Monthly Archives: January 2025

Santa Express

Posted on by

By Paul Showalter, Santa’s Head Elf

Santa, his sleigh, and his trusty elves (Paul Showalter, Benton Rosenbaum, Elizabeth Schwab, Ellen Malloy), visited nine parks in North Arlington on Tuesday December 24. Santa had the opportunity to visit with many children during his tour (he especially enjoyed visiting with children at Lyon Park). Santa’s elves handed out hundreds of candy canes and took lots of photos of kids (and family’s) visiting with Santa.

After finishing his world tour on Christmas Day, Santa made time to swing back through Arlington to hand deliver a few “Santa” gifts to children.

Santa will be visiting Lyon Park again very soon, so make sure you stay on the “Nice List.” 

Categories

Restaurant Vibes: Boru Ramen

Posted on by

By Philip Conklin & Philippa Kirby

Street, Boru Ramen is an inviting pocket-sized ramen bar with a menu that also offers donburi and an extensive selection of sushi. Also of note: Boru has a nice range of options for vegans and vegetarians. 

Boru is bright and welcoming, and, in our experience, has a quiet ambience. Seating is a combination of tables and chairs or banquettes, plus individual stools overlooking the sushi bar. For families with younger kids, the open kitchen offers views of each food prep station (ramen, donburi, and sushi) using an array of pretty interesting equipment that is (most likely) beyond what is typical in home kitchens. 

Service is consistently attentive and efficient. On a recent night, our server was friendly and was happy to answer our questions. Our order came quickly. Our party of four ordered a variety of dishes from across the menu. Though they did not arrive precisely at the same time, they arrived in quick succession. 

The non-alcohol (NA) selections at Boru are comparatively robust. In addition to standard soft drinks, Boru offers Ramune:  a Japanese carbonated soft drink in a codd-neck bottle featuring heavy glass with the mouth sealed by a round marble. This contains the pressure of the carbonated contents (there are many YouTube videos offering instructions of how to properly open a Ramune soda!). Ramune offers a bit of beverage flair in both flavor and presentation for kids and those who do not drink alcohol. Also available are a number of teas (fruited and not) as well as from their boba bar.

The alcohol menu lists a solid variety of sakes, Japanese beers (cans and bottles), and a few wines.

There is no marketing spin on the Boru website. All is straightforward; essentially conveying, “here is the food we prepare for you.” This clean, humble presentation of what is on offer conveys a quiet confidence in what they do that pretty much defines the Boru experience.

Boru Ramen (2915 Columbia Pike): Hours of operation are 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. daily. Phone number is 703–521–2811. Visit their website: http://boru-ramen.com and click Order Online to view their entire menu. 

Categories

Bringing the Irving-Ivy Greenway Section into Compliance

Posted on by

By Brooke Alexander

This is a saga about the first AH Greenway section, and I wish it had a better ending. The first Greenway section came to be with the granting of Use Permit U-1794-68-4 on R-6 zoned properties at 930 Irving Street and 927 Ivy Street.

Where is this located? It’s on the neighborhood side of the businesses along 10th Street (Vespa, WBM used cars, and Budget Rental) between Ivy and Irving Street. 

A little history. I got involved because of the landscaping. 

In the summer of 2023, the County was pressing for the landscaping to be re-installed; most of it had died. I approached the tenant to ask if he would be interested in installing native plants, relying heavily on canopy trees with an understory of perennials for pollinators. The land is owned by Edmunds Motors. The tenant, Ali Nezam, was enthusiastic in his support for this idea. 

 He asked me if I would make him a plan. I agreed. He asked me to source and price the material, to which I also agreed. I developed a landscape plan which was cheaper than re-installing the plants that are called for in a 1982 County landscaping plan. 

The plan I developed had the additional benefits of adding to the neighborhood tree canopy and feeding the local ecosystem, and complying with the Ashton Heights Tree Canopy and Native Plant Principles.  

To change landscape plans required an application to the County.  Mr. Nezam asked me to fill out the form, which I did, including the proper sized graphics, and thumb drive requirements. I also spoke with the county staff on the owner’s behalf to affirm that the Administrative Change would be positively reviewed.  

I obtained 6 free trees that I kept alive on my driveway, awaiting planting; offered my member discount on native perennials from Earth Sangha and to deliver the plants; and arranged a free Tree Canopy Fund tree which was planted. Mr. Nezam asked me to oversee his landscape crew in planting the 6 trees. But on May 2 the landscaper (and I) discovered that there is 7 inches of packed gravel on this site. This is inhospitable to plants and likely contributed to the previous plants’ demise.  

When I looked more deeply into the 193 pages of County records on the permit, I found that in 2012, the fence along the Greenway had been removed, and the Greenway paved over with these 7 inches of packed gravel, in order to enlarge the parking lot. The County subsequently required the plantings to be re-installed, and that was done in 2014. Unfortunately, the County did not require that the paving be removed at that point.  

Current status: After all this elapsed time, and work, the owner and tenant installed plantings on Dec. 4..   Unfortunately they used the 1982 plan.  They did not apply for an Administrative Change for permission to use the native plants. This is disappointing on several fronts, but they have the right to do just that. The 7 inches of packed gravel remain. Oh, and the plants on the Ivy Street frontage were planted in the wrong place. 

Before this occurred, the AHCA wrote to Arlington officials about the landscaping and other compliance issues. 

“We request that if the landowner does not wish to pursue the alternative plan developed by Brooke Alexander, that the landowner be required to bring the property up to Arlington’s current code for landscaping for parking lots as a condition of renewing the Use Permit,” the letter states.

