Falls Church News-Press 10-1-2020 by Falls Church News-Press

October 1 – 7, 2020

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FOU N D E D 1991 • V OL. X XX NO. 33

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F.C. ‘Supermajority’ Law May Stall Downtown Plan All 5 Council Members Need To Back Parking Sale

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

The need for an elusive “supermajority” of the Falls Church City Council members support for the sale of Cityowned land has thrown a huge monkey wrench into the approval process for the Broad and Washington project in the City’s downtown area. The F.C. City’s attorney Carol McKoskrie presented her formal opinion to a Council subcommittee Wednesday, saying that existing state law stipulates that when it comes to the sale of public property, an authorizing vote by the governing body of any jurisdiction requires not a simple majority vote, but a “supermajority” of 75 percent of the seats on the governing body.

For the F.C. City Council that would require five votes, which is the total number of Council members now deliberating on the issue of a land sale to the developers of the Whole Foods proposal. One Council member, Ross Litkenhous, has recused himself on grounds of a potential conflict of interest, and a second one, Daniel X. Sze, died in July. This law puts the Insight Property Group in a bind, with its current plan to advance a three-plus acre project at the intersection of Broad and Washington Streets in the center of the Little City that would feature a 45,200 square foot Whole Foods Market. That’s because the plan at

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A SOLID TURNOUT was witnessed for Insight Property Group’s walking tour of the proposed Broad and Washington project site. (P��: N��-P��)

Aﬀordable Housing Dominates F.C. City’s Special Election Season BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Who would have thought that the need for expanding affordable housing would be the Number 1 issue in this fall’s Falls Church City Council special election? The Little City, long known for its deference to well-to-do single family homes, is now having its

political conversation dominated by concerns for lower income families and the rapid evaporation of housing options for them. The volume of that issue began being raised on the F.C. City Council, led by Council member Letty Hardi, in the last year. But with the special election this fall to fill the seat vacated by the death of Dan Sze, the

three vying candidates have all been focused on the need for more affordable housing. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, still over a month out from the Nov. 3 national election day, a whopping 24 percent of registered voters in the City of Falls Church have already cast their votes by showing up at City Hall to vote in person, or by mailing in their ballots.

Out of concern for the Covid19 pandemic and out of concern for the importance of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, plus new laws out of Richmond this year that allow for “no excuse” absentee voting for the first time account for the heavy advance turnout, a trend true not only throughout Virginia, but also all across the

U.S. Here, the ballots, including those already cast, include the local race to fill a vacant seat on the Falls Church City Council. Three candidates qualified for the ballot last month to fill a vacancy for a single year caused by the death of Councilman Dan Sze in July. Debbie Hiscott, Joshua Sharif Shokoor and Simone Pass Tucker

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While survey respondents will likely be checking a box “Yes” or “No” on whether they support renaming George Mason High and Thomas Jefferson Elementary, their answers will also reveal how they truly feel about the men responsible for founding the United States. See Story, page 4

W�OD T�� R�� T�� O� N�� S�� D�� T� V�� The 1.5 mile section of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail (W&OD) that runs through the City of Falls Church is well on its way to adding dedicated cycling and pedestrian lanes by next summer, and is seen as all the more crucial given how the novel coronavirus is transmitted. See Story, page 19

G�� E�� T��: W�� H�� P�� O��? It’s been over 20 years since the concept of “peak oil” was put forth in Scientific American. When the idea that the world’s oil supply might soon hit a peak was first developed, the world consumed about 63 million barrels of oil per day. See Column, page 23

INDEX

Editorial............................................... 6 Letters........................................... 6,19 Comment ................................ 7,15,16 News & Notes............................. 10,11 Crime Report .................................... 16 Calendar ........................................... 18 Business News ................................. 19 Classified Ads ................................... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ......... 21 Critter Corner.................................... 22

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NEW SCHOOL, NEW OPPORTUNITY. That was the thinking behind Falls Church residents Melissa Teates and Dave Rifkin’s advocacy for changing the name of George Mason High School upon completion of the new building in December. (Photo: News-Press)

Mason, Jefferson Name Change Debates Address Thorny Elements of Their Lives by Matt Delaney

Falls Church News-Press

Next week, a consultant hired by Falls Church City Public Schools will begin surveying the community on whether or not the names of George Mason High and Thomas Jefferson Elementary should be changed on the grounds that the American figures both held slaves. While respondents will likely be checking a box “Yes” or “No,” their answers will reveal how they truly feel about the men responsible for founding the United States. “If you want to say the Confederates are bad, or much worse, I think you’re wrong,” Melissa Teates, one of the earliest advocates for Mason’s name change, said of him and Jefferson. “The Confederates were fighting to keep the way of life that these men had. I think they’re totally connected.” A member of the City of Falls Church’s planning commission, Teates began her advocacy in May 2019 at a school board meeting. The angle she took back then was to simply have the board consider

looking at the name since there was a new school being constructed, making a change even easier. It’s a similar approach to what longtime City resident Dave Rifkin took as well. He said that he would do everything in his power to make sure the high school had a new name after voters approved the bond referendum that cleared the way for a new building in fall 2017. Rifkin has periodically reached out to the school board over the past three years to voice his opposition to the name, hoping it could honor a local icon instead. After multiple visits to the school board, Teates had accepted that the name change effort had little momentum behind it, despite the occasional conversation with community members who agreed with her point of view. But the issue gained new life once George Floyd was killed by a police officer in May, and the school’s name became a symbol of the country celebrating its ugly past. These arguments were furthered by Mason’s lesser-known place in history. Rifkin, who didn’t grow up in Virginia, thinks of Mason as

a parochial figure that didn’t even sign the U.S. Constitution. Teates asked her own kids what they knew of Mason, to which they replied very little, outside of him authoring the Virginia Declaration of Rights. “He’s not someone of stature, in my mind, that other people are. On top of that, he was a slave holder. That’s how he made his living. And he didn’t see any reason to stop at his death,” Rifkin said, noting that Mason passed his slaves down to his children when he died so they could enjoy his same quality of life. Teates said that, “If anything, that’s his premier thing he did give to society which is the Virginia Declaration of Rights, except that those rights only applied to male, white landowners, so it wasn’t that great.” According to the National Archives, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was drawn upon by Jefferson for the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, particularly the famous phrase of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It was also used to form the basis for the Bill of Rights years later at the

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Constitutional Convention. Being an unwitting drafter of two of America’s founding documents in Mason — and of course, a founding father in Jefferson — is what gives local history buff and Mason alumnus (‘67) Win Singleton pause about removing both of the Virginia figures’ names from their respective schools. “They lived in their era, and they shouldn’t be judged by today’s era,” Singleton said. He continued by saying that even with the remarkable achievements both Mason and Jefferson had, they didn’t always live up to their ideals. Then again, he added, “I’m not sure some of our people living today are living up to their ideals all the time either.” An incomplete picture of American history provided by the education system may be why there’s such an urge to correct the perception of the two men. Singleton said he read about a former Alabama high school student who originally learned of slave owning as this very tame thing. So tame, in fact, that he said the student’s reading material had a passage about how the slave owner took his slaves out for a picnic. The characterization, per Singleton, omitted the lack of freedom and brutality that came with being a slave, and he could see how that could taint someone’s view of the U.S. if discovering the truth of the matter later on. The Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Henderson talked about how southern intellectuals crafted a narrative about the “happy slave” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And in his own work as a teacher, Henderson was advised that there were certain things he shouldn’t do because it would make white students feel bad about themselves. Getting at the truth of the country’s past — without beating people over the head with it — is what Henderson believes the ultimate goal should be. Although that truth doesn’t have him equating the slave holding ways of the nation’s founders with Confederate secessionists. “I see a distinct difference between the two,” Henderson said. “[The founders] were fighting for freedom from British control of this land over here under which a system that fostered slavery, but they weren’t necessarily fighting to preserve slavery.” (Editor’s note: After speaking with the News-Press, Henderson asked to see his attributions in the story. Upon seeing the above quote, Henderson changed his stance and said the American founders were fighting to preserve slavery.)

Two separate conversations former Falls Church Vice Mayor Hal Lippman has had with young City residents Hayley Loftur-Thun, a Mason gradute from 2016, and Toni Lewis could represent what’s already taking place around town. With Loftur-Thun, Lippman took issue with the exagerrated language she used in a letter to the editor published by the NewsPress in June. In it, Loftur-Thun said that Jefferson “beat young African Americans as young as age 9, and took pride in these actions.” Lippman pushed back in a letter the following week, and the two have shared a conversation over the phone since then. Loftur-Thun still doesn’t believe children should go to a school named for someone who was aware of the beatings even his youngest slaves endured, but she didn’t want to go as far as to say Jefferson doesn’t deserve to be honored. Lewis, meanwhile, finds it unacceptable that people are so willing to excuse the sins of slaveholders as long as they contributed something notable. She said that it’s a slap in the face to people of color to honor slave owners with school names. To her, no American icon’s place in public should be shielded from their past wrongs, though she also admits her opinion is likely in the minority. “I don’t believe any historical figure — no symbol, no school name, no monument — is sacred. We have to decide as a community here, and as a nation, what symbols serve and inspire us,” Lewis said. It’s that line of thinking that makes Lippman anxious. “I’m just concerned where you draw the line,” Lippman said. “Words really do matter. That’s the underlying theme for all of this: that what people say with careless passion while trying to make their point really is a big deal these days.” Opinions run the gamut of how the survey should be treated. Henderson thinks getting the community’s input is needed before moving forward with the process. Lewis doesn’t believe a survey favoring keeping the names should prevent the school board from implementing new ones. Singleton has accepted that Mason’s name will likely be removed. As for Teates, she said she will honor the results. The goal of her advocacy was to connect the name change discussion with the construction of the new school. If people decide they don’t want that, she just hopes that the history of Mason and Jefferson taught in class lets people know the good and bad they took part in.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 5

F.C. City Attorney McCoskrie Briefs Council on Supermajority Law

Continued from Page 1

present centers on the acquisition of City owned land on the site that is currently used to provide free parking for three stand alone retailers right there. It is the disruption of the parking for those establishments — Clare and Don’s Beach Shack, the State Theatre and Thompson Italian — that has been one source of major controversy about the project overall. F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields, upon hearing McKoskrie’s news at a meeting of a City Council subcommittee Wednesday morning, said he is not sure whether or not Insight was yet aware of this new hurdle. The subject did not come up during a walking tour of the site hosted by Insight on Tuesday afternoon. Over 70 people, including City Council members, City staff, candidates for the Council special election coming up, owners of the adjacent restaurants, leaders of the Creative Cauldron

theater that has been promised a subsidy to move into 5,000 square feet there, and residents of the Lawton Street area behind the site were all present in person for the tour of the project site. Shields welcomed the gathering, calling it the first in-person event of its kind in the City since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early March and it was held outdoors with masks and social distancing. Mayor David Tarter said subsequently that he learned a lot from actually walking the site and sensually relating to the spaces involved. Shields reported yesterday that Insight folks have told him they have some changes from their most recent submission in the works, but they will not be ready to present until the Oct. 13 meeting of the Council in almost two weeks. However, he conceded that any changes will be “cosmetic” in nature, only dealing with areas of the exterior near the entrance into a proposed garage.

