fire trucks on call across street

About 11:05pm Monday night, four fire trucks responded to a call from the apartment building at 1301 Fort Myer Dr., across from Westmoreland Terrace. Turned out to be just smoke (get a free smoke detector!), and the trucks were gone by 11:30pm.

Westmoreland Condo Board meeting canceled

The regular Westmoreland Condo Board meeting scheduled for tonight, Monday, Sept. 22, has been canceled. I showed up and saw the sign on the office door indicating the cancellation. Just as I was turning to go home, up came Board member Clayton with wine and crackers. Would have been a nice Board meeting. Next regularly scheduled Board meeting is Oct. 27, 7pm, in the condo office. Another month of aging will make Clayton's wine taste even better.

County Board Approves Fort Myer Heights North Plan

By a 5-0 vote, the Arlington County Board on Tuesday night approved the Fort Myer Heights North Plan. The Fort Myer Heights North Plan covers a dipper-shaped area from across Rt. 50 from the Westmoreland Condos, up to Clarendon Blvd., and out to N. Courthouse Rd. below the Courthouse metro stop. RAFOM, Arlington County staff, and other interested parties worked for five years with the follow goal:

Develop a plan with recommendations that articulate community goals for this neighborhood and identify potential strategies and tools for conservation, reinvestment and/or redevelopment.

Everything you could want to know about that neighborhood is contained in the impressive plan document. Did you know that the oldest building there is a house built in 1900? To find out exactly where it is, check out the Historic Inventory Summary and the associated map.

Stan Karson, President of RAFOM, spoke about the plan and RAFOM's work on it. Video coverage below. County Board member Chris Zimmerman asked about plans for the bike path in the Fort Myer Heights North area along Arlington Blvd. County officials explained that they are studying how to improve it. A useful improvement would be to connect it better to another bike path at its N. Courthouse Rd. end.



In related action, the County Board amended the General Land Use Plan to encourage public open spaces at locations in the Fort Myer Heights North area and revised the General Land Use Plan to reflect the adoption of the Fort Myer Heights North Plan. Consideration of the Zoning Ordinance associated with the Plan was deferred to the Oct. 18, 2008, County Board meeting in accordance with the recommendation of the County Manager.

moving sale and search for new rental

Michael Wright, who has been renting in Westmoreland at 1320 N. Ode St, Apt. 834, has to move promptly because the bank foreclosed on his landlord's mortgage. He is still trying to sell some stuff from his kitchen and bedroom: kitchenware, twin bed, dresser, nightstands, chest of drawers, etc. He said he looked at renting at the Parc Rosslyn complex, but they wanted about $1,800/month rent. He needs something more affordable. If you're interest in buying some bedroom furniture or have ideas for an affordable rental, contact Michael at mjw703 at yahoo.com

three-minute walk to Ledo's Pizza and Pasta

While you might not have noticed it, Ledo's Pizza and Pasta is just across Route 50 from Westmoreland Terrace. The Ode Street Tribune's expeditionary force recently went to there on a fact-finding and eating mission.

Several years ago Ledo's took over from the MacArthur Cafe as the Quality Inn Iwo Jima became a Best Western. Many of its customers in the past have been military veterans. The long-time manager George Davis, beloved of his customers, died in action at the restaurant last year. The WWII veteran market has been rapidly shrinking over the years. Moreover, the loss of Mr. Davis, the change in name from MacArthur Cafe, and the change in the hotel name to less prominently feature Iwo Jima seem to have hurt the volume of their veteran customers. The restaurant was sparsely attended when I had dinner there on a Monday night.

The restaurant is open Monday to Friday from 6:30am, and Saturday and Sunday from 7am. It has a quite full, standard-fare breakfast menu (served until 11am) inherited from the MacArthur Cafe. Ledo's is open until 10pm Monday through Thrusday, 11 pm Friday and Saturday, and 9pm on Sunday. The lunch/dinner menu has much more than pizza, but pizza is their main seller. This Ledo's doesn't do delivery, but you can call ahead (703 528-3570) and pickup a pizza on your walk back from the metro. If you want delivery, you have to call the Ledo's on Columbia Pike at 703 521-5336.

I had a small-sized Zesty BBQ Chicken Pizza. Thin crust, not gourmet pizza, but quite tasty. The size was enough for a dinner. Inexpensive at $7.89, including tax (but not tip). Service was fast and friendly. Recommended for an inexpensive and convenient meal.

Other notes: The restaurant has a happy hour every day, 4-7pm,with $1.99 14oz Bud drafts. Toastmasters meets there every Wednesday from 7pm to 9:30 pm (different Toastmasters' groups on alternating Wednesdays).

