Verónica Del Valle - ��Ӱ��

Emergency heat warning declared in the District, a hallmark of D.C. summers

Verónica Del Valle — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 22:44:53 +0000

The District of Columbia’s government declared a heat emergency early Friday as the heat index crept into the 90s.

“Residents and visitors should take extra steps to beat the heat by staying in the shade or air-conditioning, drinking plenty of water and visiting a cooling center,” said a statement from the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

(7/10) A Heat Emergency has been issued for the District of Columbia. Heat index of 93 degrees is expected. Visit to find a cooling center near you. Find tips to beat the heat at .

— DC Homeland Security & EMA #StayHomeDC (@DC_HSEMA)

D.C. triggers its Heat Emergency Plan when either the temperature or heat index surpasses 92 degrees, the city’s benchmark for extreme heat. To date, the city has issued 16 heat emergencies this summer.

These emergencies are standard procedure during in the city, according to Christopher White, deputy director of the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA). The city projects that the heat index will reach at least 93 degrees during the current heat emergency.

Heat emergencies prompt the District to open its cooling centers, where residents can find air conditioning and water to help ward off heat exhaustion. Shelters, recreation buildings, and schools all over the city transform into spaces for the needy as soon as a heatwave strikes.

This year, because of the ongoing pandemic, these cooling centers feel a little different.

“It’s definitely not business as usual because the District is in an ongoing public health emergency,” said Lauren Kinard, a spokesperson for the DC Department of Human Services.

Some cooling centers remain closed due to the threat of COVID-19, like public libraries. Even still, 19 cooling centers are scattered across the city.

HSEMA targets the city’s homeless population specifically through its efforts to prevent heat exhaustion. Those experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.

In partnership with the United Planning Organization, or UPO, a group dedicated to serving low-income DC residents, the city also preforms welfare checks for those experiencing extreme heat outside. UPO manages the city’s shelter hotline and is authorized to transport people experiencing homelessness to and from shelters.

Longtime exposure to high heat can cause medical complications such as heat exhaustion and stroke. Symptoms include a fast pulse, confusion, nausea, and vomiting.

Vulnerable residents are encouraged to call the D.C. shelter or hypothermia hotlines at 202-399-7093 for transportation to a cooling center. Those experiencing more severe symptoms should call 911.

The post Emergency heat warning declared in the District, a hallmark of D.C. summers first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Residents dream up new future for the Crystal City Underground

Verónica Del Valle — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 19:10:50 +0000

Government contractors who worked above Geppi’s Comic World in Crystal City once filtered in around lunchtime to browse the rows of baseball cards and comics.

“I knew the majority of my customers by their first name. They knew our store,” said Rich Seetoo, a store manager during its heyday in the 1990s. “You know, it was kind of like Cheers.”

Geppi’s Comic World shuttered in Crystal City by 2001, along with a slew of other local businesses housed deep in the underground shopping center. The stretch of hallways and storefronts spans just under a mile in the Arlington neighborhood, snaking beneath massive office buildings.

The Crystal City Underground was once something great, stuffed to the brim with local businesses and restaurants. Now, three community civic associations are brainstorming how to restore it to its former glory.

Under the name , a reference to South Arlington’s zip code, the civic associations for Crystal City, Aurora Highlands, and Arlington Ridge plan to create a better and more functional version of their community. That plan includes dreaming up a fresher version of the Crystal City Underground.

“When you talk to people about the Underground, whoever you’re talking to starts thinking about what would really work there, what would really be cool there,” said Mike Dowell, a coordinator for Livability 22202. “It’s a real kind of blank canvas for a lot of folks.”

Dowell, a longtime Aurora Highlands resident, spearheads the organization’s efforts to make Arlington more hospitable for new residents. He imagines livability as the thread that ties a community together, including things like essential services, and community resources.

While the Crystal City Underground has been mostly untouched since its decline decades ago, Dowell believes that the stretch of dark hallways and storefronts provides space to bring Arlington residents what they need.

