Falls Church News-Press 3-23-2023

F.C.’s Eden Center Plans

Last Saturday, the first of four “pop ups” at Falls Church’s Vietnamese-American Eden Center were hosted by the City’s East End Small Area Plan (SAP) team, to discuss the plan and engage with the Center’s largely Viet-American community for input.

The East End SAP team spent the day at the fountain outside the Saigon West section of the Center, where a constant and bustling crowd surrounded the table throughout the event —, many of whom had heard rumors surrounding the East End SAP, primarily that the Eden Center could be torn down.

Also in attendance were about ten volunteers with Viet Place Collective (VPC), a grassroots organization concerned with preserving and promoting the Vietnamese community’s legacy in the region. “With the pop ups, we want to ensure that

From March 10th through March

Meridian’s ‘The Love Doctor’ Preview

On March 23rd —25th, Merdian High School’s theater company will perform Moliere’s comedy “The Love Doctor,” a performance full of fun and laughs for all ages

See Page 5

18th, SXSW — the annual South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas – premiered over 100 films this year, and two have something in

common: ties to the Little City.

“Join or Die” and “Riders on the Storm” are two documentary features focusing on modern-day

MHS Environmental Club’s Hydroponic System Update

Recently, Meridian’s Environmental Club harvested produce from 96 seed pods, amounting to almost nine pounds of edible greens. Read about how it all came about.

See Page 9

national and international issues. Their directors, Rebecca and Peter

Parking A Unanimous First Priority for Eden Center Merchants

the city can properly gather input from the Vietnamese businesses and patrons,” said VPC Core Organizer Binh Ly, who noted that they also filled in as interpreters. The city came equipped with handouts in Vietnamese and English, however the interpreter they contracted with was a no-show for the event.

“Kudos to the Viet Place Collective for helping bridge the city staff’s outreach efforts to the businesses and giving them a voice,” said city Vice Mayor Letty Hardi, who grew up going to Eden Center in the 1990s, and says small business ownership is part of her own family’s immigrant story. “I know first-hand the Eden Center is a special place. We have a tremendous responsibility to celebrate the culture and support the diverse businesses and livelihoods in the [East End] Small Area Plan that can be enjoyed by future genera -

tions.”

Though supportive of the pop ups (a popular term these days for informal and sometimes spontaneous events) as an outreach effort to the actual businesses at Eden Center, VPC volunteers were critical of how the city has been handling outreach efforts when discussing the East End SAP. “When the city thinks of Eden Center, they just speak with the landlord’s representative.” said Ly, who added that, up until the events, the city had largely left out the business owners most vulnerable to any change in the area.

“We are trying to break this negligent pattern, and remind the city that this is a community of over 100 small businesses with specific needs.”

Posted on a permanent bulletin board installed along Eden Center’s outer walkway, six copies of notices behind its glass window emphasized “Eden Center is not being sold or redeveloped,” and that “many businesses have current leases that can extend beyond the year

2060!” Though the notice also continued to encourage participation in the city’s pop ups, no dates or times were given.

Organizers pointed out that the notice made no mention of the Vietnamese presence at the Center, let alone any cultural preservation — and that all six copies were in English. “The landlord rarely communicates to tenants ‘in-language,’” said Ly.

Top on VPC’s list of priorities is for the City Council to fund a full-time Vietnamese Outreach Coordinator. “We’re out with the community to make sure Vietnamese folks are being fully informed,” said Jenn Tran, Outreach Coordinator with VPC, who cited a lack of education and transparency from the city and landlord as recent cause for the rampant spreading of misinformation, including that the Eden Center would be closed as a result of the East End SAP. “We’ve been diligently building relationships with Eden business owners to understand their concerns and hopes for the future, not to

make assumptions or impose the city’s idea of ‘good planning.’”

With all parties expressing the same desire — for Eden Center to remain a hub of Vietnamese culture and commerce — it may initially be difficult to understand the source of the community’s criticism

without understanding the history that brought them to the parcel in the middle of Seven Corners.

Before the Vietnam War, about 15,000 Vietnamese immigrants

Continued on Page 14

GMHS Alums Found Inspiration for Filmmaking in Little City

Davis for the first and Jason Motlagh the latter, are all alums of the former George Mason High School — now Meridian.

After their showings in Austin, which Falls Church Vice Mayor Letty Hardi made the trip down to see, the makers of the two films talked with the News-Press

Siblings Rebecca (Class of ‘01) and Peter Davis (Class of ‘08) co-directed “Join or Die,” a documentary about why someone should join a club and how “the fate of America may depend on it.” The idea of the film came from Rebecca after having been a producer at NBC News and seeing various tragedies such as school shootings and teen suicides. Through Peter, she came to know about social scientist Robert Putnam, whose book “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” dives into the decline of social capital in the United States since 1950.

Peter Davis, a student

in Putnam’s Community in America course while attending Harvard University, said he was able to connect what Putnam talked about in his book about social isolation and a “decline in community” with what Rebecca was seeing in her news stories. When Putnam was about to retire from Harvard in 2018, Rebecca and Peter said that was when they decided to direct a film about Putnam and his view on how clubs/associations/shared missions can save a democracy in crisis.

“It’s been five years since we started this journey,” Rebecca said. “We were really looking for a chance to zoom out and do something that got a little closer to what was the root cause of some national problems.”

As for how the Little City inspired them to direct and produce the film, Rebecca said her and Pete wouldn’t have been able to make the movie had they not grown up in Falls Church. They said they witnessed their mother and father both being civically involved in the community, the former being a

recycling coordinator for their neighborhood and the latter being on an English as a Second Language (ESOL) committee for the local school system.

“It wasn’t a reach for us to understand what Bob was talking about why a strong civic life is good for the community,” Rebecca said. “It was a very civic time when we were growing up in Falls Church and I know Falls Church remains a

very civic community today.”

The title “Join or Die” comes from the famous Benjamin Franklin political cartoon about the disunity in colonial America. Putnam’s words and work are discussed throughout the documentary, mainly on how joining a civic group is an important factor in a functioning nation, as well as how these groups affect people individually.

“We have these huge projects

all across the country trying to get people to stop smoking for public health or try to solve air pollution for asthma,” Peter said, “but we don’t have a robust public health movement of saying ‘Our country has to start valuing social connection for individuals’ sake, not just for America.’”

As for how the co-directors

Continued on Page 21

Art and Frame Of Falls Church

Is Expanding

In its 22nd year, this popular City business is growing and moving to a new location in April. Artist studios and small business office spaces are available for rent at 307 E. Annandale Road, a Gateway location into the City of Falls Church. Studio/office spaces range from 102 to 910 square feet. Floor to ceiling windows in every space and plenty of onsite parking!

Contact Tom Gittins at: artandframefc@gmail.com

For more details and to arrange to see the remaining available spaces.

Prepare for Love and Laughs from Meridian’s ‘The Love Doctor’

From Thursday, March 23rd through Sunday the 25th, Meridian High School’s theater company will be performing “The Love Doctor,” a french comedy written by 17th-century playwright Molière. This will be the second comedy the company has performed since last year’s spring show “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged).”

Also referred to as “Love Is the Best Medicine,” Moliere’s “The Love Doctor” is the story of a young woman in love with a “dashing” young man. When the woman’s mother engages her to an older man, the woman pretends to be sick to try to get out of the marriage. Meanwhile, the woman’s sister gets a “fool” to pretend to be a doctor to take care of her, after which then “madness ensues.”

Following the success of “The Complete Works of Shakespeare

director/teacher Shawn Northrip said he wanted to look for another opportunity for “laughs.” Having been a fan of Moliere’s “The Flying Doctor” — “The Love Doctor” being a short part of that play — Northrip said his growing interest sent him “on a journey” to read other works by the French playwright to “try and find the right opportunity” for the company.

Auditions for the “The Love Doctor” consisted of Northrip looking for students “who took the material and made me laugh.” He said the designing of the set was a “beast,” as it was driven by the “ambitions” of students in the school’s Technical Theater class.

Meridian junior Julia Wolf, portraying the character Monsieur de Fonandres in the production, said she wanted to audition because she wanted to get involved with theater after being unable to enroll in Theater class this school year.

Wolf said her favorite part

of this year’s production is the “witty, well-timed jokes and misunderstandings” throughout the show, as well as working with fellow cast members who are “so much fun to work with.” She said audiences should look forward to each character’s “quirk,” whether it be their “movements, voice or props.”

As for her character Monsieur de Fonandres, Wolf said she loves “how arrogant and funny” he is.

“[Monsieur de Fonandres] thinks his way of medicine is the best and will cure everyone, when really he’s a 17th-century doctor who has no idea what he is doing,” Wolf said.

As with every production of a show, one challenge Northrip said he faced was trying to keep the story “funny,” as the cast and crew have had to rehearse for eight weeks now. To keep the “energy up,” Northrip held “crazy rehearsals,” such as “wear funny clothes” day and “have a funny walk” day.

Without wanting to reveal much about the show, Northrip said

his favorite part of the show is a moment toward the end that makes him “cackle every time” and that the audience should look out for.

“I hope the cast gets a lot of laughs as [a] reward for all of their hard work,” Northrip said. “The audience can expect the cast will go to any length to entertain them.”

features a great

“The Love Doctor” will be performed on March 23, 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. The show will be streamed on Showtix4u.com on March 26. Tickets will be sold at the door; $5 for students and $10 for general admission. A sign language support showing will be on March 25.

F.C. Projects: Ahead of the ‘Pause’

The wisest observers, according to our sources, say that we are not out of the woods on the current banking crisis, noting that banks everywhere are scared and locking down in terms of lending and that these current conditions will not abate for a year or more.

This being said, everybody is trying to assess what this will mean for their budgets and their development plans. The question was broached at Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce and Merrifield Business Association to the region’s two state lawmakers, Del. Marcus Simon and Sen. Chap Petersen. Both are seeking re-election in reconfigured districts that include the City of Falls Church. Simon having served as the City’s man in the House of Delegates for four terms already, and Petersen, though a veteran of 16 years of elected service in Richmond, now vying in a Democratic primary this spring to represent Falls Church for the first time. Neither professed to have a crystal ball for forecasting the impact of the current crisis for Virginians, other than to note that, unlike North Carolina, for example, banking is not a major industry here.

It can be expected, though, that the $3 million budget surplus the state enjoyed this past year that the governor and Democratic lawmakers have been fighting over how to deploy (the usual options being tax cuts versus education spending), will not be available next year. The fighting will heat up in the context of this fall’s state elections and next year’s big presidential election over efforts by Democrats, now in the minority in the House of Delegates, to deter book banning (Simon says he has a personal lending library in front of his home where controversial books are offered to borrowers), codifying the Roe v. Wade decision in the state constitution and repealing the state’s constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, plus whatever gains on gun control can be hoped for in the current Richmond environment.

While the current banking crisis can be expected to put a slammer on new lending for development, for example, the City of Falls Church is now the envy of the entire region for the number of construction cranes now dotting the Little City’s skyline. Three projects are full steam ahead now in this little 2.2 square miles, the funding having already been secured, on top of everything else that’s been built here the last two decades. They are the Hoffman-led massive 10-acre development adjacent the new Meridian High School campus, rising now over the grave of the former George Mason High, the Insight Group’s major work at the intersection of Broad and Washington where a deluxe Whole Foods and new expanded home for our local theater troupe, Creative Cauldron, is set to go, and the Modero, formerly known as Founders Row 2, just getting started.

Falls Church citizens are very fortunate to benefit from the huge revenues generated by these, their funding coming ahead of the current “pause.”

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2. Play no favorites, never mix business and editorial policy

3. Do not let the news columns reflect editorial content

4. Publish the news that is public property without fear or favor of friend or foe.

5. Accept no charity and ask no favors.

6. Give ‘value received’ for every dollar you take in.

7. Make the paper show a profit if you can, but above all keep it clean, fearless and fair.

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Response to Del.

Simon’s Column

Editor,

I know Del. Marcus Simon to be a hard-working, intelligent state legislator. That’s why I found his recent column on the redistricting process (“Richmond Report,” March 16) so dispiriting.

Partisanship in Richmond is not the result of redistricting, it’s the result of geography. In the current political climate, Northern Virginia and Richmond will elect Democrats and more rural parts of the state will elect Republicans. Incumbent protection only serves to make elections (including primaries) less competitive.

