Vienna Eatery Getting Creative With Outdoor Dining — “Clarity chef/owner Jonathan Krinn has dreamed up a way to revive the fine dining experience. On Saturday he’ll launch ‘A Lot of Clarity,’ a five-course prix-fixe meal served in 16 designated ‘slips’ — that’s the tonier nautical term for parking spaces–in the outdoor lot of his Vienna, Virginia restaurant.” [Washingtonian]
Happy Trails — “A variety of scenic walking routes are found within the City of Falls Church… Starting from the Falls Church Community Center, a short stroll through the trails running under the nearby Virginia Pine canopy provides a view of Cherry Hill Park and its 1845 Greek Revival manor house.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Home Sales Drop as Prices Rise in N. Va. — “A total of 1,725 properties changed hands across the region in April, according to figures reported May 12 by MarketStats by ShowingTime. That’s down from 2,160 transactions a year before… Sales were down in every jurisdiction except the city of Fairfax… [The] average sales price of all properties that went to closing during the month stood at $667,527, up 7.5 percent from a year before.” [Inside NoVa]
New Senior Shopping Service — “Fairfax County, through the Health Department’s Neighbor to Neighbor Program (N2N), has launched a free grocery shopping and pharmacy pick-up service. The service is provided to seniors at private residences by volunteers who have completed background checks.” [Fairfax County]
Masks Now Mandatory — Riders will have to wear face coverings when using the Metro or Fairfax Connector starting on Monday, May 18. [Metro, Fairfax County]
Cedar Lane over I-66 is scheduled to close Friday and demolition of the bridge is slated to begin Saturday. Project will take about six months. Lots of info about the project and its impacts in Vienna area in this On Deck with Mercury episode: https://t.co/lXjtnPZaB0
— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) May 13, 2020
A family-owned dry cleaning business has turned its Mosaic District location into a “little mask factory,” one of its owners says.
Dianne Lee and her husband Je Kang run The Press at 2985 District Ave, along with the three locations in D.C.
Lee told Tysons Reporter that they started preparing for the coronavirus in February. Now, they are busy making handmade masks.
People who stop by the Mosaic District location can see the employees sewing through the window.
They have donated them to Children’s National Hospital, police stations, leasing companies and more. So far, they’ve been prioritizing giving masks to the hospitals first. People can email them requests — even if the request is as small as one, two or three.
“We went from making 50-100 masks a day to 500-800 masks a day now,” Lee said.
The Press posted on Instagram on April 20 that it has donated more than 3,000 masks.
Lee said her husband, who studied rare and infectious diseases, “was just really adamant about making sure that everyone in the community has a mask.”
“We’ve gotten phone calls from moms,” Lee said, adding that they decline offers to buy masks. Instead, they give them out for free and rely on a fundraiser to pay for supplies.
Lee said the pivot to masks has kept their employees busy since the demand for laundering and dry cleaning services has dropped. “We saw a 90% decrease in sales at one point,” she said.
Clients can still have their clothes cleaned. Lee said she’s encouraging people to use their home delivery service. People can do curbside pick-up and drop-off at the Mosaic District location.
“There is more wash and fold these days,” Lee said. “We’ve seen more designer sweatpants.”
Following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lee said that they don’t touch the items that need to be cleaned for a while, which makes the process take a few extra days.
“We ask customers if they have been exposed [to the virus] and have waiver forms,” she said.
Lee hopes that when the stay-at-home orders get lifted in the D.C. area that the dry cleaning business will bounce back.
“People will hopefully be going out and wearing more clothes,” she said.
But until then, they’ll keep making masks.
“We transformed our location into a little mask factory,” Lee said.
The owner of a Tysons gym is gaining traction with an online petition asking that some restrictions get lifted for small gyms and fitness centers in Northern Virginia.
As Virginia readies to start its first reopening phase tomorrow (Friday), Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered that Northern Virginia maintain current COVID-19 restrictions until after Memorial Day.