In addition, the restaurant has available a meeting room that accommodates up to 30 persons. It is available from morning to evenings for meetings. Contact the restaurant for details and reservations.

local bus service

At the RAFOM meeting this Monday, county officials discussed Arlington transportation issues. County Board Member Chris Zimmerman noted the growing importance of public transportation in Arlington. The DC-area metro system is the second-largest system in the country. Arlington also has its own bus service, Arlington Transit (ART), that is becoming increasingly important. In FY 1998, its first year of operation, ART had 2 routes and carried about 120,000 passengers. In FY 2008, ART had 11 routes and carried 1.2 million passengers. So total passengers on ART has grown by a factor of ten in ten years.

A few ART points of note:

1. ART is getting 12 new 35-foot low-floor buses. These will be more durable, will have greater passenger capacity, and will offer passengers a more comfortable ride.
2. Construction of Central Place across from the Rosslyn Metro will require relocating some bus stops on N. Moore St., which will be turned into a one-way street.
3. ART routes 61a and 61b, which have a bus stop across from the Quarterdeck (N. Queen & 12th St), have low ridership on Saturdays. On average, only 40 persons are carried in total during the Sat. 8am to 4pm route operation (bus every 20 minutes, total of 24 trips). Given that the bus service costs about $75 per hour to run, that's not economical. ART is looking for ways to either attract more riders or streamline this service.
   

If you didn't know about ART route 61 Saturday service, which is our local neighborhood bus service, now you do. If you have ideas on how to the make the Saturday service more attractive, contact ART.

creative bicycle mechanics

Phoenix Bikes is probably one of the most cost-effective educational institutions anywhere:

Our vision is to provide a fun, safe, and challenging environment for local youth through building & running great community bike shops. We believe this is a unique way for young leaders to learn teamwork, explore social entrepreneurship, develop business and leadership skills, and serve others.

Our shop also provides affordable bikes and bike repair services for our community.

Anyone who knows teenage boys can recognize the appeal and value of this endeavor. Phoenix Bikes has displayed some of their bikes at various Arlington community events. I especially remember an awesome double-height bike at the last Arlington Neighborhood Day parade.

At the recent Planet Arlington World Music Festival, two amazing creations from Phoenix Bikes were on display. Local artists Rob Lindsay and Luke Idziak worked with youth mechanics at Phoenix Bikes to create two pedalable sculptures, Charger and A Cosmic Egg.

As described on an informational flyer, Charger is a "giant self-illuminating rhinoceros." Apart from its horns, it looks to me more like a friendly mole. Charger comes out of the dark in response to a Led Zeppelin tune in my Planet Arlington video report. The plastic tubing that forms the body of Charger is recycled from the Arlington art installation CO2LED.

A Cosmic Egg is described as a "life-size cyborg bursting forth from the center of the earth." A Cosmic Egg has some artistic affinity with Butch Anthony's Rosslyn Bicycle Kiosk. The latter, sadly, no longer exists. A Cosmic Egg radiates bike power. This is imaginatively pleasing, especially since as a cyclist I tend to cower on the far edge of the road and hope that I won't be killed by some driver engrossed in a cell-phone conversation.

forgot your car?

A black Honda LX with VA tags KBF-9758 has been parked on Fort Myer Dr. in front of the Westmoreland Condos since at least Aug. 28. The car received a parking ticket on that date. Unfortunately, its VA tags expired at the end of August. On Sept. 2, it received a ticket as an apparent abandoned vehicle. I'd guess that the car will soon be towed away to an Arlington County abandoned vehicle lot.

If you know the owner of this car, I'm sure that he or she would really want to learn about this situation sooner rather than later.

Update: The car disappeared a few hours after I posted this. Don't know what happened.

Yang Ying Rocks Planet Arlington

The third annual Planet Arlington World Music Festival this past Saturday at the Netherlands Carillon (near the Iwo Jima Memorial) brought some great music to Arlington. A good-sized crowd lounged on the grass, danced in front of the stage, had a picnic, and enjoyed the free show under blue, blue skies. The event included many activities for children, and hence the audience had a nice mix of ages and groups.

My favorite performer by far was Yang Ying. She plays the erhu, a two-stringed traditional Chinese instrument that sounds somewhat like a violin or a cello. She performed with a band consisting of a lead guitarist, flutist, keyboard player, bass guitarist, and drummer. Together they played an amazing range of music -- from a meditative piece to Thelonius Monk's Round Midnight to Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven to Uninhibited, a Yang Ying-composed fusion of native Mongolian music, Xian drums, and American jazz, rock, and funk. It was an awesome performance.

After the performance I immediately went and bought both of Yang Ying's albums from the music vendor on the site. One, entitled Elixir, is "music for moving & still meditation." That brought another smile to my face as I was still rocking with her closing rendition of Stairway to Heaven. The other album is entitled Blurring Boundaries. No kidding! You can preview songs from both albums over at Yang Ying's music store. Yang Ying also has three songs from Blurring Boundaries up on her MySpace page. Sorry, but Stairway to Heaven isn't on either album.

The news video below shows some of what went on at this year's Planet Arlington World Music Festival. Don't miss it next year!