High commercial rents plague the neighborhood, boxing some small businesses out of the local rental market, particularly for street-level properties. The Underground provides space for some of the businesses unable to afford local leasing rates, according to Dowell.

“It’s a place to host a lot of services that maybe don’t need street-front retail, but they’re the kind of essential services that every community needs,” he said.

The Underground was filled with those essential services during the late 80s and 90s, at its peak.

The Underground thrived in the 1990s, when government contractors frequented the shopping center during lunches and after hours. Visitors could find boutiques and restaurants, along with curious specialty shops (Image courtesy of Carol Fuller/Livability 22202).

Residents recall a hardware store and a slew of convenience stores down its halls. Restaurants and bars littered the corridors and served the government workers that flooded Crystal City during the days.

Besides Geppi’s Comic World, other curious specialty stores existed in the Underground, as well. A beloved puppet store and a nautical-themed gift shop remain in the mall – two lingering remnants of what once was.

Puppet Heaven, a specialty shop in the Underground, has fascinated residents for decades. Along with a Naval-themed gift shop, the store remains from the Underground’s more popular days (Image courtesy of Livability 22202).

The underground mall began fading away decades ago, starting at the turn of the century. Both financial turmoil and the advent of online shopping destabilized many of the businesses deep in the Underground.

Yet, Arlington residents see the mass exodus of military contractors and agencies from Crystal City as the fatal blow.

The federal government’s Base Realignment and Closure program gutted Crystal City at the same time. The Department of Defense fled from the region, leaving more than 3.7 million square feet of empty office space behind, mostly in Crystal City.

The bustling lunchtimes underground are no more.

Instead of locally owned treasures, the Crystal City Underground’s halls are now lined by vacant storefronts and fast-casual chains. Parking lots once filled with commuter cars remain empty.

The promise of Amazon’s arrival to Crystal City and nearby Pentagon City drummed up excitement for the members of Livability 22202. The zip code is expected to grow by more than 30 percent by 2045, according to the latest Arlington County Profile.

Whispers of new people and new business caused Livability 22202 to draft an action plan, chocked full of goals for the three neighborhoods and plans for new community assets, including a new plan for the Crystal City Underground.

The group planned to workshop ideas for an improved Underground in April. Of course, COVID-19 disrupted all of their plans, leaving Livability 22202 at a loss for how to find new ideas for the space.

Like everyone else, the organization turned online to find ideas for the shopping center. They launched in early June as an alternative to the April workshops.

“This challenge is a kind of way to try and get feedback from people in kind of a nontraditional sense,” said Eric Cassel, another Arlington resident involved with Livability. The challenge uses story submissions and even TikToks to brainstorm ideas for the Underground.

The Underground Challenge is Livbility 22202’s newest way to drum up interest in its reimagining of the Underground. Residents can submit stories, TikToks, and business plans all dedicated to finding a new purpose for the beloved mall. (Lisa Simensky/Livability 22202).

Cassel has plenty of big ideas of his own; he floated turning one of the empty parking lots left behind from the Underground’s busier days into a dark space to grow mushrooms. To him, those oddities are essential to recreating the spirit of the Underground.

Though Livability 22202 attempts to imagine a better tomorrow for the Underground, the organization’s leaders also understand that the Underground provides a strategic opportunity for its proprietors, JBG Smith.

JBG Smith owns a majority of properties in Crystal City, including Amazon’s coveted second headquarters. JBG Smith declined to comment on any plans for the Crystal City Underground.

The Underground provides a chance for JBG Smith and Amazon to make Crystal City into an attractive new home for all the workers slated to fill the gaps left by federal contractors, according to Christer Ahl.

Back in the early 2000s, Ahl spent his time in Crystal City advocating for the neighborhood before it had a formal civic association.

Ahl envisions a new Underground filled with community gathering spaces or art galleries in the Underground’s vast hallways and empty crannies, a low-cost endeavor for JBG Smith that still makes the area more attractive to newcomers.

“We cannot turn the trends around when it comes to retail viability,” said Ahl.

