A proposal to launch an autonomous shuttle program in Merrifield was awarded a state grant, making it the first state-funded pilot of its kind in Virginia.

The Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board approved $250,000 in grant funding for Fairfax County to test driverless technology in public transportation, according to a press release. Fairfax County will provide $50,000 in local match funding to the pilot.

The program was the topic of extensive discussion at a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors work session yesterday (Tuesday). The pilot project will have an autonomous shuttle running from the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station to the Mosaic District, closing a 1-mile transit gap between the two locations.

The project is a collaboration between Fairfax County and Dominion Energy, which would identify, select and purchase the shuttles.

The shuttle would be free to ride with no ticket or pass needed.

The work session included a discussion of safety challenges related to operating an autonomous shuttle, particularly the challenge of getting the shuttle across Lee Highway. The press release noted that the shuttles will undergo extensive testing before passenger service can begin and a safety steward will be on board to monitor operations.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is set to consider the formal partnership agreement at the Tuesday, June 25, Board of Supervisors meeting.

Rendering via Optimus Ride

Fairfax County is moving toward autonomous vehicles connecting the Mosaic District to the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro.

At a work session today (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors reviewed plans to start a pilot program for self-driving vehicles as a shuttle service.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Leonard Wolfenstein, chief of the transportation planning section. “We have several partners in the public and private sector.”

Wolfenstein said the mile of distance between the Metro and the Mosaic District was one of the main reasons it was being eyed for the autonomous vehicle pilot.

“The Mosaic District is a vibrant and active growing sector of the county,” said Wolfenstein. “Mosaic is roughly a mile from the Metro, so it’s a great first-last mile type of environment to test this out.”

Under the planned partnership, Dominion Energy would identify, select, and purchase shuttles while Fairfax County government would oversee its operation. Who actually operates the shuttle is still to be determined.

Staff noted that concerns about safety, like how shuttles would affect pedestrians and cyclists, are still to be determined. In particular, staff said the “tricky situation” is figuring out whether the autonomous vehicles will safely be able to cross Lee Highway.

“The proposed path would create an environment where there are opportunities for all those users,” staff said. “At the end of the pilot, there will be a report published to establish a regulatory framework. This is the only pilot like this in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Clinton Edwards from the Department of Rail and Public Transportation said that the department was reviewing the business case for automated vehicles. Edwards said the department was considering cost, insurance, liability concerns and private-public partnership issues.

But for members of the Board of Supervisors, most of the questions focused on how to get the public on board with the idea.

“The key is to create buzz,” said Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust. “People need to think of Fairfax County when they think of autonomous vehicles.”

Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said the partnership should rely heavily on Edens, the Mosaic District property management company, for that.

“Turn the marketing of this over to Edens,” said Smyth. “Let them do what they do best.”

Image via Optimus Ride

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Wednesday (June 19)

• Kiki’s Delivery Service at Angelika Film Center — 7 p.m. at Angelika Film Center (2911 District Avenue) — As part of their Studio Ghibli summer festival, Angelika Film Center will be screening Kiki’s Delivery Service — the anime classic about a young witch striking out on her own — on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m. Tickets are $14.50.

 Thursday (June 20)

• The Boro Summer Kick Off — 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at The Boro — Boro Tysons is hosting a summer kick off event with food trucks, music, lawn games and “puppy therapy.”
• Summer Reading Party — 7-8 p.m. at Bards Alley (110 Church Street NW) — The Bards Alley bookstore in Vienna is hosting a summer book party with finger foods and lemonade available. Booksellers will be in attendance sharing their favorite summer reads.
• Vienna Stories Book Talk — 7:30 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) — Marie Kisner, a former public information officer for the Town of Vienna, collected newspaper stories about Vienna into a new book called “Vienna Stories 1950-2000.” Kisner is also planning a book signing at the Freeman Store on Saturday, June 22, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Friday (June 21)

• Echosmith at Tysons Corner Center — 3:30-9:30 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (1961 Chain Bridge Road) — HOT 99.5 and Tysons Corner Center are hosting a free concert with the band Echosmith. The show is scheduled to start for 6:30 p.m. but attendees are encouraged early to grab a seat.