What Simon characterizes as an “ill-considered” constitutional amendment (approved overwhelmingly by voters across the state) was the handiwork of two longtime Democratic senators, Dick Saslaw and George Barker. It was only after Democrats gained control of the General Assembly that they opposed the amendment, arguing that redistricting would end up in the Republican-controlled Virginia Supreme Court. But their feared nightmare never occurred. After the Virginia Redistricting Commission broke down in partisan rancor, the court appointed two special masters to draw the maps. Their districts were judged by non-partisan analysts, such as the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, to be “some of the fairest and best” adopted during the 2020 cycle, not the “redistricting fiasco” that Simon describes.

Yes, there will be pain involved. As of this writing, Simon himself may have to run against Democratic Del. Kaye Kory. But the special masters concluded that the approved criteria did not include protecting incumbents. Simon characterizes their work as “packing us all into nice, geometrically pretty districts.” The special masters, on the other hand, noted that the previous, legislator-crafted districts split 46 counties 78 times in the case of the State Senate, and 60 counties 138 times for the House of Delegates. Instead the special masters focused on the needs of voters and preserving the “communities of interest” where they lived.

This year’s elections will force many legislators to “up their games” and voters to make some tough choices. Arguably, Dick Saslaw became a more attentive legislator

after 2019, when he faced primary opposition and won by fewer than 500 votes. Let’s wait and see what happens before predicting that the new reforms will lead to more partisanship.

As a member of Virginia’s redistricting commission, Simon should address ways that the process could be improved for 2030. But providing more protection for incumbents is not one of them.

Sara Fitzgerald Editor,

Clarification on Little League Story

What a great article about a valuable volunteer organization—Falls Church Kiwanis Little League (FCKLL) who is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this Saturday at Westgate Field at 8:30 a.m.! Greater Falls Church and Little League Baseball have had a rich history together since 1948 when first established by our granddads and great uncles and their wives!! As a ballplayer, 11 and 12 years old (‘71/’72), I directly received all the benefits and blessings that are the stated goals of FCKLL namely team play, honesty, fair play, understanding, sacrifice for others, encouragement i.e. characterbuilding! Most important to me was the impact of my Head Coach on my pre teenage chapter of life—Mr. MacNevin was the Dad I was without and set the right path clearly for me and the other boys too! Thank you to Mr MacNevin and ALL the coaches both mine AND the other teams’ too back then!

To clarify one issue noted in the wonderful article, FCKLL back in early ‘70s was in fact a large and robustly vibrant League of kids and parents and sponsors! There were actually three divisions called Eastern, Western and National! I am so thankful for my experience to be on a winning team (LIONS) my final year and it is all thanks to that wonderful volunteerism that makes America great! Dedicated coaching was crucial along with family and community support! NOTE PLS:

I understand there is an electronic memory page being designed to capture old photos and memories so please contact Erika at erika@ fckll.org for more info! See you Saturday! Play Ball!!

Faces of Falls Church

A Penny for Your Thoughts News of Greater Falls Church

Joyce Tadesse Kassa is focusing on organizing and running a clothing drive for Elshaddai Secondary Schools, which face ongoing war in Tigray, Ethiopia. About her project, Kassa said: “The people in this region had to leave everything and are in need of support. I personally am half Ethiopian and still have friends who face the struggles of seeing their country face the oppression that they shouldn’t have to. My Sustainable Development goal that I am connecting this project to is goal #1: working to reduce poverty. My personal goal in this project was to provide materials that will uplift a community, and help them feel comfortable, even through governmental hardships.”

To nominate someone for Faces please email us at Ktoland@fcnp.com. To be considered for Faces someone must be a member of the community and have done something you feel they should be recoginozed for. Falls Church News-Press reserves the right to use it’s discretion when it comes to who will be featured.

When I was in college, I enrolled in one of the first Public Administration classes offered at the University of Oregon. It was a senior level class, taught by a new professor from Wayne State University. I don’t remember the professor’s name, but I do remember his admonition to me, in front of the entire class, that women didn’t belong in public administration, and that I would be taking a job from a man. Mind you, this was at the very beginning of the fledgling women’s rights movement, before the Equal Rights Amendment debates of the early 1970s, and long before Title IX and other progressive legislation, but I remember thinking “don’t tell me what I can’t or shouldn’t do.” More than once, I wished that professor could see me now, after a lifetime spent in public administration and elective office.

Sadly, despite meeting and overcoming multiple challenges on the path to equal rights, many women today are facing the same old attitudes that relegated them to a second or third tier years ago. Few women were encouraged to run for public office, and those who did faced questions that are not allowed to be asked in job interviews today. The recent obituary of former U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder

noted that, when she was asked about balancing running for political office and motherhood, she replied “I have a brain and a uterus, and they both work.” Bravo, Pat! You spoke for millions of women who have been balancing careers and parenthood. It's ironic that such questions rarely are asked about men who have similar responsibilities, but different reproductive systems.

March is Women’s History Month, which highlights the achievements of women across the years, even though Women’s History Month only was designated as such by the federal government in 1987. Fairfax County has a long history of electing women leaders. In 1971, Jean Packard was the first woman elected at-large for county board chairman. In the early 1980s, when there were only nine members of the board, five of the members were female and, by 1988, six of the nine members were women, including Audrey Moore as chairman. When I first was elected in 1995, there were four women on the 10-member board, including Chairman Kate Hanley. Following the 2003 election, six of the 10 members were women; that number fell to five after the 2015 election, and the current three female members today. At present, only two women,

City of Falls Church CRIME REPORT

Week of March 13 - 19, 2023

Larceny from Vehicle, W Broad St, March 14, unknown suspect(s) removed an item of value from a vehicle on a sales lot.

Larceny from Building, Wilson Blvd, March 15, 3:18 PM, two male suspects took three large screen TV’s from a business, but were unable to load one on to their black Ford F150 pickup truck, as it was too large. Suspects described as: (S1) wearing dark clothing with a beard, and (S2) wearing light colored clothing with glasses.

Burglary, W Broad St, March 17, 3:10 AM, unknown suspect shattered the front door of a business and took items of value. Suspect described as an adult male, 6`00, slim build, 20-30 years of age, wearing gloves, a white hooded jacket, white pants, and white sneakers.

Hit and Run/Destruction of Property, W Broad St, March 17, 12:26 PM, unknown suspect, driving a stolen Jeep, drove on to the sidewalk, hit a pedestrian, a telephone utility box and two parked cars. Suspect

Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik and Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith, have filed for election to the board this year. To be sure, the job of Supervisor can be a tough one. Balancing needs, demands, and resources for tens of thousands of constituents is not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is easy.

As we extol Women’s History Month, it is appropriate to note that abuses of women suffragists during the “Night of Terror” more than 100 years ago happened right here in Fairfax County at the Lorton Workhouse. All they wanted was the right to vote. Today, girls in Iran are being poisoned at their schools, simply because they want to be educated. Similarly, girls in Afghanistan are forced to quit school, or allowed to attend schools where strict religious edicts are the only curriculum. Fear triumphs, and thousands of future leaders are discarded, simply because they are female. Never again should a girl anywhere be told what she can’t, or shouldn’t do!

 Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.

described as a black male, approximately 25 years old, with a beard and receding hairline, wearing a blue hoody with bleach print, and tan pants. Pedestrian declined medical care.

Stolen Auto, W Broad St, March 17, 12:45 PM, an 88-year-old male was loading groceries into his Ford Taurus which was then stolen. The victim received an injury to the back of his head and was transported by Medics. The suspect was identified as the same person involved in the hit and run/destruction of property. The vehicle was recovered in Fairfax County.

Drunk in Public, W Broad St, March 17, 6:15 PM, a male, 45, of Falls Church, VA, was arrested for Drunk in Public.

Carjacking/Malicious Wounding, W Broad St, March 19, 3:47 PM, a suspect assaulted and attempted to carjack a vehicle. A black male, who refused to identify himself, was arrested for Felony Carjacking, Felony Malicious Wounding and Destruction of Property. The victim was transported with non-life threatening injuries. The arrestee was identified as the same suspect involved in the previous stolen auto and hit and run/destruction of property. Charges are pending.

Truth Behind the Iraq Invasion On Its 20th Anniversary

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Among all else cluttering up the news headlines this week, the latest Trump stuff and matters relevant to the prospects of World War 3 (the Xi-Putin summit), it was noted that the week marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. That Godawful move, and the horrific Bush 2 administration that was responsible for it, have temporarily been eclipsed in the public consciousness by, in chronological order, the meltdown of the global financial system, followed by the engineered rise of a new explicitly fascist movement in the U.S. in the form of the fake “grasstops” Tea Party movement, then in the blatant treason of the Trump administration, with the commensurate degeneration of the Republican Party, monstrous criminal aggression in Ukraine of Trump ally Putin and increasing military posturing of Xi.

How distant and how seemingly irrelevant that 2003 invasion was, we might now contend. It came three years after what at the time was considered the most damaging blow to our democracy ever, the highly contested outcome of the 2000 presidential election that was decided by an incredible intervention from the Rehnquist Supreme Court.

Then, of course, came the attacks of September 11, 2001, which served as the backdrop for the heinous, unprovoked March 2003 Iraq invasion. That Iraq “war” is estimated to have cost more than 300,000 Iraqi lives, and over 8,000 American lives, and of course was eclipsed by the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan that persisted until Biden’s pull out two years ago this spring.

Almost all the news coverage and commentary of the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion has treated the incident as taken in isolation of everything that led to and followed it. But it was as much of an inflection point of the world’s descent into hell as any single event before or after.

It was based as much on a “big lie” as anything Trump has done

since. One of the cornerstones on that “big lie” was the notion, now commonly held, that it was based on a terrible miscalculation, that, in fact, Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, and that, as it turned out, everyone was wrong about that. .

That is total B-S. This writer was dishing out his weekly commentaries, just like this one, published in his newspaper, the mighty Falls Church News-Press and posted online, in the very belly of the beast, within veritable shouting distance of the Pentagon and White House, on a weekly basis from 1997 on, all the way to the present, a total of over 1,000 columns in all to date, and counting, including every week through all the debate over and eventual invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.

I reported then that there was plenty of evidence arguing against the notion that Hussein was harboring those weapons and was engaged in a nuclear buildup. There was a United Nations nuclear investigating commision on site insisting this. Wikipedia reported, “In January 2003, United Nations weapons inspectors reported that they had found no indication that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons or an active program.”

There was an abundance of evidence backing up the fact that the CIA could confirm only by 2005 that there were no weapons of mass destruction being developed by Hussein.

Therefore, the entire invasion and all its terrible consequences could easily have been avoided if only voices, like mine, had been heeded.

In the D.C. press corps there was total capitulation to the administration line, including among the vaunted White House correspondents, with the lone exception of the late “Dean of the White House Press Corps,” the pioneering Helen Thomas, who repeatedly called out the W. Bush officials on this.

She wound up being run out of town, virtually, having been set up to make ostensibly racist remarks, given that, among other things, none of her shamed press colleagues would come to her defense.

It wasn’t her remarks that were actually responsible, but her exposure of the Bush treachery behind the invasion of Iraq, that was the cause of her exit. But she and I and some others were alone in our criticisms which turned out to be spot on.

Our Man in Arlington

One casualty of the Missing Middle housing controversy: A rupture between the Arlington County Civic Federation and the local branch of the NAACP.

As planned for six months, the century-plus-old discussion group comprising delegates from neighborhood associations on March 14 finally approved (by a 75-32 vote with eight abstentions) its statement criticizing—harshly, in the eyes of some—the responsiveness of our county government on multiple fronts.

“It appears to many residents that the current community engagement methods are unevenly applied or have fundamentally changed and no longer consistently includes critical engagement principles and features, and where far-reaching decisions may be made without incorporating substantive resident input or broad community consensus,” reads a series of “whereas” bullet points in the 2,000-word document with 109 footnotes giving examples. Many feel the elected board and county manager “frequently dismiss concerns of individuals, civic groups, civic associations, multi-family residence associations, [and the civic federation] which historically have played an integral role in the county’s decision-making processes.” Also, officials frequently deploy outside consultants for a process that “from the perspective of many affected residents, lack transparency and seem to be designed to reach a single, predetermined conclusion.” The drafters

laid out complaints that the county ignores information requests and relies on faulty surveys.