The post Residents dream up new future for the Crystal City Underground first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Three miles away, no talk of impeachment

Verónica Del Valle — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 19:58:08 +0000

Politically, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley held a relatively low profile after leaving left her two-year cabinet position in the Trump administration late last year. She returned to her home state of South Carolina, joined the board of a major company and wrote an autobiography.

The former ambassador has tread a fine line since her departure, championing the Trump administration even as both parties scramble to control the narrative surrounding the impeachment inquiry.

”I think, again, her long goal is to rebuild the Republican Party as a Big Tent party which is not alienating to minority groups,” said Geoffrey Kabaservice, now director of Political Studies at moderate think tank the Niskanen Center. Kabaservice published a 2012 history on the decline of moderates within the party.

In Haley’s book, she accuses former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly of attempting to thwart Trump’s agenda in office. In doing so, she staked a clear claim in Trump’s camp, even as she has been mildly critical of some of his policies and behavior.

Brushed off with a laugh

Her book tour brought her to Washington D.C. – and the maelstrom of politics at the moment – on Nov. 14 when she spoke in front of an audience of students at George Washington University to discuss her memoir, With All Due Respect. She made it local by saying that her daughter is looking at attending the university.

A group of excited students speculated that the ambassador would have to be pushed on the topic of impeachment.

Outside the auditorium, another group of around 35 campus activists gathered to protest Haley’s policies as UN ambassador and position on the Boeing Board of Directors, chanting phrases like “Nikki, Nikki, can’t you see, coups don’t bring democracy.” The student group accused Haley of profiting off of and against other nations. Police stood behind the protestors while late attendees filtered in.

Student activists protested Nikki Haley’s track record as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. outside the steps of the Lisner Auditorium. (Verónica Del Valle / ��Ӱ��)

Haley made it clear that her road to the UN was wholly unconventional. Initially, the former state legislator and governor endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during the 2016 Republican primaries. Trump tweeted during the primary that South Carolinians are embarrassed by Haley.

Now Haley says that her relationship with the president is one of respect. “I knew that if you kicked him, he was gonna holler. He knew if he pushed me, I was gonna push back,” she said at the George Washington University event.

The president and his former chief of staff, Reince Preibus, attempted to appoint Haley as Secretary of State at the start of his term. During that initial meeting, Trump welcomed her with one phrase, she said:

“Well, I guess your guy didn’t win.”

Haley’s on-stage conversation with Sen. Jodi Ersnt, R-Iowa, focused on her achievements as a conservative woman. The former governor talked about battling racism as the young daughter of Indian immigrants in the rural South.

But the conversation kept creeping back to Trump.

Haley refused to denounce the president during her appearance, despite pushing back on some of his antics. She discussed some of Trump’s most memorable moments with ease.

Prior to the president’s UN debut in 2017, the ambassador urged Trump to treat his address like “church,” reminding him that the audience was legions away from his past campaign rallies. Still, Trump publicly called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “Little Rocket Man” before the delegation.

She laughed recounting the president’s reply: “I tweeted it out this morning and it killed with my base.”

This answer was typical of the tenor of the event. Haley repeatedly brought up policy differences with the president and differences in political style, but often brushed them off with a laugh or a joke.

Criticizes, but never condemns

Looming over everything were impeachment hearings, which had kicked off the day before, less than three miles from the university. The hearings by the House of Representatives are over Trump’s conduct involving military aid to Ukraine.

But, neither woman on stage uttered the word “impeachment.”

Ernst did not ask about impeachment and questions that had been selected from the audience did not touch on the issue, instead focusing on Haley’s views on bipartisanship.

In recent weeks, however, Haley has been repeatedly questioned about impeachment during television appearances. She has repeatedly condemned the impeachment investigation, even though she said that Trump’s call to Zelensky was

“The thing that bothers me about the impeachment is we’re less than a year away from an election. Let the people decide,” said Haley to .

Despite her skepticism about impeachment, she has called for the protection of the anonymous whistleblower who initially raised complaints. Haley emphasized that the whistleblower must be protected to after Trump called for the informant’s identity to be revealed.

