Sharp angles and poor line-of-sight make the Balls Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive intersection one of McLean’s worst road hazards.

But after rescheduling due to poor weather conditions, a community meeting will be held later this week to discuss drastic changes to the intersection. The meeting will be held this Wednesday (Nov. 28) at 7:30 p.m. in Cooper Middle School (977 Balls Hill Road).

The intersection is one of the most crash-heavy intersections in McLean, with 29 total crashes around the intersection from 2010-2015. More development planned for the area, including nearby subdivisions Mehr Farms and Summerstone, are likely to make road conditions worse.

But all three of the proposed intersection changes could have a negative impact on either the surrounding developments or other nearby traffic intersections.

According to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, there are several traffic alternatives being considered for the site:

• T-Intersection: This would solve queuing issues at the site while having a relatively small footprint. But this shift could also have an impact at the Balls Hill Road intersection with Dulany Hill Drive nearby.
• Roundabout: This would allow the intersection to maintain the historic look of the intersection and maintain the state standards of design at the lowest cost. But roundabouts have been shown to have a substantial learning curve for drivers. The intersection would also have to undergo significant topographical changes and it would impact three homes currently under construction at the Mehr Farms development.
• Dedicated Left Turn Lanes: This would be lower in cost than the T-Intersection and have a smaller footprint than the roundabout, but the turn onto Old Dominion Drive would be a quasi U-turn. The new turn lanes would also significantly impact the nearby Korean Presbyterian Church and the Mehr Farms development.

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation staff will give a formal presentation at 7:45 p.m., followed by a question and answer period. Comments on the project can also be made online.

The planned intersection improvements are part of a broader series of transportation projects planned throughout McLean.

Details are emerging about A Taste of UrbanSpace, a new food hall planned to replace the Isabella Eatery on the third floor of Tysons Galleria.

According to the Washington Post, the new eatery will bring together eight restaurants from across the Washington area. So far, five of the eight new restaurants have been announced. They are:

• Stomping Ground — A coffee shop and bistro in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood.
• Thip Khao — A popular Laotian restaurant in Columbia Heights.
• Donburi — A Japanese rice bowl restaurant with locations in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle.
• Ice Cream Jubilee — An ice cream location with locations on the Capitol Riverfront and 14th Street NW, with another location soon to open in Ballston Quarter’s food hall.
• Andy’s Pizza — A pizza-by-the-slice shop from the D.C. frozen pizza company Eat Pizza.

The new food hall is scheduled to have a quick turnaround, opening this coming Wednesday (Nov. 28), completely replacing Isabella Eatery and its in-house restaurant brands while maintaining the same kitchen and dining spaces.

UrbanSpace, the company running the new eatery, specializes in food halls and markets that support smaller restaurateurs and entrepreneurs. The company runs Broadway Bites and Mad. Sq. Eats, among other markets in New York City.

Black Friday makes the headlines, but this upcoming Small Business Saturday (Nov. 24) will give locals a chance to check out some of the small stores throughout the area and maybe get some holiday shopping done.

The Vienna Business Association has put together a list of all small businesses in the areas with special deals on Saturday, including:

• Bards Alley LLC (110 Church St NW) — A book store in Vienna that will have giveaways for purchase over $50, refreshments, and a signing by local authors Katy Upperman, author of The Impossibility of Us, at 11:00 a.m., Eugenia Kim author of The Kinship of Secrets, at 1:00 p.m., and Anna Whiston Donaldson, author of the book A Hug from Heaven, at 3:00 p.m.
• Elements Massage (122 Maple Ave W) — A massage parlor offering $30 discount off of your first one-hour massage session. The deal will run both Saturday and Sunday.
• Savvy Rest Natural Bedroom (258 Maple Ave E) — The mattress store will be offering 30 percent off all Savvy Rest Mattresses and 25 percent off all other products.
• Bikes @ Vienna (128 A Church Street NW) — This store bicycle, which specializes in non-traditional models, will be offering 10 percent off select bicycles and accessories.
• Aesthetic Medical Center (8150 Leesburg Pike) — Calling the clinic (703-992-7979) on small business Saturday will net a 15 percent discount on any single treatment through Dec. 31.
• Colleen’s Creations, LLC — This online-only business run out of a Vienna home will be offering a variety of discounts on lipstick and glosses. All cosmetics and skincare materials are 40 percent off. Pickup is available in Vienna or via mail for a $4 charge.
• Generation Code (112 Church St NW) — This kids coding camp will offer five percent off winter break camps.
• Freeman Store (131 Church St NE) — The Freeman Store and Museum, a historically styled general goods store, will offer a 10 percent discount (15 percent for members) on merchandise in the store excluding used books.
• Potomac River Running Store (111 Maple Ave W) — The regional chain is offering buy one, get one 40 percent off. A Potomac River graphic t-shirt is available for $10 with any purchase of $20 or more.
• Skintelligence (421 Church St) — This skincare and spa treatment clinic in Vienna is offering 10 percent off any massage scheduled on Nov. 24 for any day between Nov. 26 and Dec. 23. All skin care products are also 20 percent off.
• John Edwards Hair Design (103 Church St NE) – A cosmetic studio offering 40 percent off any facial or skin care peel.