F.C. MAYOR David Tarter (center, holding megaphone) takes a few moments to address the crowd at the Broad and Washington project’s walking tour Tuesday. (Photo: News-Press) Mayor Tarter said that one of the important alterations he is looking for, however, deals with the need for “tapering” of the project at its rear facing Lawton Street. Still, it will be only a simple majority of votes (three) to forward the Insight plan to City boards and commissions on Oct. 13 and it remains not entirely

clear if the “supermajority” vote will be required any time before the actual vote on the land sale. Shields said that Insight has indicated the vote on the land sale will be needed by January 10, 2021 at the very latest. The Sze vacancy will have been filled by the Nov. 3 special election and swearing in before then, however, but even with six

active Council members, five votes will still be required for the sale. At the subcommittee meeting Wednesday morning, it was also indicated that an alternative to a $12-17 million pricetag for six major storm water mitigation projects could be done for much less if they involved acquiring properties to place dry ponds.

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E D I TO R I A L

A Catastrophe, A Laughing Stock

With all the compounding horrors accumulating at the national level this fall, hopefully to be redressed by a favorable outcome in the presidential election, at the local level the City of Falls Church is facing its own potential catastrophe. This word is carefully chosen. It arises from the growing realization that the proposal to place a 40,000-plus square foot Whole Foods megamarket at the City’s central intersection of Broad at Washington might fail to win the OK of the City Council. This is catastrophic in a number of ways, and the blame for a failure will fall both to the Insight Property developers and a Council not willing to do the right thing in the face of predictable resistance from neighbors to the site. 1. The City will turn away well over $2 million in annual net tax revenue from the project, compared to about $116,000 it gets off the three acres in play today. Also, “The Whole Foods Effect” raises real estate values about six percent in surrounding areas, according to a RCLCO Real Estate study. 2. The impact of that rejection in the current economic environment will be devastating, and for that reason will become the stuff of legend. We have no idea yet what the longer term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic’s cost to the economy will be locally, regionally and nationally, except to know it will be great. As time goes on, the impact will likely prove to be worse and worse, sinking the nation into a deep new Depression. It’s a real possibility, and it will be foolish to dismiss that until we have more evidence of the pandemic’s real impact. 3. The City of Falls Church will become a laughing stock overnight throughout the wider region’s development community, and will sink back into the doghouse that it took so long for the City to crawl out of starting 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the City Council appears not to appreciate the enormity of these factors and is far too willing to bend to the pressure by neighbors to the site. On the other hand, the project’s developers, the Insight Group, appear to not fully appreciate the position the Council is in. They can’t believe the Council will actually turn them down. But they’re wrong. Insight must take more seriously redressing the Council’s concerns. The architectural design stinks. If it’s not significantly improved, the project will go down. (By the way, we think that design needs to include a bright and colorful marquee over the entrance to the Creative Cauldron space.) The additional temporary parking spaces available to neighboring businesses during the construction phase need to be signed up pronto. The Whole Foods lease, signed by Amazon, needs to include language assuring that if the Whole Foods brand does not wind up at that site, that something equivalent, in terms of projected revenue yield, will.

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Clarifying Some Aspects of F.C. Stormwater Coverage Editor, Last week’s coverage of City Council’s Sept. 21 discussion of six critical stormwater projects in five neighborhoods was mostly accurate but flat wrong about some key facts. First, the editorializing headlines about a “small household impact” that would help “few homes” were incorrect. These projects would help prevent future flooding for well over 100 Falls Church residents who endure

the accumulated runoff from every nearby home and business during major storms. These neighborhoods are not in federal flood plains but have suffered repeated flooding in large part because the city’s stormwater infrastructure is insufficient. The Council discussion and coverage focused on 48 homes marked with a dot on preliminary engineering plans. The engineering firm confirmed that those denote homes

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that had a recent topographic survey. Those homes would likely benefit the most from improved drainage, but many other nearby homes would be helped too. In July 2019’s storm, more than 130 homes and businesses — largely concentrated in these neighborhoods — had enough stormwater or raw sewage damage to request a special bulk trash pickup. Second, the projects’ estimated cost is $8.3 million to $12 million (factoring in a 45 percent contingency) using a 20-year bond — not the incorrect price on the front page that referred to a 30-year bond for a high-end estimate that staff did not recommend.

Lastly, the article erroneously stated as fact that stormwater fees will double. Next week, Council will discuss whether to resume engineering work on five priority projects that was halted in March. If Council members approve up to $500,000 to continue design work, this will provide the clearest cost picture, allow lengthy federal permitting processes to begin and position the city to apply for state and federal grants, which would factor into future rate decisions. City Council members have stated that these priority projects are important and that keeping floodwater out

Letters Continued on Page 23

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CO MME NT

OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 7

Candidate Statements For F.C. City Council Special Election Debbie Hiscott

I’m Debbie Hiscott and I’m asking for your vote for Falls Church City Council. For more than two decades, I have been fortunate to call the Little City home. When I first moved to Falls Church City, I worked in business development and corporate finance for MCI/Verizon. Since that time, I have raised a family here while finding a variety of ways to tap into my business background to give back to and continue to improve this unique community. This has included thousands of volunteer hours and, for the past eight years, serving as Executive Director of the Falls Church Education Foundation (FCEF), a non-profit organization focused on supporting Falls Church City Public Schools in the areas of equity of access, teacher training and innovation. My personal and professional lives are completely intertwined with the City of Falls Church. I approach my work and volunteer engagements with the belief that progress must be grounded in team building and compromise. Through these experiences, I have engaged with our school administration, business owners, policymakers, and a wide spectrum of the community to explore different interests and viewpoints to find common ground. I have worked extensively with these leaders to support programs and grants that benefit both our public school system and the surrounding community. This experience has enabled me to become knowledgeable in the diverse needs of local homeowners, businesses, and residents of all ages while becoming adept at using collaboration to ensure all interests feel heard and progress is made. These are challenging times. As we look to the future, Falls Church City needs experienced leaders who understand how to bring diverse opinions to the table to craft a shared vision for moving forward. Given the complexities of today’s difficult and urgent issues, including health concerns, racial disparities, and economic pressures, it is critically important that we elect someone able to immediately get to work on November 4th. There is no time for an extended learning curve. In leading the city forward, I will prioritize com-

munity safety and wellness, equity and accessibility, environmental well-being, strong city services and schools, and smart growth development – all balanced against the current fiscal realities. As a member of the Falls Church City Council, I will tap into the skills, insights, and relationships I have gained through living and working here for the past 24 years to ensure we rise to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead while retaining the elements that make Falls Church City a special place we are all proud to call home. This must include reviewing our current programs and policies with an equity lens and doing all we can to foster an inclusive community that celebrates diversity, promotes a healthy environment, and ensures everyone has a voice. Vote for me, Debbie Hiscott, on November 3rd (or before) and you will gain the benefit of an experienced, engaged, and committed addition to our City Council. For more information, please go to my website at www. debbiehiscott.org.

Simone Pass Tucker I’m running for city council to help shape Falls Church into an affordable, cleaner and greener city filled with thriving local businesses. Anything is possible when we work together to make Falls Church better for all. Affordable Living means working with developers, and standing up to them when necessary, to transform Falls Church into a “15 minute city” where we can all safely walk to the things we need, where traffic flows smoothly and parking isn’t your biggest daily hassle. Clean Energy means new building standards to make Falls Church a national leader in sustainable living, while finding creative solutions to our storm water problems, such as green roofing and [semi]permeable walking surfaces. Protecting Local Business means shaping development to favor the small, unique, locally-owned businesses we all love. It means centering small businesses in our development negotiations. In light of the hardships of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city needs to launch a small business concierge service to help our small businesses access unused

[WRITE FOR THE PRESS]

federal funds. My values of inclusivity and small-town strength have been shaped by years of political activism and a deep love for my hometown of Falls Church. After attending college, I decided to move back to Falls Church with a mission to make the Little City a warm and welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, identities, ethnicities, and income levels. As an activist, community advocate, and seasoned campaign volunteer, I know how to fight for the values Falls Church residents hold dear. I am driven by the belief that each of our voices matter when it comes to creating the Falls Church we want to see today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. While we can’t avoid development, it also doesn’t necessarily equate progress. True progress requires the input of all Falls Church residents and consideration for the environment. I know that we can make Falls Church more eco-friendly, more compassionate, more equitable, more just, and more livable — for everyone. We have the power together to change for the better. I have fought for reproductive rights, Middle East peace, environmental justice, and progressive values. Now, it’s time to fight for Falls Church — and for you. I want to bring a fresh perspective to the City Council. As a young, Jewish member of the LGBTQ+ community, I know what it feels like to be unrepresented. More than just a new point of view, I hope to be a voice for those in Falls Church who don’t yet have a seat at the table. Together, I know we can work toward paving the way for what small cities should be like.