This is characteristic of Haley’s stance. She criticizes, but never condemns his actions.

“We’re less than a year away from an election. Let the people decide.”

Kabaservice, the political studies expert on moderates and Republicans, said that Haley is attempting to appease both camps of the Republican party during a fractious time for the GOP. He speculated that Haley is positioning herself for a potential presidential run in 2024, a notion that has been .

Haley spoke to the demographic divides during her event, proclaiming that the party must do a better job of welcoming women while also condemning Democrats for their of conservative women, like Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

For the former ambassador, these critiques signal the end of civility in American politics, a notion espoused by moderate politicians like Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who announced he earlier in 2019.

Trump has been widely criticized for hurting notions of civility in politics, routinely to rivals as “fake” or “nut jobs.”

Kabaservice claims that Haley never been moderate, but instead a “pragmatic conservative.”

”One way or another Donald Trump is going to be out of the White House by 2024. She wants to throw her hat in for the next race,” said Kabaservice. “For that, she needs to do two things: to not alienate herself from Trump’s base [and] to be prepaired for a backlash against the Republican Party.”

The post Three miles away, no talk of impeachment first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Arlington has committed to the environment. Can Amazon meet the county’s goals?

Verónica Del Valle — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 19:16:31 +0000

Arlington County’s local government ensures that its environmental efforts are known to the community at large.

Its environmental services department readily broadcasts that the county is ranked at the highest level by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the only community in the nation to do so. Bike lanes line the streets across Arlington too, a sign of its commitment to eco-friendly transit.

As residents, businesses, and local government ready themselves to welcome the multinational tech giant Amazon into Northern Virginia, some activists struggle to reconcile Arlington’s sustainable future with the company’s environmental impacts.

Amazon’s environmental and economic footprint in Northern Virginia spans far past just HQ2 – its impact on the region will include data centers, shipping facilities, office buildings, and thousands of employees once HQ2 is completed.

Amazon’s inconsistencies on environmental commitments are nothing new – something that has long been evident to some of its employees. The internal group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice has voiced its concerns about the companies environmental habits for years.

John Mixon, a former Amazon employee and member of the group, has watched the company’s internal environmental strategy shift over the years.

Mixon’s initial concerns came from what he calls “greenwashing,” a practice where companies provide a false impression about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound.

“They try to promote good-intentioned actions for employees around recycling and composting,” said Mixon. “But, they weren’t really doing anything on the subject of climate change.”

A representative from Amazon refuted Mixon’s claims, saying that “Amazon has been committed to sustainability for many years.” He pointed to the company’s pledge to meet tenants of the Paris Agreement 10 years early, announced by founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in September 2019.

“We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue—we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference,” announcing Amazon’s latest effort. Mixon believes that this change in tone would not be possible without his group’s internal pressure campaign.

Still, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice believes that these environmental moves on the company’s behalf are only a “long overdue” first step.

Both Mixon and local Sierra Club chair Rick Keller point to Amazon’s massive cloud computing centers in Northern Virginia as a place where environmental improvements are imperative.

Keller says that his subgroup, along with environmental watchdog Greenpeace and another group from Loudon County, are working to pressure Amazon into purchasing renewable energy practices for Amazon Web Services, or AWS, which the company has not done since 2016.

Greenpeace that AWS’s “continued lack of transparency and its rapid growth in Virginia and other markets largely served by dirty energy” are harmful to the local energy economy.

Rick Keller heads the largest local subgroup in the Virginia Sierra Club. Keller’s group championed Amazon’s foray into the D.C. metro area, viewing some of the company’s shortcomings as “tradeoffs” that could bring greater environmental growth to the region.

For example, Keller believes Amazon will help combat Northern Virginia’s housing crisis by encouraging dense, environmentally-friendly housing in Arlington and Alexandria.

By the end of 2019, housing prices in Arlington County are expected to jump more than 17 percent, a number that far exceeds previous modest the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis.

Keller’s group hopes that the boom in local investment will draw funds towards affordable housing practices throughout Northern Virginia.