Meanwhile, for those looking to support small businesses in Tysons and McLean, here is a partial list put together from both American Express’s map of small businesses and the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce’s retail directory.

• Color Wheel (1374 Chain Bridge Road) — A family business offering paint and specialty finishes and custom photo framing.
• Mangan Jewelers of McLean (6801 Whittier Ave) — A jewelry store featuring wedding rings, fashion jewelry and estate pieces.
• McLean Hardware Co. Inc. (1445 Chain Bridge Rd) — McLean’s local hardware and household goods shop, offering a variety of gardening, plumbing, electric and houseware supplies.
• Mayflowers of McLean (1363 Chain Bridge Rd) — A florist shop in downtown McLean.
• Treasure Trove (1317 Chain Bridge Rd) — A used merchandise store offering everything from old books to clothing. All proceeds benefit Inova Hospital.
• Mesmeralda’s Gifts (1339 Chain Bridge Rd) — A gifts and novelty items store.
• Gegi Couture (1339 Chain Bridge Rd) — A fashion store focusing on custom clothing and tailoring for women.
• Carpet Impressions (1339 Chain Bridge Rd) — A carpet and handmade rug store.
• The Preppy Pink Pony (6829 Redmond Drive) — A monogrammed gifts and invitations store.
• Tysons Tailors (8099 Tysons Corner Center) — An alterations and tailoring shop inside Tysons Corner Center.
• Tysons Watch and Jewelry Exchange (8150 Leesburg Pike) — a store trading in jewelry, watches and luxury items.
• Aram Boutique (2001 International Dr) — A women’s fashion store in Tysons Galleria.
• Vienna Hot Tubs & Patio (1524 Spring Hill Rd) — An emporium stocking home spas, fire pits and patio furniture
• Shiraz Market (8486 Tyco Rd) — An international grocery store featuring Middle Eastern and Asian goods.

Photo via Facebook

Driving through fancy neighborhoods and marveling at Christmas decorations is a time-honored American suburban tradition, but the Woman’s Club of McLean is offering visitors a chance to go inside those homes for a tour.

On Thursday, Dec. 6, the club will host their 52nd annual Holiday Homes Tour. The tour, which will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will stop at four homes throughout the area. Homes on the tour range from older colonial style brick homes to a sprawling seven-bedroom home in Odricks Corner, just north of Tysons.

This year’s honorary tour host will be state Sen. Barbara Favola (D).

Tickets for the tour are $30 in advance or $35 at the door, with all proceeds going to local charities. Tickets can be purchased at:

• Mesmeralda’s in McLean (1339 Chain Bridge Rd)
• Karen’s Florist in Vienna (527 Maple Ave E)
• Great Dogs of Great Falls (9859 Old Georgetown Pike)

In addition to the tours, one home in River Oaks will be selling jewelry, handmade wreaths and gift baskets. There will also be a raffle for gift certificates to several local businesses.

A Civil War Christmas, a collection of stories linked by a pageant of carols, is coming to Tysons’ 1st Stage Theater (1524 Spring Hill Rd) starting next week.

The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, follows several intertwining lives on Christmas Eve in 1864 from Northern Virginia battlefields to the White House.

A Civil War Christmas will run from Nov. 29 through Dec. 23. Showtimes are:

• Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.
• Fridays at 8 p.m.
• Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sundays at 2 p.m.

General admission tickets are $29. Tickets for seniors (65+) are $36. Student and military tickets are $15.

Captioned performances will be held the weekend of Dec. 6-9. An audio description will be available at the Dec. 8 performance.

1st Stage Theater also offers community conversations after several shows, giving audience members a chance to talk with the designers, cast, and cast about the show’s production and creative process. Prior to the Dec. 20 show, Sarah Jencks, Director of Education and Interpretation at Ford’s Theatre, will talk about the historical context of the show.

1st Stage Theater bills itself Tysons’ only stage theater venue. It was founded in 2008 in a converted office space.

A Civil War Christmas is the second production of the 1st Stage Theater’s 2018-2019 season.