The Arlington branch of the 100-plus-year-old NAACP, represented by Bryan Coleman—an advocate of Missing Middle rezoning to permit more multi-family housing types — had pressed for “an actionable document – not simply a litany of complaints and grievances.”

The NAACP version, shorter at 500 words and 15 footnotes, was intended to be less polarizing and less insulting to government officials. “CivFed must decide whether it wants to be merely expressive, or effective. The current draft resolution suffers from fatal defects that make it highly unlikely to prompt meaningful engagement or change from the county,” said the NAACP. In particular, “the draft channels grievances from a select few, relies on assumptions that county officials and staff do not share, and levies accusations that are unfair or unfounded. The core goal of this alternative is not to complain, but rather to convince.”

But after the federation version passed, the civil rights group, which had joined only in 2020, announced that the two groups were no longer aligned.

Civic Federation president John Ford told me the federation was disappointed. “CivFed and NAACP continue to share many goals, and the many associations and warm, respectful relationships we have built with our NAACP colleagues will endure,” he said. “We hope they may seek to rejoin us in the future.”

In another indicator that the

Missing Middle debate was intertwined with the federation vote to “restore public confidence” was the derision it prompted from YIMBYs of NoVa, a key advocate with many renters for the zoning changes. “Our local government always has room to improve its civic engagement and public accountability, although YIMBYs of Northern Virginia noted the poorly thought-out clauses of the resolution itself,” read its statement. The accompanying appendix, it continued, has typos and misstates YIMBY’s name, “appears to be little more than a 100-page laundry list of personal attacks, vague accusations of dismissiveness by county staff and board members, unfounded insinuations of conflicts of interest by Advisory Group appointees.” Spokeswoman Jane Green added that “60 percent of Arlingtonians are renters. That is not a special interest group.”

***

Arlington lost a key housing activist on March 4 with the passing of Margaret “Midge” Wholey. The longtime Democratic leader, along with her husband, former county board leader Joe Wholey, was among four couples who founded the notfor-profit Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing in 1993.

Mrs. Wholey, a public health nurse raised in Connecticut, came to Virginia a civil rights activist who participated in 1960s grape boycotts to aid farmworkers, housing of Vietnam war protesters, and picketing the then-segregated Arlington Hospital. Joe Wholey, a professor of public administration who was on the county board from 1971-78, survives her.

MHS Environmental Club Harvests & Donates from Hydroponic System

In December 2022, Environmental Club students at Meridian High School planted eight dozen seeds in a hydroponic growth system located right in the building. In February, the same students harvested produce from all 96 seed pods, which amounted to almost nine pounds of edible greens such as lettuce, basil, and cilantro.

According to senior and Environmental Club president Anna Dickson, Meridian has been growing produce hydroponically since last school year. “This year, we started planting the lettuce and herbs in the hydroponic tables and then would tend to them throughout the next month or so,” Dickson said. “After six weeks, we had a meeting where we collected lettuce and herbs and

to grow food and makes it easy to donate surplus harvest. In the school’s case, HOH is delivering the harvest to Food for Others.

Hands on Harvest was an idea that came about during the Covid-19 pandemic when local food pantries were experiencing an increase in demand for food. Their mission is to increase the amount of access to fresh produce and at the same time, reduce the amount of food waste. By being part of the Grow A Row program, Meridian was able to use their hydroponic garden to donate around nine pounds of fresh produce to people who need it. The Environmental Club students plan to continue this project and provide a sustainable way of growing and harvesting delicious vegetation. “We had to deconstruct, wash, and clean everything, and then replant,” Dickson said. “We are currently growing a second round

significantly less water.

This means that Meridian’s single vivarium room is able to hold four hydroponic systems, along with many other sustainable projects. “Harvesting took only 20-25 minutes, since there were a lot of kids to help out and we used an assembly line system,” Dickson said. Another convenience about this system is that there is no need to use pesticides or herbicides to protect crops. Meridian has not experienced any issues with bugs or insects eating the greens, and this has improved the quality and quantity of the donations.

Hydroponics is an amazing way to combat climate change because it prevents the cross contamination of soil and water with fertilizer. Not only do they provide a simple, clean way to efficiently grow fresh produce, but hydroponic gardens also help build more sustainability in the community.

To set an example here in Falls Church City, Meridian currently has two tower gardens and two nutrient film technique systems that successfully grow greens, vegetables, and native wetland plants. After a successful first round of growth and

harvest, the project continues to expand as Meridian students do their part to create a more sustainable future.

“It’s been interesting to see how fast you can grow beautiful vegetables, and it was really cool to have found an organization who can use this produce for people who truly need it,” Dickson said. “It gave us a real sense of accomplishment.”

Creative Cauldron’s ‘The Snow Queen’ Brings Warmth to the Stage

The coldest heart will be warmed by the entrancing story on stage now at Creative Cauldron, “The Snow Queen,” acted by a mostly children’s cast who’ve been in rehearsals since January.

Prepare to be captivated by an adorable crew, script and designs to take you on a snowy journey through an eerie forest. Writers and directors, Laura Connors Hull and Lenny Mendez, have added humorous lines to make old folks laugh in this adaptation by Ellen Selby and PJ Audenzia of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale he wrote in 1844.

In a magical landscape the snow is falling all around in the bewitching narrative of an evil “snow queen” who captures hearts and turns them into ice. Incredible designer Margie Jervis has dressed the queen (Lenny Mendez) in icy white, glittering sparkles from head to toe.

Storyteller Ole Lukeoje (Gus Knapp) introduces us to Kai (Henry Gill) and Gerda (Zoe Folse-Sibert) whose strong friendship unravels when the mean queen captures Kai, causing Kai and Gerda to split up when he goes missing-in-action.

Like all good friends whose relationship remains steadfast when things go awry, Gerda refuses to accept her friend’s disappearance and it’s off she wanders to find Kai.

Through an odd forest, she strides confidently and unafraid, willing to take on all that’s evil in the search for her friend, believing in herself that she will find Kai.

On her hunt, she encounters several booby traps of characters, including my favorites, the “flowers” adorned with the highest headgear one can imagine for children (or adults) to wear and move in. These “flowers” are especially talented with lots of good advice and they sing!

(Jervis’s costumes and scenic designs are prizewinners. The Flowers are Madeline Varho, Cora Brock, Isabella Silverman, Emma Howell, Aline Dela Cruz, Alison Harman, Andrea Valenzuela, Marianne Meade, Sophie Silva, Emerson Thiebert, Kelso Via Hunt, June Tuss, Emerson Kelleher, Sarah O’Halloran and Clare Corley.)

Plus, there are “weeds” in this group, down below! Bad weeds, irritating weeds, irksome little upstarts which lay down and mess up the beautiful landscape. (Emre Silva,

Alec Goldenberg and Miles Weiss are these “weeds.”)

Then there is the “river,” another of my favorites in this vast character count of 25, portrayed by Diane Alison and Marie Solander who are held together like conjoined twins with a rod across their shoulders and a blue, waving gown flowing behind them as they continuously move in unison and talk in an hilarious scene with smart lines. I almost cried a river.

On her way to find Kai, Gerda also meets fancily dressed crows (Margaret Kruckenberg and Madeline Corley) in wedding gear, ready to say their marriage vows.

There’s also a big band of little people dressed in black whose marching in the woods to the sounds of their boots’ clapping reminded me instantly of the “Wizard of Oz” and its foot soldiers in chorus: “Oh-ee-oh! Oh-ee-oh!” (Matt Connor’s magnificent choreography, music and harmonies with lyrics by Stephen Gregory Smith, and music supervision by Warren Freeman heighten the delightful experience.)

All the necessary rehearsals of the theatre’s Learning Ensemble for children in grades 3 on up culminate in outstanding performances by the

cast which exudes immense confidence and maturity in multiple roles, from the old women (including Nola Folse-Sibert), “very old men,” robbers and more.

Other creative team members are E. Augustus Knapp with the Learning Ensemble; Nicholas J. Goodman, stage management; Lynn Joslin, lighting; Will Stevenson, writer and James Morrison, projections.

Supposedly, Mr. Andersen wrote this revenge tale after opera singer Jenny Lind spurned his advances.

Whose heart was cold?

Through April 2, 2023. Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. and (Sunday), 4 p.m. Live stream, April 1, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 for students; $20, adults; $15, livestream. Family 4-pak, $65. Use code 4PK. 410 South Maple Ave., #116, Falls Church. Guests must wear masks.

Look for the array of colorful flower hats hanging on the wall in Creative’s lobby.

Shakespeare Theatre Delivers Bold, Modern ‘King Lear’

In the film Ran, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa showed us how Shakespeare’s powerful play King Lear could be transferred across cultures to medieval Japan. The current production of the Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Klein Theatre in Washington, D.C., demonstrates this drama, which addresses such modern concerns such as dysfunctional families, dementia, and the lust for war and power, also transfers across time. Indeed, this tragic drama is just as relevant today as when it was written some fourhundred years ago.

In the play, the aging king of the play’s title is seeking to retire. He foolishly elects to parcel out portions of his kingdom, with the best portion to be given to the daughter who loves him the most. Each daughter is called forth to profess her love for their father, but the first two daughters spin dramatic but insincere tales of their love — their intent being on monetary and property gain. The last daughter, Cordelia, is repelled by this insincerity and tells her father that she loves him only as her duty should require. The king, who in fact

adores Cordelia, is infuriated by this plain-spoken reply and banishes both her and the Earl of Kent, who has taken up her cause. Lear then divides all the inheritances that would have been hers between the two evil sisters, starting a riveting tale of vanity, greed, and war, but also of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

What makes the Shakespeare Theatre Company production, directed by Simon Godwin, groundbreaking is its bold choice to use a modern setting, with the three sisters giving their speeches at public-relations podiums and Lear and other nobles in the play dressed as modern military dictators surrounded by ubiquitous nationalistic flags. The play’s staging effectively evokes a militaristic mood, employing airplane hangar doors as a backdrop to serve as everything from the king’s entrance from his plane to the walls of castles. Similarly, a wrecked airplane serves as the hovel in which Lear and a loyal few live in banishment, adding to the atmosphere of countries at war. These updates work well, serving to highlight both the timeliness and timelessness of the play, though this reviewer found Cordelia’s portrayal at one point as

a triumphant airplane pilot returning to Britain from France to be a bit of a stretch.

The acting is superb. Patrick Page is truly magnificent as King Lear, bringing out both the passion and pathos of the character — the king’s foolishness, his desire to live life to the fullest, his sadness at betrayal, his father-like care of his court fool (an excellent and humorous Michael Milligan), and finally his love for his estranged daughter Cordelia, played to great effect here by Cailen Fu.

Julian Elijah Martinez is an energetic Edmund, and Rosa Gilmore (as wicked sister Goneril) has mighty stage presence. Craig Wallace as Gloucester is impressive, conveying concern for Lear-the-man and pitying Lear-the-king’s foolish choices, even as he himself makes similarly poor choices in his own household. While the costumes and sets are both beautifully designed (by Emily Rebholz and Daniel Soule, respectively) and modern, the language is Shakespearean. Large projected titles appear above the stage to assist the audience in understanding changes in location, which are not always obvious from the dialogue. Also noteworthy are the show’s special

effects, especially Lear’s famous scene in a raging tempest, as he describes the storm’s “all-shaking thunder” and bids it “strike flat the thick rotundity of the world,” both in a literal and metaphorical sense.

Lighting designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew creates the right atmospherics in more somber and serious moments of the play, and composer Michael Bruce’s haunting music adds to the ambience of the performance.

The Shakespeare Theatre’s King Lear is a stunning production

which employs modern style and traditional language to depict both the devastating power of greed and the redemptive power of love. It is also a wonderful testimony to the power of Shakespeare and how his plots continue to provide insight into the events of today’s world. The production runs through April 16, 2023, at the Klein Theatre in Washington, D.C. The show is most recommended for mature audiences due to sexual content and graphic violence.

F���� C����� NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL

Arrest Made in 2 Attempted Carjacking Incidents in F.C.

City of Falls Church Police announced yesterday that the individual arrested on Sunday, March 19, is the same person wanted for a stolen vehicle, carjacking, and hit and run on the Friday before. Exact charges are pending, and the man’s name and photo will be released once available.