Saturday (June 22)

• Daylily Walking Tour — 10:15-11:15 a.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court) — The Northern Virginia Daylily Society President Janice Kennedy will lead a walking tour through the gardens showing the daylily collection including a few award-winning varieties. The tour is free and those participating in the tour will have free admission.
• Georgia Peach Truck — 12 p.m. at Merrifield Garden Center (8132 Lee Highway) — The Georgia Peach Truck is planning to roll into Merrifield at noon on Saturday with beaches brought up from Georgia available to be purchased by the box. One 23-25 pound box is $45.

Sunday (June 23)

• Providence Democrats Unity and Summer Solstice Celebration — 4-7 p.m. at Nouvelle Apartments (7911 Westpark Drive) — Following a crowded Democratic primary that saw Dalia Palchik voted as the Democratic nominee for the vacant Providence District Board of Supervisors seat, Providence District Democrats are hosting a buffet and silent auction fundraiser with the nominees and the other candidates. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP early.

Photo via Meadowlark Botanical Gardens/Facebook

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Monday (May 20)

• Sound Check Bingo — 7 p.m. at Caboose Commons (2918 Eskridge Road) — Caboose Commons at the Mosaic District is premiering a music trivia bingo night. The event mixes bingo and trivia contests where contestants hear 30-45 seconds of a song and must determine the title then find that song on bingo cards. Genres range from 80’s to Motown and country.

Tuesday (May 21)

• Capital One Blood Drive — 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Capital One Westpark (7900 Westpark Drive) — Inova Blood Donor Services will be on hand to receive blood donations. Photo ID is required, and visitors are asked to allow one hour for donation.
• Meet the Brewer: Tucher Brewery — 5-8 p.m. at Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — Michael Lassauer, the brewmaster of Tucher Brewery, will be at the Biergarten to talk and have a drink with customers. The event will also include free Tucher T-shirts and bottle openers.

Wednesday (May 22)

• Dine for a Cause — 11 a.m.-10 p.m. at Moby Dick House of Kabob (2676 Avenir Place) — Several local charity organizations are partnering together to host a fundraiser for refugees in Northern Virginia at Moby Dick. If the diner mentions the fundraiser, 20 percent of the meal proceeds will be donated to Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area to support refugees.
• First Mothers Out Front Fairfax Meeting — 7-8:30 p.m. at Green Hedges School (415 Windover Avenue NW) — Mothers Out Front, an organization fighting climate change, is hosting its first meeting to talk about a campaign to convert Fairfax County to an electrical school bus system.

Thursday (May 23)

• Soft Opening at City Works Eatery and Pour House — 6-9 p.m. at City Works Eatery and Pour House (1640 Capital One Drive North) — City Works at the Capital One headquarters is hosting a soft opening this week with a fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank. Seating is limited with reservations at $50 per seat.
• Creativity Showcase — 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Fusion Academy Tysons (1934 Old Gallows Road) — Fusion Academy is hosting an exhibition of student creativity with a gallery-style showing of creations and projects with complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

Friday (May 24)

• Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Debate — 7:30-10 a.m. at Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Drive) — The Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia is hosting a debate between Democratic Board of Supervisors Chair candidates and Commonwealth’s Attorney candidates. The event is hosted by NBC4’s Julie Carey and is $15 per person.

Saturday (May 25)

• ViVa! Vienna! — 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Monday on Church Street — Amusement rides, live music, vendors, carnival food and more will be available all weekend at the family-friendly Vienna festival.
• To the Moon and Back — 4-5 p.m. at Total Wine (1451 Chain Bridge Road) — To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Schlafly Beer is debuting a new beer: Luna Lager. Tickets to the event are $15.

Sunday (May 26)

• Memorial Day Weekend Concert — 4-6 p.m. at Saint Luke Catholic Church (7001 Georgetown Pike) — The Fairfax Choral Society Symphonic Chorus will be performing a series of songs to honor veterans, including several patriotic American classics. Tickets for the event are $25 — or $5 for students or $40 for reserved seating. Kids 13 and under are free.

Photo via Facebook

A fitness studio’s former Mosaic District spot may soon welcome an increasingly popular recreational sport: urban, indoor ax throwing.

A building permit indicates that Bad Axe Throwing is looking to move into 2985 District Avenue, Suite 195, which used to house Elevate Interval Fitness. The spot is next to BGR and Nando’s Peri-Peri.