Fairfax County has had the highest reported number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state, and top officials in Northern Virginia have been pushing for more time to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
But Tucker Jones, who WJLA reported is the owner of CrossFit gyms in Tysons and Arlington, thinks that the soon-approaching rollback of business restrictions in the rest of the state should also apply to small gyms in Northern Virginia.
“We strongly feel that we can continue to provide access to health and wellness through fitness in a way that keeps everyone safe,” the petition says.
Jones started the online petition three days ago and, at the time of this article, it has gathered more than 2,000 signatures.
The petition says that small class gyms that are about 3,000-8,000-square feet with a maximum capacity of 25-75 people can take the following safety steps:
- capping class sizes at 10 people
- daily deep cleaning
- disinfecting equipment before and after every use
- starting contactless check-in
- switching to reservation-only
- taking away access to showers and water fountains
- requiring employees and asking clients to wear masks
“We believe we can begin to provide our services to members following very strict guidelines of social distancing and extreme cleanliness just as other businesses are providing as they reopen,” the petition says.
Jones told WJLA he had to cancel his plans to offer outdoor fitness classes after Northam announced earlier this week the reopening delay for Northern Virginia.
Currently, CrossFit in Tysons has turned to online fitness classes, a nutrition challenge on social media and equipment rentals to keep the business going while the gyms are temporarily closed.
Photo via CrossFit Tysons Corner/Facebook
Fairfax County continues to have thousands of unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 7,000 initial unemployment claims were filed in the county for the week of May 2, according to the latest data from the Virginia Employment Commission.
The latest data shows a slow decrease of claims in the county from a spike during the week of April 4. Fairfax County had the largest number of initial claims in Virginia for the May 2 filing week.
“Most areas reported declining numbers of claims compared to the previous week,” the VEC said. “Fairfax reported the largest over-the-week decrease (-2,097).”
Meanwhile, the number of continued claims keeps rising in Fairfax County from nearly 3,000 in late March to 30,000 in mid-April to more than 44,000 during the week of May 2.
The data shows a decrease in the number of claimants from the previous week for Virginia, but the VEC warns that the volume of initial claims “may not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time.”
More data on the trends for initial and continued claims in Virginia:
Data and image via Virginia Employment Commission
Fairfax County and the cities of Falls Church and Fairfax have reached 7,000 COVID-19 cases — roughly 2,000 more cases than this time last week, according to state health data.
As of today (Thursday), Fairfax County reported 6,951 cases, while Fairfax City has 45 cases and Falls Church has 39, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Hispanics make up 16.8% of the Fairfax Health District’s population, but 61.3% of the reported cases that have racial and ethnic data, according to Fairfax County’s dashboard.
In the county, 267 people have died from the virus, while four have died in Falls Church. The majority of the people who died were age 65 or older.
Fairfax County officials have said that increased testing capacity, community transmission and the inclusion of probably COVID-19 cases in the data are likely behind the rising numbers.
The Fairfax Health District continues to have the highest number of reported cases in the state, but has a lower case rate per 100,000 than several other areas like Richmond County and Eastern Shore.
With Virginia poised to ease some COVID-19 business restrictions tomorrow, Northern Virginia localities will wait an extra two weeks to see if they get a downward trend of positive test results and hospitalizations for 14 days.
Data via Virginia Department of Health
Tips for applying eyeliner. #Gratitudeattitude appreciation posts for staff and clients. Inspiration messages reminding people to relax. These are some of the many social media posts by a local lash studio.
Deka Lash opened last spring in the Mosaic District. Christina Cox, a local teacher, and her husband, who is a retired U.S. Army officer, are the owners behind the franchise.
Cox told Tysons Reporter said that she’s been using social media as a way to keep people’s spirits up and remind them of the studio’s plans to keep clients and staff safe during the pandemic.
“Now we are letting our clients know everything we’re doing and that we take this seriously,” she said.
The small studio only had five beds to begin with, and lash artists were already wearing masks, washing hands and using hand sanitizer between clients and sterilizing the equipment with an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral product before the pandemic.
