Art-filled Holiday Weekend Starts Thursday

By GINA CACECI
Falls Church Times Staff

Start enjoying the holiday weekend early on Thursday, July 1 at Cherry Hill Park with a concert at 7 pm by Andrew Acosta and the New Old Time String Band and an art exhibit before and after under the Falls Church Arts canopy.  View the paintings and photographs by local artists, Mary O’Donnell and Henry Galluci as you listen to roots music.  See www.fallschurchva.gov for more details.

Continue your adventures in art and music on FIRSTfriday, July 2.  Most special events begin at 6 pm including: Deborah Conn’s untraditional portraits in a traditional medium, watercolor, at Stifel and Capra (260 W. Broad Street), more watercolor paintings by Bill Abel inside Art and Frame of Falls Church (111 Park Avenue) and lots more artists outside in the parking lot at Art-A-Lot featuring Michael Snell’s handmade books and journals and jewelry by Hazel Brutsche.  Also check out some cool classic cars at Art-A-A lot.  Or make your own art at Clay Café Studios (101 N. Maple Avenue).

If books are your thing, then meet local author Amy Brecount White who will be on hand to sign copies of her new novel “FORGET-HER-NOTS,” about the language of flowers that come magically to life.

More into music?  Then you’ll find what you like inside or outside on Friday!  Check out “The Sparksplug Band” at Art-A-Lot in the parking lot at 111 Park Avenue.  More music indoors at Ireland’s Four Provinces Restaurant (105 W. Broad Street) and the Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad Street).
For more detailed information about FIRSTfriday and special offers at restaurants and stores that day, see www.firstfridayoffallschurch.com

If your favorite art is more culinary, take in the Falls Church Farmers Market (in the parking lot at City Hall) Saturday morning from 8 until noon. 

While the Fourth of July is our nation’s birthday, Saturday, July 3 marks the fourth birthday bash for Stifel and Capra.  From 10 to 5 pm, celebrate with cake and balloons and specials on treasures and art.

The City of Falls Church Fireworks Display starts around 9:30 pm at George Mason High School on Sunday, July 4.  But if you get there early, you can continue your art-filled holiday weekend listening to the concert by the Ken Smith Band that starts at 7 pm.

So start celebrating early and make it a four-day festival of music and art – food and fireworks – throughout The Little City.

Council Bids Farewell to 3 Members, Raises GEORGE Fare

By GEORGE BROMLEY
Falls Church Times Staff

June 29, 2010

Yesterday evening the Falls Church City Council bid farewell to three of its members.  Vice Mayor Hal Lippman, who was defeated in a bid for re-election, and Councilmen Dan Maller and Dan Sze, who did not seek second four year terms, received the plaudits of their peers and the public.

Mayor Robin Gardner presented plaques to the departing members and lauded their service to the City.  Ms. Gardner, whose term as mayor ends Wednesday, will remain on the Council.  She is not seeking a third two year term.  Mr. Lippman presented the mayor with a plaque with a mounted gavel in commemoration of her service.

Councilmen Dave Snyder, Lawrence Webb, and Nader Baroukh each in turn paid tribute to their colleagues.  Mr. Maller was praised for his legal accumen, Mr. Sze for his attention to envirnomental issues, and Mr. Lippman for his personal courage in going on civilian missions to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Mayor Dan Gardner, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sally Cole, Planning Commissioner Lindy Hockenberry, and businessman Paul Quinn also expressed their thanks to the councilmen. 

Mr. Gardner conveyed the appreciation of the Citizens for a Better City, which supported each of their candidacies in 2006.  Ms. Cole saluted their efforts to spur development, citing the many projects built or approved and the new businesses that have opened during their term.  Ms. Hockenberry praised their outstanding dedication to the City and phenomenal work ethic.  Mr. Quinn noted that the time and energy the members had put in could never adequately be repaid and asked them to extend his thanks to their families. 

In the business portion of the meeting the Council voted unanimously to raise the GEORGE bus fare to $1.50, effective July 1, an increase in line with Arlington County fares.  Currently, the bus system is funded only through September.   Councilman Maller asked City Attorney John Foster to determine if it were legally possible to sell annual passes to GEORGE, theorizing that $60,000 in funds could be raised if 100 riders were willing to pay $600 per year.

Almost 500 Burritos Sold @ Chipotle Fundraiser

By FALLS CHURCH CITY COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE

June 29, 2010

The evening before its grand opening, Chipotle opened its doors to anyone who wanted to donate $5 to the City of Falls Church Special Events fund in exchange for a burrito, chips, and soft drink.  Thursday night, the Chipotle fundraiser raised $2,460 for such special events as the Easter Egg Hunt and Halloween Carnival. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Photo provided by the City of Falls Church Communications Office.