Joshua Sharif Shokoor My Falls Church story is not so different than most who grow up here. I attended Mt. Daniel, Thomas Jefferson (TJ) Elementary, and George Mason Middle and High School. I participated in the Memorial Day Fun Runs, went to daycare and Summer Fun at TJ, coached basketball at the community center, and played baseball for Falls Church Kiwanis Little League. I understand how fortunate I was to live in this town. The

people, environment, and the opportunities which make Falls Church great — unique citizen engagement and a wealth of public resources — directly influenced the pursuit of my Master’s in Public Policy and inspired my civic work. But as a second generation American, from a lower income background, raised by a single mother, I also know that others who share a similar story as me, often do not have access to the same opportunities I was provided. By most measurements, Falls Church is still a segregated community, lacking economic and racial diversity. This is partially a result of decisions made in Falls Church City’s past to deliberately maintain practices of segregation. But the lack of diversity we observe today is due to unchecked economic barriers preventing entry to minorities and lower income households through current housing policies. I am running for City Council because I know we can do better, and I believe it is our civic duty to contribute to the change we want to see in our community. I have spent the last several years focusing my work on policy issues surrounding racial equity, accessibility, and affordability, both nationally and here in Falls Church. My local work began as an intern for the City’s Department of Housing and Human Services, and continues on as an author of the “Affordable Living Policy,” and a veteran of the Housing Commission. Prior to the “Affordable Living Policy,” all affordable dwelling units (ADUs) in the City had covenants attached to them, allowing the units to expire, and become market rate after 15-20 years. The consequences of this policy will lead to the City losing almost all of its affordable housing stock. I pushed for a policy change, and contributed to writing the policy document, guaranteeing that in every new development, future ADUs will remain affordable in perpetuity or for the life of the building. Because of this accomplishment, Falls Church will never lose any future affordable housing. This was a great achievement, and I was proud to be a part of a substantial improvement to the social fabric of my community. But other children of this City are not as lucky as me. As it stands, Falls Church has become so exclusive that many who grow up here will never be able to invest in the place that has invested so heavily in them. Falls Church is my home. I’ve lived here my entire life. On City Council, I will speak for all Falls Church families. I will ensure we rise to the expectations we set for ourselves. Together, we will turn words into action and promises into policy!

The News-Press welcomes readers to send in submissions in the form of Letters to the Editor & Guest Commentaries. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 350 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four weeks. Guest Commentaries should be no more than 800 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four months. Because of space constraints, not all submissions will be published. All submissions to the News-Press should be original, unpublished content. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, grammar and accuracy. All submissions should include writer’s name, address, phone and e-mail address if available.

PAGE 8 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

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are all engaged in robust campaigns, having fully participated in two online forums sponsored by local civic organizations and a series of one-onone interviews with another. The first event was hosted by the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago and the second by the Village Preservation and Improvement Society and the F.C. chapter of the League of Women Voters last week. The last two Sunday afternoons, the Citizens for a Better City have broadcast interviews with two of the three candidates — Hiscott a week ago Sunday and Shokoor last Sunday. This coming Sunday at 5 p.m. a third interview is scheduled to air on a Zoom online channel with Pass Tucker. Also, this week’s edition of the News-Press includes statements from each of the candidates, the publication date moved up by the News-Press due to the heavy turnout of voting in advance. Hiscott is running as the favorite because of her eight year history as the head of the Falls Church Education Foundation (FCEF) which has corralled the support of parents of the 2,600 students in the Falls Church Public School System and their allies in the community. Hiscott has grown the FCEF into one of the community’s most vibrant and activist organizations with two annual events (except for this year because of the pandemic) such that is running mostly on the strength of her organizing skills and experience with community building. In her statement published this week, she appeals to her greater experience, writing, “Given the complexities of today’s difficult and urgent issues, including health concerns, racial disparities and economic pressures, it is critically important that we elect someone able to immediately get to work on November 4th. There is no time for an extended learning curve.” While her statement published in today’s News-Press makes no mention of affordable housing, per se, in the candidate forums hosted by the various civic groups, she made multiple references to affordable housing as a component of advancing diversity and equality in the community, including support for “auxiliary dwelling units,” also known as “granny flats,” that can be built in the backyards of existing single family

homes and offered as low-cost housing if not for “granny,” then for anyone seeking a low-cost housing option. Shokoor gets credit for putting affordable housing in the forefront of the campaign as a lifelong F.C. resident, living his whole life in the affordable Winter Hill complex. Winter Hill was originally called Tyler Gardens and was built in the late 1940s for GI Loan veterans of World War II. The units were converted to condos in the early 1970s when the name was changed to Winter Hill. For years, local leaders dismissed the complex as a source of significant school aged children because of the small size of the individual units. Nonetheless, because of the relative affordability of the units, families have found ways to squeeze themselves into them, as Shokoor’s did in the early 1980s. Shokoor’s passion for affordable housing, he writes, derives from his experience growing up in Falls Church. “As a second generation American, from a lower income background, raised by a single mother, I know that others who share a similar story as me often do not have access to the same opportunities I was provided,” he writes, leading to his affordable housing activism that included his authorship of the City’s officially-adopted “Affordable Living Policy” as a member of the Housing Commission. Like Shokoor, Pass Tucker is a lifelong City of F.C. resident and graduate of George Mason High School who has made environmental concerns and inclusivity central priorities along with affordable housing. “My values of inclusivity and small-town strength have been shaped by years of political activism and a deep love for my hometown of Falls Church,” they write, saying their mission is “to make the Little City a warm and welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, identities, ethnicities and income levels.” “As a young, Jewish member of the LGBTQ+ community I know what it feels like to be unrepresented,” they write. “I hope to be a voice for those in Falls Church who don’t yet have a seat at the table.” All three candidates have stated that they are “running 14-month campaigns,” with the special election this fall to fill a vacant seat for only one year before it is up again in the fall of 2021 for a full four-year term along with three other Council seats that will be up then.

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NEWS BRIEFS 3 Skyline Buildings OK’d for Conversion to Live-Work Units The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an application to convert three 16-story office buildings, located at 5201, 5203 and 5205 Leesburg Pike, into up to 720 live-work units. The live-work concept allows tenants to choose whether to use the unit as a home, an office or a combination of the two. Each building is planned to have up to 240 live-work units, and one building has the option to be set aside as age-restricted live-work units.

Study Says U.S. Office Market Facing Major Decline The recovery of the U.S. office market from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and recession is going to be a slow process, likely stretching beyond 2024, Cushman and Wakefield predicts in a new report on the future of office space worldwide. The report predicts that the U.S. office sector will lose about 145 million square feet of office occupancy in 2020 and 2021 as the result of the economy losing a net 1.7 million office jobs. As of the second quarter of 2020, the office sector has already lost 23.1 million square feet of occupied space nationwide, with negative absorption continuing for at least another 18 months. All together, a 145 million square feet contraction in occupied space is about 2.7 percent of the entire U.S. office inventory as of the first quarter of 2020, the report notes. That would mean the current contraction, if it follows the baseline scenario, would be worse than the contraction of the Great Recession of 2.2 percent, or that of the dot-com recession of 2001, which saw a loss of 2.4 percent of occupied office space. The pandemic is only part of the reason for negative office absorption, according to Cushman and Wakefield. Even without it, absorption rates were in decline, because businesses were using fewer square feet per employee.

Beyer Blasts Trump on Tax Report U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church and serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and its subcommittee with jurisdiction over taxation, issued the following statement Monday about the New York Times reporting that Donald Trump avoided paying income tax for 10 years. He paid only $750 in the year of his election and the first year of his presidency. Beyer’s full statement follows: “The revelation that Donald Trump paid almost no personal income taxes for many years is not surprising, but it is outrageous. Far more important, however, is Trump’s use of the government for his personal benefit rather than that of the American people. Even as Trump took advantage of tax laws that benefit the wealthy, quite possibly in illegal ways, he worked with Republicans to make those laws in many ways even more beneficial to the super-rich. More than half of American households have an annual income smaller than the sum Trump wrote off for hair.”

F.C. Halloween Window Paintings Cancelled This Year A recent annual tradition in the City of Falls Church, the citizen paintings with Halloween themes of windows of retailers in downtown will not occur this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a statement from the Falls Church Arts. The statement by Shaun VanSteyn thanked the long-term voluntary role of Marty Behr organizing support for the annual event that has been a delight for students and parents alike since 2008. The FCA’s current show, “A Woman’s Journey,” at its gallery space in the 600 block of West Broad continues even with the postponement of its opening reception.

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ABOUT JOSH. I am a lifelong resident of the City of Falls Church and a second generation American. Growing up in the Little City and attending George Mason High School directly influenced the pursuit of my Master's in Public Policy and inspired my civic work. I have spent the last few years working on local affordable housing policies and advocating for renters, while serving on the City's Housing Commission. Now I am running for City Council to ensure Falls Church is accessible and affordable for current and future generations. Please join us in realizing our City's vision for creating a more welcoming and inclusive community for all Falls Church families.

VOTE JOSHUA SHOKOOR FOR CITY COUNCIL BY NOVEMBER 3RD Paid for and authorized by Joshua Shokoor for City Council

Personal Property Tax Due Monday, October 5 No-Contact Paying is Easier than Ever! Your car tax is due, and contactless payments are available. Pay online at fallschurchva.gov/PayOnline or drop in the yellow box outside the City Hall front door.

This is a courtesy reminder from the City of Falls Church Treasurer, 703-248-5046 (TTY 711).

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PAGE 10 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

News-Press

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Community News & Notes

LAST WEEK staff members at Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads competed in the Dino-lympics. Dressed in inflatable dinosaur suits, staff members Susan Matthews (Mrs. T-Rex), Vernon Wiley (Pterodactyl) and Valerie Burke (Mr. T-Rex) raced through an obstacle course in the facility’s Knoll Garden. The residents watched from the lawn in front of the Knoll Garden and from their balconies and guessed who they thought was in each dinosaur suit. Elizabeth Whitehouse, Cultural Arts and Events Manager at Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, also dressed in a dinosaur costume, MC’d the event. (Photos: Courtesy Elizabeth bement/Finn Partners)

Golf Tourney Benefitting F.C. High Extends Registration The Falls Church High School Athletic Boosters Golf Invitational will be held on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Penderbrook Golf Course (3700 Golf Trail Lane, Fairfax). Due to popular demand, the deadline to register has been extended to Oct. 3. Those interested should save their spot ASAP by visiting fchs-jaguar-athleticboosters-club.square.site/golf. The event will be a day of golf, prizes, food at an affordable (and safe) community event. All proceeds will be used to improve the athletic programs and facilities at Falls Church High School. The cost is $110 (Adult) and $99 (Fairfax County Public

Schools students and faculty). The price includes green fees, cart, lunch and post-golf refreshments as well as a silent auction. Those who are interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact Manisha Bhaskar at mbhaskarmarket@gmail.com.

F.C. Girl Scout Troop Headlines FIRSTfriday FIRSTfriday of Falls Church is set for Oct. 2 from 6 – 8 p.m. at Art and Frame Falls Church (205 W. Jefferson St., Falls Church). The featured artist will be Saint James Girl Scout Troop 1109. Each year the girl scouts create artwork that will be a part of the FIRSTfriday showing. The proceeds from their sales go to benefit various charities. In

past years, the girls have helped organizations like Lost Dog & Cat Rescue, Smile Train and Orangutan Outreach. The event will have Covid-19 responsible guidelines, including: Masks are required to enter Art and Frame of Falls Church. The entrance and exit are separate so attendees are asked to enter the appropriate door and follow the traffic patterns. The floor will be marked for social distancing. There will be hand sanitizers available and frequent cleaning of surfaces.