Image via 1st Stage Theater

Put down the controller and pick up some dice, this upcoming Saturday (Nov. 24) is Board Game Day at the Tysons-Pimmit Library.

The event is hosted by the Northern Virginia Board Game Group, which describes itself as “small group of passionate board game enthusiasts.” The NOVA Board Game Group says the event will be relaxed and casual, catering to all levels of interest and experience in board games.

The event will run from 1-5 p.m.

The board games played aren’t the traditional staples like Monopoly or Life. Instead, the group tends to favor modern games like Pandemic. Most are traditionally easy to learn games, while a separate group meets to play the more complicated strategy games.

Players are requested to bring their good sportsmanship but leave the electronic devices away from the table. Players are also asked to avoid bringing greasy or oily foods as they may damage the games. Children under 16 must have a parent present.

The group hosts board game days at libraries across the region and is scheduled to return to Tysons on Dec. 29, in case you can’t make it out this weekend.

Photo via Flickr/Jamie McCaffrey

(Updated at 8 a.m.) To the casual viewer, Pimmit Hills is a sleepy subdivision just southeast of Tysons quickly being overshadowed by its neighbor. But Pimmit Hills is a neighborhood with a surprising depth of history and one that played a central role in much of the region’s development.

In her new book, “Participation, Community and Public Policy in a Virginia Suburb“, Patricia Donahue, a policy fellow at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, follows the neighborhood across sixty years of history.

On Nov. 10, the book was awarded the Ross Netherton Prize, a $1000 prize awarded for a work covering local history.

Donahue said the book started almost ten years ago when she was researching public policy impacts on small neighborhoods.

“I looked for a community in Northern Virginia that I thought was typical of a middle-income community in the post-war era,” said Donahue. “I thought it would be a simple case study, but it just kept unfolding into one fascinating story after another. It really told the story of suburbia in one community.”

Pimmit Hills was built as a subdivision in the 1950s for veterans of World War II and the Korean War. Though today it is dwarfed by nearby development, when it was first built it was the largest subdivision in Fairfax County by far; four or five times larger than any of the others.

When it was first built, the neighborhood was surrounded by farms and fields, but today it’s completely surrounded by highways and development. Donahue compared it to real estate holdouts in major cities.

Donahue said it was fascinating to follow the same community, and often same families, through the turbulent latter half of the 20th century through today.

“So much happened there,” said Donahue. “They dealt with desegregation, [growing] infrastructure, the baby boom… they were part of Fairfax transforming from a rural community into an urban one.”

Donahue said she stumbled on various extreme viewpoints from people who were essentially neighbors. The topic of segregation was one that had bitterly divided the community.

“There were people who supported massive resistance to desegregation, with residents who were very comfortable using language we find tough,” said Donahue. “But at the same time, in the same community, there were three ministers who made a public statement six months after the Montgomery bus boycott saying they totally rejected segregation and they wouldn’t let their churches support it. In one community, it’s a whole range of views. People risking their careers and people who were like ‘there’s no way we’re going to let this happen.'”

Beyond just segregation, Donahue said there were some horrific crimes throughout the neighborhood’s history as well. During the 1960s, Pimmit Hills was a pseudo-headquarters for The Pagans, a notorious motorcycle gang. In 1970, members of The Pagans kidnapped rival gang members, tortured them in Arlington, then murdered them in the forest near Pimmit Hills.

Pimmit Hills also played a surprising role in regional and national history. Donahue said Charles Lewis, one of the early presidents of the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association, was a researcher on the first American exploration of Antarctica. Frances Lanahan, a journalist and daughter of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, once wrote a profile of the neighborhood.

But one of the most notable moments for Pimmit Hills was in the early 1950s when Fairfax County signed up to be one of the first large-scale tests for Jonas Salk’s new polio vaccine. After gossip columnist Walter Winchell alleged that the polio vaccine would end up killing children, Donahue said many other communities yielded to concerns and pulled out of the tests. But given the high mortality rate of polio in Fairfax, Donahue said the county was the only community to stay in the program.

“Imagine the courage of those families who agreed when no one else would to have their children immunized,” said Donahue. “Second graders in Pimmit Hills were among the first in the nation to get the vaccine.”

Whether the neighborhood can survive with new development pressures all around it remains in question. Donahue says she believes the neighborhood will continue to adapt and continue to survive.

“Like a lot of communities, they struggled with ‘hey, do we want development on our doorstep?'” said Donahue. “That’s still a struggle. Will they survive? I think they’re part of the change. If you drive through Pimmit Hills, every fourth or fifth house is a rebuild. They are changing it. I think they are not going to be bystanders in this change. They are going to be active agents in shaping that change.”