Keller’s optimism on Amazon’s net environmental positive has faded in light of more recent developments, like the of new environmental standards for buildings that would fail to meet Arlington’s Community Energy Plan, an environmental agreement that has been fiercely debated by local activists for the past three years, and the company’s own Climate Pledge.

Despite the local Sierra Club’s concerns, the Arlington Department of Environmental Services remains proud of its strides towards sustainability.

The Arlington Community Energy Plan sets a county-wide goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, pushes government operations to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2025, and hopes to make sustainability available to every member of the community.

“Both sides are working to transform the Pentagon City site from a block of vacant warehouses into two new LEED-certified buildings, new retail space for area businesses, and plenty of open space for the community to enjoy,” wrote a spokesperson from the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services in an email to ��Ӱ��.

Amazon plans to build three locations in “National Landing,” the new designation for Crystal City and Pentagon City. The environmental designation on these buildings fails to meet some of the company and county’s lofty environmental goals.

Discrepancies between plans and realities have not discouraged Keller or the Virginia Sierra Club from pursuing important conversations with Amazon and Arlington Count or giving the “good people with the same goals that we have for the environment” at the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services the benefit of the doubt.

Mixon from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice encourages that kind of action and persistence in the face of Amazon’s arrival.

“I think that that the community must hold Amazon to the highest standard possible,” said Mixon. “They must make sure that Amazon builds and invests to make sure that its a zero impact investment for the company.”

The post Arlington has committed to the environment. Can Amazon meet the county’s goals? first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Scalpers bring sky-high ticket prices to Nats Park for the World Series

Verónica Del Valle — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 03:37:11 +0000

A marketplace cropped up at the Nationals Park gate in the hours before the fifth World Series game.

Desperate fans huddled around each other, holding up fingers showing from how many tickets they needed.

A vendor zipped over, offering a pair of tickets for $500 each right before the first pitch. Another seller hawked two tickets for $400 feet away.

Ticket resale, or scalping, exists in a legal grey zone in D.C. A Metro police officer told ��Ӱ�� before Game Five that ticket scaling is “not illegal” and “not written up as a primary offense.”

However, D.C. law sets up strict parameters around scalping in 2016, establishing scalping is illegal from any street, sidewalk, or other public space.

“MPD takes all crimes seriously and scalping ticket scams is no exception,” wrote a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department in an e-mail to ��Ӱ��.

The World Series has been especially difficult because of high demand, according to scalpers. The online ticket exchange StubHub claims that ticket sales for Game 6 increased by 142% since Saturday.

The cheapest World Series tickets were more than $800 on StubHub, an online ticket exchange, a for the Saturday evening game. On Saturday afternoon, ticket prices for the next day started at nearly $1,000.

A representative from the website stated that tickets sold for as much as $16,500 for the 6th game in the Series.

Anthony has sold tickets for all types of events since his teenage years. Demand and prices are both high, but tickets are scarce, he said. (Veronica Del Valle/��Ӱ��)

A man holding a cardboard sign strode up and down the street that leads to one of the Nationals Park gates. In bold letters, it read “I need tickets.”

Anthony — who didn’t provide his last time because of his work reselling tickets — finds it hard to connect buyers and sellers during the Series. To supplement sales, he peddles ticket holders as well.

He has scalped tickets for all events for most of his adult life.

“I’ve been doing this since I was fourteen,” Anthony said. He gets tickets from brokers, season pass holders, and sometimes other fans on the street before flipping them for more money.

Police dismissed Anthony and a pair of other scalpers from the scene minutes later. (Verónica Del Valle/��Ӱ��)

Law enforcement eventually shooed Anthony and his two other colleagues from the Nats Park entrance.

The Metropolitan Police Department warns fans against buying tickets from scalpers like the three street vendors.

Earlier in the World Series, local police arrested a scalper for selling $2,000 in counterfeit tickets near Nats Park.

“They prey on people’s passions, knowing many regard the chance to see their favorite artists or teams as priceless,” wrote the police department in a press released before Game Four.