Saint James School Wins Blue Ribbon Award Saint James Catholic School (830 W. Broad St., Falls Church) has been recognized as a high-

performing National Blue Ribbon School for 2020. The award highlights the exemplary achievements of students, educators, families and the larger community at St. James. Only 50 non-public schools are recognized annually. This is the third time, the second in the last eight years, that St. James has received this distinguished recognition. “This recognition is an incredible honor and speaks to the steadfast dedication of our administration, teachers and entire school community. Ultimately, everything we do is focused on offering the highest standard of individualized and holistic instruction to each and every student under our care,” said Sister Mary Sue Carwile, principal of St. James.

“We know the pressures on young people, particularly today, are unprecedented. Our goal is to equip students not only to meet the challenges presented to them today but to excel and bring the hope of Christ to our communities as they grow.” St. James has an enrollment of 421 students for the 2020-21 academic year. This year, the school reopened for full-time in-person instruction. Students were phased in for the new year two to three grades per day to allow them the opportunity to learn new protocols. The school implemented a host of mitigation efforts to welcome students back safely and consistent with social distancing guidelines. Students and teachers are required to wear two-ply face

Send Us Your News & Notes!

The News-Press is always on the lookout for photos & items for Community News & Notes, School News & Notes and other sections of the paper. If you graduate, get married, get engaged, get an award, start a club, eat a club, tie your shoes, have a birthday, have a party, host an event or anything else you think is worth being mentioned in the News-Press, write it up and send it to us! If you have a photo, even better! Because of the amount of submissions we receive, we cannot guarantee all submissions will be published, but we’ll try our best!

Community News & Notes: newsandnotes@fcnp.com | School News & Notes: schoolnews@fcnp.com Mail: News & Notes, Falls Church News-Press, 105 N. Virginia Ave #310, Falls Church, VA 22046

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

masks. Hand sanitizer is outside every classroom, and touchless water filling stations are throughout the halls. The windows in each classroom have exhaust fans for added ventilation, and the school is using MERV 13 filtration in the HVAC. Classrooms have seethrough plastic shields on each desk for added safety. “We were thrilled to learn that St. James was selected as a national Blue Ribbon school yet again. This distinctive recognition is an acknowledgment of the mission-focused commitment to every student that is a hallmark of this remarkable school community,” added Dr. Joseph Vorbach III, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Diocese of Arlington. The 2020 National Blue Ribbon Schools Awards Ceremony will be held virtually on Nov. 12 and 13, 2020. Schools will each receive their plaques and flags via U.S. mail. For more information on Saint James Catholic School, visit saintjamesschool.org.

Personal Property Tax Bills Due Oct. 5 Personal Property Tax Bills on all vehicles and business equipment based in the City of Falls Church are due on Oct. 5 or postmarked by that date, to avoid late payment penalties. Taxpayers can avoid the lines and pay their car taxes online. The current bill can be accessed online at: fallschurchva.gov/pay by entering the PPID number, or the 2020 bill number. It takes 24 hours for a change made in the Commissioner’s Office to then appear online in the form of a bill reduction. Taxpayers can pay online with a credit card, which includes a 2.95 percent convenience fee charged by the online vendor, or they can pay for free by using an e-check, or send in the amount

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OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 11

due with the bill in the U.S. Mail, or they can drop it off at the new City Hall Drop Box, located next to the West Wing Entrance to City Hall, or bring their bill, or any assessment adjustments, into City Hall to the Treasurer’s Office or the Commissioner’s Office on the second floor of the West Wing, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Questions about payments? Call the Treasurer’s Office at (703) 248-5046 or e-mail them at: treasurer@fallschurchva.gov. Remember, the City will be using the existing dark blue decal again this year, so residents shouldn’t remove it. The City will use it another year as it transitions to a new, redesigned Permanent Decal next year, that residents will never have to remove from your windshield. Many people are wondering about the DMV and the Real ID Driver’s License. The enforcement date for that more secure Driver’s License has been extended by the Department of Homeland Security an entire year until Oct. 1, 2021.

New Principal Named At Haycock Elementary Elizabeth Beaty, who recently served as assistant principal at Chesterbrook Elementary School, has been named the new principal of Haycock Elementary School, which took effect Sept. 28. Beaty began her career in FCPS as a special education teacher, serving students at Union Mill, Deer Park, and Virginia Run Elementary schools over a 16-year period. In 2016, she was named the assistant principal at Braddock Elementary before joining the staff at Chesterbrook. Currently, she also serves as an adjunct professor at George Mason University in the Division of Special Education and disAbility Research.

SIGHTED DINING AT Dogwood Tavern last week was celebrated Falls Church realtor Merelyn Kaye (right) with her daughter, Karin Morrison (left) and granddaughter Taylor Morrison. (P��: N��-P��)

Beaty earned a Bachelor of Science degree in special education from the University of Virginia, a Master of Arts in special education from American University, and a Doctor of Education in administration and supervision from the University of Virginia.

Vietnam Veterans Donate Gift Cards to Children For the tenth consecutive year, the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 227 of Northern Virginia, donated thirty $75 gift credit cards to children of veterans who are in the Veterans

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Administration Supportive Housing (VASH) program. In addition, $100 gift cards were provided to two VASH veterans who are enrolled as students. The total amount is $2,450. The gift cards will help pay for school supplies and other essentials for the new school year. The VASH Program is a joint effort between the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans Administration to assist homeless veterans and their families in transitioning from homelessness to normalcy with affordable and stable lodging. The VA case managers serve over 100 veterans and their fami-

lies in the Northern Virginia area of Fairfax, Arlington, and Prince William Counties and the Cities of Alexandria and Fairfax. The chapter’s Holiday plans are to be Santa for one Wounded Warrior family, whose spouse is being treated at a local military hospital, and to provide credit card gift cards to needy VASH families. Anyone wishing to contribute to the holiday program can mail a check made payable to VVA Chapter 227 with memo: 2020 Holiday Gift Card and the mailing address is VVA Chapter 227, P.O. Box 5653, Arlington, Va. 22205 or call Len Ignatowski at 703255-0353.

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PAGE 12 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

Health Professionals Talk New Virus Testing, Boosts To Immune System BY BRIAN INDRE

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Autumn is here, and as the temperature drops and the risk for Covid-19 spikes increases, doctors emphasize how important accurate testing is as well as the possibility of an effective vaccine, while healthcare professionals offer advice on how to boost your immune system. If the predicted upcoming surge in coronavirus cases creates a need for testing similar to the most recent one — which stretched from Memorial Day through a couple weeks after the Fourth of July — Dr. Gordon Theisz, the head of Family Medicine in Falls Church, explained that the testing capability will be overwhelmed and it will take longer. It would be similar to the initial outbreak of the virus in Northern Virginia. During the peak of the pandemic in the spring, trying to get tested and knowing where to go was confusing, and oftentimes the test results took weeks to get

back, which at that point wasn’t helpful. So Theisz, being one of the few private practices not tied to INOVA in the area, found a way to make his own tests. “Coordinating with test labs we were able to make our own test kits, since getting them has been a challenge throughout the pandemic,” Theisz said. “If you couldn’t get test kits or get the materials to make them, or your staff was afraid of getting Covid; you did what a lot of doctors did, and closed the office and did televisits only for months.” Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp sent instructions for how private practices could make their own test kits, and with the materials on hand to do it. As a result, Family Medicine said they never stopped testing. “It would have been a challenge if we only had ten test kits in the office, and then having to decide who to use them on,” Theisz continued. “You should use them on everyone because Covid has symptoms that lead from noth-

ing to terrible.” The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test is the most common way of checking for virus symptoms. It’s performed by using a large nasal swab and inserting into someone’s nose to gather a DNA sample. Theisz said that the relatively low number of positives, which he mentioned was about two to three per week, have made its three-day turnaround not much of a problem. However, with some schools and workplaces reopening, more people are being required to get tested, and some people want to get tested because they will be traveling or believe they were exposed and want to be sure they aren’t a silent carrier. Family Medicine has accommodated more on-the-go testing options, such as drive-up testing done by appointment only, and the staff can help determine if you need to be tested. “We try to keep people that are sick out of the office until we are confident that whatever

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

THE EPIC WAITS to get tested for the novel coronavirus are no more — well, at least for now. After the latest surge died down following the Fourth of July, health practitioners don’t believe it will return unless there’s another spike. (P��: J. M�� W��) they are coming in for is not Covid,” said Theisz. “In addition to office visits, about 10 percent of appointments are televisits, which has gone down from around 50 percent during the height of the pandemic.” Even quicker tests are being used in certain markets. The FDA has issued an EUA (emergency use authorization) for a couple

different saliva-based tests for Covid, one developed at Rutgers University and the other at Yale University. The Yale test called SalivaDirect is funded by the NBA, and will be the much cheaper option for patients because it doesn’t extract RNA (ribonucleic acid), which is

Continued on Page 14

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PAGE 14 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

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Saliva Tests Show Promise, With Vitamin D Essential To Ward Off Virus Continued from Page 12

what is needed for results for the Rutgers test and the nasal swab tests. “It’s probably a promising test, but I’d have to review the statistics on it,” Theisz said. “When a test has an EUA, data has to be provided to the FDA on how accurate it is, and these tests are not fully studied like that of most tests that have years of evaluation.” Those who were sick in the spring may be curious about antibody testing to see if they may have had Covid previously. Unfortunately antibody testing isn’t always accurate and can even produce a false-positive result. For those who do have a positive antibody test, it is unknown if it will protect you from getting infected again and it doesn’t indicate if you can infect others. “We have no idea what having antibodies to Covid really means, so if you have a positive antibody test, we can’t say for sure that you are immune. It would be nice if you were, but we tell those patients to go with the social norm, which is everybody should wear a mask

in public,” said Theisz. “Within two weeks of March 13, chances are that someone feeling ill had had the flu, but after about April 1 there was no more flu, so that is where we will see the positives for Covid,” Theisz said. “And most of the positive antibody tests tend to be people who knew that they were exposed to it.” When a vaccination becomes available to the public with adequate published data which includes reported side effects, efficacy, and everything else that medical professionals will want to see, then Theisz says he would recommend it and get it himself. “The problem is that the timeline of the vaccine has become political. If a politician is saying that we are going to have a vaccine before the election, a lot of people would suspect that there is a problem with it, and I would be a bit skeptical of a vaccine that gets EUA from the FDA, if there seems that there were pressure from the administration to get it out,” said Theisz. And when a vaccine is available, should the public trust it right away?