“I want to thank our officers and dispatch who persevered through the numerous incidents,” said Police Chief Mary Gavin. “And a big thank you to the community members who stopped to help the victims and called in tips. The ‘See Something, Say Something’ mantra helped us immensely with this arrest.”

It’s been reported that one such citizen hero is a City Hall employee working in the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office, Sam Freeman.

On Friday, March 17, at about 12:30 p.m., police responded to 1200 W. Broad St. for a reported hit and run. The suspect drove onto a sidewalk, hit a pedestrian, telephone utility box, and two parked cars. The pedestrian did not need medical care.

The suspect then fled to a shopping center parking lot where he possibly injured a person and stole their vehicle. That person was transported to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

On Sunday, March 19, at about 3:45 p.m., police responded to the 1000 block of W. Broad St. for a report of an assault and attempted carjacking. One victim was transported to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Based on tips called in immediately from the area, police were able to locate and arrest the suspect, who matched the exact description of the suspect from Friday’s incidents, including wearing the same clothes.

Anyone with information, photos, or video should contact Detective Henderson at 703-241-5053 (TTY 711) or rhenderson@fallschurchva.gov.

New Baseball Field in Tysons Set to Open

Capital One is set to kick off the inaugural season of its newly built baseball field in Tysons. Capital One Park will host its first- ever games on Friday, March 31, with a double-header between Arlington’s Marymount University and

Centenary University from New Jersey.

Approved by the Fairfax County Planning Commission in October, the park represents the first step toward developing the 6.9-acre site known as Capital One East.

Sen. Warner Tweets on Anniversary of ERA

Virginia Senator Mark Warner yesterday marked the anniversary of the original passage of the Equal Rights Amendment with the following Tweet: “Today marks the anniversary of Congress approving the Equal Rights Amendment. Now an arbitrary timeline is one of the final barriers to getting this ratified –which is why I’m on legislation to cut the red tape and secure equal justice under law.”

Fairfax ‘Friends of Trees’ Award To Be Presented

Fairfax Supervisor Chair Jeff McKay and the county’s Design and Environmental Achievement Award Planning Committee will host an event honoring the 2022 recipients of the Friends of Trees Awards.

The award ceremony will take place Tuesday, March 28, at 5:30 p.m. at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA 22035.

McKay Reports 300 Opioid Overdoses in Fairfax Last Year

In 2022 there were over 300 nonfatal opioid overdoses and 45 fatal overdoses in the Fairfax County Health District, according to Fairfax County Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay.

“In our county and around the country, a growing area of concern continues to be overdoses involving youth. Specifically, in recent years we have seen that Fentanyl, even in the smallest doses, has been a major culprit in fatal overdoses,” he said in a report. “I ask that as a community we all stay vigilant and informed so we can work toward curbing opioid overdoses. Knowing the signs of over dose, having the ability to properly recognize authentic and counterfeit pills, and having access to resources can make an enormous difference.”

Mark's Pub is Turning 5

Falls Church School News & Notes

Help Out the Track and Field Team

The Meridian Track & Field Team is excited to host two home meets this year. One is on Wednesday, March 29th, and the other is on Wednesday, April 12th. If one doesn’t know, track & field meets require a small village to run, and they need volunteers to help with timing, running field events, and concessions. They will provide all necessary materials for all volunteer positions. Sign up to help at signupgenius.com.

The Lasso Seeks Help to Fund Print Copies

The Lasso is an entirely studentrun newspaper at Meridian High School. They are currently fundraising for the spring magazine and seek advertisers. The magazine will be distributed around Falls Church and at Meridian High School in early April. The money from the adver-

tisements helps to buy print copies. Please reach out to eic.lasso@gmail. com if interested in purchasing an advertisement or to provide a donation.

25 Students Qualify for Service Recognition

As of Tuesday, March 14th, twenty-five Meridian high students have qualified for National Community Service Award recognition. These students have been using Innerview, Meridian’s newly adopted service learning platform, to capture the work they are doing in their school, local, and global community related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Buy 3D Printed Jewelry to Support Robotics

The MHS robotics team, 1418, sells 3D-printed jewelry to fundraise for upcoming competitions and seasons. They must be ordered by April 1st. The first competition will be held

at Hayfield Secondary School on March 18 and 19.

For any questions, reach out to @1418roboticsmhs on Instagram or at robotics1418@gmail.com.

Students Release ‘Lines of Inquiry’

Mrs. Mary Kate Hughes’ 5th grade students have worked hard during Tiger Pause learning the skills needed to produce a podcast (techni cal skills, writing skills, production, direction, recording, editing). Thanks to an FCEPTA grant, they have the equipment they need to share their message with the community now.

The podcast can be located on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts by searching for “Lines of Inquiry” “Episode 2: Persuasion.”

MHS Shines at Regional KidWind Challenge

On Wednesday, March 15th, two teams from Meridian High School traveled to Shenandoah

University to compete in the regional KidWind Challenge. This challenge is open to students in grades 5-12 and encourages students to use wind and solar energies creatively and innovatively.

These teams comprising Paige Kessman, Delaney Flanagan, Emily Borum,

Clementine Kim, Lucy Hladky, Ben Bernsteen, Kaitlyn Hendrikson, Henry Nguyen, Sam Fried, Cameron Dunn, and Zubin Basil performed exceptionally well and earned first and second-place recognition, respectively. Additionally, both teams have qualified for the state level of this competition.

Spring Sports Are Underway At Meridian High School

It’s officially springtime, which means that Meridian High School’s baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, and tennis teams have taken to the field. The first week of the new season got off to a fast start, with a number of the squads already finding their way into the win column. Baseball opened up in style

on Wednesday, playing host to Thomas Jefferson, where they won 10-0 in six innings while being propelled by Grant Greiner’s perfect game. Then on Friday they hosted Seton and won 10-9 in a massive comeback effort after trailing 8-0, thanks to Zander Greene’s walk-off double. Their next game will be this Wednesday as they visit Thomas Edison.

The boys’ soccer team also

came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, winning 6-1 at North Stafford in their opener on Wednesday and then coming home to beat William Monroe 6-2 on Friday. The girls’ soccer team tied Monroe on the road on Friday, with the game ending in a 0-0 draw. Both teams will be off this coming week and will be back in action

at home and the boys visiting Park View in Sterling.

The most dominant victory of all belonged to boys’ lacrosse, who walloped DC International at home on Thursday to the tune of 19-2 to start the year. They’ll look to stay hot this Friday when they visit Brentsville, meanwhile the girls, who have not

Girls’ softball was the only squad to take a loss during opening week, falling 2-3 at home to Wakefield on Thursday, but they’ll have a chance on Monday to avenge that as they play at Falls Church High. That leaves only tennis, where neither the boys or girls competed this week due to postponements, as they are now scheduled to open up on Wednesday

A Theory on Why a Southern Town Has a Lincoln Avenue

It seems puzzling to moderns why a town like Falls Church— steeped in southern history with some 19th-century pro-slavery sympathies—would choose to honor Abraham Lincoln on a thoroughfare.

Lincoln Ave., which hugs the W&OD trail in a leafy residential neighborhood known as Sherwood, is one of hundreds across the country that long ago honored the president slain in 1865. Some clues as to how the city’s version was named were recently dug up at the history room of the Mary Riley Styles Library and from a historian’s work marking a noteworthy and handsome home.

When was it named? A scan of the surviving minutes of the Falls Church Town Council beginning in 1875 (the year the town was incorporated in Fairfax County) found a single mention. The town’s first 20 years were a period of road-building—Joseph E. Birch (later mayor) was an early “Overseer of Roads.” When the

managers and attorneys planning what became the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad appeared before the council in 1896 and 1897, they submitted a legal document to Mayor John Payne. Dated Nov. 16, 1897, it stated that the company “shall have the right to construct its railway, the same to consist of but one track on the south edge of Lincoln Avenue from Little Falls Street to Great Falls Street.” Today, of course, that is the W&OD trail run by NOVA Parks.

A visit to Lincoln Ave. pulls one quickly to the DePutron House—known today also as “Oak Haven” at 508 Lincoln. The Sherwood subdivision goes back to 1891 and is one of Virginia’s oldest. An auction was held in June 1891 for 230 choice lots on the 217 acres, according to a 2012 Washington Post profile. So it’s likely the street was named soon after.

But why Lincoln? The details on the official city marker for the DePutron house (the sign funded by the Victorian Society at Falls Church) says it was built in 189394 by Jacob C. DePutron and wife

Mary Sherwood (married in 1866).

Some key details were highlighted last year by Ronald Anzalone, chair of Falls Church Historical Commission and a retired federal preservation specialist.

For the online Historical Marker Database and “Find a Grave,” he supplied the vital fact that Jacob DePutron (18431926) was a Union soldier during the Civil War. Originally from Philadelphia, he settled in Falls Church, and during World War I was “an important witness for William Henderson, an AfricanAmerican who alleged an assault by a conductor when he was pulled from a train car on the Arlington and Fairfax Railroad because he did not allow a white person to enter the car first. Henderson won his case,” the text notes, “and DePutron was hanged in effigy from a light pole at East Falls Church.” DePutron is interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

So DePutron’s war record and learnings on civil rights for blacks make a good clue as to why he could have lobbied the town council to name his property’s street for Lincoln.

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Echoes of The Past Fuel Displacement Concerns

Continued from Page 3

lived in the United States. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, 140,000 refugees were accepted into the country in what is now considered a “first wave.” These refugees were largely wealthy or educated residents of the Saigon region, most of whom fled with money and jewelry sewn into their clothes, leaving everything else behind. They were warmly greeted by a Nation eager to repent after the end of a misguided and unpopular war.

Used to living near the Capital city, many were told about Arlington before leaving Vietnam as an ideal place to relocate, if not settling in the West

Coast upon arrival. By 1980 the Vietnamese immigrant population had grown from 15,000 to 245,000, and 15 percent of the country’s Vietnamese population lived in Arlington, primarily in the Clarendon neighborhood, which was among many “Little Saigon” neighborhoods that popped up around the country during the time. Clarendon had become rundown in the 15 years prior, with the construction of the Capital Beltway, Tysons Corner, and new strip developments with parking lots left stores shuttered while construction for the Clarendon Metro station caused additional disruption. This left business rents as cheap as $1 per square foot, which provided

an excellent opportunity for the area’s new neighbors to establish businesses.

“Little Saigon” provided Vietnamese folks with a place to share news about friends and family, ship packages home, and access familiar groceries, shops, and entertainment. Its success was short lived, however, after the Clarendon Station opened on the newly formed Orange Line in December 1979, causing rents to quickly increase to as high as $25 per square foot, as older buildings were being emptied for demolition, destined to be replaced by high-rise apartment buildings.

Arlington County was very vocal about their support for the Vietnamese community when planning additional development. A New York Times article in 1989 covered the displacement of Little Saigon from Arlington which at the time still represented half of all businesses in Clarendon. At the time, the Executive Director of Clarendon Alliance, Andrea Grenadier, was quoted as saying “We would like for the Vietnamese to stay because they have helped make the neighborhood a place where people not only work but also live and shop. We don’t want just a bunch of tall office buildings. We like the ethnic flavor. But keeping the right balance is a little tricky. We’re working at it.’’ Today only one restaurant remains from Little Saigon. Arlington failed. Also contributing to the neighborhood’s quick decline was increasingly unfavorable public sentiment regarding immigration, as a second wave of less educated Vietnamese arrived, having fled the Communist regime on small boats with nothing. An estimated 800,000 Vietnamese “boat people” made it to another country safely between 1975 and 1995, while up to 400,000 perished during the perilous journey.

As rents reached up to $30 per square foot during the mid 1980s, Vietnamese businesses began moving west along Columbia Pike and Wilson Boulevard and when the Plaza Seven Shopping Center lost its anchor grocery store, many moved their businesses to the location, forming what is now the Eden Center.

In 1996 the addition of the 32,400 square foot Saigon West section made Eden Center the largest Vietnamese commercial and largest Asian-themed mall on the east coast of North America. Eden Center now boasts over 125 stores, including over 40 restaurants and eateries. About half of the stores have direct entrances from the parking lot, while the other half are located inside three indoor malls.

