Tysons’s 1st Stage Theatre is remembering the 20th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting with performances of the “docudrama” play Columbinus.
The play weaves together factual testimonies from survivors and community members with fictional representations of students impacted by the shooting.
The play was written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli and first premiered in Silver Spring, Maryland in 2005. The 1st Stage production is directed by Alex Levy, artistic director at 1st Stage, and Juan Francisco Villa.
The plan opened March 28 and is scheduled to run until April 20.
Tickets for the show are $39 for general audiences, $36 for seniors, or $15 for students or military.
The 1st Stage Theatre also offers post-show programs for many of its productions.
- Saturday, April 6 — a discussion with the cast of the show.
- Saturday, April 13 — Dr. Ebony White, assistant clinical professor of behavioral health counseling at Drexler University, is scheduled to discuss the behavioral health and trauma issues related to the play.
Photo courtesy Teresa Castracane/1st Stage Theatre
The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) is mulling a call for more local police funding in the face of rapid development in Tysons.
MCA is set to discuss the funding resolution at the group’s Board of Directors meeting this Wednesday (April 3). The proposal calls for increased funding to Fairfax County Police Department’s McLean District starting with the next county budget.
The station’s McLean name can be a bit misleading — the McLean Police District covers not just McLean, but Tysons, Merrifield, and the Wolf Trap area near Vienna.
In the Fairfax County proposed budget’s five-year staffing plan, police staffing in Tysons is scheduled to gradually increase in the urban areas, but the implementation of this staffing increase is set to be deferred from the upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 budget.
The MCA resolution argues that the county needs to act more quickly:
County Police Department assesses that the McLean Station needed 6 more officers by 2019, 29 more officers by 2024 and a total of 65 additional officers by 2029 just to keep pace with the growth… given that it takes nine months for new officers to complete training, it is critical that the County take steps in the very near future to make a ‘down payment’ on implementation of the McLean Station staffing plan.
The resolution urges the Board of Supervisors to begin implementing the McLean Station staffing plan, including reassigning some newly-trained recruits to the McLean District’s “Tysons Urban Team,” starting later this year.
Moments of cross-aisle praise are rare, but there was one in Tysons today (Friday).
Amid criticism of the state of national politics, in a speech at Fleming’s Steakhouse (1960 Chain Bridge Road), Sen. Mark Warner (D) took a moment to praise President Donald Trump for retaining funding for the Metro in his federal budget proposal.
“I was not pleased with President’s budget on a variety of items, but I was pleased — even though discretionary spending was cut — that it included $150 million for the Metro,” Warner said. “It’s very important that we retain that.”
Warner was in Tysons for the spring chairman’s luncheon with the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce to oversee the installation of the new board for the organization.
In some remarks after the installation, Warner spoke on a range of topics, from Facebook to the potential decline and fall of American capitalism.
Warner said regulation has been slow to keep up with companies like Facebook and Google, saying that in the face of the Russian interference through social media in the American elections it was time to take a look at more regulation.
“Today, 60 percent of Americans get all their news from Facebook and Google,” said Warner. “I wonder whether we need to start thinking about these platform companies as media. The content that comes to us across these platforms can be used to spread an enormous amount of lies. Facebook and Google have as much power as Standard Oil did at the beginning of the [20th century].”
Warner also noted that the way the military funded will have to evolve to face 21st century threats. Warner, the ranking member of the Committee on Intelligence, said that China and Russia spend less on their militaries than the United States but are investing more heavily in hacking.
“I worry we’re buying too much 20th century stuff when most of the conflict in the 21st century will be in cybersecurity, disinformation, and space,” said Warner. “Our peers are equal in those domains.”
More broadly, Warner reiterated earlier comments that American capitalism would have to evolve or face extinction.
“I don’t think modern American capitalism is working for our people,” Warner said. “It doesn’t mean you throw out the system, but it means we have to have an honest debate over what the economy that works for everyone looks like… If we don’t find an economy that gives people a fair shot, we’re going to end up with unease and people who will give up on the system.”