LESS INVASIVE saliva tests may eventually replace the nasal swab PCR tests. (Photo: J. Michael Whalen)

“I would want my doctor to tell me why they think this is a good vaccine,” said Theisz. “We are going to rely on the government and the FDA to tell us the vaccine is okay, and the moment they find out that it is not okay, we are going to rely on them to pull it and say no more,” he said. “If you see that kind of stuff happening then you know that the research has been done right.”

But before even getting to the point that someone may feel sick enough to need a test, it’s important to know what they could do to improve their body’s condition so warding off the virus is all the easier. Megan Pennington is an integrative health practitioner who specializes in chronic illness and immune system health and overall nutrition. Although she resides in Canada, she has many patients who live in the U.S. She told the News-Press to offer some expert advice on how Vitamin D can play a role in your immune system response to Covid and other viruses. Pennington explained that her approach to helping the immune system to work optimally is to decrease inflammation, because inflammation is the underlying mechanism by which the immune system deals with infection and pathogens. “If inflammation gets to a point where it’s chronic, then it starts to damage our tissues, and recent research shows that happening with Covid,” said Pennington. “An unregulated immune response or a

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heightened or hyperactive immune response is creating too much inflammation which is called a Cytokine Storm, and that is what is causing the damage in the very symptomatic and severe cases.” In order to modulate the immune system or help it do its job properly without over responding with inflammation is to give it the resources that it needs to dampen that inflammatory response, and Vitamin D is one of those resources. “Vitamin D is a key player in the inflammatory response, and studies show that low levels will allow inflammation to run rampant, whereas adequate levels will have an inhibitory effect on the inflammatory cascade,” said Pennington. Studies have shown that an estimated 1 billion people worldwide have inadequate levels of Vitamin D in their blood. “For anyone concerned about their vitamin D levels should get a test done to show their doctor. It can be a safe way of giving your body an extra boost to help respond appropriately to an infection,” said Pennington.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Tuesday’s ‘Debate,’ Good Vs. Evil?

“I no longer see Election Day in November as a race between Democrats and Republicans. It’s a battle between good and evil.” This comment posted on social media following Tuesday’s clash between Trump and Biden came the closest, in my view, to an apropos reaction to what happened during that hell-house hour and half of live TV called a presidential debate Tuesday night. It was an honest emotional reaction to what we all witnessed. It points to the abiding point of this spectacle which was that there was no moral equivalence between what the bully-gone-wild Trump exhibited and the decorum Democratic nominee Joe Biden represented in that event. Trump exhibited the behavior that can FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS be seen in a Bosch painting, a wild-eyed, crazed, demon-possessed madman refusing to shut up, spewing a mix of venom and bile in the form of words all over a debate stage. Former Vice President Biden, exhibiting the same quality behavior that served him for eight years as Vice President and many years in Congress before that, had to have been taken aback by the ferocity of a bulging eyeballed Trump’s uncontrollable, flailing verbal vomit spectacle. It was like scenes from “The Exorcist.” Clearly, this was the consequence of a man terrified to be called out by a competent leader, his worst fears that animated his compulsion to pin a fake conspiracy on Biden through an investigation of his son, Hunter, in the Ukraine, a failed attempt to discredit Biden when it was clear that Biden would be forthcoming with the most serious challenge to his presidency. Trump was terrified going into this debate, feeling compelled to act to obfuscate all the main points of Biden’s alternative to Trump’s incredibly failed three years in office with dissembling blather, acting like a tasteless scene from a Saturday Night Live skit when a character with a tube run up through her shirt is being activated to splatter fake vomit all over the stage. Committed to this disgusting posture, Trump called into question the validity of this November’s presidential election, and while refusing to condemn white supremacy, signalled to one arch rightwing proto-terrorist group, the Proud Boys, a not-so-subtle call to mobilization. It was pointed out in the numerous, lengthy analyses by talking heads following the event that Trump’s performance would have won favor with no single demographic group, regardless of party, gender or age, in America with the exception of the Proud Boys, who were gleefully texting high fives after the event because Trump had hailed them. It is sad to hear those talking heads so readily diverted from the real substance by Trump’s antics to a discussion of the logistics of the debate, rather than the substantive policy issues that Biden sought to raise about how the country needs to be run going forward, especially given all the ominous problems we face. The pandemic, the economy, climate change and the protection of the 2020 election are the four horsemen of our apocalypse that got woefully little attention at this debate. In particular, it was the over 200,000 lives lost in recent months to due Covid-19 pandemic and Trump’s incompetent response, as well as Trump’s ongoing effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which should have been the centerpiece of a poignant national reckoning. But this was swept under the rug by Trump’s effective tactic of dissembling, something which the moderator, Chris Wallace, sadly allowed to happen. Nor did anything that has triggered this year’s Black Lives Matter mass movement get any attention during the event. On the contrary, Trump’s evil dissembling kept that in the shadows, as well. Did I say “evil?” Yes, like the person who statement I quoted at the top of this column, I believe evil exists, just as good exists. Sorry for the payoff you’ve undoubtedly pocketed from the Trump machine, Mr. Franklin Graham and your so-called evangelical organization, but you’ve cast your lot with evil. The memorable final scene of Gounod’s opera, “Faust,” performed at D.C.’s Kennedy Center last year, showed a repentant sinner lifted by angels to heaven while the unrepentant Faust is dragged to hell by Mephistopheles. It was beautiful and rang true.

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OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 15

Nicholas F. Benton

 Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.

Our Man in Arlington By Charlie Clark

The reconfigured commercial center at Ballston has been hit as hard as any by the pandemic’s freeze-out of customers and our new stay-at-home lifestyle. So it was with extra glee that the Ballston Business Improvement District announced in mid-September that Computer CORE, a Falls Church nonprofit that enhances professional skills of adults, is moving into the Ballston Exchange high-rise at 4201 Wilson Blvd. The lease from building owner Jamestown is a victory for the nonprofit’s clients and the Metrodependent central Arlington neighborhood that is striving to be hip and thriving. “We have 180-plus students enrolled in 25 online classes, primarily covering basic computer skills and career development,” I was told by Executive Director Donna Walker James, whose lowincome clients are 95 percent people of color. “All our classes are now free. We also have an active `computer ministry’ to help reduce the digital divide, and we are ontrack to give away our 1000th computer since 2010.” Computer Core also views Ballston as “a fun, Metro-accessible location on major bus routes and with affordable parking.” The Ballston Exchange building continues its mission to “shed its former single-tenant, fortress-like presence and is introducing a broader, hyper-connected workplace community designed to encourage the

cross-pollination of people, commerce and ideas.” But the overall pandemic-time picture for Ballston Quarter is mixed, particularly for those builders, investors and small businesses who’ve worked for five years to turn an old indoor mall outward. “A lot of people are just not ready” to venture back, said Tina Leone, the BID’s chief executive officer. “It’s understandable. They would see people but wouldn’t know their story — is a family member compromised or sick? People are afraid.” I confess I personally have stayed clear, paying dues but not visiting the now-open OneLife Fitness gym or hitting the Regal movie theater. (I did a grab-andgo at the new Compass Coffee at Wilson and Randolph St.) Few are gathering at the downstairs food court, where only half the vendors are open, just for take-out, Leone says. Preliminary results of the BID’s consumer survey show that only 15 percent of respondents are willing, for example, to visit a gym. “But businesses and the BID are doing their best to assure their establishments are safe as can be, cleaning, disinfecting and social distancing,” she said. “We’re starting to get more foot traffic.” On the plus side, the new VIDA Fitness gym and the new Target have opened, and the MedStar Capitals Iceplex continues to offer recreation — though by appointment and with social distancing. “Ballston overall is still very active,” Leone added. “When you

walk along streets, you see people out and wearing masks and being responsible. There’s a lot of vibrancy because so many people live there now, while some neighborhoods downtown are ghost towns.” In the long-term, she says, the investors aren’t worried. “They had already pivoted when they planned, developed and urbanized the mall and met the street. They were well aware of what was going on with online shopping, and the mix at Ballston Quarter would be 64 percent restaurants and entertainment.” One major downer: the currently near-empty Metro. “They have to build up consumer confidence just like we do,” Leona said. And as partners to the businesses, “we’re doing as much as we can to support them, whatever new normal is going to be.” *** Historic artifacts, I’ve learned, lie hidden in the walls of St. George’s Episcopal Church. The Parish Hall door and terrace of that Virginia Square church dating back to 1908 contain bricks and stones transferred from: the oldest Virginia church (at Jamestown, reportedly from 1632), Roanoke Island in North Carolina (birthplace of Virginia Dare), the Williamsburg Governor’s Palace, Arlington House, the Abingdon plantation, George Washington’s Birthplace at Popes Creek, Mount Vernon, Valley Forge, the Fredericksburg law office of President James Monroe and the McLean House at Appomattox. This comes from a St. George’s history published in 1958.

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PAGE 16 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

A Penny for Your Thoughts

News of Greater Falls Church By Supervisor Penny Gross

Constitution Week was observed last week, but it may have been missed in the cacophony of other issues. The U.S. Constitution was signed 233 years ago, and is the oldest constitution still in active use in the world today. It is the basic document of our republic, which protects the individual liberties of all citizens through written law. The U.S. Constitution actually is a fairly simple document, but the embellished prose of the late 18th century did not lend itself to simple declarative sentences. Interestingly, some frequently quoted words are not found in the Constitution. Privacy is not mentioned specifically; neither is “separation of church and state” or “it’s a free country.” The only reference to God is in the written date “Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States the Twelfth.” Likewise, “innocent until proven guilty” and “presumption of innocence” are not found in the Fifth Amendment, nor any other part of the Constitution. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” also is not found in the Constitution; you’ll find that reference in the Declaration of Independence, signed 12 years before the Constitution. (The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution provided some of this information.) Incredibly, the U.S. Constitution has been amended only 27 times in its 233-year history, and 10 of those amendments constituted the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. The longest period between amendments was 61 years: the 12th amendment in 1804 governs choosing the president and vice president, and the 13th amendment abolished slavery in 1865. The next longest period was 43 years, between the 15th amendment in 1870 that race is no bar to vote, and the 16th amendment in 1913

that authorized income taxes. The Virginia Constitution, by contrast, has been rewritten six times, mostly recently in 1971, and has been amended 12 times since 2006. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, which is amended by action of the state legislatures, Virginia’s document is amended by presenting changes to the voters at a regular election. Two additional constitutional amendment questions are on the ballot this fall: to establish a redistricting commission, and exempting vehicle taxes for qualified disabled veterans. For Fairfax County voters, in addition to the candidates, the 2020 ballot has four important bond referenda, so be sure to turn your ballot over and vote on questions that would authorize Fairfax County to borrow money and issue bonds for Community Health and Human Services, Park and Park Facilities, Public Libraries, and Transportation. More information about county bond referenda is available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/bond/ bond-ballot-question. There still is time to register to vote; the deadline to register is Oct. 13. If you decide to vote absentee by mail, your application for an absentee ballot must be received by Oct. 23, but if you want to vote absentee early/inperson, that final date is Saturday, Oct. 31, which also is Halloween. To vote in person, face masks are required, but Halloween costumes are optional! Your regular polling place will be open from 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Nov. 3, Election Day. Whichever way you decide to vote, take a few minutes to re-read the Constitution; it might make good reading while standing in line to vote!  Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.