MAN ABOUT TOWN: Commenting on the Comments

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Columnist

June 28, 2010

Now that the Falls Church Times is two years old, we realize that our most popular and successful feature was an afterthought. The part of this online newspaper that gets the most attention is the comments section. As I write this, we’ve published 3,730 comments, not including all the spam that is automatically deleted. Appropriately, comment #3730 is by Andy Rankin, our most active commenter. (Indeed, comment #3729 is also by Andy.) Andy has his own website, but he prefers to express his thoughts in the Falls Church Times, which is a great compliment to the newspaper.

I think the reason the comments are so popular is because they provide the best measure available of the pulse of the City. Granted, a small coterie of writers posts most of the comments, but these include many of the movers and shakers in the City. And you can be sure that all the big cheeses in the City read the comments.

How did the little Falls Church Times become the place to read the thoughts of the city? Two reasons, in my opinion. First, unlike so many electronic media, we’ve been fairly successful in getting people to use their own names. And second, because we’ve always limited our scope to news of our Little City, there’s a good chance that someone reading a comment actually knows the writer. That wouldn’t be the case in a large publication like the Washington Post, for example.

Two years ago when we started out we got little in the way of comments. Our very first didn’t come until August 6, 2008, and it was by our webmaster, Dave Witzel, who wrote:

I wish I’d known this before I had to go renew my (overdue) license tags.

That was in reaction to a story about the City’s DMV NOW service run by Tom Clinton.

After Dave broke the ice, we received several comments on City Council’s appointment of Lindy Hockenberry to the Planning Commission immediately after she lost her City Council seat. The City Code states: No member of the council shall during the term for which he was elected and one year thereafter be appointed to any office of profit under the government of the city.

Planning Commission members receive a stipend which Hockenberry declined to accept, so the City Attorney advised that her appointment was allowable. Some commenters disagreed. “Telecomlawyer” wrote: In addition to opening the door to cries of cronyism, this could taint the legitimacy of the Planning Commission’s decisions.

This was before we began stressing use of real names. Today, an anonymous comment impugning the integrity of City Council members would be deleted.

As I write this, the staff is assessing whether to allow any anonymous comments. I think we shouldn’t, but I recognize it would be hard to enforce. People can make up a name, and how would we know? For example, “Winston Smith” was an occasional commenter in our early days – a name straight from Orwell’s 1984. After we made it clear that we wanted real names, he dropped the alias. And indeed, most people adhere to our policy. Read more

OPINION: Should Voters Elect the Mayor?

By GEORGE BROMLEY
Falls Church Times Staff

June 27, 2010

Last month the City of Falls Church held a municipal election.  Turnout was 24%.  Next month it will hold another election.  The turnout will be 100%, but only seven people will be voting.

On July 1, as is required every two years, the City Council will choose one of its members as mayor and another as vice mayor.  The mayor will chair the many meetings and work sessions held during the coming term and represent the City at various public functions.  The vice mayor will perform these duties in the mayor’s absence.

The selection process often requires the Council members to play a game of “Let’s Make a Deal” in order for one of them to secure the required four or more votes to achieve election.  Some critics, including at least one member of the current Council, have suggested that election of the mayor might better be left to the City’s voters.  Indeed, it seems inconsistent to continue the practice of a Council-selected mayor after municipal elections were recently moved from May to November, specifically to give voice to more voters.  If having a greater turnout regarding Council membership is so important, why is it less important for the selection of mayor?

The counter-arguments are that those serving are best qualified to choose their chairman and deputy and that some deal making is an inherent part of the legislative process.  However, deals made in connection with these choices may obligate members to subsequently cast some of their votes more on the basis of loyalty than on principle.   There also is the possibility of the Council becoming less collegial and falling into two distinct blocs, based on the division in the mayoral vote.

Some suggest that the mayor should be the candidate receiving the most votes in the last election.  That is a flawed system, however.  First, it would never be clear if the voters wanted a candidate to be Mayor rather than just a member of the Council.  Moreover, it would always exclude the three or four Council members who were not candidates in the last election due to staggered member terms.

Removing the mayoral election from the Council and trusting the choice to voters clearly would elevate the office.   It also would be more democratic and probably would increase election turnout.  As for the vice mayor, the other six Council members could rotate through the position in order of seniority, each serving four months during the 24 month term. 

Such changes would require amending the City’s Charter.  While the Council has the authority to take such action, the final decision in the matter should be left to voters via a referendum.  Clearly, that is not possible for this year’s mayoral selection, and in that regard we urge the seven members of the Council to choose a person with the vision to lead us forward.  But in subsequent elections, the voters should have the opportunity to decide whose vision they prefer.