To avoid ticket fraud, MPD created Safe Exchange Zones in early 2019. The department hopes these zones will prevent robberies linked to online ticket exchanges, like the ones near the ballpark.

The post Scalpers bring sky-high ticket prices to Nats Park for the World Series first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

How a plan to redesign Crystal City leaves cyclists split over the neighborhood’s future

Verónica Del Valle — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 17:41:44 +0000

Melissa McMahon commutes through Crystal City almost every day.

She works in transportation for Arlington County, but lives in Alexandria. Melissa bikes and uses mass transit to move from home to work.

The county employee is just one of the thousands of bikers that pass through the area annually.

A neighborhood bike counter installed by local government estimated more than 40,000 trips through Crystal City in 2019 alone. The same counter approximated about 37,000 trips this time last year.

Now, a potential plan to bring overpasses down to ground level in Crystal City divides cyclists over the best path forward.

In an email to ��Ӱ��, the Virginia Department of Transportation stated it is planning a study for traffic improvements along Route 1, specifically between 12th Street to 23rd Street.

Both the state Department of Transportation and Arlington County aim to reconstruct the segment without adding capacity. The study hopes to determine the “feasibility of different concepts for multimodal improvements that will best balance pedestrians, bicycles, buses, vehicles, and all modes of travel,” according to spokeswoman Jennifer McCord.

The county has long planned potential changes to Crystal City’s infrastructure and Route 1 but action is coming later this fall, said a representative from the county.

Deputy Director of Transportation, Dennis Leach, said that JBG Smith, Arlington’s largest property owner, floated turning Route 1 into a boulevard previously.

The prospect of changing Richmond Highway arose again during the region’s bid for Amazon. JBG Smith’s plan surfaced again. The county ultimately that “mutually agreed upon improvements to Route 1.”

Cyclists want a voice in changes for the city

The county touts accessible biking across Crystal City. Now, changes throw some cycling advocates into limbo. (Verónica Del Valle/��Ӱ��)

Cyclist, McMahon, loves the prospect of bringing the Richmond Highway to grade. She thinks that integrating the highway into the community would help foster a true neighborhood in Crystal City.

Integrated roads would force cars to drive more slowly and create the necessary environment for bike lanes, according to McMahon.

Colin Browne of the Washington Area Bicycle Association, or WABA, agrees that slower driving does make it possible to insert bike lanes. Still, he is skeptical of the “urban boulevard” vision.

“You don’t see a state highway administration with the the general priority of getting people out of their cars and reducing the number of people driving as a goal,” said Browne.

WABA attempts to get more people on bicycles in the Washington region through advocacy and programming, like classes.

Browne believes that Richmond Highway plan must seriously consider cyclists and pedestrians to even be viable, especially as the current intersection at 18th Street is “low-stakes” for cyclists.

He thinks that features like a protected intersection, similar to the one , would be integral to keeping riders safe. The intersection at Spring St. and Second Ave. is the first of its kind on the East Coast.

Deputy Director Leach acknowledged that accidents are a problem along the corridor where the highway is at grade now. But, a “complete redesign” of those intersections is currently fully funded by the state.

Browne likes how Arlington has handled other bike initiatives, like the Long Bridge project.

That effort feeds a new trail bridge directly into Crystal City from the D.C. side of the river and increases access to Arlington for bike and pedestrian traffic.

“If we’re putting them in direct conflict with those 50 thousands cars a day [that pass through the Richmond Highway], we need to make sure it’s managed and solved for,” said Browne.

Browne concedes that at-grade planning is generally better from a city planning standpoint, and that the city has already taken important steps to help cyclist.

The city identifies that “the level of comfort of a route will affect a person’s desire to bicycle on that route” in its . County officials also integrated bike lane guidelines from the National Association of City Transportation Officials into that plan earlier this year.

Despite that, the Association wants to see the county “carving out space for folks to feel comfortable riding with their grandmothers,” in the new Route 1 plan.