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CRIME REPORT Week of Sept. 21 – 27, 2020

Larceny, 300 blk W Broad St. September 20, unknown suspect(s) stole a bag containing items of value from the front of a business. Driving Under the Influence, 900 blk W Broad St. September 21, 9:51 pm, a female, 41, of Mclean, VA, was arrested for driving under the influence. Larceny-Shoplifting, 1200 blk W Broad St. September 24, a suspect stole several items of merchandise from a business. Larceny-Theft from Building, 300 blk S Maple Ave. Between September 22 and September 24, an unknown suspect stole an item of value from the rear door of a business.

Destruction of Property, 200 blk N Washington St. September 24, unknown suspect(s) damaged a parked car by cutting one of the tires.

Driving Under the Influence, 1200 blk W Broad St. September 27, 1:43 am, a male, 30, of Sterling, VA, was arrested for driving under the influence. Simple Assault, 6600 blk Wilson Blvd. September 27, 6:30 pm, police received a report of a suspect who allegedly struck an individual in the face with his hand. The investigation is ongoing.

Status Update on Wednesday, September 28 City of Falls Church Date Cases Hospitalizations Monday, September 28 70 13 Thursday, September 24 70 13 Monday, September 21 68 12 Wednesday, September 16 66* 10* Monday, September 14 67 11 Wednesday, September 9 66 11 Wednesday, September 2 66 11 Monday, August 31 66 11 Wednesday, August 26 66 11

Deaths # Cases per 100,000 People 7 473.9 6 473.9 6 460.3 6* 453.6 7 453.6 7 446.8 7 446.8 7 446.8 7 446.8

*NOTE: These numbers went down as the Virginia Department of Health found that the individuals lived in the Fairfax County part of Falls Church, not the City of Falls Church.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Senator Dick Saslaw’s

Richmond Report We are now six and a half months into a global pandemic. The toll on our nation has not been easy to wrap our brains around. Losing over 200,000 individuals to Covid-19 far exceeds the combined losses of several wars our country has fought in. Sadly, the leadership coming out of Washington leaves much to be desired. Denial and defiance are not cures for Coronavirus. At the end of September, Governor Northam announced who the virus had invaded his Richmond household. This is a person who has led Virginians in the effort to curb the virus. He embraces science, a healthy lifestyle, as well as practicing and promoting CDC guidelines that include wearing a mask in public, social distancing, and regular hand washing. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to our Governor and First Lady. On a personal note, I happened to be with the Governor two days prior to learning of his positive test. I am pleased to let you know that I have tested negative. And let me tell you something — I am a believer in wearing a mask in public and as far as I am concerned, this close call affirms the value of that face covering. I joined the Governor and others at George Mason University to announce a restructuring of debt for these institutions. As a result of this action, they have realized $300 million in savings. Even with refinancing capital projects at the lower interest rates, the Commonwealth maintains its Triple-A bond rating. As many of the extracurricular activities are being trimmed from collegiate budgets, this is a good news story for Virginians. The Special Session of the General Assembly is now in its sixth week. Despite having democratic majorities in both chambers, it is not uncommon for the House and Senate to come at issues from different points of view. Several bills remain in conference as we iron out differences. Those that cannot be reconciled will have met their legislative fate for this session. Due to their fiscal impact, improvements in policing and criminal justice reform were taken up before the budget. The Senate has proposed $2.6 million in FY 2021 plus another $1 million in 2022 for mandatory curriculum, decertification, civilian review boards, and information sharing about law enforcement officers. An additional

eight positions will be funded at the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The pandemic has had its impact on our economy, requiring a reforecast of anticipated revenue. Looking forward, the Senate has put forth a spending plan with investments in Virginians as a key priority. In education we emphasized early childhood learning, re-benchmarked the SOQ, kept funding for community colleges offering high demand workforce programs, and funding for undergraduate needbased aid. During this pandemic, more than 155,000 Virginians have contracted the virus. Access to healthcare has never been more important. We still do not know the long-term effects or the toll on our community. To address this reality, the Senate planned for full funding of the Medicaid forecast, increased provider rates, and added waiver slots. We are also proposing targeted increases in employee compensation for teachers, personal care givers, state police, and state employees. Equally important are investments in Land Conservation, the Water Quality Improvement Fund as well as a $1 billion investment in our transportation infrastructure. The Senate and House budgets also address food instability, the threat of eviction during this economic downturn, and how we keep the utilities on for those still trying to recover from being unemployed. Early voting has begun. The Commonwealth is embracing its most fundamental right in a big way. Virginia is processing more than 860,000 applications for absentee ballots. We are fulfilling these requests with a pre-paid postage return envelope, not requiring a witness signature, and drop boxes available for returning ballots. The Governor has signed into law the bill authorizing $2 million dollars for these initiatives. It’s no state secret that we are in the most turbulent times of this nation’s history. Isn’t it time we returned to true leadership on the world stage? Isn’t it time for leaders to embrace science and battle this pandemic and climate change? Isn’t it time we restored some integrity to the Oval Office? We are in this together and together we can make the changes necessary to embrace the values which makes our nation thrive. I hope you will join me in voting for the Biden-Harris ticket.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 17

Frank Sheedy, Industrial Arts & Print Shop Manager at Mason, Dies George Mason High School’s beloved industrial arts teacher and print shop manager, Francis Leo “Frank” Sheedy, passed away last Saturday. Born Feb. 1, 1933, he died on Sept. 26, 2020. According to the Falls Church City Public Schools’ announcement Tuesday, Sheedy “had been a loyal member of the FCCPS community, particularly GMHS, for many years, even after retirement...He was the go-to person for any urgent printing jobs, always executing them with the utmost care and skill. He was an active member of the school’s Sunshine Club and the Coffee Club. His legacy includes hundreds of students who learned important skills and embraced his motto of ‘just keep plugging.’ He was the 1991 Agnes Meyer Teacher of the Year.” According to a Washington Post article that appeared following his being named teacher of the year in 1992, “From typesetting to job getting, Frank Sheedy covers it all in his printing classes at George Mason High School in Falls Church. But for all the wisdom and advice Sheedy imparts to his students, there clearly is one recurring theme: Keep plugging. “If something needs to be done

in a hurry or if the workload seems overwhelming, keep plugging. And if things outside of school are far less than ideal, Sheedy’s message remains the same. “‘He’s the most selfless, giving professional I’ve ever worked with,’” said English Department Chairman Michael Hoover, who works with Sheedy as the faculty adviser for the school’s newspaper and literary magazine. ‘He’ll come in at night, on Saturdays and Sundays — times he doesn’t get paid for.’ “’To me he was always there. If you ever needed someone to talk to, you could talk to him about anything,’ said senior Darren Lomis, a three-year printing student whom Sheedy helped to secure a job. ‘He’s really been like a father figure to me.’ “Along with teaching several printing classes each day, Sheedy is responsible for the printing of virtually every newsletter, pamphlet and publication in Falls Church. From the student paper to community newsletters, Sheedy and his students have a hand in the production. “’It’s just keep plugging,’ he said. ‘I try to be up every day and have a positive attitude about why we are there. It’s tough sometimes, but it’s

the thing you have to do for the kids.’ “Sheedy was named the Falls Church recipient of the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award for 1991 after a nomination process that included support from colleagues, community members and students. For those who know and have worked with Sheedy, his selection was obvious.” In a tribute to Sheedy submitted to the News-Press this week upon the news of his death, former George Mason teacher Michael Hoover offered the following: “Because of my position as journalism teacher and sponsor of The Lasso at George Mason High School, it was my good fortune to work closely for a very long time with Frank Sheedy and all his ‘kids.’ In those prehistoric days before computers and robots took over the world, the student newspaper was entirely produced in Frank’s print shop using some oldfashioned methods. Like waxing the backs of all copy for paste-up, like using only one typesetting machine for all eight pages of stories. Like printing the photos in the darkroom. It was a massive undertaking and the journalism students along with Frank’s team produced a very important publication that was ahead of

FRANCIS LEO “FRANK” SHEEDY many programs at that time. “Frank! Let’s be clear, everyone called him Frank, including his students. It wasn’t disrespect, it was respect, it was love. Frank would start every class with, ‘Okay team, here’s our project for today’ and those team members would jump to work, never wanting to let Frank down. “And everyone who ever worked with Frank or was taught by him, knows that Frank never let anyone down. If he had to drive to school on a Saturday and a Sunday or stay late at night, he would do everything in his power to keep his promise to help. I truly believe that Frank Sheedy was the most helpful and caring colleague anyone could hope for. Totally selfless

F.C. Native, Mason Grad Russell Eggleton Dies Russell B. Eggleton, age 40, died due to a hit and run on Monday, Sept.28, 2020. Russell was born and raised in the City of Falls Church and attended Falls Church City Schools K-12, graduating with the George Mason High School Class of 1998. An EMT at The George Washington University Hospital Emergency Room for the last 13 years, Russ loved his work. Beloved by all that knew him — and everyone knew Russ — he dedicated his life to serving others, professionally and personally. He was an amazing husband, extraordinary father, and friend to everyone he met. He is survived by his wife of fifteen years, Anita; daughters Ana, Leah, and Alexa; parents Russell and Elinor Eggleton; sisters Suzanne Young and Lisa Dejo; as well as 10 nieces and nephews. Services will be held next week at Mountcastle Turch Funeral Home in Dale City, Virginia. All the information can be found here: www.caringbridge.org/visit/ russeggleton

he was. “It was because of that caring and enthusiasm and can-do spirit that a group of students and fellow teachers got together years ago to nominate Frank for the Washington Post Teacher of the Year. I still vividly recall reading all those heartfelt testimonials about what a great teacher he was, how dedicated to his students he was. Those recommendations brought tears to my eyes and everyone in the building had smiles of joy and pride when Frank won that honor. We all are better people for having known Frank. I am for certain. Okay Team, let us always keep Frank in our minds and his caring in our hearts. –Michael Hoover, September 29, 2020.”

THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND HER WORLD, THE MORE POSSIBILITIES YOU SEE. For Julia’s family, early screening for autism made a lifetime of difference. Find out more at ScreenForAutism.org

RUSSELL EGGLETON.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

FALLS CHURCHCALENDAR In response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic affecting the globe and policies enacted to avoid social gatherings, the News-Press will publish a list of virtual events weekly in lieu of its regular listings. If you have a virtual event you’d like to see listed, please email calendar@fcnp.com. Deadline is 5 p.m. Monday weekly.

LOCALEVENTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3 Falls Church Farmers Market To Go. The Falls Church Farmers Market has converted to a preorder, to-go event. All orders must be placed in advance of Saturday’s market which will be open from 8 a.m. – noon for pre-order pick-up only in front of City Hall (300 Park Ave.). A list of participating vendors and information on pre-ordering can be

found at fallschurchva.gov/547/ Farmers-Market-To-Go. Recycling Extravaganza. For City of Falls Church residents only. Recycle electronics, computers, eye glasses, bikes, clothing, textiles, batteries and more. Shred up to three boxes of documents. And, properly dispose of consumer products that are either toxic, ignitable, corrosive, or reactive. Recycling Center (217 Gordon Road, Falls Church). 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Oktoberfest. An Oktoberfest will be open to the public. Drinks and food available. Music by the Josh Allen Band takes the stage at 8 p.m. VFW Post 9274 (7118 Shreve Rd., Falls Church). 4 p.m.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5 Personal Property (Car) Tax Due. The car tax for City of Falls Church residents is due to the Treasurer’s office by the close of business

today, or by 5 p.m. Taxpayers can pay online at fallschurchva.gov/ pay by entering the PPID number, and the 2020 bill number. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information, call 703-248-5046 (TTY 711) or treasurer@fallschurchva.gov.

VIRTUALEVENTS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1 New Yorker Discussion Group (online). If any residents enjoy The New Yorker but wish they had someone to chat about it with, they are encouraged to (virtually) drop into the monthly New Yorker Discussion Group to share their thoughts on what they’ve read in a variety of articles. “The Legal Fight Awaiting Us After the Election” by Jeffrey Toobin will be the article discussed. This discussion will be held online. Email Pete Sullivan (psullivan@fallschurchva.gov) for a Zoom invitation

or more info. 2 – 3 p.m.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5 City Council Work Session (online). City Council work sessions are held the first and third Monday of the month, with the exception of August and December when only one meeting is held. These meetings are open to the public and are conducted to allow Council Members to discuss upcoming legislation and policy issues; the public is not generally invited to speak. All participating members of the City Council will be present at this meeting through electronic means. All members of the public may view this electronic meeting via www.fallschurchva. gov/CouncilMeetings. The meeting may also be viewed on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35). Video of the work session will be available after the meeting both online and on FCCTV. 7:30 – 11 p.m.

LIVEMUSIC

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2 Nora Palka (online). Watch concert at creativecauldron.org/virtual-concerts-and-cabarets.html. 8 p.m. The Kodiaks. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 7 p.m. 703-8589186.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3 Mars Rodeo Band. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 4 p.m. 703-241-9504. The Allman Other’s Presents Small Batch Band with Arielle’s Oyster Compny’s Pop-up Raw Bar. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 7 p.m. 703-858-9186.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4 Cosmic Carl’s Drum Circle — Open Mic NIght, All Are Welcomed To Join In. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 703-858-9186. 5 p.m.

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE NEWS-PRESS & HELP US KEEP COMMUNITY JOURNALISM ALIVE & WELL IN THE LITTLE CITY. Since 1991, the News-Press has been on a mission to provide independent and honest journalism to the Falls Church community. We recognize and appreciate the support the City, its businesses and residents have shown us for the past 29 years. Now, we need your help to con�nue with our mission. If you ﬁnd value in our work and believe the News-Press contributes to the be�erment of the Falls Church community, please consider becoming a member today and help us keep you informed on all the happenings — big and small — in The Li�le City. Never before has the ﬁght to ensure a free press been more important.

Visit FCNP.com/members to become a member of the News-Press today

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OCTOBER 1 - 7, 2020 | PAGE 19 INSTALLS ON NEW & EXISTING GUTTERS

B�� N�� N�� Grace and Carl Domingo Found Yard Greetings 4 U

Ascension Chiropractic Moves to 450 W. Broad Street Ascension Chiropractic has moved to 450 W. Broad Street, Suite 350, in Falls Church. Previously located within the Falls Church Wellness Center, the practice is owned and operated Dr. Chantay Bess. Dr. Bess holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta and a Doctorate from Life University in Marietta, Georgia. In addition to providing pain relief for back and neck pain, Ascension Chiropractic’s services can also easy symptoms related to arthritis, asthma, balance and dizziness, high blood pressure, inflammation, migraine headaches, multiple sclerosis, pregnancy, and other health issues. For more information, visit www.ascensionchirova.com.

Needham Mitnick & Pollack PLC Moving on October 19

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Grace and Carl Domingo have founded Yard Greetings 4 U, a Falls Church-based yard sign rental business. Designed to spread joy and positivity, the new small husband and wife owned enterprise rents letters and joyful designs for display in yards to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, showers, and other occasions. For more information, visit YardGreetings4u.Wordpress.com.

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Falls Church Chamber of Commerce Hosting a Hybrid Networking Breakfast

 Business News & Notes is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at sally@fallschurchchamber.org.

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The Virginia Chamber of Commerce is hosting Virginia Health Care Conference virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 7 from 9:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Speakers and panelists will address the impacts of Covid19 on Virginia’s health systems, the need for greater equity in opportunity for health care, and the future of health care. Registration is $45 and available at https://www.vachamber.com/event/virginia-healthcare-conference/.

The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce is hosting a hybrid informal networking breakfast on Thursday, Oct. 8 from 9 – 10 a.m. Attendees can opt to join in either in person at the Original Pancake House or virtually. There is no fee but those who attend in person are responsible for their personal checks and all must register to receive a Zoom link. For more information, visit the calendar listing at www.FallsChurchChamber.org.

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Needham Mitnick & Pollack PLC is moving from its current location on S. Maple Avenue to a new location in the City of Falls Church. The firm will open at 510 N. Washington Street, Suite 300, on Monday, October 19. The firm’s office will be closed Oct. 5 – 16, but emails will be checked and Judith Mitnick will serve as the emergency contact. The women owned and operated practice, founded by Susan Pollack, Helen Cohn Needham, and Mitnick, is devoted to elder law, estate, disability, and special needs planning. The firm’s telephone number, 703-536-7778, will remain the same. For more information, visit www.nmpattorneys.com.

Homestretch and Blueprint Financial Services are co-hosting Effective Giving, a seminar featuring Homestretch’s Christopher Fay, who will discuss best practices to maximize the effectiveness of donations impacting peoples’ lives, and Blueprint Financial Services’ Ted Shanahan, who will offer insights on potential philanthropic giving tax benefits. The event will be held via Zoom on Oct. 6 at noon. Registration is required at http://weblink.donorperfect.com/effectivegiving.

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Public Notice Volunteers who live in the City of Falls Church are needed to serve on the boards and commissions listed below. Contact the City Clerk’s Office (703248-5014, cityclerk@fallschurchva. gov, or www.fallschurchva.gov/BC) for an application form or more information. Positions advertised for more than one month may be filled during each subsequent month. Architectural Advisory Board (alternate) Arts and Humanities Council of Falls Church Aurora House Citizens’ Advisory Committee Board of Zoning Appeals City Employee Review Board Economic Development Authority Historic Architectural Review Board Housing Commission Planning Commission Regional Boards/Commissions Fairfax Area Disability Services Board Long Term Care Coordinating Council

VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE Final day of registration is Tuesday, October 13, 2020 for the November 3rd, 2020, Presidential General & Special Elections. Sample Ballots can be found online: http://www.fallschurchva.gov/vote All citizens, including those who are currently 17 years old, who will turn 18 years old by the November 3, 2020 General Election are eligible to register and vote. Online Voter Registration and early/ absentee ballot by mail applications: http://www.vote.virginia.gov/ Deadline for applications submitted online via the Virginia Department of Election website is 11:59 pm on October 13, 2020. Only applicants with a DMV ID like a driver’s license can

Cleaning Services submit an application electronically and these applications may also be untimely if missing material information. Please note: those applications filled out online that are required to be printed and delivered to the registrar should be treated as regular mailed in applications and need to be postmarked by October 13, 2020, to meet the deadline. The 5:00 p.m. deadline on October 13, 2020, applies if any of these are submitted in-person at the registrar’s office. The deadline for mailed in applications remains that they be postmarked by October 13, 2020. Early/Absentee Voting for the City of Falls Church In-Person early voting began in September at our office at City Hall, 300 Park Ave, and will continue through Saturday, October 31, 2020 (Halloween). During that time, residents wishing to vote early can do so 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Saturdays preceding the election, October 24th and 31st. Vote By Mail: The deadline for an absentee ballot by mail is October 23rd but we don’t recommend that you wait that long. Election Day Reminders for the City of Falls Church Residents are reminded that on Election Day, street parking is available on both sides of Little Falls Street by the Community Center and on Oak, Seaton, Fellows, Parker, Timber, and Jackson near Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. Additional details, including a voter ward map, can be found online at www.fallschurchva.gov/Vote. Contact the Registrar’s office at 703248-5085 (TTY 711) or vote@fallschurchva.gov for more information. The Ward 2 Polling Place we expect to be at Falls Green Apartments in their Club House. David B. Bjerke, MPP, CERA, VREO Director of Elections & General Registrar of Voters, City of Falls Church Office of Voter Registration & Elections 300 Park Ave., Room 206C , Falls Church, VA 22046 Office: 703-248-5085; Fax: 703-2485204 vote@fallschurchva.gov; http://www.fallschurchva.gov/vote

