess gets fired, she becomes the social secretary for a nightclub singer. Based on a 1938 novel, “Miss Pettigrew” stars Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. See page 26
Index Editorial..................2 Letters................2, 6 Crime Report.........5 Comment........10-13 Community News & Notes..............14-15 Business News & Notes...................18 Sports.............19-20 Press Pass..........22 Roger Ebert....26-28 Calendar.........30-31
Sodoku................33 Comics.................33 Crossword...........33 Restaurant Spotlight ............................34 Classified Ads......38 Business & Services Directory..............39 Weekly Focus 40-41 Critter Corner.......42 Business Listing..43
Two years ago, many citizens were disappointed when the City of Falls Church held its first uncontested election for City Council in two decades. This year, as the filing deadline passed Tuesday, no less than eight candidates have filed to compete for three Council seats, making it the most heavily contested race in the City’s history.
In addition, four School Board candidates competing for three seats will be on the May 6 municipal election ballot, as well a charter-change referendum that, if passed, would limit mixed use development in the City’s commercial corridors. While the City’s oldest and most established civic organization, the Citizens for a Better City (CBC), threw its lot in with the re-election ambitions of Mayor Robin Gardner, Vice
Mayor Lindy Hockenberry and newcomer Lawrence Webb, as well as the group’s premier nemesis, former Vice Mayor Sam Mabry, surprised many by throwing his hat in the ring at the last minute. Mabry, who has run three times previously, winning twice, is considered a behindthe-scenes mastermind of the failed effort to derail the justContinued on Page 5
The biggest development project ever seen, much less enabled by government re-zoning and special exceptions, in the City of Falls Church was approved unanimously by its City Council last Thursday night, paving the way for the Atlantic Realty Company to spend $317 million building a new hotel, Class A office building, supermarket, blocks of retail, six-level parking deck, street, sidewalk and parkland improvements, and hundreds of residential condos, rental units, and townhouses. By conservative estimates, the project will generate a net $2.8 million annually in tax revenue to the City coffers, an amount that would otherwise cost the City’s residential taxpayers more than a 10% boost in their tax current rate. While groundbreaking is expected this summer, and the entire project will take over four years to complete, last Thursday’s vote provided hope for City taxpayers on the eve of what is expected to be one of the City’s roughest budget deliberations in its 59 year history as an independent jurisdiction. In fact, the City Assessor’s grim new numbers on the value of residential and commercial real estate in Falls Church were due out yesterday (see story, elsewhere this edition), confronting the City staff and Council with some very tough choices before the adoption of the next fiscal year budget by the end of April. Already, the School Board has proposed the elimination of eight support positions in its system, the first absolute Continued on Page 4