“It’s going to be one or the other,” Browne said about the plan. “If you’re building roads to accommodate existing driving administrations, you’re doing it wrong. This is an opportunity that’s interesting to do it right.”

The post How a plan to redesign Crystal City leaves cyclists split over the neighborhood’s future first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Grassroots movement forges ahead

Verónica Del Valle — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 21:22:47 +0000

Pro-impeachment grassroots organizers are attempting to jump on the energy surrounding the formal inquiry as public support for the investigation rises.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll that support for impeaching President Donald Trump rose to 45% during the week that Americans learned about Trump’s telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and his son, according to a rough transcript released by the White House.

Progressive organizers have pushed for impeaching the president for most of his term in office. Need to Impeach, which started as an online petition, formed in late 2017.

Tom Steyer, a billionaire philanthropist and Democratic presidential candidate, launched and funded the organization to boost public support for impeachment. The group gathered a million signatures in support of impeachment in 10 days.

“Need to Impeach’s power is really derived from our base,” said Jack Shaw, the organization’s legislative and communications manager. “It’s about the energy we can build in Des Moines, Iowa or in Bangor.”

More than eight million people have signed the Need to Impeach petition, making it “the biggest list in politics,” according to Shaw.

Other grassroots political organizations see the impeachment just as the fruit of their labor.

Members of Indivisible, an organization founded in 2016 to resist the Trump administration’s agenda, have been pressuring their representatives all summer, according to Meaghan Hatcher-Mays, director of Democracy Policy.

“We have been making the argument from the beginning: strong leadership moves public opinion, and that [worked] out,” Hatcher-Mays said. “[Pelosi] came out in favor of the impeachment inquiry and what happened? A bunch of people came out in support of it. Strong leaders lead.”

The potential inquiry propelled public support for impeachment, but priorities for Indivisible have not changed because of that, according to Hatcher-Mays. Impeachment is the biggest part of Indivisible’s campaign for greater democracy reform.

It doesn’t take supernatural powers to impeach Donald Trump — it just takes us.

— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam)

A coalition of grassroots organizations, including Need to Impeach and Indivisible, introduced ahead of the October congressional recess. The project extends the collaborative Impeachment August initiative, a database of both in-district events organized by community members and town halls.

Shaw says that ImpeachNow has showed the group new bursts of organic action instigated by community members instead of organization.

Steyer stepped down from his position at Need to Impeach in June to focus on his presidential run. Shaw said that Steyer’s departure did not slow the group’s political momentum.

Need to Impeach’s overall strategy focuses on targeted, short-term goals that bolster Americans’ overall confidence in impeachment, like door-knocking efforts ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, according to Shaw.

“Now that the Speaker has thrown her weight behind the [impeachment] issue, it’s easier for people to get behind it,” Shaw said, citing the Reuters/Ipsos poll as proof.

Need to Impeach wants to motivate Americans to participate in community action, especially by attending town halls and forcing representatives to speak publicly on impeachment, a practice known as “bird-dogging.”

��Ӱ��ington Post the group plans to spend $3.1 million dollars on an ad campaign pressuring Senate Republicans to support impeachment.

Hatcher-Mays ultimately want to ensure members of Congress are giving impeachment the weight it deserves during the October break.

“This is it,” said Hatcher-Mays. “This is the moment where we decide whether [politicians] are going to do the right thing or the wrong thing.”

The post Grassroots movement forges ahead first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Apartment development jeopardizes parking lot essential to local restaurants

Verónica Del Valle — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:49:27 +0000

Expansion for a housing development in Crystal City could bring financial danger for businesses in Arlington’s nearby restaurant district. A pending proposal eliminates a high-traffic parking lot on the block to create more housing.

Crystal City building proprietors submitted in October a proposal that would create five new apartment buildings on the existing property and place a another stick of townhouses across the street. The Crystal House development, located off of South Eads St., would grow onto 22nd St. and ultimately replace a Colonial Parking lot.

The proposed Crystal House plan replaces the Colonial Parking lot on 22nd St. and South Eads St. with townhouses that would replace parking spaces with 81 new units for the apartment complex.