“When I think about the plans, I just worry about, for the businesses, about parking,” said one business owner, who asked to remain anonymous. “We don’t have enough parking for 120 stores in the mall. A lot of customers want to come in, but they don’t want to fight with the parking.” Indeed, any visitor to Eden Center will immediately understand the problem — parking took about fifteen minutes on the day of the pop up, with every space occupied.

Asked what Eden Center means to them personally, they responded that the cultural hub “means everything. This is the place; a lot of people know Eden Center is the Vietnamese community, and we have lots of authentic things and food to serve the customer… that you won’t find anywhere else.” Asked how the city can celebrate Vietnamese culture in the plan, the concern was laid bare. “The plan is great to celebrate Vietnamese culture, but I’m not sure if the small businesses can last through any construction or development to experience [it].”

The owner also referenced recent history as a source for community distrust. “We have a hard time trusting the City’s words, because in 2008 we had town halls with the City asking for help and assistance. We did Town Hall meetings, we did city functions, to help with our rent because rent is too high.”

Emily Bazemore, City of Falls Church Senior Planner and representative for the city at the event, followed up by asking what the city can do for them.

“It’s hard to trust [the city], right? Because it’s happened once. Nobody helped us. Nobody helps us. I remember 34 years ago when our community located in Clarendon, and then we the community had to move. That’s why we don’t

trust you,” added the owner, referencing the displacement from Arlington that was the genesis of Eden Center. “The same thing happened in Clarendon, where they came up with a plan to build apartments and new buildings, but preserve the storefronts, and they improved the streets but then the Metro came, and the new buildings came, and we had to find a new place to go.”

All business owners interviewed echoed concerns about parking. Parking woes went beyond the 900 spaces in front and 300 in back (for employees) but also the expansion of the parking garage which, instead of providing relief to the Center’s capacity, is being used as a parking lot to bus gamblers to Hollywood Casino in West Virginia. Building maintenance, a lack of hot water, flooding during heavy rain, and the overall vulnerability of the Center to the sale of the land were also raised as secondary concerns.

Suggestions from attendees included the city revisiting installing a flagpole and monument honoring veterans of the Vietnam War to the property, the introduction of an outdoor plaza space (with emphasis that more parking is a prerequisite), and the renaming of Wilson Blvd., within the City of Falls Church, to Saigon Blvd. Bazemore said the renaming of the road is a recommendation they were already planning to include in the updated East End SAP.

Despite reassurances, many still believe the Eden Center is destined for demolition and the community another round of displacement a byproduct of history and rumors resulting from communication challenges to-date.

“We’ve heard consistently that the City, property owner, and businesses have the same shared goal there are no redevelopment plans now or in the future” added Vice Mayor Hardi, who said the time is now to engage in this conversation and make sure the city succeeds where Arlington failed. “the opportunity to figure out how to reinvest and improve the Eden Center from building conditions, gathering spaces, walk and bike accessibility, and support of the tenants is now. We are listening.”

Community News & Notes

Girl Scout Ambassador Leads Band in St. Paddy’s Parade

High school senior and Girl Scout Ambassador Sarina Winters, resident of Falls Church City, and member of Troop 3054 in Service Unit 50-14, led the Randolph-Macon Academy Band on Friday, March 17th, up 5th Avenue in the 2023 NYC St Patrick’s Day Parade.

When she is not in school or on the parade field, Winters has been hard at work pursuing completion of the GSUSA’s highest award, the Gold Award. Her project to raise awareness and teach hands-only CPR skills particularly to citizens over the age of 50 culminates 10 years of scouting in The Little City, and she hopes to leave a lasting impact from here to the Shenandoah Valley. In doing so, she earned the trifecta of Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards in 5th, 8th and 12th grade. Only 5.4 percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award and even fewer manage to earn all.

Women of Temple Rodef Shalom Host Accessory Sale

Don’t miss the fifth spring Accessory Sale & More fundraiser at Temple Rodef Shalom on Sunday, April 23 with proceeds to charity. Find an incredible assortment of fashion accessories for men and women (handbags, scarves, belts, wallets, men’s ties, and small leather goods), jewelry (costume and fine), as well as decorative household items, (distinctive vases, not the ones supplied by florists, serving pieces (platters, bowls and utensils). All merchandise (new and gently used) will be reasonably priced and sold “as is.”

Shepherd’s Center Seeks Additional Volunteer Drivers

Shepherd’s Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church (SCMAFC), an all-volunteer organization, is seeking additional volunteers to support its mission of providing

free transportation to seniors for medical and dental appointments or run errands to grocery stores and pharmacies.

The total number of rides provided in 2022 is expected to exceed 2,500, but to fully respond to recent increases in the number of requests, there is a need for more volunteers to join the current team of 60 volunteer drivers. For volunteers there is no minimum commitment. Volunteers are free to choose how often and when they drive. For detailed information or to apply, please visit the Center’s website https:// scmafc.org/volunteer or call (703) 506-2199 and leave a message.

Local Artist to Teach Art of Ukrainian Egg Decorating

Watch artist Iryna

Smitchkova on Sunday, March 26 at Falls Church Arts as she gives master classes in creating Pysanka, Ukrainian Easter Egg Decorating, as a tribute to Easter. Students will learn the art of painting eggs in a tra -

ditional Ukrainian style using masking wax and food coloring.

The Ukrainian Easter Egg, called Pysanka or Psysanky for plural, has been recognized for generations as a symbol of hope and good things to come. Although the tradition dates back thousands of years to pre-Christian times, egg painting made its comeback in the early 1990s, according to the Ukrainian Institute.

This class was the brainchild of Falls Church Arts board member and treasurer, Marty Behr, who proposed the class idea. Although both class sessions (10:30 a.m.noon and 12:30-2:00 p.m.) are filled, guests are welcome to stop by to see the egg decorating in process and the current exhibit, “Texture, A Photography Show.” The gallery will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Little League Hosts 75th Anniversary Celebration

Everyone is welcome to attend the Fall Church Kiwanis Little League’s 75th anniversary Opening Day Parade and ceremony on Saturday, March 25th. The baseball season kicks

off at 9 a.m. with the parade, followed by the Opening Day Ceremony, with local leaders, FCKLL alums, and of course the current players. There will be food and coffee vendors on hand. The event will be followed by games throughout the day at the same location, so plan to spend the day celebrating the love of baseball. It will be held at 7500 Magarity Rd, Falls Church.

School Supply Drive for Welcoming F.C. Currently Held

For the Welcoming Falls Church Adult and Literacy Center, a school supplies drive is being held right now. People can drop off school supplies until March 26th at boxes located at the community center, Oak Street Elementary School and Meridian High School.

One can drop off (new or used): canvas bags, arts and crafts, pencil bag/pencil case, markers, children scissors, crayons/colored pencils, notebooks, small white board markers and erasers, coloring books, play dough and children’s

THIS WEEK IN THE LITTLE CITY

FRIDAY

MARCH 24

Progress was Neither Swift Nor Easy

The women represented in this exhibition are pioneers in science, engineering, and medicine who exemplify the spirit of those who have broken barriers in their professional lives and have made significant contributions to their fields and to American society. National Academy of Sciences, East Gallery (2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC), 9:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.

Kindergarten Information Night for Parents

Mount Daniels staff host a an information night for parents of prospective kindergarten students to present a brief overview of the school day, curriculum, day care, and requirements. Details at bit.ly/FCNP0323ki. Virtual (live and recorded, register at bit.ly/FCNP0323ki), 7:00 p.m.

Historical Commission Meeting

Falls Church Historical Commission meeting. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Dogwood A-B, Falls Church), 7:00 p.m. — 8:30 p.m.

Recycling Center Closed Until Monday

The Falls Church Recycling Center is closed for three days for maintenance, reopening on Monday, March 27. Recycling can be taken to the Fairfax County I-66 Transfer Station, and glass can be taken to other Purple Cans recycling locations at Dunn Loring Education Center in Vienna and Lee Community Center in Arlington. All Day.

SATURDAY

MARCH 25

FC Farmers Market

Every Saturday, year-round in the City Hall parking lot. Featuring local vendors selling a variety of local goods including (but not limited to) produce, baked goods, flowers, jams and juices, pastas and oils, and fresh meat, poultry, dairy, and seafood. City Hall Parking Lot (300 Park Ave., Falls Church), 9:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.

The Grandfather of Black Basketball in D.C. Learn about City of Falls Church resident Dr. Edwin Bancroft

(E.B.) Henderson, who introduced basketball to African American youth on a wide-scale basis for the first time, established the first Black athletic leagues and created opportunities for young people to participate in organized sports. Dr. Bancroft’s 1910 SpaldingOfficial Handbook and 1939 The Negro in Sports were the first books to document Black participation in athletics. This panel celebrates Dr. Henderson’s life and legacy while encouraging DC to reclaim a place in the history of basketball. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (901 G St. NW, Washington, DC), 11:45 a.m. — 1:00 p.m.

The Snow Queen

This classic tale of bravery and friendship follows the journey of young Gerda as she attempts to rescue her best friend Kai from the clutches of the Snow Queen. With the help of some unique friends and little magic Gerda is determined to break the Snow Queen’s spell and melt the ice that has taken hold of Kai’s heart before he is lost to her forever! Creative Cauldron (410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church), 2:00 p.m.

Yorktown HS: Beauty & The Beast

Yorktown Performing Arts presents Disney’s Beauty & The Beast, the much-beloved musical. The classic tale as old as time

tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. Tickets can be purchased at tinyurl.com/YHSBeautyBeast. Yorktown High School Auditorium (5200 Yorktown Blvd., Arlington, VA), 2:00 p.m.

The Asiantque Market

The Asiantque Market at Annandale had a massive welcome last March, and the lively Thai market is back with even more to enjoy, including just about whatever Thai food you're in the mood for! Free to attend, with much to discover in the way of food, drinks and entertainment. Elmer Timberman Masonic Lodge Parking Lot (6911 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA), 5:00 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.

Fiesta del Sol

Ready to salsa? MCC opens its doors for the Fiesta del Sol Latin American and Caribbean Festival this weekend. Residents and neighboring communities will experience a welcoming and festive atmosphere with flavors of Latin American and Caribbean Island cultures through live music, art and craft exhibitors, dance lessons/demonstrations, and great food. Admission is free; tickets for food and beverages will be sold onsite. In honor of Women’s History Month, all festival proceeds will benefit The Institute for Building Agency, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization founded and led by women of color. McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, VA), 5:00 p.m.

Bobby Thompson & Friends

Bobby Thompson and others perform live originals, blues, and select classic rock covers. Settle Down Easy Brewing (2822 Fallfax Dr, Falls Church), 7:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.

Bill Bellamy

The 1990s made Comedian Bill Bellamy a household name with his stints on MTV as a regular VJ, as well as appearances in films such as Love Jones and TV shows like Kenan and Kel . He also appeared on HBO's iconic DefComedyJam , where he coined the phrase booty call, cementing his place in pop culture history. The Theater at MGM National Harbor (101 MGM National Ave., Oxon Hill, MD), 8:00 p.m.

Miley Night: Party in The Washington, D.C.

What The Dance presents Miley Night — Party in the Washington, D.C., a dance party for fans of Miley Cyrus. With Gemma Sherry playing Miley's best hits, old and new, plus covers. Union Stage (740 Water St. NW, Washington, DC), 9:00 p.m.

SUNDAY MARCH 26

Cherry Blossom Peak

Bloom

The cherry blossoms are reported to be in their penultimate stage, meaning full bloom is coming this weekend! Enjoy the beautiful spring weather and check them out! Be prepared for crowds. Tidal Basin (1501 Maine Ave. SW, Washington, DC), 7:00 a.m. — 8:00 p.m.

Ukranian Easter Egg

Decorating Class

Watch artist Iryna Smitchkova as she gives a master class in creating Pysanka, Ukrainian Easter Egg Decorating, as a tribute to Easter. Students will learn the art of painting eggs in a traditional Ukrainian style using masking wax and food coloring. Falls Church Arts (700-B W. Broad St, Falls Church), 12:30 p.m., second class at 2:30 p.m.

The Adventurs of Harold and the Purple Crayon

One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. So begins this story, which follows the zany adventures of an inventive young boy. Resourceful and brave, Harold creates the world he wants to explore, using nothing more than a big purple crayon and his sky’s-the-limit imagination. Take a wild ride as Harold jets to Mars, joins a circus, and rescues a princess in an enchanted castle. GMU Center for the Arts (4373 Mason Pond Dr., Fairfax, VA), 1:00 p.m., sensory-friendly show at 4:00 p.m.

