It is a matter of no mean significance that the mayor of the city ranked No. 1 in the entire U.S. for the “healthiness” it provides its citizens – that is to say Mayor Letty Hardi speaking about her City of Falls Church – includes in an essay published in the U.S. News and World Report, authors of the survey, as a contributing factor to the overall achievements of the Little City the fact that it has a local newspaper, such as is the “backbone of a strong democracy,” in her words. The reference, of course, is to us, your Falls Church News-Press, in its 33rd year of consecutive weekly publication and delivery to every household in the City. Sadly, so many other communities have lost theirs.
The mayor’s full quote is as follows: in an era of “bitterly fractured politics, a loneliness epidemic and too much time spent behind screens, I’d like to think that Falls Church is bucking the trend: We are a community of joiners, with strong civic engagement, a local newspaper (the backbone of a strong democracy) and consistently high voter turnout.”
Mayor Hardi added her glowing assessment of the City overall: “If Falls Church sounds too good to be true, know that I pinch myself regularly that I have the immense privilege to serve, live, work and raise a family in this small oasis in Northern Virginia.” These remarks were written for delivery to a wide, international and national audience.
It is true that Falls Church is a wonderful place, something that the News-Press and many others have contributed to, and while the cost of housing here, in particular, is ridiculously high (the average single family home is now at $1.2 million), the local government acknowledges that among its key challenges is the pressing need to both maintain and provide for much more affordable housing.
Under Mayor Hardi’s leadership, the City Council has begun the process of adjustments in its local laws to encourage single family home owners here to consider bringing affordable “accessory dwellings” onto their properties. Already two well attended public forums have been held, and the City Planning Commission was slated to take a first crack at the subject at its meeting this week.
What a welcome addition to the City’s housing stock such “accessory dwellings” (ADs for short) will be! They will make it possible for all sorts of folks to live and thrive in the Little City, including seniors who want to “age in place” here and can either affordably rent an AD, or put one in their own backyard and move into it, renting out their main dwelling. But it will do much more, as well, providing for City employees who now cannot afford to live here, and young people who maybe grew up here, but just out of college or even later, have not been able to accumulate the resources to buy a regular home, or simply don’t want to.
