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PAGE 2 |DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2021
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
“La Tingeria” To Retain Its Original Certificate of Occupancy
by Alex Russell
La Tingeria, owned and operated by David Peña, opened approximately three weeks ago at 626 S. Washington St. Formerly a food truck, Peña decided earlier this year to operate his business from a “brick and mortar” establishment which received parking related complaints earlier this month that have since been resolved.
A Dec. 3 email sent to Peña by Falls Church Zoning Administrator John Boyle alerted the business owner of parkingrelated complaints filed by city residents, which, according to the email, constituted a “violation” of La Tingeria’s “certificate of occupancy” as well as “Sections 48–58 and 48–1004” of the Falls Church City Code. The notice concluded that unless appealed, this violation would result in the revocation of the certificate after 30 days’ time.
The complaints by and large dealt with the restaurant’s customers’ use of street parking in the residential area near the establishment.
The neighborhood in question does have parking signs throughout, but they only specify “2-hour parking: 8 a.m. — 5 p.m., Mon–Fri, except by permit.”
By the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 10, the City published a public statement on Facebook declaring that “the owners of La Tingeria… have worked with our zoning staff to alleviate the residential parking issues…since opening.” The statement continued, “our Public Works team is working with” the owner “on other solutions such as short term parking in the commercial zone of the street.” The statement ended by saying that La Tingeria’s owner was “informed… that the Certificate of Occupancy stands and will not be revoked.”
A week before the City’s decision, Peña expressed strong desire and commitment to do all he could to resolve the issue, but did share that the email he received felt “kind of sudden.”
Following the email, he took to Instagram to explain the situation to his customers and followers, where he also shared a visual aid that delineated where customers should and should not park, as per the complaints.
A public Facebook group called “Live Local Falls Church” had a number of residents sharing their thoughts on that matter with the consensus being that of concern and discontent with Peña’s predicament.
One F.C. resident commented that the situation is “discouraging,” but added that “hopefully, the city can work with the business and find a solution to the problem.” Another Facebook user contributed: “The city has a parking problem, why are other establishments not being targeted?”
In response to Friday’s statement regarding the matter, many expressed continued displeasure and frustration, with one person commenting “This business should never have been threatened with losing their cert of occupancy. Glad that the publicity on this from local media led to a change in course.”
Another F.C. resident echoed the sentiment: “This should never have happened in the first place. Street parking is legal and available to patrons. By contrast the City has never issued any notices to the nearby mechanic businesses with the illegal over two-hour parking.” One commenter, responding to the statement, simply shared: “I would certainly hope so, the city issued the building and business license knowing all this before.”
Several other residents’ views expressed the same point of view: that this was an easily-avoidable and unnecessary issue in the first place.
While the City worked towards making a decision, Peña set up a large cardboard sign indicating where La Tingeria customers may park. Peña also “got rid of two picnic tables” outside his establishment to open up more parking space and had to employ a parking attendant to alleviate congestion.
Jim Snyder, Director of Development and Community Planning. expressed that Peña and the city were “working together to create solutions” to the parking issue. He cited the fact that Peña had “already made improvements by marking…onsite parking.” He added that the city anticipated “not revoking” Peña’s certificate of occupancy by the 30-day deadline.
When asked to what extent parking considerations factor into the permit review process before a business is allowed to set up and begin its operations, Snyder explained that inspections typically employ a “building safety group” that looks into “the building itself…the outside, not so much.” The exterior area falls under the zoning department’s purview.
A segment of the Falls Church City Code of Ordinances states that “An application for a special use permit shall be reviewed with due regard to the nature and condition of all adjacent uses and structures, and the probable effect upon them of the proposed use. The review shall also take into account the proposed special characteristics, design, method of operation, effect on traffic conditions, or any other aspects of the particular use or structure.”
Initially, La Tingeria was open exclusively on the weekends, but considering the City’s new position on the matter, Peña’s plan to “open up more days” may soon become a reality for the burgeoning local eatery.