Pajama Glam Party

Tigerlily Foundation is pleased to present its Pajama Glam Party, which invites women and girls of all ages to dress in their favorite pajamas and celebrate their fabulousness, while learning about breast health, well-

EVENTS, MUSIC, THEATRE & ART

ness and prevention. Guests will enjoy a glamorous lineup of activities including music, sneak preview movie screening, fun crafts, sweet treat stations, wellness activities, and much more.

Tickets at bit.ly/FCNP0323ph.

Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center (7901 Tysons One Pl., Tysons, VA), 1:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m.

Pick Your Pony Straw Poll

Pick Your Pony is a fun Straw Poll event, where attendees can engage with primary candidates before casting an unofficial vote for their prefernce at the time. Think of the Straw Poll as a political March Madness. Come out and get to know some of the candidates, including those running for Falls Church's new Senate District. Mustang Sally Brewing Co. (14140 Parke Long Ct., Chantilly, VA), 4:00 p.m.

A Conversation with John Weidman

Pacific Overtures book writer

John Weidman joins Associate Artistic Director Ethan Heard for an in-person conversation. Come listen about his collaborations with Stephen Sondheim including Assassins and Road Show, his writing career, and how Pacific Overtures was developed including the updates made to bring the fifty-year-old musical up to 2023.

Signature Theatre (3200 Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA), 5:00 p.m.

Spring Wine Fling in Falls Church

Sip into spring with delicious two-course dinner menus and two glasses of wonderful wine to help you uncork the season, for a fixed price of $55 per person at participating restaurant through March 31! Local participants include Yume Sushi in Falls Church, Alta Strada in Mosaic District, Circa in Tysons, Hamrock's in Fairfax, Matchbox locations (McLean, Pentagon City, Reston Station, One Loudon), and Osteria da Nino, Spice Kraft, Circa, and La Cote D'or in Arlington. Various Locations.

To The End

Part of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival. Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, To The End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legisla-

tion in U.S. history, following four exceptional young women — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, and political strategist Alexandra Rojas — as they grapple with new challenges of leadership and power and work together to defend their generation’s right to a future. Naval Heritage Center (701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC), 7:00 p.m. — 9:30 p.m.

24th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

The Prize, which is named to honor one of the world’s greatest humorists, was awarded to Adam Sandler at a gala last weekend at the Kennedy Center. The gala, featuring some of the biggest names in comedy at the Kennedy Center, will be broadcast nationally. CNN (cable or streaming), 8:00 p.m.

MONDAY MARCH 27

RiverRun Exhibits and Installations

Spanning World Water Day to Earth Day, RiverRun converges hundreds of extraordinary talents from around the world to Washington, D.C. — musicians, actors, dancers, authors, filmmakers, chefs, and visual artists — and carves an artistic path through the stages, grand halls, and terraces of the Kennedy Center as well as the studios and green spaces of the REACH — which links the Center to its own river, the Potomac. Kennedy Center Hall of Nations (2700 F St. NW, Washington, DC), 10:00 p.m.

Women's Firsts and Futures

To celebrate Women’s History Month, Encore Learning is bringing together two remarkable Virginia women leaders — Claire Gastañaga and Viola Baskerville — for a courageous conversation about the women who came before them and inspired them, their own lived experiences as firsts and sometimes only women in the room, and their perspectives on the work that remains to ensure all women can achieve their full potential, whatever they choose that to be. History can teach us if we are willing learners who are

open to growth and change. Online (Zoom meeting. Register online at bit.ly/FCNP0323wf), 3:00 p.m. — 4:30 p.m.

City Council Meeting & Budget Proposal

This month the City Manager will present the proposed Budget & Capital Improvements Program. The public is welcome to address the City Council on any topic during the public comment period. Sign up to speak at fallschurchva. gov/publiccomment. All members of the public may view the meeting at fallschurchva.gov/CouncilMeetings or on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35). Video will be available after the meeting. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Council Chambers, Falls Church), 7:30 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.

School Board Special Meeting & Work Session

Special meeting and work session of the Falls Church City Public Schools (FCCPS) School Board. The public may attend, however public input may not be requested. In person or online at meet.google. com/rmc-keyz-edy. FCCPS Central Office (150 S. Washington St., Suite 400 Conference Rm., Falls Church), 7:00 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.

Meridian High Fundraiser and Volunteer Sign-Up

Everyone is invited and encouraged to have dinner at Solace starting at 5:00 p.m. — mention Meridian PTSA when placing your order, and they will receive a portion of sales. The Meridian grad party team will host an organizational meeting at 6:30 p.m. followed by a health and wellness presentation at 7:30. Email questions to meridianhsangc@gmail. com. Solace Outpost (444 W. Broad St, Falls Church), 5:00 p.m.

FC Chamber Bootleggers Ball

The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce hosts its Annual Awards Celebration. Join as the theatre is transformed into a speakeasy for this year's Bootlegger's Ball theme. Live music by local favorite Groovejet, gambling tables, themed prohibition-era cocktails, photo opportunities, and the annual auction. Tickets available at auctria.events/BootleggersBall2023. The State Theatre (220 N. Washington St, Falls Church), 6:30 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.

What if Kids Are Sad and Stressed Because Their Parents Are?

David French

There is a depressing familiarity now to the conversations I’m hearing among parents of teenagers. After the obligatory pleasantries, talk often turns to mental health. Someone’s daughter is struggling, battling body image issues. Someone’s son is sullen and lost in video games. The parental concerns of previous generations (sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll) have been replaced by a new triumvirate: anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.

As a parent of a teenager, I see this world every day. It’s the message I hear from my peers. So I’ve been following the discussion of rising teenage anxiety with intense interest — in particular, the role of social media, secularization and politics in immiserating our children. But there’s a factor that’s received insufficient attention in the debate over external factors in teenage suffering: What if the call is also coming from inside the house? What if parents are inadvertently contributing to their own kids’ pain?

Just as there is a depressing familiarity to parents’ conversations about their children, there is a similar familiarity to kids’ conversations about their parents. I spend much of my time traveling to college campuses, both secular and religious, and I hear a similar refrain all the time: “Something happened to my parents.” Sometimes they share stories about parents obsessed with their kids’ education. More often I hear about parents consumed by politics. And at the extreme end, I hear stories about the impact of conspiracy theories of all kinds. Just as parents are upset about their children’s anxiety and depression, children are anxious about their parents’ mental health.

First, let’s map out the very bleak landscape. In 2021, nearly 60 percent of teenage girls reported feeling “persistent sadness,” Azeen Ghorayshi and Roni Caryn Rabin wrote in The New York Times. Overall, 44 percent of teenagers reported “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” according to The Washington Post, an increase from 26 percent in 2009. These are the familiar numbers — the scary uptick that has spawned soul-searching across the length and

breadth of this land.

But let’s place them in a grim context. The same year that 44 percent of teenagers reported suffering from serious sadness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41.5 percent of adults reported “recent symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder,” an increase from an already high baseline of 36.4 percent just months before.

Moreover, while suicide rates have gone up in the youngest cohort of Americans, they still materially lag behind suicide rates among their parents and grandparents. Deaths of despair have particularly afflicted white middle-aged men, and the numbers overall are simply staggering, especially since they started to increase sharply in 2000.

Aside from self-reported statistics about depression and anxiety or the grim toll of drug abuse and suicide, there are other indicators that the adults simply aren’t all right. Partisan animosity, for example, simply keeps rising. Adult anger and pessimism are pervasive: A recent NBC News poll indicated that a record 58 percent of registered vot-

ers surveyed believed that America’s best days were behind it.

And when we think about children and screens, let’s also consider the relationship between adults and their TVs and smartphones. Watch cable news, and you’ll see a discourse dominated by fear and anger. If you spend any time at all on political Twitter, you’ll quickly see a level of vicious, personal attacks that differ little from the most extreme personal bullying a person can experience in middle school or high school.

This isn’t to say parents are the full story. I’m open to the smartphone thesis as providing the primary explanation for teenage unhappiness, but I’m not convinced that the kids will ever be alright as long as Mom and Dad suffer from their own profound problems. Helicopter parenting is potentially stifling on its own terms, but it’s got to be incalculably worse when the hovering parent is gripped by fear and anxiety.

So what is to be done? I don’t mean to make parents feel even more anxious about their own anxiety, but to the extent our mental health is rooted in factors beyond our immediate control it might be worth

1/2 Myths About the Bank Bailouts

cism. One is ridiculous. Two are dubious. But the last one has me a bit worried, although I think it’s probably wrong.

cial institutions beginning with Lehman Brothers did in 2008. So why rescue the depositors?

asking a simple question: How much fear and anxiety should we import into our lives and homes? Forget teens, for the moment. Are we proving any more capable of handling the information age?

It’s a question I honestly ask myself. I know that my experiences online drift into family life. I know that my anxiety can radiate outward to affect my kids. Our own addictions can devastate our families. I think often about the poignant words of a British pastor named Andrew Wilson: “One of the things that has struck me in my last two US visits has been how very painful the culture wars have become for many, many people. Online, you see combatants appearing to enjoy the fight. But on the ground, you see the hurt, confusion and fatigue.” Now it’s time for us to realize that our hurt can become our kids’ hurt, and if we want to heal our children, that process may well start by seeking the help we need to heal ourselves.

Last weekend, U.S. policymakers went all-in on bailing out two medium-size banks: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

And yes, they were bailouts. I wish the Biden administration weren’t trying to claim otherwise. Yes, stockholders were cleaned out. But legally, deposits are insured only up to $250,000; by choosing to make all depositors whole, the feds have done holders of big accounts a major favor.

It’s true that losses, if any — it’s not clear whether either bank was insolvent as opposed to simply lacking the ready cash to handle a bank run — won’t be made up with higher conventional taxes; the money is coming from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which will recover funds, if necessary, by imposing higher fees on banks. But these fees will be passed on to the public, so taxpayers are de facto on the hook.

But was it a bad decision? I’ve heard four basic kinds of criti-

Let’s start with the silly stuff. On the right side of the political spectrum, many have quickly rallied around the claim that SVB failed because it was excessively woke — which is only marginally less ludicrous than claiming that wokeness somehow causes train derailments.

For what it’s worth, no, SVB didn’t stand out from other banks in its concern for diversity, the environment and so on. And banks have been going bust for centuries, since long before human resources departments began including boilerplate language about social responsibility in their mission statements. So the talk about wokeness tells us nothing about bank failures — but a lot about the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the modern American right.

On to more serious criticism. There is a reasonable argument, one that I largely agree with, to the effect that the failure of SVB didn’t pose a systemic threat in the way that the failures of finan-

Well, one answer is that, like it or not, Silicon Valley Bank had come to play a key role in what you might call the financial ecosystem of the technology sector. Notably, if depositors had lost access to their money, even temporarily, this would apparently have left many technology companies unable to meet their payrolls and pay their bills — which might have done lasting damage. True, killing the crypto industry would be a public service, but there’s also a lot of good stuff that might get hurt.

In this sense, the bailout of SVB was something like the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009, which was also justified on the grounds that it would preserve a crucial piece of the economic ecosystem. And although the auto bailout was harshly criticized at the time, in retrospect, it looks like the right call, even though it ended up costing taxpayers billions.

A third criticism is the claim that the feds have now established the principle that all depos-

its are effectively insured without imposing correspondingly tighter regulation on what banks do with those deposits — creating an incentive for irresponsible risktaking. But policymakers explicitly didn’t guarantee all deposits everywhere, and at least so far, we’re seeing an outflow of funds from smaller banks to more tightly regulated large banks. You may not like this; whatever else you may say about big financial institutions, they aren’t lovable. But on balance, we seem to be seeing the financial system move toward reduced, not increased, risk-taking.

Which brings me to the criticism I take seriously, although I think it’s probably wrong: claims that the bank failures will undermine efforts to control inflation.

It’s true that the bank blowups have caused investors to rethink the future course of Federal Reserve policy: A rate hike at the next Fed meeting, which seemed to be a done deal, now looks uncertain, with markets now pricing in the possibility of a rate cut and two-year interest rates (a good indicator of expected Fed policy over the near future)

plunging. And some sensible people I talk to are now warning about financial dominance, in which the Fed puts a higher priority on protecting Wall Street than on stabilizing inflation.