Facebook and Instagram posts help her share how the studio is preparing to reopen. While the studio has been closed, Cox said that each last artist has received training on how to use barbicide, which is usually used in barbershops,
When the studio reopens, clients will be given pink bandanas to cover their faces and will be able to read brochures about the cleaning products being used. Both employees and clients will have their temperatures taken with non-contact thermometers.
“We want to keep our staff healthy,” Cox said. “We don’t want to put anybody at risk.”
Blankets for clients will be washed after every single use. Tools will be sterilized and disinfected after every client and frequently touched services like the front desk will be cleaned frequently, she said.
The cancellation policy will be changed so that people won’t be charged for no-shows or late cancellations.
To limit contact, clients will be able to check-in and book new appointments using the smartphone app, she said. Previously, the studio allowed walk-ins and let people bring friends or their kids, but not anymore due to safety precautions.
When the studio reopens, only three of the five beds will be used, and Cox hopes to only have two lash artists working at the same time.
“The only thing we are not doing — we haven’t figured out a way to apply extensions from six feet away,” Cox said. “But everything else, we’ve got it covered.”
Sharing these steps on social media is a way to build and keep trust among clients, Cox said.
“We are ready and we were already doing so many things beforehand and it will be more visible,” Cox said.
Cox said that she’s using social media during the pandemic to stay connected to clients and reach out to new people.
“I think more people are on social media now more than ever,” she said, adding that her strategy is to send a “message of hope.”
The pandemic has hit the business hard. When Tysons Reporter talked to Cox last week, she was still waiting to hear about her federal loan application.
“We’re in our first year of operation, so this is a kick in the teeth,” she said about the financial blow to the business.
But Cox remains optimistic about getting back on track financially in the near future: “I am hoping that we can pick up right where we left off in about three to six months.”
“For the most part, if you had disposable income for lashes — our clients are in a solid financial position,” Cox said, adding that the pandemic might be a temporary financial setback to clients but not devastating to their disposable income.
Even with non-essential businesses temporarily closed and the stay-at-home order, Cox said there’s still a demand for lashes.
“I have people calling me, ‘Do you make house calls?’ ‘No, we’re closed!'” Cox said.
While businesses in Northern Virginia won’t see restrictions loosened until May 29 at the earliest, Cox said that she will be ready to open the studio back up right away — and so will her clients.
Cox said that people who want to support the studio while it’s closed can buy gift cards online, book ahead for appointments and — for clients — write Yelp or Google reviews.
“This virus is not likely going away but we have to continue to live,” she said. “We don’t want the cure to be worse than the disease.”
Images via Deka Lash Facebook and Instagram
Northern Virginia officials stressed the importance of working together on their reopening plans during Gov. Ralph Northam’s press conference today.
Yesterday, Northam announced that he was pushing the reopening deadline for Northern Virginia localities to May 29.
Today Northam said that he is “comfortable” having the first reopening phase begin on Friday (May 15) for the rest of the state.
Jeff McKay, Fairfax County’s chairman, said that coordination with D.C. and Maryland leaders is key to determine when to reopen the D.C. area, which he called “one cohesive region.”
“It’s important that there not be huge variations in the roll-out of phases as we move forward so that we don’t unnecessarily confuse our business owners, confuse our residents and confuse our house of worships,” McKay said. “This virus does not know jurisdictional boundaries.”
Officials for Arlington and Loudoun counties along with the mayors of Alexandria and Falls Church also spoke at the press conference.
Libby Garvey, the chair for Arlington County, said that the Northern Virginia region is looking to meet the following criteria before reopening:
- a downward trend of positive test results and hospitalizations for 14 days
- sufficient hospital beds and intensive care unit capacity
- enough personal protection equipment
- increased testing and tracing
“The most responsible path forward for us is to maintain our current operating status until the phase 1 criteria laid out by the governor are met by Northern Virginia
Northam said that he has not heard about a desire to delay the first reopening phase from other regions in Virginia.