Started in Canada in 2014, Bad Axe Throwing has expanded to roughly two dozen locations across the U.S. and 10 in Canada.

At the current locations, large and small groups of people can throw axes in lanes with throwing coaches, who can demonstrate different games. The closest one to the upcoming Mosaic spot is in D.C. at 2419 Evarts Street N.E.

First photo via Facebook

A pet store chain recently opened its doors in the Mosaic District.

In March, storefront signs said Kriser’s Natural Pet, a pet store chain featuring natural food, treats and supplies, would open in a spot (2905 District Avenue, Suite 180) between Sweetgreen and Nordine Salon and Day Spa.

The Mosaic District pet store held a grand opening on Saturday (May 4), but with a new name. Recently, Kriser’s East Coast stores rebranded as “Loyal Companion.”

Other nearby locations are in Vienna at 144 Maple Avenue W. and in Tysons at 7505 Leesburg Pike inside the Whole Foods shopping center.

Mysteries and film noir classics will come to the silver screen every week this month at the Mosaic District.

Moviegoers at the Angelika Film Center (2911 District Avenue, Suite 200) can watch a different film every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. Tickets cost $14.50.

The movie options are:

• May 8: “Mildred Pierce” — A woman struggles to support her spoiled daughter after divorcing her husband and starting a successful restaurant business
• May 15: “The Maltese Falcon” — A private detective seeks out his partner’s killer and becomes involved in a search for a priceless 16th-century statuette
• May 22: “Double Indemnity” — A woman seduces an insurance agent into murdering her husband, but then they get suspicious of each other’s motives
• May 29: “The Lady From Shanghai”– A seaman gets implicated in a murder after he starts working on a yacht

From the Mosaic District’s website:

Join us Wednesdays in May for murder, femme fatales and a hard-boiled detective with a hat.  With breathtaking cinematography, these Film Noir classics mark an error of smoky landscapes, towering shadows and stupendous mystery.

The self-described “boutique cinema” in the heart of the Mosaic District typically shows independent and specialty films.

Photo via Facebook

The Root Collective, an online shoe boutique, will soon bring its footwear to the Mosaic District.

Shoppers can find the shoes for one week at Fair Trade Winds (2905 District Avenue, Suite 125) starting tomorrow (Saturday).

The Root’s online offerings range from $98 flats to $228 boots. Its current “Pair of the Month” is the $228 Lee Boot in the color “chestnut.”

The shoes are ethically made in Guatemala, according to The Root Collective’s website, adding:

At The Root Collective, we partner with small, independent workshops because we believe that’s where the most impact in communities happen. Our goal is to support existing workshops that are run by local business owners… Steady and safe jobs are also fighting gang violence in Guatemala by giving young men and women an alternative to joining the gangs, which are rampant in many communities throughout the country.

The pop-up will run from May 4-12.

Image via Facebook

Just a month shy of its 10-year-anniversary, a kids’ clothing boutique named Wee Chic recently opened its first Virginia store in the Mosaic District.

Rewinding to when it all began, owner Bridget Quinn Stickline told Tysons Reporter that she started Wee Chic after struggling to find clothing she liked for her daughter, who was then a baby. “A retailer alert went off [in my head] — this is a void in the market. There’s opportunity here,” she said.

Stickline, who has worked in the garment industry and is a self-described “fabric-phile,” knew she wanted ethical fashion with a modern approach that she could buy in boutiques.

Fast forward to present day and Wee Chic sells appropriate kids’ clothing that parents can have a hard time finding, she said.

“Fashion forward and mom approved” is how Stickline describes the shop’s offerings, which include clothing for girls’ sizes from newborn up to size 16 and for boys from newborn up to size 8, along with toys and books. (Food-printed clothing, like sushi and tacos, are popular right now, she said.)

Originally based in the Baltimore-area, Wee Chic has a newly opened Mosaic District shop, which was formerly the location of Dawn Price Baby — another local kids’ boutique that started shuttering its stores last year after 15 years in business.

Stickline said that she heard about Price’s plan to retires and signed the lease for the space in March just a few months after Price’s lease ended.

“We saw that as a sign for us to make a move into Northern Virginia,” Stickline said, adding that she likes the variety of restaurants and mix of national chains and small businesses that call the Mosaic District home.