But given the way the banking system is reacting to the SVB affair, there are actually good reasons for the Fed to limit rate hikes, at least for a while. The Fed has been trying to cool off the economy; well, banks’ increased sensitivity to risk and the shift of deposits to more tightly regulated banks will probably cool the economy even if the Fed doesn’t raise rates. Some financial newsletters are even predicting a recession. And market expectations of inflation have, if anything, declined.

The fallout from banking problems has made a murky economic situation even murkier, and it will be a while — maybe forever — before we know whether policymakers made the right call. But I’m hearing a lot of apocalyptic rhetoric right now, none of which seems justified by the available facts.

Putin and Netanyahu: Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Leaders

upending the courts, apparently hoping to slip it past the public.

It is shocking to me how much Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have in common these days: Both see themselves as great strategic chess players in a world where, they think, everyone else knows only how to play checkers. And yet both completely misread the world in which they were operating.

In fact, they misread it so badly that it looks as if each is not playing chess or checkers but rather Russian roulette — all by themselves. Russian roulette is not meant to be played alone, but alone they both are.

Putin thought that he could capture Kyiv in a few days and thus — at a very low cost — use Russian expansion into Ukraine to forever blunt European Union and NATO expansion. He might have gotten close but for the fact that his isolation and self-delusion resulted in his getting his own army wrong, Ukraine’s army wrong, the NATO allies wrong, President Joe Biden wrong, the Ukrainian people wrong, Sweden wrong, Finland wrong, Poland wrong, Germany wrong and the European Union wrong. In the process, he’s made Russia into an energy colony of China and a beggar for Iran’s drones.

For someone who has been at the top of the Kremlin since 1999, that’s a whole lot of wrong.

Netanyahu and his coalition thought they could pull off a quick judicial coup, disguised as a legal “reform,” that would enable them to exploit the narrowest of election victories — roughly 30,000 votes out of some 4.7 million — to allow Netanyahu & Co. to govern without having to worry about the only source of restraint on politicians in Israel’s system: its independent judiciary and Supreme Court.

Interestingly, at the first formal meeting of Netanyahu’s Cabinet, in December, he listed his government’s four priorities: blocking Iran, restoring personal security for every Israeli, addressing the cost of living and the shortage of housing, and widening the circle of peace with surrounding Arab states. He didn’t mention

Wrong. A vast majority of the Israeli public got it immediately and responded with the largest public backlash to any proposed legislation in the country’s history.

The opposition is now throughout Israeli society and beyond:

Netanyahu got his army wrong, his technology startup community wrong, Biden wrong and, polls show, most Israeli voters wrong. He got the base of his own party wrong, too: While there have been massive, broad-based protests every week against his judicial overhaul, there hasn’t been a single large-scale grassroots demonstration in support.

Netanyahu even got some of his most ardent conservative American Jewish supporters wrong. Miriam Adelson, writing in Israel Hayom, the right-wing Israeli newspaper founded by her billionaire late husband, Sheldon, decried the way in which the prime minister was trying to “dash” through such a significant change. It raises “questions about the root objectives and concern that this is a hasty, injudicious and irresponsible move,” she wrote, adding, “Bad motivations never bring about good outcomes.”

For someone serving as prime minister for the sixth time, that’s a whole a lot of wrong.

So, what comes next? You guessed it — both Netanyahu and Putin are blaming outside agitators and foreign funding for their problems. It’s right out of the dictators’ handbook. While Putin regularly blames the U.S. and NATO for his military failures in Ukraine, The Times of Israel reported over the weekend that Netanyahu and his family have begun hinting that the State Department is the hidden hand funding the huge protests.

The newspaper quoted a “senior government official” on Netanyahu’s recent trip to Rome — sourcing usually used by the prime minister to hide his identity — as saying: “There is an organized center from which all the demonstrators branch out in an orderly manner. Who finances the transportation, the flags, the stages? It’s clear to us.” The paper added, “Another member of the premier’s entourage confirmed that the senior official was referring to the United States.”

How could two leaders get so many things wrong, despite having been in power for so many years? The question answers itself:

They’ve been in power for so many years. Each man has built up enemies and trails of alleged corruption that leave them feeling it’s rule or die.

In Netanyahu’s case, that would mean figuratively dying: He’s currently on trial on multiple corruption charges, and if convicted he could face jail time and an end to his life in politics. In Putin’s case, it could mean literally dying, at the hands of his enemies.

Netanyahu’s rule-or-die fears led him to form a coalition with two ex-convicts and a rogue’s gallery of Jewish supremacists. Many were shunned by past prime ministers — indeed, previously by Netanyahu himself — but in his desperation he had to partner with them today because he’d been abandoned by so many decent members of Likud.

Putin, alas, is well beyond coalition-building and sharing power. That was Putin 1.0 in the early 2000s. Putin 2.0, after 24 years in charge, knows that a leader like him — who has stolen as much money as he has — could never trust any successor to let him peacefully retire to his reported $1 billion mansion on the Black Sea. (His official salary is $140,000 a year.) He knows that to live or to at least live freely, he must remain president for life. So, Putin’s two greatest innovations have been poison underwear and poison-tipped umbrellas to dispense with perceived enemies.

What’s most interesting to me is how Netanyahu and Putin each misread his own military. Putin has had to increasingly rely on convicts and mercenaries to carry the brunt of his war in Ukraine, while tens of thousands of Russian men have fled abroad to escape his draft.

In Israel, air force pilots, army doctors and cyberwarriors have all warned that the Israel Defense Forces are not going to just salute an Israeli dictator. Those speaking out include three retired senior officers, led by Joab Rosenberg, a former deputy head analyst for IDF intelligence, who flew to Washington this week to try to enlist American help in stopping Netanyahu’s slow-motion coup.

As Moshe Ya’alon, a former Netanyahu defense minister and a former army chief of staff, recently told a rally in Tel Aviv: “According to my personal experience as a soldier and commander, if, God forbid, Israel will become a dictatorship, we will not have enough

soldiers who will be ready to sacrifice their lives to defend the country, and it will cause an existential threat to the State of Israel. We just have to watch the poor performance of Putin’s armed forces, lacking the spirit and lacking the confidence in their dictator and his path,” to see what dictatorship does to an army.

Finally, both Putin and Netanyahu completely underestimated the speed at which the electronic herd of global investors would stampede out of their countries in the wake of their reckless behavior. According to The Financial Times’ fDi Markets database, last year only 13 foreign direct investment projects were tracked in Russia, “the lowest level since records began in 2003.”

Assaf Rappaport, a co-founder of one of the hottest Israeli startups, the $10 billion-valued cloud security firm Wiz, told me over breakfast in Washington that the Israeli tech community “could survive the Palestinian uprisings, suicide bombers and Hamas missiles on Tel Aviv.”

But, economically speaking, it “can’t survive” a threat to Israel’s independent judiciary. His foreign investors just told him not to bank his latest funding round, $300 million, in Israel. Going forward, he added, more and more Israeli startups will register as Delaware companies, not Israeli ones.

One more similarity that leads to a huge difference. Putin and Netanyahu have both surrounded them-

selves with yes-men, party hacks and total ciphers — no one with any independent political standing or ethical backbone who can stand up and say: “What are you doing? Stop. This is wrong. Cut your losses.”

But this leads to one big difference between them.

The world is divided into more than 24 time zones. Russia alone spans 11. Israel fits into one. Putin can afford a long war of attrition in Ukraine, where he never has to admit he was mistaken. He has huge margins for his errors. Israel does not. The wisest Israeli leaders have always understood that they need to carefully guard their resources and bond with their allies — through not only shared interests but also shared values.

Yet Netanyahu’s extremist coalition is now taking on the Palestinians and Iran militarily while ignoring the wishes and values of its most important ally, the U.S. government; its most important diaspora community, American Jews; and its most important source of economic growth, foreign investors. And it’s doing all of that while dividing the Israeli people to the brink of a civil war.

It’s madness. Or, to put it differently: Russia can survive a leader who plays Russian roulette. Israel may not.

PUBLIC NOTICE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

The following was given first reading at the February 27, 2023 City Council meeting. A public hearing, second reading, and final City Council action is scheduled for Monday, March 13, 2023 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

(TO23-02) ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORDINANCES 2024, 2045, AND 2056 REGARD-

ING THE BUDGET OF EXPENDITURES AND REVENUES, APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2023 FOR THE GENERAL FUND, THE SCHOOL OPERATING FUND, SCHOOL COMMUNITY SERVICES FUND, THE CABLE ACCESS FUND, AND THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM FUNDS

The proposed ordinance would amend the FY2023 budget to appropriate new revenues and change appropriations for some capital projects.

All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. Remote participation information at www.fallschurchva.gov/publiccomment. Comments may also be sent to cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov or visit www. fallschurchva.gov/councilmeetings. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

The following was given first reading at the February 13, 2023 City Council meeting. A public hearing, second reading, and final City Council action is scheduled for Monday, March 27, 2023 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

(TO23-01) ORDINANCE TO AMEND, REENACT, AND RECODIFY CHAPTER 48, “ZONING” AS FOLLOWS: ADD A DEFINITION OF OUTDOOR DINING TO ARTICLE I “IN GENERAL” SEC. 48-2 “DEFINITIONS;” ADD A NEW DIVISION 11 “OUTDOOR DINING” TO ARTICLE V “SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS” IN ORDER TO CREATE STANDARDS FOR CREATION AND REGULATION OF OUTDOOR DINING USES; AND ADD REFERENCES TO THE NEW DIVISION 11

TO: (1) ARTICLE IV “DISTRICTS,” DIVISION 9 “B-1 LIMITED BUSINESS DISTRICT” SEC. 48-457; DIVISION 10 “B-2 CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT” SEC. 48-490; DIVISION 11

“B-3 GENERAL BUSINESS DISTRICT” SEC. 48-525; AND DIVISION 13 “O-D OFFICIAL DESIGN” SEC. 48-589 AND (2) ARTICLE V “SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS” DIVISION 2 “OFF STREET PARKING REQUIREMENTS” SUBDIVISION IV “REGULATION OF USE TYPES” SEC. 48-1003 “PARKING REQUIREMENTS BY USE”

All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. Remote participation information at www.fallschurchva.gov/publiccomment. Comments may also be sent to cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov or visit www. fallschurchva.gov/councilmeetings. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and

spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

PUBLIC NOTICE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD

PUBLIC HEARING

The City of Falls Church Historic Architectural Review Board will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 7:00 PM in City Hall’s Dogwood Room (first floor), 300 Park Ave, Falls Church, VA 22043 to consider the following:

PROPOSED ALTERATION OF 209 MIDVALE

ST: REMOVAL OF EXISTING GARAGE FOR PROPOSED CARRIAGE HOUSE ATTATCHED TO HOME BY BREEZEWAY.

Information or copies of the proposed alteration can be viewed at the Community Planning and Economic Development Services (CPEDS) counter at City Hall, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, VA, Monday through Friday (8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). You may contact the Planning Division at plan@fallschurchva. gov with any questions or concerns. This location is fully accessible to persons with physical disabilities and special services or assistance may be requested in advance.

(TTY 711)

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE PLANNING COMMISSION

NOTICE: On Wednesday, April 5, 2023, at 7:30 p.m., the City of Falls Church Planning Commission will hold a public hearing and meeting. Public comments can be submitted ahead of time to jtrainor@fallschurchva.gov and pstoddard@fallschurchva.gov. The Planning Commission will consider the following item and recommendation to City Council:

(TR23-06) RESOLUTION TO AMEND SPECIAL EXCEPTION SE04-0162, AS PREVIOUSLY AMENDED THROUGH RESOLUTION 2012-01, TO FURTHER AMEND CERTAIN COMMERCIAL USE RESTRICTIONS ON THE GROUND FLOOR SPACES AT 400-412 SOUTH MAPLE AVENUE (PEARSON SQUARE)

The Planning Commission will consider an action on an application to amend the previously submitted and accepted resolution and Voluntary Concessions for the Pearson Square Building (400-412 S Maple Avenue). The Applicant is seeking to lease approximately 1,635 of currently vacant space to an architectural firm. Under the current commercial programming restrictions (established by condition 3 in Resolution 2012-01, attached), the allowable square footage for office uses has been reached. The Applicant has applied to amend the commercial programming of the Pearson Square ground floor commercial space (as included in the Applicant’s materials, attached), as follows: 1. To increase the overall retail service uses and/or business and professional uses limit from 11,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet for the total 19,000 square feet of commercial space.