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of Virginia’s policy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the Commonwealth. We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap. All real estate advertised herein is subject to Virginia’s fair housing law which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.” This newspaper will not knowingly accept advertising for real estate that violates the fair housing law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. For more information or to file a housing complaint call the Virginia Fair Housing Office at (804) 367-8530. Toll free call (888) 551-3247. For the hearing impaired call (804) 367-9753.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Crossword

ACROSS

By David Levinson Wilk 1

35 40

32 36

39 42

52 57

20 22

19 21

1. Honda rival 6. Enjoy Joyce, Carroll or Oates 10. Man of letters? 15. Japanese or Javanese 16. “Picnic” playwright 17. Upright, maybe 18. Flattering thing for artist Kahlo to hear when she walks in a room? 21. China’s Chiang ____-shek 22. Cookie that’s often pulled apart 23. Airline that doesn’t schedule flights on Shabbat 24. Something in the sky in early February? 29. ‘70s radical grp. 30. Bill in a tip jar 31. Rocket interceptor, for short 32. Sad, in French or Spanish 34. “Bottled poetry,” according to Robert Louis Stevenson 36. Go ____ great length 39. Smear 40. Excitement over an evening festivity involving poop? 45. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” lead, casually 46. Quito’s land: Abbr. 47. LAX guesstimates 49. Home of the NHL’s Senators 52. Vowelless deli order 54. It helped bring dinos to life in “Jurassic Park” 55. “Who ____ to judge?” 56. Pic posted by Charlton Heston that was taken on the set of a 1959 movie? 60. Knight’s equivalent

STRANGE BREW

62. Gateway Arch designer Saarinen 63. Michele of “Glee” 64. “Hurry it up!” ... or an apt description of 18-, 24-, 40- or 56-Across 70. Off the table, perhaps 71. “____ only known ...” 72. Big name in cameras and lenses 73. Tech support callers 74. “Dragonwyck” novelist Seton 75. Many new parents could use it

Down 1. Yoga pad 2. It comes straight from the hearth 3. New Mexico tribe 4. French : merci :: German : ____ 5. Turkey’s capital 6. Carnival city 7. Provide with funds 8. 2008 Katy Perry hit “I Kissed ____” 9. Can’t abide 10. Lotion bottle abbr. 11. Suffix with billion 12. Hard time, so to speak 13. Speedy Gonzales cry 14. Eucalyptus eater 19. One of the lesser apes 20. Pucker-producing 24. Boar’s mate 25. Teaspoon or ton 26. It’s from Latin words meaning “almost last” 27. Luxury hotel chain 28. Evening, in ads 33. Put money in the bank 35. Part of QED 37. What candles may indicate

OCTOBER 1 - 7, 2020 | PAGE 21 38. Active ingredient in marijuana 41. “Fiddlesticks!” 42. “Waltz Across Texas” country singer Ernest 43. Seasonal song words after “gay apparel” 44. Prego competitor 48. “Aaron Burr, ____” (“Hamilton” song) 49. Natives of Nebraska 50. “What time?” 51. Singer of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at Barack’s inauguration 53. Immune system protectors 55. “Au revoir!” 57. Ballpark player? 58. Buzz Lightyear’s buddy 59. Superman’s Kryptonian name 61. At all 65. USCG rank 66. Aunt in la familia 67. Conk out 68. Team’s best pitcher 69. Toy dog’s bark Last Thursday’s Solution G I F S A S I A B O X W A A S P A G H M A M A S O R E L G E N E R I S T L U C T H E H E A E R O S L U N K A S E A G A R Y

W A L L E

O C T E T

W R E S T

N A D I A

A T E A T

R I A

I S D I S D R U T E E

M E E D R S

S O D P O I O S W S P H E N I A O N W A T E N H A S W A L U E Z N E Y P I D O N S S

S E N I L E

A G E N T S

L O S T

T R I O

Z I N N

L U S O Z E U I T

JOHN DEERING

Level 1

9/27/20

Solution to Last Week’s puzzle

NICK KNACK

O N A P A R

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk

LO CA L

PAGE 22 | OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020

BACK IN THE DAY

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Critter Corner

25 & 10 Years Ago in the News-Press Falls Church News-Press Vol. V, No. 28 • September 28, 1995

Falls Church News-Press Vol. XX, No. 28 • September 30, 2010

5 Bids on Whittier Development Propose Almost All Residential

Cousultants Tout Region’s Opportunities As F.C. Council Mulls Growth Options

Five companies have responded to the “request for proposal” put out by the City of Falls Church this summer for development of the 9.6-acre Whittier site, and despite the wishes of some on the City Council here to craft the RFP to welcome a diversity of options, all five respondents propose almost exclusively residential use of the parcel. The City made contents of the five bids available to public review yesterday. The deadline for submissions was last Friday.

Two major presentations to the Falls Church City Council, as it met in its annual retreat last weekend, reminded the Council of the powerful economic devel opment potential of the City as a jurisdiction ideally located in the center of one of the most robust economic growth corridors of the nation. The briefings presented a bright outlook that contrast ed sharply to the F.C. City’s “Financial Overview” report of prospects. for

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The Great Energy Transition

News-Press

Whatever Happened to Peak Oil? LETTERS by Tom Whipple

Falls Church News-Press

It is now over 20 years since a pair of European geologists set forth the concept of “peak oil” in Scientific American. When the idea that the world’s oil supply might soon hit a peak was first developed, the world consumed about 63 million barrels of oil per day, and consumption was rising. Official projections at the time forecast that world consumption would rise to 110-120 million b/d in the first decades of the 21st century. These forecasts were based on the idea that oil would be available for the foreseeable future and nobody worried about how much CO2 going into the atmosphere. An important, but ill-understood, part of the peak oil thesis was the cost of producing the oil. As cheap-to-produce oil was running out in the latter decades of the 20th century, new production sources would have to come from deep under the sea or under the polar ice cap at much higher costs of production. The technology of fracking horizontal wells for shale (tight) oil had not yet been discovered, so those who understood the problem believed that finding and producing millions of barrels per day of crude at a profit would be difficult. As oil prices rose from $30 to $140 in the mid-’80s, innovative drillers experimented with better ways of horizontal drilling and fracking. They found success, and with oil prices at around $100 a barrel, the shale oil revolution, which by 2019 was producing nearly 8 million b/d, was underway. Other countries tried

to follow the US but for various reasons such as unsuitable geology, the remoteness of deposits, and in Europe, reluctance to clutter up the pristine countryside with oil wells, have been unable to do so. Shale or “tight” oil from horizontal wells, however, has some significant downsides in comparison with conventional crude. The “oil” from fracked wells is much lighter than most conventional oil and is not suitable for some products or profitable processing in many American refineries. Moreover, the more important trait of tight oil wells is that they are much more expensive to drill and frack than conventional wells, and then only produce for a few years. It is very easy to lose money on a fracked well that does not yield as much as expected. Thousands of new wells must be drilled each year to maintain production and, in the US, the total count of horizontal wells now exceeds 110,000. As shale oil turned out to be generally unprofitable during times of low prices, drillers were forced to rely on a constant stream of new investment from banks and other investors who, after absorbing tens of billions in losses, are losing interest. In 2012, when shale oil started to make a significant contribution to the world’s oil supply, total world oil production was about 91 million b/d. By late 2019, however, when world oil production hit the pre-Covid-19 peak, the world was consuming about 100 million b/d. This means that nearly all the growth in the world’s oil supply between 2010 and 2020 came

from fracked oil wells in the US and Canada plus an increase in Canadian tar sands production. “Conventional” oil that comes from vertical wells, both on land and at sea, did not increase very much in the last decade. After the coronavirus hit last winter, everything changed. Oil demand dropped from 100 million b/d to about 80 million and then climbed to stabilize at about 92 million. Prices, which briefly fell below zero, rose to stabilize at about $40 a barrel in recent weeks. The shale oil industry contracted, shutting down hundreds of the drilling rigs needed to maintain shale oil production. Unless there is a radical change in the pandemic and economic situations, shale oil production is likely to drop further in the next year or so. Without an economic recovery in the next year or two, there will be minimal shale oil production ahead. For now, world oil production has peaked, but this is because of low demand, not supply shortages. The global economy’s poor state means that capital expenditures of finding and exploiting new oil have dropped around the world. There are too many factors in play to foretell the future – the virus, the global economy, and the world’s reaction to climate change, to name a few. The demand side will control the oil markets for the immediate future. However, eventually, the gradual depletion of oil from existing wells and reduced drilling because of low prices or climate change regulations will lead to problems on the supply side. The peak oil story is not over yet.

Continued from Page 6

of homes is a fundamental role of government. None of them have ever said that the city shouldn’t build these projects. Instead, the discussion centers on how best to fund these projects and when to build them. The city has made great strides recently in completing smaller stormwater projects. Four more will be finished by next summer’s storm season. Greenlighting these larger priority projects soon would take advantage of historically low interest rates and help protect at-risk neighborhoods sooner from more severe, more frequent storms. The city should keep making progress on these projects to provide some long-needed flood protection for these neighborhoods. Dave Gustafson Falls Church

Fairfax Co. Voting Is Immensely Complex This Election Cycle Editor, I was approved for an absentee ballot in June for the Primary Election. I never received the ballot, and my online records show that someone used it to vote (I don’t know who they voted for). I was approved for an absentee ballot for the November election. The ballot was mailed, and

OCTOBER 1 – 7, 2020 | PAGE 23

TO THE

EDITOR

I was supposed to receive it around Sept. 22. It has not been received. The Fairfax County Office of Elections advised me to “vote in person” via email. They do not answer their phone, nor is there a voice mail option to leave a message. What was once a simple, straightforward process has become another victim of gross incompetence, unethical, irresponsible, and illegal behavior. E. Steen Falls Church

Stormwater Costs Due To Irresponsible Neighbors’ Projects Editor, Our first obligation as neighbors is not to harm or take from one another. And yet, that is happening with storm water. Neighbors on high ground continue to pave, replace bungalows with McMansions, and re-develop commercial property. That increases their wealth while reducing that of homeowners who face increased risk of flooding, loss of property value, and mandatory flood insurance premiums. The News-Press reported some council members think the cost of flood control is “being foisted on all City taxpayers to the benefit of so few homes.” Foisted? Transferring wealth while refusing to pay for it —isn’t that theft? Jason Douglas Falls Church

(A) Go ask your mother. (B) Because I said so. (C) We’ll see. There are no perfect answers in parenting. AdoptUSKids.org

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Falls Church News-Press 10-1-2020

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