COVID-19 may have put a damper on a lot of year-end festivities, but many hallmarks of this holiday season are still going strong.

There is a certain magic in getting bundled up for ice skating or sipping mulled cider (or hot toddies) at outdoor restaurants. For something spectacular, families can enjoy holiday light shows or their neighbors’ tacky Christmas lights.

All of these and more winter activities can be done in Fairfax County through January. This year, you can justify these cold weather-friendly events to your heat-loving friends even more, since the risk of COVID-19 transmission is lower outside.

Does winter hold a certain spark for you? Are you going stir-crazy at home and need places to go? Tell us below how you are taking in this season, and drop recommendations in the comments.

The Fairfax County School Board will select a new name for Mosby Woods Elementary School in Fairfax around 8 p.m. during its regular meeting tonight.

The board voted on Oct. 8 to rename Mosby Woods after at-large member Karen Keys-Gamarra and Providence District Representative Karl Frisch proposed replacing the moniker of Col. John S. Mosby, who led a Virginia calvary battalion for the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.

Feedback collected from a community meeting on Oct. 1 suggests the renaming has widespread support, as commenters said Mosby’s role as a Confederate officer clashes with Fairfax County Public Schools’ current values of diversity and inclusivity. Some descendants of Mosby also wrote a letter to the school board advocating for a change.

Here are the possible names that FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand recommended on Oct. 22:

• Five Oaks — the name of the road where the school is located
• Mosaic — a nod to the school’s proximity to the Mosaic District
• Mary McBride — a teacher who helped start a school near Fairfax Court House for the children of freed slaves after the Civil War
• Barbara Rose Johns — a student civil rights activist who led a strike in protest of conditions at the all-black Moton High School in Farmville, Va., paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education

Brabrand also suggested the late NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, but that has presumably been taken out of the running after the City of Fairfax got to it first for Lanier Middle School.

The school board held a public hearing on the possible new name yesterday (Wednesday).

Which of the recommendations would you prefer to replace Mosby Woods? Do you think the board should choose an entirely different name, or do you object to changing the school’s name in the first place?

Photo via FCPS

As of Thursday morning, the future of the country is still up in the air, with votes in key states still being decided and the outcome of the election is unclear.

On the sidewalks and Slack channels around the area, the election seems to be on everyone’s mind. The area’s votes have already been counted, with areas like Tysons, Merrifield, Herndon and much of Reston going for former Vice President Joe Biden while McLean and Great Falls voted for incumbent President Donald Trump.

Whichever side you picked, you might have a few more grey hairs by Thursday morning. With that being said, Tysons Reporter wanted to check in and see how folks in the area are feeling about the election.

Door-to-door greeting and candy distribution is a classic staple of Halloween night, but Fairfax County and health officials warn it might be one of the worst activities to do amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

There are alternative activities available, like a parade going to residential areas around Vienna and a Trunk or Treat activity in McLean. For those that do plan to trick or treat this year, there are several precautions the CDC recommended taking, including:

• Avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters.
• Give out treats outdoors, if possible.
• Set up a station with individually bagged treats for kids to take.
• Wash hands before handling treats.
• Wear a mask.

Photo courtesy Anne B.

One of the many problems highlighted by the pandemic is the lack of affordable housing, with even short-term job loss leaving many residents unable to pay their rent. As local governments grapple with how to support more housing, one of the options proposed in Falls Church has been a meals tax increase.

The obvious response, presented even by the consultants in Falls Church proposing the increase, is that local restaurants are already in dire straits and many are struggling to make ends meet. The Falls Church City Council quickly dismissed the idea of implementing a meals tax during the pandemic and favored other options presented, like trying to tap into an Amazon-related affordable housing fund.

While the restaurant industry is slowly recovering, stability could be a year away. But the affordable housing crisis is unlikely to be solved before then, and the question of the meals tax could resurface.

Meals taxes can be controversial even under non-pandemic circumstances. In 2016, Fairfax County voters rejected a referendum to implement a meals tax which would have predominately gone to support schools. In 2018, the City of Alexandria increased the meals tax by 1% to support affordable housing.

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

There’s been some progress on plans to start an autonomous shuttle service between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and the Mosaic District, but a large percentage of Americans still have concerns about autonomous vehicles.

The shuttle, operated in a partnership between Fairfax County and Dominion Energy, would be the first driverless public transportation in the region and the first state-funded autonomous transportation project in Virginia. The shuttle would be free to ride.

“The shuttle travel between the Dunn Loring Metrorail station and Mosaic in Merrifield,” Fairfax County said on the project website. “Signage has been installed along the testing route. At the conclusion of testing, the route should remain the same.”

The shuttle started testing in July and word on the grapevine is a new announcement about the shuttle is incoming within the next week.

While autonomous vehicles are generally safe, the few incidents of crashes have been high profile cases.

Fairfax County is seeing record numbers of locals turning out to vote early, in some cases leading to long lines at polls.

The County is planning to open more locations starting Wednesday, Oct. 14, as millions of Americans nationwide vote early in the election.

Upcoming voting facilities in the Tysons area include:

• McLean Governmental Center (1437 Balls Hill Road)
• Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive)
• Tysons Pimmit Library (7584 Leesburg Pike)
• Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd.)

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

The arrival of October usually means the beginning of a month full of fall and Halloween festivities. However, in pandemic times, the seasonal celebration might look a little bit different — trick-or-treating in particular.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a list of guidelines to take when planning for fall and winter holidays, including Halloween at the end of this month. Festivities were ranked low-risk to high-risk, allowing people to gauge what level of risk they are comfortable taking when participating in the holiday.

Some low-risk Halloween ideas include carving pumpkins with family, having a virtual costume contest or holding a trick-or-treat style scavenger hunt around your home.

One-way trick-or-treating with pre-wrapped goodie bags was recommended by the CDC as a moderate-risk activity. Traditional trick-or-treating, however, was listed as a higher-risk activity.

Considering recommendations regarding pandemic trick-or-treating and the likelihood of children hunting for candy, will you be handing out goodies this year? Will you be doing so traditionally, modifying the candy giveaway, or skipping the activity altogether?

Photo by NeONBRAND/Unsplash

In a presentation to the School Board earlier this week, Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced that some students could begin returning to classes in schools in late October.

By late October, administrators estimate that 653 teachers can teach 6,707 students in school buildings for anywhere between one half-day to four full days a week.

The district is targeting students who receive special education services, attend preschool, are English-language learners, newcomers to U.S. schools or have limited formal education. High school students can also come for certain technical-education courses.

The move was heavily criticized by members of the School Board, who said Brabrand’s plan lacked important data that parents and teachers need when planning to start heading back to school.

Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors voted in favor of changing the name from the McLean Metro station to McLean-Capital One Hall Metro station.

The decision still has to go to WMATA’s Board of Directors for approval, but it seems likely station could take on the name of the planned performance hall under construction nearby.

Naming a Metro station for a nearby company is an unusual move — something the Board of Supervisors opposed Metro doing November. Supervisors were quick to say the station is not named after banking giant Capital One, which is headquartered adjacent to the Metro station, but for the performance hall.

This is a very particular situation in which we do have an agreement between the county and Capital One Hall to provide a minimum of 100 days of use,” said Supervisor Dalia Palchik, representing the Providence District. “It’s going to be our very own Strathmore. It’s a very specific request to have this name put on the Metro station so people know we have this asset here in Fairfax County.”

How do you feel about the proposed name change?

Staff photo by Jay Westcott