LIFE IN THE DMV – The Blog
VDOT Held Hearing About Boundary Channel Drive Changes
Changes are coming to the Boundary Channel Drive and I-395 interchange. VDOT held a virtual design public hearing on Nov. 5. to discuss the agency’s plans “to upgrade the Boundary Channel Drive interchange at I-395 to improve safety, traffic flow and enhance...
A Few Thanksgiving Recipes to Chew On…
Our team at John Eric + Trevor Moore is excited about Thanksgiving. Taking the day to be with family and friends – whether in person or virtually, giving thanks and, of course, the food! Each member of our team has contributed their favorite Thanksgiving Day recipe to...
Amazon Opens ‘Last Mile’ Delivery Stations in Lanham, Upper Marlboro
Amazon, with four large distribution facilities in Maryland, has opened two state-of-the-art delivery stations, smaller sorting facilities that get packages delivered to the last mile, often using independent drivers. Amazon says the two delivery stations, in Lanham...
Locals Head to Swanky Hotels With Low Occupancy Rates for Staycations, Coworking
“We had two wives who showed up one day without a reservation and just needed to get away from their husbands.” The concept of a vacation has fundamentally changed over the past eight months. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an escape no longer involves leaving the...
Arlington-to-Frederick Transit Proposal Still Alive
Proposed transit service connecting Arlington to Frederick (Md.) and points in between remains on the table, but barely, after scoring low in a recent cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Virginia and Maryland state governments. The proposed routing scored ninth of...
Much Ado About Stuffing: Here’s Where to Get Thanksgiving Dinner for Takeout or Dine-In
(photo of Founding Farmers's Thanksgiving Offerings) It’s just around the corner – Thanksgiving! And it’s never too early to plan… From dcist: It’s no surprise that the holidays, Thanksgiving included, will look a little different this year than they have in the past....
New Tool Coming from Google Will Show Neighborhoods from 200 Years Ago
(photo courtesy of Rosslyn BID: 1530 N. Key Blvd., on the site of the Atrium) In the 20 years he’d lived in New York, Raimondas Kiveris had seen the city change immensely. “It was a completely different place, a different town,” says Kiveris, a software engineer at...
Amazon Acquires Pentagon City Hotel for $148M, Setting Stage for Next Phase of HQ2
(Rendering of Amazon's HQ2 Campus courtesy of Amazon) Acorn Development, a subsidiary of Amazon, has acquired the Residence Inn by Marriott, a hotel in Pentagon City, Va., that sits on 1.5 acres of prime land, in a $148.5 million deal. The Blackstone Group sold the...
On Campus or Off, D.C. College Students Adapt to a New Order of Operations
With mask-wearing mandated, people being advised to stay at least 6 feet apart, and the temporary or permanent closures of hundreds of restaurants and retailers, the entirety of D.C. looks far different in the fall of 2020 than it did a year ago. However, the college...
DC-Area Home Sellers Saw $92,000 in Profits Last Quarter
In case you need more evidence of how hot the local housing market has been this year, home seller profits have shot up over the past six months. Homeowners in the DC area who sold in the third quarter of 2020 saw an average profit of $92,100, according to the latest...
Amazon donates $100,000 for Diversity and Robotics Programming at University of Maryland
Amazon is again putting more money toward computer science education in Greater Washington, this time with a $100,000 donation to the University of Maryland’s engineering school for diversity initiatives and robotics programming. Specifically, Amazon Lab126, the...
The Greater D.C. Area Has Become a Hotbed of Speedcubing Talent
Pavan Ravindra’s mother had a rule for him during high school: Don’t stay up too late but wake up early if you want to. So, on weekdays, Ravindra would get out of bed at 4 a.m., eager to start the day. It didn’t take long for him to find a reason to take full...
COVID Is Carrying Young People Away from DC — Whether They Want to Leave or Not
(As published by Medium) Starting in the early summer, we started to see uncharacteristic numbers of unsubscribes from our newsletter. At first I thought it was just people who were over the news. Every new morning in 2020 means waking to some fresh horror, and...
Amazon Launches Innovative “Right Now Needs Fund”
Amazon and Communities In Schools NOVA announced that Amazon is making a $1 million donation to support the immediate needs of thousands of students from underserved communities in Northern Virginia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Communities In Schools NOVA will...
First Look: Northern Vietnamese Restaurant 1914 Transports Diners To Hanoi’s ‘Train Street’
A new Vietnamese restaurant has landed in Shaw that hopes to capture the atmosphere and cuisine of Hanoi’s famous “train street.” Called 1914, this restaurant specializing in Northern Vietnamese dishes revels in the bustling street life that emerged around Ngõ 224 Lê...
Rossyln Hotel Flipping to Apartments
The Virginian Suites hotel at 1500 Arlington Blvd, near Rosslyn, has closed. Last week workers could be seen hauling furniture out of the building, which is located on the southern side of Route 50, a couple of blocks from the Iwo Jima memorial. A sign on the door...
Ari Gejdenson Dissolves Restaurant Group, Puts Employees in Charge
Before the pandemic, restaurateur Ari Gejdenson‘s Mindful Restaurants Group had a robust portfolio of restaurants in different pockets of D.C. Some have subsequently closed, including Acqua Al 2 in Eastern Market, which served Italian food for a decade, along with its...
Housing Market Stress Due to Exceptional Demand
Exceptional demand for new and existing homes, brought on by the stay-at-home culture of the coronavirus pandemic, has the housing market severely depleted. Sales of newly built homes jumped to the highest level in 14 years in August, but builders’ supply dropped to...
Roller Skating Has Surged in Popularity. Local Skaters Hope It Leads to a Rink in D.C.
Photo of Saletta Coleman Credit: Darrow Montgomery When Saletta Coleman puts on her roller skates, she’s transported to another reality. No matter the setting, moving around to the rhythm of music with eight wheels underneath her feet is all Coleman needs to feel what...
Rossyln is Getting an Outdoor Co-Working Space
Set to open mid-October, “Outdoor Office” (or, just “O2”) is being built and funded by Rosslyn’s Business Improvement District. It will be located in Gateway Park, across the street from the Key Bridge into Georgetown. The space will feature two separate work areas...
Amazon’s Virtual Ignite Digital Festival
Last week, more than 1,500 owners from Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program gathered virtually at the Ignite Digital Festival to share knowledge and experiences and connect with Amazon leadership to help shape the future of customer delivery. In 2018, the...