Image via Gov. Ralph Northam/Facebook
(Updated 12:45 p.m.) Gov. Ralph Northam is allowing Northern Virginia localities two extra weeks to start reopening as the rest of the state readies for the first reopening phase this Friday.
Northam’s order that was announced today (Tuesday) delays the reopening, which is outlined in phases, for Fairfax County and other localities in Northern Virginia until midnight on May 28.
Following pressure from county officials to stall their reopening deadlines, Northam said that the decision is “to allow those localities more time to meet the health metrics.”
“While the data show Virginia as a whole is are ready to slowly and deliberately ease some restrictions, it is too soon for Northern Virginia,” Northam said. “I support the request from localities in this region to delay implementation of Phase One to protect public health.”
Fairfax County chairman Jeff McKay said in a statement that “Northern Virginia is a united front, we will continue to track the statistics because we all want to reopen our economy as soon as possible based on public safety and data.”
“I appreciate the governor’s decision to rely on professional data and metrics provided by our health directors and delay Phase I of his Forward Virginia plan in Northern Virginia,” McKay said. “Our county and region are actively working to meet the health criteria laid out by the governor which are needed in order to reopen the economy and we are hoping that is in the next couple of weeks.”
The localities included are:
- Arlington County
- Fairfax County
- Loudoun County
- Prince William County
- City of Alexandria
- City of Fairfax
- City of Falls Church
- City of Manassas
- City of Manassas Park
- Town of Dumfries
- Town of Herndon
- Town of Leesburg
- Town of Vienna
More from Northam’s announcement:
Data show that Northern Virginia is substantially higher than the rest of the Commonwealth in percentage of positive tests for COVID-19, for example. The Northern Virginia Region has about a 25 percent positivity rate, while the rest of the Commonwealth is closer to 10 percent. Further, in the last 24 hours, the Northern Virginia Region reported over 700 cases, while the rest of the Commonwealth reported approximately 270. On any given day, 70 percent of the Commonwealth’s positive cases are attributable to the Northern Virginia Region.
Northam has said he plans to provide more information on how the reopening will work for Northern Virginia on Wednesday.
Image via Gov. Ralph Northam/Twitter
The Vienna Town Council is pausing its plans to speed up the Maple Avenue Commercial zone update due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December, Councilmember Steve Potter proposed that the town use a consulting firm, calling the work on the zoning ordinance a “log jam.”
Last night, the councilmembers were originally set to consider a contract award for consulting fees, but Town Manager Mercury Payton said that the coronavirus pandemic is delaying plans to hire the consultant.
Councilmember Pasha Majdi praised the delay in a statement, saying that using nearly $250,000 from allocated funds and prior reserves in the town’s budget should be put on hold for the moment.
“For months I’ve been calling for prudent budgeting and spending, which requires delaying nonessential spending at least until revenues stabilize,” Majdi said. “We need to refrain from nonessential spending during the pandemic.”
As the town grapples with the pandemic, the Vienna Town Council is also looking to extend the moratorium on the zoning ordinance from June 30 of this year to June 30, 2022.
Yesterday, the Fairfax County Health Department announced that the county’s COVID-19 dashboard now includes more granular zip code data.
The newly expanded data also offers information on probable cases, deaths by age groups and COVID-19 testing by week, according to the county.
“Per the direction of Governor Ralph Northam, and in coordination with Virginia Department of Health (VDH), case rates are now presented by 5-digit ZIP codes,” according to the county. “The recent data release is a change from VDH’s long-standing policy not to disclose data at the ZIP code level.”
The data from the dashboard shows that the Dunn Loring zip code 22027 has the highest number of cases per 100,000 people: 39 cases among a population of 2,362.
“Cases represent a place of residence and not necessarily where transmission may have occurred. This information should not be used to measure individual risk,” according to the dashboard.
As of today, Fairfax County has reported 6,470 cases, 972 hospitalizations and 253 deaths, according to the state health department.
The Fairfax Health District, which includes the county and its cities and towns, has 45 outbreaks with 41 at long term care facilities and one each at a correctional facility, educational setting and healthcare setting.
Map via Fairfax County