Some owners on the block fear that the development serves a harsh blow to the restaurants and shops on 23rd St., known as Restaurant Row.

Restaurant Row resists

Restaurant Row buzzes with activity on a Thursday night.

Patrons walk up and down the block, entering the restaurants and bars that line the street. Cars crawl up the road while drivers peek out of their vehicles in search the limited streetside spots.

“If you’re not going to one of the restaurants in front of our lot, you’re not parking there,” said James Jeffreys, an employee at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant up the block.

Freddie Lutz, owner of the bar and restaurant has been part of the Restaurant Row community for more than forty years. Lutz said he managed at an Italian restaurant on the street before opening Northern Virginia’s only gay bar 18 years ago.

Lutz represents the business owners on 23rd St. as president of its merchants group, while also serving on the board of the Crystal City Business Improvement District. The Crystal City BID is a non-profit partnership with Arlington County that promotes the local business, retail, restaurant, and residential communities

Along with the managers of a prominent real estate trust on 23rd St., Lutz voiced his concerns last month on wiping out the parking lot at a community meeting about the Crystal House site plan.

Parking has always been a problem for the street, according to Lutz.

“The county said verbally 35 years ago, if anyone built [on the block], they would have to provide parking for all the Restaurant Row owners,” said Lutz. He understands that Arlington is growing, however, and thinks that small solutions could help solve the problem.

Lutz cites the 12-hour parking on nearby Fern St. as an example.

Twelve hour parking spots line the block. Lutz has his own solution: to cut parking time on those spots down to two hours, creating spot turnover that would serve Restaurant Row.

Freddie’s Beach Bar promotes itself as part of the heart of Crystal City and Northern Virginia’s “only gay bar” and displays a petition to save 23rd St. parking.

Lutz, along with other merchants on the street, encourage patrons to sign a petition aimed at saving parking on 23rd St. Lutz is so adamant, his restaurant displays the petition to save parking for Restaurant Row right next to the front door in order to collect signatures from customers.

Taha Humayun, owner of Burn and Brew, a smoke shop that sells coffee, directs his customers to the petition for the sake of the community.

Humayun calls the situation “a weird place to be in as a consumer but also as a business owner.” He empathizes with the Crystal House developers trying to make money off of the land, but thinks that more long-term profits are possible by keeping the property as a pay-to-go parking lot.

Some merchants on 23rd St. advertise private parking lots to attract customers despite few street parking spots, especially as few businesses have their own spots.

A growing city

The Crystal City Sector Plan, which lays out a 40-year vision for the neighborhood, calls Restaurant Row a “major community asset” and sets out to address any parking challenges for restaurant owners.

Matt Pfeiffer, Principal Planner for Arlington County and project manager for Crystal House, warned that parts of the sector plan only identify potential challenges instead of creating binding policy, like the section describing Restaurant Row.

Pfeiffer agrees that the westside of Arlington, where Restaurant Row is located, lags in terms of public transit options. Route 1 divides Crystal City, reinforcing one half’s car dependency.

Crystal City is well-served by public multi-modal transit options. Still, more than 80% of households in Arlington have a car, according to the American Communities Survey.

Despite the transportation question, Pfeiffer maintains that housing is a priority for the county and that the Crystal House development moves the community towards local government’s ultimate goal.

“Right now, this is pencilled in as going to the advisory commissions and the board in November, although we have to take a hard look at where we’re at with some of the outstanding issues,” said Pfeiffer when asked about the project’s progress.

No official decisions have been made on the Crystal House project, but a public review process has identified potential conflicts surrounding this development, including the parking debate.

The local commissions for parks and recreation, transportation, planning, and housing will submit formal recommendations to the Arlington County Board after fully reviewing the Crystal House plan.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to balance those competing interests in this case, but we’ll just have to see how it shakes out,” said Pfeiffer.

The post Apartment development jeopardizes parking lot essential to local restaurants first appeared on ��Ӱ��.

Verónica Del Valle - ��������Ӱ��