The book, which is intended for an academic audience, is currently listed at $89.98 on Amazon.

Fairfax is eyeing bikeshare expansion along Route 123 from Tysons to Fairfax City, and Vienna is right in the middle.

At last night’s (Monday) Vienna Town Council meeting, Zan Frackelton, a transportation planner with Toole Design, updated the Town Council on an ongoing feasibility study considering whether bikeshare will work for Vienna and other localities along the corridor. The study is a collaboration between the Town of Vienna, George Mason University, and both Fairfax County and City.

Frackelton said Vienna’s relatively flat topography and a sprinkling of bike infrastructure make it a conducive to hosting a bikeshare system.

“We believe bikeshare is feasible in this area, but it requires some supporting actions,” said Frackelton, “such as ongoing improvements to the bicycle network to ensure people using this system have safe places to ride and reviewing policies as needed related to bicycling.”

While the red and gold Capital Bikeshare is the leading contender to fill the Vienna gap, Frackelton said it was also worth noting that the bikeshare market is becoming increasingly crowded with options, including the increasingly popular electric scooters.

“[Capital Bikeshare] is ideal for short, one-way trips,” said Frackelton. “But other systems are coming onto the scene, like dockless bikeshare and scooters, where you start your trip using an app and end where you want.”

However, Frackelton said Capital Bikeshare was the most logical choice for Vienna. With the expansion of the Capital Bikeshare in surrounding localities like Tysons and Reston, Frackelton also said Vienna was a logical next step for the Capital Bikeshare.

If Vienna does decide to go with electric scooters or e-bikes, which Capital Bikeshare is beginning to offer, Frackelton said the town will also have to consider new policies governing use of such devices. While Frackelton said the town could consider moving to dockless vehicles in the future, Frackelton said there’s not enough space on local roads to support that yet.

Among concerns raised by the Town Council was speeding on trails, which is not typically a concern for bicyclists but a potential problem if local bicycle trails become saturated with electric bicycles and scooters.

Town Council members also noted concerns that many of the late-night scootering in Washington, D.C. was done without lights or reflective gear that makes them difficult to see for cars. Frackelton said the study would look into these concerns as the study continues.

Frackelton said Fairfax County is planning to move forward with grant applications for funding for Capital Bikeshare stations and begin finalizing locations in 2019.

(Updated at 3:40 p.m.) Local flower delivery startup UrbanStems and other digital-native retail brands, in addition to long-time mall staple DKNY, opened this weekend at a new physical location in Tysons Corner Center mall.

BrandBox, a project launched by mall operator Macerich, adds physical foot traffic to the mostly digital companies. Tysons Corner Center was the first location for the retail experiment, which opened this past Saturday (Nov. 17).

The first group of startups in the location will be:

• Naadam — a Mongolian cashmere apparel company.
• Winky Lux — a cruelty-free facial cosmetics retailer.
• Interior Define — a home furniture store specializing in custom-built pieces.
• Nectar — a memory-foam mattress retailer.
• UrbanStems — a same-day flower delivery service in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

For some startups, like Nectar, the Tysons Corner Center location is their first physical storefront. The company is offering $125 off mattresses and two free pillows starting today.

“Nectar’s space features an installation with hands-on components and a beautiful visual tour through a year of sleep to celebrate the brand’s one-of-a-kind 365 Night Trial with a vignette for each season,” said a PR rep.

DKNY, the New York-based fashion house, will use its BrandBox location to try new limited edition products and designs.

(Updated at 12:50 p.m.) If you’re looking to chase your Mosaic District shopping with a stiff drink, the MacMillan Whisky Room — opening early next year at 2920 District Ave — could be your style.

The bar and restaurant is part of a series of new venues scheduled to move into the Mosaic District, according to the Washington Business Journal. New stores include Robert Redford-helmed Sundance and a new Barnes & Noble.

According to Derek Anderson, co-owner of the bar along with his wife Emma Hand, MacMillan Whisky Room will be a high-end neighborhood bar offering a variety of international whiskies and local beers.

“We like the whisky bar scene in Washington, D.C.” said Anderson. “My wife and I live nearby. Mosaic is a great location. There’s a built-in customer base here in the Mosaic District and they really need a high-end neighborhood bar.”

This is Anderson’s first restaurant, but helping out with the opening is his brother, Keith Anderson, who Derek says has worked as a chef at several restaurants and will be the head chef at MacMillan Whisky Room. The MacMillan Whisky Room will serve burgers along with classic British bar fare like scotch eggs, fish and chips and other dishes.

Derek Anderson said is all of the permitting goes well, the restaurant will likely be opening by the end of January 2019.

Whisky photo via Facebook. Exterior photo via Google Maps.