She says she hasn’t had any customers confuse the two shops, since the decor and merchandising “feel very different” from Dawn Price Baby.

Wee Chic embraces the individuality, fun and the flexibility that comes from being a small business, Stickline said.

She has embraced recent push in the industry toward selling gender-bending — not be confused with gender neutral — clothes and toys. “We’re seeing dinosaurs on girls’ clothing. Why didn’t this happen 10 years ago?” Stickline said, adding that she’s excited about how retailers are starting to think differently about gender.

Wee Chic is also unique in its refusal to sell products online — a move that might be surprising in an e-commerce age, but one that Stickline says creates in-person experiences that shoppers can’t replicate online. “For us, it’s about the human connection,” Stickline said. “We get to know clients really well.”

Even in “Age of Amazon” as Stickline calls it, the boutique sees returning customers — “the Wee Chic Squad” — that allows Stickline to watch kids grow up.

“Kids come into our store and it’s their favorite store,” she said, adding that parents will bring their kids shopping there as a reward. “That’s a really cool feeling to create a space that kids love.”

Now age 12, Stickline’s daughter has outgrown Wee Chic, but has picked up her mom’s entrepreneurial spirit, Stickline said. “She was the original Wee Chic.”

Photo courtesy via Wee Chic

Around 25 years ago, Sherri Routt started working at the Fair Oaks Barnes and Noble. Now, she’s helping the book store chain launch a new prototype store in the Mosaic District (2921 District Avenue).

Tomorrow (April 24), Routt’s 8,300-square-foot Barnes and Noble will open its doors to the public. The store is considerably smaller than the usual stores.

Frank Morabito, Vice President of stores for Barnes and Noble, attended a special preview event at the store and said the new slimmer size is part of a shift towards a more cafe feel for the chain rather than sprawling brick and mortar stores.

The store would feel familiar to anyone who has visited the chain’s larger locations. Though the store is smaller, a quick check on obscure fantasy and historical titles showed that the store is still considerably well stocked.

But there are other differences immediately apparent when stepping into the store. Lower bookshelves in the building offer clear views from one end of the store to the other in contrast to the more labyrinthian, library-feel of many book stores.

Routt said that staff will be roaming the store assisting visitors with product selection and allowing them to purchase books without needing to visit a cash wrap. The store will also feature a self-serve kiosk so customers can research books on their own.

But as a person who has worked in local Barnes and Nobles for years, Routt said she wanted to include a focus on local authors. Routt said she knew several from her days working in Fair Oaks, and used those connections to help put together a lineup of book signings for the grand opening.

The book store also has a children’s section with a selection for younger ages along with toys and a special activity table for children to play with LEGOs.

“This is the cleanest this playspace is ever going to be,” one parent noted as the tour group passed the LEGO table.

Routt said there are many children’s book authors in the area, so moving forward she’s hoping to organize more reading events with writers and children.

“We’re really trying to make our store feel very localized,” Routt said.

The store also features a Barnes and Noble Cafe. While many locations include Starbucks, Morabito said the Barnes and Noble Cafes are company owned and feature Starbucks coffee, but may have a slightly different selection of baked goods.

Morabito said the Mosaic District was the perfect location to open a prototype smaller store, the second in the D.C. region.

“This is the ideal model [for the Mosaic District],” Morabito said. “It’s an amazing shopping experience here and they needed a book store.”

Routt said the store opening had been an easy and streamlined process, though she’s aware there are a lot of eyes in the corporate hierarchy trained on this store opening.

“I’m super excited for the opening,” Routt said. “We’re being watched because this is a new model. So there’s a pressure there, but it’s the good kind — not a stress pressure.”

The lineup of authors signing for the grand opening include:

• April 24: Kristyn Kusek Lewis — 5 p.m.
• April 24: Ikechuku Chigewe — 5 p.m.
• April 25: Ellen Crosby — 5 p.m.
• April 26: Olivia Hinebaugh — 5 p.m.
• April 27: Kwame Alexander – 12 p.m.
• April 27: Eleanor Jones, Barb Goffman and Libby Kelin — 4 p.m.
• April 28: Barbara Carroll Roberts — 10 a.m.
• April 28: Tiffany Foo — 1 p.m.

The store will also host face painting and balloon twisting on Saturday (April 27) and Sunday (April 28).