From 1968 until 1996, the County reviewed this Use Permit every 6-36 months. The County has not reviewed this Use Permit since 1996.  AH named 15 compliance issues, in addition to the landscaping issues, in this recent letter to the Board. The County is moving to examine these now. I will be able to update you next month. Stay tuned! 

Categories

Lyon Park Community Bids Farewell to Local Community Leader Francis O’Leary

Posted on by

From the July 2, 2024 edition of the washington post

Francis X. O’Leary, a longtime Lyon Park resident and community leader passed away this summer.  O’Leary was a fixture in Arlington politics for decades and contributed to making our community a better place for all of us. May his memory be a blessing. 

Francis Xavier O’Leary “Frank,” retired Treasurer of Arlington County, Virginia, passed away on June 7, 2024, after a heroic battle with leukemia.

Mr. O’Leary was first elected as Arlington County Treasurer in 1983 by a total of 89 votes, earning him the nickname “Landslide O’Leary”. He served from January of 1984 until his retirement in June of 2014. This made him the second longest tenured Constitutional Officer in the modern era in the County. He would point with particular pride to several accomplishments during his thirty years in office. His policies lowered the County’s tax delinquency rate…. achieved a higher rate of return on county investments…..[and] modernized the Treasurer’s Office to reflect the diversity of the Arlington community.

Frank O’Leary was born on July 2,1943, in New York City, NY. The son of a career Army officer, he graduated from Frankfurt American High School in Germany. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point but later transferred to Georgetown University where he graduated in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science Foreign Service (BSFS) degree with a major in Economic Theory. He completed the course work for a Master’s degree in Economic Theory from Georgetown University in 1967.

Mr. O’Leary’s lifetime in public service included membership after college in the New Jersey and District of Columbia National Guard and continued with David Hackett Associates where he worked on a host of anti-poverty programs focused on inner city employment initiatives. 

Through many decades, Frank O’Leary was involved in numerous charitable and community efforts in his Arlington community. He served in various capacities for his Lyon Park civic association, including his role leading the successful fight against the county’s plans to turn his neighborhood street into a busy commuter thoroughfare. ¬¬¬As scoutmaster for Cub Scout Pack 104 at Clarendon United Methodist Church he reenergized what had been a struggling organization. In honor of his friend, the late Delegate Warren Stambaugh who authored the Virginians with Disabilities Act, Mr. O’Leary helped create and was the longtime President of the Stambaugh Foundation. Over the course of twenty-one years, he led the foundation in donating over $200,000 in awards to organizations serving the disabled community or paying for renovations to make local structures more accessible.

He was deeply involved in raising money for several local organizations including the Arlington Historical Society, the Arlington Black Heritage Museum, AHOME (Affordable Housing), and the Arlington Red Cross. In recent years, Mr. O’Leary was active in the Arlington Optimists and was awarded the Arlington Interservice Club Council Man of the Year Award in 2022.

Frank O’Leary was a strong Democrat who mentored scores of candidates, raised funds for local campaigns and committees and aided the Arlington Democratic Party in establishing its dominance over county elections since the 1980s. 

He worked tirelessly to support the USS Arlington Commissioning Committee, helping to raise $438,000 to honor the US Navy ship named for Arlington’s role in responding to the attacks of September 11, 2001. After the ship was commissioned in 2013, he was active in the USS Arlington-Community Alliance established to foster links between the county’s namesake ship, its captain, crew, and the Arlington community.

Frank O’Leary is survived by his devoted wife of 56 years, Linda Banigan O’Leary, his brother, Terence O’Leary, his daughter, Heather O’Leary Moore (Martin), and their daughter, Brianna and his son, Brian O’Leary (Susan) and their two sons, Ian and Rory. He will also be missed by countless friends, allies, colleagues and associates whose lives he touched in his 80 years.

Categories

A Jewel in the Heart of Lyon Park

Posted on by

By Elizabeth Sheehy

Lyon Park is known for the diversity of its residences, and is also home to some unique, family-run businesses, especially along Washington Blvd. The shops include a florist, café, barber shop and several eateries.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, let’s introduce you to one special business that you may not have visited—Sacramento Jewelers (2718 Washington Blvd.), owned and operated by Teodoro Naranjo, assisted by his wife Janet and their children. Ted came to this country in 1976 from Ecuador and found work as a polisher at a well-known jewelry store in Falls Church. Its owner sent him to school for his goldsmith certificate, and after a few years, Ted started his own jewelry business in the tiny back room of a clock repair shop on Washington Blvd., in Lyon Park. He returned to Falls Church when he bought the jewelry shop from his mentor, but closed its doors in 2006 as the rent skyrocketed. As fate would have it, that same month, the owner of the clock shop passed away, and Ted happily took over the space, operating Sacramento Jewelers ever since.

Sacramento Jewelers has a beautiful assortment of precious stone rings, bracelets, earrings and other adornments. Ted’s specialty is designing and hand-making pieces, as well as working with silver and repairing heirloom jewelry. He also replaces watch batteries and straps, at a fair price and with a smile, unlike many jewelry stores who sneer at small jobs.

To understand the exceptional service offered here, check out the reviews on YELP. Customers rave about Ted’s skill, honesty and the value of his business’ work. You will need to ring the bell to enter the store—a concession to today’s security realities—but once in you will receive family service. Valentine’s Day is only a month away and nothing builds community like shopping local! 

Categories