As 2024 was ushered in with a friendly and copacetic New Year’s Eve Watch Night event Sunday night in the heart of Falls Church, 2023 has been considered a banner year for The Little City, with even more to be expected on the same line in 2024. This doesn’t count what may happen in the nation and world this coming year, which may be far more distressing, but here, at least, looks good.

One of the premiere indicators of our city’s strength was the report released last week by the Smart Assets financial advisory firm which showed that the City of Falls Church ranks No. 1 among jurisdictions in the entire commonwealth for growth in income of its citizens in the last 10 years. This is most reflected in numbers showing a $360,152 median home value “raw growth” in that period, far ahead of the next highest $257,164 for Loudoun County, $245,817 for Fauquier County and $239,031 for Arlington (see story elsewhere this edition).

In Falls Church’s case, this comes as real estate taxpayers have also enjoyed a 13-cent (per $100 of assessed valuation) tax cut in the last couple years.

We are obligated to remind the beneficiaries of all this of the role your local newspaper, the mighty Falls Church News-Press, has played in your prosperity, as affirmed in the remarks of City Councilman Phil Duncan. As reported in our edition of Dec. 21, Duncan was quoted speaking at the December luncheon of the F.C. Chamber of Commerce noting how economic development in the City was “kick started” beginning with “the News-Press’ drumbeat editorial emphasis on the need for economic development to pay for the schools” that began with the founding of the paper in the early 1990s.

This was affirmed by prominent local developer Bob Young, chair of the City’s Economic Development Authority, who was quoted on the subject of our paper’s role in “the central Falls Church question of revenue-producing real estate development” saying, “Nick (Benton, News-Press founder and owner) role was pretty seminal. He very consistently backed responsible development.” That quote comes from the 2023 book, “Life and Times of the Falls Church News-Press” by the late Charlie Clark.

So over our 33 years, the News-Press has and continues to champion the kind of revenue producing real estate development that has not only funded a premiere school system in the nation but local retail growth and robust growth in residential real estate values that has put Falls Church at the top of the list in the entire commonwealth of Virginia.

We say these things not to toot our own horn, but to remind our readers that the service we have provided, a free community newspaper distributed to every household in Falls Church unfailingly for 33 years, is something that is going to require more community support if it is to continue in this national environment that is so hostile now to print media.