Tysons-based startup hatch I.T. recently launched a new service to help other local startups scale up their projects.
Hatch I.T. is a local firm that helps other technology-centered startups find and recruit talent, which may become increasingly difficult locally with Amazon coming to town. Their new product, Scale, aims to help those startups moving beyond that garage-workshop phase figure out how to expand.
According to the product website:
Scaling your engineering team can be a daunting task for any company, especially startups and small businesses. With limited resources & budget constraints paired with a tight job market, many startups find themselves falling behind in the race for talent. The age-old recruiting options that may work for a Fortune 500 do not always carry over to the startup ecosystem. That’s why ‘Scale by hatch I.T.’ is a custom recruiting model… geared for startups and growing small businesses.
A press release from the company said Scale functions as a subscription-based recruiting service, helping companies build their corporate teams faster.
Tim Winkler, CEO of hatch I.T., said the cost of Scale varies based on the size of the engagement, the number of openings, size of the startup and other factors. While Winkler would not quote specific rates, he did say that the company charges a fixed price on a bi-weekly retainer.
“The current recruiting landscape for startups is broken,” Winkler said in the press release. “When clients use Scale, they grow their staff more rapidly and with cost savings because their dedicated recruiting partner from hatch I.T. is with them all the way.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=AzcV0ifvwRM
Photo via hatch I.T.
Earlier this week we detailed Tysons’ eight districts and the fact that its 3.3 square miles is larger than the area between the Lincoln Memorial, Union Station, and the Wharf in D.C.
Thanks to a tweet from commercial real estate researcher Michael Rodríguez, below, we can now also compare the size of Tysons to Manhattan.
Rotated 90 degrees, the borders of Tysons stretch from the tip of lower Manhattan to 22nd Street, while its top and bottom reach from the Hudson to the East River.
Tysons, with its 30 million square feet of office space, still has a ways to go to catch up to New York City’s 544 million, but already Tysons has more office space than cities like Minneapolis, Baltimore, Tampa and St. Louis, according to the Tysons Partnership. And plenty of additional development is on the way.
https://twitter.com/MRodDC/status/1110998851085840386
https://twitter.com/MRodDC/status/1110985713829511171
Police are investigating a series of wheel thefts in the Tysons area.
Over the last two months, five cars have had their wheels stolen around Tysons, including two vehicles at different locations earlier this week, according to a Fairfax County Police Department recap from Tuesday.
One larceny took place in the 1500 block of Lincoln Way in The Fountains at McLean neighborhood. The other was at the 1500 block of Westbranch Drive, northeast of Tysons Galleria.
Fairfax County Police Sgt. James Curry said thieves typically remove the entire wheel, including the rims and the tires, leaving the vehicle propped up on cinder blocks.
Three other thefts have been reported in the area by FCPD since the beginning of February:
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive
- The 1500 block of Westbranch Drive
- The 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive again
The Highgate at the Mile is a mixed-use development at 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive. One resident of the building told Tysons Reporter that the building’s garage requires a clicker to enter. Building management sent an email to residents warning of “vandalism” in the parking garage after the theft.
Curry said residents of buildings with parking garages should be vigilant about “piggybacking” — people entering the facility on someone else’s pass. Sometimes car thieves also arrive in vehicles that slip in behind a car that legitimately accesses the building, Curry said.
If the garage door to a complex is not functioning, Curry advised alerting the leasing agency or a homeowner’s association
A Redditor claiming to be the victim of the larceny at Fountains at McLean took to the Northern Virginia subreddit to warn others about the incident. According to the Reddit post:
Hey all, just a quick warning. I just had the wheels stolen off of my 2018 Charger on Sunday night from the parking garage in my apartment complex. I filed a police report and the officer with whom I spoke said that this is becoming a much more prevalent problem in the area, with thieves targeting vehicles even in open parking lots.