Art Meets Reality in New Book “The Obituary Writer”
by Mark Dreisonstok
Patrick Oster lived in the Washington area for ten years covering the White House, State Department, and CIA as the Chicago Sun Times’ Washington Bureau Chief. He became managing editor at “Bloomberg News” and is now that venue’s obituary writer. A writer of fiction thrillers such as “The German Club” and “The Hacker Chronicles,” his most recent novel release is “The Obituary Writer.”
Yet the eponymous obituary writer of the murder novel is a far cry from real-life obituary writer Patrick Oster. Rather than enjoying the stellar Oster career, obituary writer Wallace “Mack” Macrae is down-on-his luck, having been fired from his respectable position as investigative journalist of a renowned newspaper known simply as the “Journal” due to his alcoholism. This, in turn, was caused by his depression in the face of his wife Helen’s terminal disease. Mack is now taking the only job he can get, which involves writing obituaries which sensationalize and bring to light notorious scandals of the lives of the dearly departed.
Mack prepares obituaries for the still-living, as Mr. Oster tells Falls Church News-Press is common for obituary writers of celebrities. (The author of this review has also served as a writer of obituaries and can confirm this.) Mack has been on the heels of 92-yearold Dieter von Gehlen, a German national who immigrated to the U.S. and whom Mack believes to have had something to do with the Nazis in the past. Meanwhile, von Gehlen has developed a superior weight-loss wonder drug, for which he longs for the Nobel Prize for his efforts. Then, unexpectedly, the nonagenarian commits suicide. Much of the rest of the novel involves efforts by Mack, with the assistance of von Gehlen’s widow Nadya, to prove this was not suicide at all but murder.
In addition to a thrilling plot line, there are welcome literary allusions. Some of the action takes place in the “Sleepy Hollow” of upstate New York, the haunt of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman of Washington Irving’s classic tale. Mack’s sinister boss of the online obituary “service” is Anton Teufel, the surname being German for “devil.” Small wonder that Mack refers to his “boss from hell” and the feeling he has made a “Faustian bargain” after his fall from the grace of legitimate journalism. On a macabre note, the company Mack writes for is named dead.com
If the novel betrays Mr. Oster’s cultured literary taste of Irving and perhaps Goethe, it relates even more to real life. “I wrote a novel about a millennial who was a hacker, and I know a lot about hacking and cybercrime and so on because I covered it” as a journalist in real-life. Hacking also makes its way into the current novel as a theme, for Vassily, a person of questionable background in the employ of Teufel, utilizes these skills to assist Mack learn more of the background and associates of von Gehlen’s final days.
Using an exciting narrative technique, Mr. Oster cross-cuts between Mack’s search for the possible killer of von Gehlen and conversations between two individuals who might be responsible for this crime. An interesting scene has the two who are likely responsible for the crime meet in Donald J. Trump State Park. This park straddling New York’s Westchester and Putnam Counties actually exists, and Mr. Oster dryly explained its real-life origins in our conversation exactly as he does here in the novel — another case of everyday reality turned into the novelist’s art for “The Obituary Writer” and for Patrick Oster, the obituary writer.
We can recommend warmly Patrick Oster’s “The Obituary Writer” on several fronts. It is, first and foremost, a first-rate detective story in the venerable tradition, reminding one at times of the hard-boiled school, at times of the armchair sleuthing of more genteel mystery stories. The novel also has literary references which readers of classic fiction will appreciate. Finally, the book draws on the author’s own experiences as a wide-ranging journalist, with his deep knowledge and observations from a lifetime of journalism into areas such as white-collar corruption, cybercrime, scandals, international affairs, and, of course, life stories as a writer of obituaries.
The book is published by Padraig Press and, at $14.99 per paperback copy, may be the right holiday gift for yourself or someone you know interested in murder mysteries and the diverse interests and beats of a journalist.