2. To increase the business or professional office uses limit from 2,400 square feet to 4,000 square feet, with the limitation that it is within the proposed 14,000 square feet limit for retail service, and/or business, professional offices uses. 3. To increase the existing maximum lease term from 10 to 20 years for business, professional, medical, or dental office uses.

Meeting agenda and materials will be available prior to the public meeting on the Planning Commission webpage: http://www.fallschurchva.gov/PC. More information about the proposed amendments to Pearson Square’s Voluntary Concessions, Community Benefits,

Terms and Conditions are available within the Planning Commission’s April 5, 2023 meeting agenda, also accessible on the Planning Commission webpage.

This location is fully accessible to persons with physical disabilities and special services or assistance may be requested in advance.

(TTY 711)

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

A public hearing and final City Council action on the following is scheduled for Monday, April 10, 2023 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

(TR23-06) RESOLUTION TO AMEND SPECIAL EXCEPTION SE04-0162, AS PREVIOUSLY AMENDED THROUGH RESOLUTION 2012-01, TO FURTHER AMEND CERTAIN COMMERCIAL USE RESTRICTIONS ON THE GROUND FLOOR SPACES AT 400-412 SOUTH MAPLE AVENUE (PEARSON SQUARE)

All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. Remote participation information at www.fallschurchva.gov/publiccomment. Comments may also be sent to cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov or visit www. fallschurchva.gov/councilmeetings. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

PUBLIC NOTICE

AT&T proposes to modify an existing facility (new tip heights 67.5’ & 71’) on the building at 6565 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church, VA (20230155). Interested parties may contact Scott Horn (856-809-1202) (1012 Industrial Dr., West Berlin, NJ 08091) with comments regarding potential effects on historic properties.

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King David Memorial park F. C. 1 double plot over under new $14,000.00 sale $7,500.00 . Two separate plots $9,000.00 each sale $4,500.00 per plot. Call 540-347-2497 and leave a message.

ABC NOTICE

PLAY BALL VIRGINIA FALLS CHURCH, LLC trading as Glory Days Grill, 6341 COLUMBIA PIKE, FALLS CHURCH, FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA 22041. The above establishment is applying to the VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (ABC) AUTHORITY for a Mixed Beverage license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages. Jesse Steven McPherson. Date notice posted at establishment: March 23, 2023. NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www.abc.virginia.gov or (800) 552-3200.

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want their film to impact audiences locally Peter said he hopes people in Falls Church watch the film. He said he’s heard from older residents that the Little City used to have more engagement in civic groups than it does currently.

“Even though the city is still doing well and we grew up and saw the joy of civics,” Peter said, “we’re still getting hit by lack of social connection and hopefully there’s an inspiration to get back to those peak times in F.C.”

Jason Motlagh’s “Riders on the Storm” focuses on two brothers in Afghanistan who battle to make their names and keep a family legacy alive as their country falls apart. Falls Church native Motlagh, the co-director and producer of the film, said he was inspired to make “Riders on the Storm” after documenting the “grim” aspects of the war up close in Afghanistan since 2006.

“I fell in love with the country and its

people and wanted to share a rich part of their culture that outsiders seldom see,” Motlagh said.

As a 1999 GMHS alum, Motlagh said he started making films in Falls Church, using a “crappy handycam and tapes,” and hopes his latest film will be screened in the Little City soon.

“That was some of the most fun I’ve had making films,” Motlagh said. “Collaborating with friends was, and still is, the best part.”

During production, Motlagh said U.S. forces were withdrawing from Afghanistan, leading the Afghan government to collapse and the Taliban taking control. A low point during filming was “witnessing life” as the main subjects knew it “slipped away,” and the pain they felt having to abandon their homeland.

“War and loss are inseparable from our film,” Motlagh said. “But we want audiences to experience Afghan culture in a vibrant and immersive way that stands apart from the gloomy, militarycentric approach typical of many films.”

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS USE AMERICAN SPELLING

Simon Officially Files Paperwork

Delegate Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) officially filed his paperwork, and will be on the ballot in June for the Democratic Primary for the new House District 13.

The new district lines have forced Simon into the same district as Kaye Kory (D-Annandale), who has yet to publicly announce whether a primary battle is in our future. The two have immense respect for one another, and either way we lose a great public servant.

Is Trump Getting Arrested?

Like many fairly liberal folks, the fact that this hasn’t already happened is pretty remarkable to this writer, but apparently this week is the week. Or maybe next week. Or maybe never.

Either way, the former President is already calling for more civil unrest if he is, so he obviously hasn’t learned any lessons in the 14 months since the insurrection.

Yielding

My Time... Read Above

Covering this week’s pop up at the Eden Center was the most interesting assignment this writer has had so far, and therefore ceded the majority of this week’s political column space to ensure the story could be told in as much detail as possible.

Northern Virginia and race have a storied history, despite our current liberal accolades, and learning the genesis of Eden Center will make you a better citizen.

FCCDC Meeting Gets Heated

In this month’s Falls Church Democrats meeting, Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) was grilled on his past voting record by residents who will see him on the ballot for the first time this June.

We strongly encourage readers to visit candidate websites, and in particular look for affirmative statements regarding the rights of LGBTQ+ folks, and ensure they are vocally competent on the issues. It’s important what a candidate is willing (or unwilling) to state, publicly, especially about communities currently the target of GOP attacks.

Falls Church News-Press Vol. VIII, No. 1 • March 19, 1998

Candidate Pulls Out of School Board

Campaign

One of five candidates on the ballot for F.C. School Board has withdrawn this week.

Dr. Mitchell B. Wallerstein notified the City Registrar of Voters, citing his recent appointment as VP of the MacArthur Foundation.

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Falls Church News-Press Vol. XXIII, No. 4 • March 21, 2013

F.C. Council Rushes to Emergency Vote to Keep Harris-Teeter From Cancelling

The action taken by the F.C. City Council at its work session was veritably unprecedented. To cast a formal vote on a matter of City business normally never happens outside of a regularly-scheduled meeting.

Meet the New Vice Chair of the National Council of Negro Women: Celebrating Dr. Alotta Taylor

January 7, 2023 was a good day – the celebration of the Second Baptist Church of Falls Church trustee Dr. Alotta Taylor’s rise to the vice chairmanship of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).

The honoree and her signi cant other, Mr. Robert E. “Church” Churchwell II, entered the room to the musical selection, “Celebrate” by Kool and the Gang, and what a celebration it was!

Dr. Deborah Foreman-Speller, Northern Virginia NCNW Section president, kicked o the event with a warm welcome and acknowledgement of the NoVa NCNW Section members and dignitaries gathered. Janis Mathis, Esq., then brought greetings on behalf of the NCNW, Inc., National Headquarters and our own deaconess Virgie Simmons-Jones o ered an invocation and blessing of the food.

The tables were served family style and we dined on an abundant array of Italian foods, including Calamari Fritte, Shrimp Oreganata, Maggiano’s Salad, Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp, Mom’s Meat Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan and Salmon with Lemon and Herb. For dessert we enjoyed New York Style Cheesecake and Chocolate Layered Cake.

Following lunch, NoVa Section First Vice President Sharon Price shared some information about the honoree, Dr. Alotta Taylor. I won’t list all that was said but su ce it to say Dr. Taylor is a “Lady of Distinction” who wears many hats. She has been gainfully employed by NASA for over 40 years and is currently a senior executive there. Dr. Taylor also serves on numerous boards, including NASA FCU, and is an active member of several social and civil organizations. She is also the chair of the Trustee Ministry at Second Baptist Church (SBC). I would be remiss if I did not mention there were several of her church family members there to support and celebrate with her.

Second Baptist Church family members included Ann Marie Anderson-Lawson (a past NoVa NCNW Past President), Frances Stallings, T. Earleen Washington, Bernice Dawson, Claudia Furr, Eldridge Jones, Virgie Simmons-Jones and Lita Stallings.

Dr. Taylor is an accomplished, loving and caring individual and we are very proud of her. Ms. Prince also presented owers to the honoree before relinquishing the microphone to Rae Martel, a colleague and friend who shared some fond remembrances of her relationship with Dr. Taylor over the years.

And nally…a word from the honoree herself! Dr. Taylor thanked everyone for coming and told us that she truly loves the Lord and she will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in her mouth. Amen! She expressed her thanks to all and humbly acknowledged all in the room who have supported and worked alongside her over the years. She was extremely grateful. Lastly, several friends came forth and toasted Dr. Taylor in celebration of her latest accomplishment –National NCNW Vice Chair! We happily raised our champagne utes numerous times!

The list of those who presented toasts included Sherelle Carper, National President of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc., Virgie Simmons-Jones, NoVa NCNW, Denise Mackie-Smith, Les Gemmes, Inc., and Sharon Goode, NoVa NCNW. The common theme, which was mentioned several times in reference to Dr. Taylor, seemed to be Sisterhood, Leadership, Service.

It is also worthy to note that Dr. Taylor was sworn into her new position by the Honorable Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor under President William Clinton. Helene Fisher, NoVa Section Past President, provided glowing closing remarks. It was a fantastic event and the honoree received many gifts and accolades. We wish Dr. Alotta Taylor great success and the very best in her new position! Congratulations and may God continue to bless you!

Falls Church Business News & Notes

Franchises: What’s New and What’s Next

The Community Business Partnership (CBP) is virtual hosting a session to assist start-up businesses on Thursday, March 30, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Heather Rosen, President of FranNet of Northern Virginia, will address topics including what it takes to be a successful franchise owner full time, as a semi-absentee investor, or as a summer business. Learn what to look for, which franchises do well, and which don’t, and which state and local regulations to be familiar with before signing an agreement. Rosen will also share franchise trends. To learn more and register for the session, visit https://wbcnova.centerdynamics.com/workshop.aspx?ekey=10430060.

Community Celebration of Businesses and Nonprofits

The Falls Church Chamber is hosting the Annual Business and Community Awards Gala, Bootleggers Ball, next Wednesday, March 29 at the State Theatre. The event is open to the public and celebrates local businesses. Nominees are as follows: Small Business: Jazzercise, Kathy Pippin Properties; Large Business: Diener & Associates, Falls Church McLean Children’s Center; Large Business: Body Dynamics, Falls Church McLean Children’s Center; Nonprofit: Falls Church Education Foundation, Homestretch, Falls Church McLean Children’s Center; and the nominations for Pillar of the Community are Dave Crance and Marybeth Connelly. The winners will be announced at the event. Entertainment will be provided by Groovejet Band, and there will be a silent auction, gambling, food, and prohibition-inspired cocktails. Top sponsors are Murphy’s Falls Church Funeral Home, Sen. Chap Petersen, Del. Marcus Simon, Sarah White and Lost Dog Café. Tickets are available on the Falls Church Chamber website (www.fallschurchchamber.org).

West Falls Church Metro Redevelopment Update

The Fairfax County Planning Commission has now endorsed the redevelopment of the West Falls Church Metro with a unanimous vote. They recommend a rezoning of the 24-acre property to allow over 1 million square feet of development. The current proposal is for 810 multifamily residential units, 85 townhomes, an office building and retail space. This recommendation goes to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing and vote on May 9.

Fount Global Funding

Fount Global Inc. a D.C. business that conducts workplace analysis, has built an app to help companies fix internal bureaucracies which impact employees in their jobs. Fount offers targeted surveys that give upper management insight on company culture and work environment issues that cause the most frustration and attrition. The technology won the attention of Series A investors in a round led by Lavrock Ventures, based in McLean, enabling it to invest in engineering and product teams to expand the scope of its surveys. Fount’s customers include Adidas, Siemens and TEKsystems with offices in Falls Church, Bethesda and Glen Allen.

 Business News & Notes is compiled by Elise Neil Bengtson, Executive Director of the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at elise@fallschurchchamber.org.

Spring Health & Wellness

Chiropractors

Wellness

Orthopedics

To Appear In the Paper: Call: Sue Johnson sjohnson@fcnp com • 703-587-1282