My car had wheel locks, but unfortunately they really don’t do anything except slow the thieves down by a few seconds, as most of the perpetrators in this area are professionals, and are in and out within minutes. Just a caution for everyone, perhaps consider installing tilt sensors or dash cameras in your vehicles to prevent something like this from happening to you. Definitely the first purchase I’ll make once my car is back up and running.
File photo
Zantech, a technology contractor located just south of the Chain Bridge Road/Leesburg Pike interchange in Tysons, announced plans today to invest $317,853 in an office expansion while adding 120 new jobs.
The company was founded in 2007 and provides technical support primarily for federal government and contracting clients, according to a press release from the Gov. Ralph Northam’s office.
“Strengthening Virginia’s position as a leader in information technology remains one of my highest priorities and partnering with a forward-looking firm like Zantech reinforces the Commonwealth’s reputation as an epicenter for this industry,” Northam said in the press release. “We look forward to Zantech’s continued growth in Fairfax County.”
Zantech’s expansion in Virginia is being supported by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a program run through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to provide consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs.
Photo via Facebook
Students at a private school in Tysons got to examine and touch artifacts from American history in a unique lesson on World War II.
The traveling “Operation Footlocker” exhibit stopped by an AP U.S. history class at the BASIS Independent McLean (BIM) yesterday (Tuesday), according to the school.
The program by the National WWII Museum sends a footlocker full of 15 artifacts from WWII — like letters home, sand collected from Normandy and Iwo Jima, or wartime magazines — to schools in order to facilitate hands-on educational experiences.
The footlocker opened in BIM included a 1944 high school yearbook, wooden toys, and a U.S. Army field manual. The footlockers come with cotton gloves for handling the artifacts and a manual to explain the significance of each object.
“We’re grateful to the National World War II Museum for this fantastic learning opportunity that allows our students to touch, feel and see this moment in history with genuine artifacts,” said Tiffany Conroy, head of school for BIM in the press release.
A new mixed-use residential and commercial development called Hanover Tysons has been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
The 420-unit project in Tysons’ North Central district was unanimously approved at the Board’s meeting on March 19, the Sun Gazette reported, with Supervisor Linda Smyth (D-Providence) lauding the project for its street grid improvements and its incorporation of a 1.13-acre public park.
As we reported, it had gotten the green light from the Planning Commission five days prior. From that article:
The Hanover Company’s plan is to demolish the vacant seven-story office building that was built in 1983 and replace it with a new residential development.
The new residential building would be between five to seven stories with up to 420 dwelling units and include ground-level retail and nearby park space.
In keeping with Fairfax County’s efforts to promote more affordable housing around Tysons, workforce housing will make up 20 percent of the total units, according to the staff report.
Located just west of Jones Branch Park at 1500 Westbranch Drive, Hanover Tysons is a little under one mile from the Tysons Corner Station.
The county’s Board of Supervisors is set to take up the proposal with a public hearing next Tuesday (March 19).
The Fiore Montessori School in northern Vienna is seeking Fairfax County approval to increase the school enrollment and expand into a nearby vacant building.
The property is spread across 4.5 acres across from the Meadowlark Gardens Regional Park on Beulah Road. The site has been used as a private school since 1985 and in 2010 won approval to operate a childcare center and nursery school. In 2013, the school was accredited as a Montessori facility.
The vacant building was once part of the school, but has been unused since 2000.
According to the application, the increase is necessitated by demand from new Tysons residents. The school primarily serves families in Vienna and Tysons.
“Since 2010, significant growth has been occurring around the school, particularly in [Tysons],” the applicant said. “New families moving into the area especially value the quiet neighborhood, educational methodology and green and natural surroundings that the school offers for childcare, nursery school and elementary school.”
The vacant building would be remodeled without increasing the size of the building but would increase the school’s enrollment capacity. The application notes that the school is also considering expanding the school’s age range to care for students younger than 3 years old.
A Planning Commission hearing for the project is scheduled for June 12.
Photo via Facebook
