Search
The Concern Over Arlington’s Empty Office Buildings
What do empty office buildings and over-leveraged commercial developers have to do with Arlington’s parks, libraries and schools? A lot, actually. There’s a storm brewing in the business landscape that has yet to unleash its full fury. In the worst case, fierce economic winds and rain could lash taxpayers and the county services they hold dear, from recreational programs and transit routes to emergency responders. The problem comes down to funding. Arlington has historically derived more of its tax base from the commercial sector than the average suburban municipality does, notes Terry Clower, director of regional analysis at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Doing so has allowed the county to offer high-level services and an enviable quality of life ...
Virginia Beach marsh terrace project in Back Bay will be the first on East Coast
The marshes of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge provide crucial habitat for local wildlife and help slow down waves that contribute to chronic flooding issues. But over the years, rising waters have started to swamp the marsh. Water pushing in from North Carolina overtakes the wetlands, and sea level rise makes it worse. “It’s just eroding away the existing marshes,” said Kristina Searles, a stormwater engineer with the city of Virginia Beach. … Over the past century, more than 2,000 acres of marsh has been lost to open water at Back Bay, according to Virginia Beach, as well as about 70% of underwater plants. Searles is now managing a massive new city effort to restore about 47 acres of habitat above and below water.
VCU Health planning massive redevelopment of campus
The Virginia Commonwealth University Health system is planning a significant reimagining of its campus in downtown Richmond, a preliminary plan that could take more than 15 years to implement and seemingly cost north of $1 billion. The vision includes a new dental school, an expansion to the inpatient hospital, more space for research, and removal of the 83-year-old West Hospital. With few formal plans made, the vision is considered a “roadmap,” and it’s possible not all projects will come to life, said Meredith Weiss, VCU’s vice president for administration and interim chief financial officer. She presented the plan to VCU’s board of visitors on Thursday.
Hundreds of stores to stop Virginia Lottery sales until path forward for skill games added to budget
Virginia residents with plans on playing a lottery ticket anytime soon may have just run out of luck — at least for the foreseeable future. Hundreds of stores across the state stopped selling lottery tickets at 5 p.m. on Thursday May 9, and it’s unclear when they will start sales back up again. Convenience store owners like Munir Rassiwala are hoping that their halt of lottery ticket sales will prompt law makers to lift the restrictions against skill games, allowing the money-making machines to start operating again.
Students confront UVa President Jim Ryan, demand answers after police crackdown on protesters
The meeting did not go as planned. When University of Virginia President Jim Ryan walked down the Lawn Thursday afternoon, he was expecting to sit down in Pavilion VI with a handful of students who want the school to sever financial ties with weapons manufacturers and other companies “complicit in Israeli human rights violations.” ... When Ryan entered Pavilion VI, accompanied by Chief Student Affairs Officer Kenyon Bonner and Dean of Students Cedric Rucker, he expected the meeting he and UVa Apartheid Divest had agreed to on April 11. What he encountered was five students who had but nine words for him.
Shenandoah County School Board votes to restore Confederate names of schools
For the first time in United States history, a school district that changed the name of schools that honored Confederate generals, voted to restore the Confederate names years later. The Shenandoah County School Board held a public hearing on May 9 at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School to discuss restoring the names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. At the hearing, residents voiced their opinions on the school’s current names and whether they agreed with the restoration or were against it.
Friday Read A beloved alley cat now lives in the Watergate. Was she kidnapped or rescued?
The cat worked the not-so-mean streets of Foggy Bottom, earning her keep by playing bad cop with the rats. She kept a quiet, almost monkish life, at first. She dozed on sunlit stoops, her black fur shimmering like polished obsidian. She scaled fences that allowed her a prison guard’s view of Snows Court, a historic alley with brick sidewalks and narrow rowhouses. She slept in a boxy shelter on a neighbor’s lawn. She arrived in Snows Court in the summer of 2021, courtesy of the Blue Collar Cat program run by D.C.’s Humane Rescue Alliance. She was named Kitty Snows, after her new home, where she belonged to everyone and no one.
Budget deal reached by Virginia governor and negotiators, chairman says
After an earlier breakdown in state budget negotiations, General Assembly budget negotiators and Gov. Glenn Youngkin reached a consensus on a two-year spending plan for Virginia that does not raise taxes. House Appropriations Committee Chair Luke Torian confirmed the budget conferees reached a deal Thursday, though he said the full details of the plan would not go public until this weekend. “It will not be released until Saturday; there are a lot of administrative things that need to be done,” Torian, D-Dumfries, said Thursday. “We just reached an agreement this afternoon.”
Inside the Port of Virginia’s $450 million plan to lead in era of super-sized ocean containerships
The Port of Virginia is on track to become the functionally widest and deepest port on the U.S. East Coast by early 2025, as massive ocean containerships upend the economics of port terminals. Norfolk Harbor will be the only waterway channel on the East Coast with Congressional authorization for 55-foot depth from end to end and side to side. While there are channels on the East Coast that are wider than the Port of Virginia, they are not uniformly deep from end to end and side to side, regardless of tide. A $450 million dredging project at the Port of Virginia, which began in 2019, completed its widening measures in March, allowing two ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs) to pass each other at the same time.
The Buc-ee’s stops here? Stafford residents put off by potential gas giant
The mascot for Buc-ee’s may be the beaver, but many Stafford residents aren’t eager for the business to come to the county. Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based chain of large gas station/convenience stores, is seeking a permit to build what would be its third Virginia location near the intersection of Interstate 95 and Courthouse Road in Stafford. The initial public hearing on the proposal likely won’t be held until late fall or early winter at the earliest, but some Stafford residents who live near the proposed site have already begun voicing their opposition to it with county officials.