News

A police pursuit of a man who reportedly attempted to abduct a woman crossed county lines before ending just outside the Town of Vienna this afternoon.

Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road) is currently closed at the Flint Hill Road intersection in Oakton in the wake of the arrest, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. The Town of Vienna said on Twitter at 4:30 p.m. that one southbound lane between Flint Hill and Nutley Street had opened.


Countywide

All Fairfax County Public Schools employees will get a bump in their paychecks, starting next year, after the school board unanimously approved 2% raises last week.

The additional pay was made possible by the budget that the Virginia General Assembly belatedly adopted in early September, which provided money to raise teacher salaries across the state. But school board members and FCPS workers argue that overall state funding for education falls far short of what they need.


News

On their own, the first developments approved by Fairfax County since it overhauled its plan to revitalize downtown McLean seem modest.

One is a corporate headquarters expansion, while the other is a seven-story, mostly residential building, promising 130 new units of housing but not exactly rivaling the scale of the high-rises going up in Tysons.


Around Town

The best place to eat in Northern Virginia right now is an upscale restaurant tucked away in an office building outside Merrifield that also houses the U.S. headquarters of defense contractor BAE Systems.

At least that’s the designation bestowed upon 2941 by Northern Virginia Magazine’s food critics, whose ranking of the 50 best restaurants in the region for 2023 hit newsstands on Friday (Oct. 27) as part of its November issue.


News

An effort to preserve dark skies in Great Falls recently got a vote of support from the Fairfax County Planning Commission amidst contention within the community.

At a heated Oct. 18 meeting, the commission unanimously recommended approval of regulations to preserve dark skies around Turner Park Farm Observatory Park. Public testimony, however, was divided into two camps.


Around Town

An upcoming cafe is bringing coffee from its historical birthplace to the Town of Vienna.

Qamaria Coffee, a Michigan-based company, will open its first cafe on the East Coast next year at 124 Maple Avenue West in Vienna Shopping Center, filling a 1,900-square-foot space that has been vacant since Viva Sol Juice Company closed on Dec. 31, 2021.


Countywide

As Metro considers ways to address a looming $750 million shortfall and stave off changes to its operations, officials are requesting jurisdictions, including Virginia, review their options to help address the funding deficit that threatens thousands of jobs and various services.

Metro hopes policymakers in the commonwealth will consider adjusting the state law that sets a 3% cap on the growth of Virginia’s annual payment to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Dedicating more funding to Metro and overlooking the demands of other transportation projects, however, concerns some lawmakers and transportation leaders.


Countywide

Centreville Shooting Started Over Parking — “Two men are in the hospital suffering from gunshot wounds after an argument about a parking space in Centreville, Virginia, police say. Residents say the incident started when a car with a group of men inside pulled into a parking spot outside a townhouse community on Golden Oak Road Thursday night. [NBC4]

Route 7 Improvements Made in Culmore — “In a follow-up to a meeting on pedestrian safety for Leesburg Pike in Culmore in August 2022, transportation officials presented an update at a community meeting Oct. 25 on what has been done and what’s in the pipeline…In one major improvement, the speed limit along Leesburg Pike between the City of Falls Church and the City of Alexandra has been reduced from 40 to 35 mph” [Annandale Today]