The views expressed in OPINION columns are those of their authors.  They do not necessarily reflect the views of other Falls Church Times staff members or of the paper as a whole.

CITY MEETINGS: June 28 – July 2

Monday 6/28:   City Council.  Council Chamber, 7:30 pm.  Agenda and Documents.   

Tuesday 6/29:  No meetings scheduled.

Wednesday 6/30:  No meetings scheduled.  

Thursday 7/1:   School Board Organizational Meeting.  Council Chamber, 7:00 am.

City Council Induction.  Council Chamber, 7:30 pm.

Climate Change Task Force.   Training Room, 7:30 pm.  

Friday 7/2:  No meetings scheduled.

Meeting notices are obtained from the City and School Board on-line calendars and from the notice board at the east entrance of City Hall.  Meetings may be subject to re-scheduling or cancellation.

FOOD: Making Your Difference

By KATHY WASHA
Falls Church Times Staff

June 25, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about how my family can realistically reduce our carbon footprint.  It all started a couple of months ago—right before Earth Day—when I saw the movie “No Impact Man.” It was about a Manhattan family who decided that, for one year, they were going to try and live a life with no environmental impact on the earth.

Besides going electricity-free, eschewing any purchases with even the simplest packaging, and using transportation based only on how far their legs (scooter or bike) could take them, they did all sorts of offbeat and interesting things.  From composting inside their 9^th-floor apartment (oh, the flies!) to using a Nigerian method of refrigeration consisting of two clay pots, some sand and some water (the results were – shall we say – disappointing), this family of three gradually transforms their high-end 21^st century consumer-oriented you-want-it-you-buy-it lifestyle to a much simpler way of life.

For me, the most interesting part of the movie was watching what the family ate. This family decided that their food intake would be limited to organic food found at their local farmer’s market or community garden—largely because they knew it had been grown within 250 miles of where they lived, and would minimize their carbon footprint. (Carbon footprint is the oft-used measure of the environmental impact of what we consume and how we live.)

Over the course of 90 minutes, my movie companion and I watched as they shopped for, prepared and then ate a series of meals consisting of spinach omelets and endless variations of sautéed root vegetables and greens, all because that’s what was available to them locally and in season. I thought it was a noble and interesting idea until I realized that for the year, there was to be no coffee, no olive oil and (presumably) no lemons for this family.

I admit to thinking several times during the film that the Beavans’ approach was a bit extreme.

But it did make me wonder if it was really possible for one family to become “complete locavores” for a year. After all, it’s one thing to eat locally in the peak of summer when produce is plentiful and varied and the chickens are laying more eggs.  It’s another thing to do it year round. And as I admitted in my May 20th column, I’d find it hard to only eat strawberries during the Virginia strawberry season.

Beyond eating locally, there’s a lot we can do to minimize our impact on the earth, as the Beavans demonstrated. Curious about my own family’s carbon footprint, I found the easy-to-use Nature Conservancy carbon footprint calculator at their website http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/.   (A kid friendly calculator can be found at: http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx)

Using their questions as your guide, you can find other ways to reduce your carbon footprint besides eating locally.  Living in energy-efficient homes sized right for our families is one way.  Of course efficiently managing our resources (like water and energy) and our waste are other ways.  While no one can be expected to do all of the things this family did in the movie, aren’t most of us trying to do at least some of it? 

So here’s what I found out about my family:

My family’s carbon footprint:  90
US Average for a family of 5: 130
World Average for a family of 5: 28

While we were better than the average American family of five, we had a ways to go globally. 

The results underscore that these are complex issues with imperfect calculations that don’t easily resolve themselves with an online survey.  But the Nature Conservancy questionnaire pointed out ways we could reduce our carbon footprint even more. 

So our family will keep trying to be better citizens of the Earth.  And I guarantee our strategy will include walking through the City’s farmer’s market, taking advantage of the abundance of each of the stalls and the variety of the products, from honey and wine and coffee to hand-crafted breads and cheeses, to the seemingly limitless varieties of produce.

What about you?  I challenge you to take the survey, figure out your carbon footprint, and make your difference.

Calling All Shutterbugs:
FCC-TV Announces Student Video and Photo Contest

Special to the Falls Church Times

June 25, 2010

What better way for students to spend summer break than to tap into their creative talent and vie for a cash prize? Students with a still or video camera can do just that and compete for one of two, $250 Bob Morrison Prizes. This first annual contest was created by the TV station’s Cable Access Board in memory of longtime board member Bob Morrison.

To read more details about the awards and entry requirements, click here.

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