Behold, there are 42 colorful, handsome and artsy new direction-giving signs that have gone up around the City of Falls Church this week, the culmination of a three-year effort by the City’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) to add important public information and spruce the Little City up with a uniform look to improve its image.

In a call with Virginia regional media today, Virginia U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Putin’s threat of cyberwarfare factors adding to his invasion of Ukraine could lead to an escalation that may advance beyond a level even he, as a cyber expert in the U.S. Senate, can predict. When it comes to “cyber escalation,” he said, “I don’t know what that looks like.”

City of Falls Church leaders will hold a public workshop on Saturday, March 26 at 9:30 a.m. in the Meridian High School Library on racial and social equity issues. Registration is required on the City’s website.

WMATA announced this week that 748 residential units will soon be built near New Carrollton and College Park Metro rail stations, which will offer modern, transit-oriented housing at below-market rates.

The City of Falls Church Economic Development office has opened applications for $5,000 grants to help eligible small businesses and non-profits, using the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds provided by the federal government for Covid-19 related expenses.

Falls Church’s venerable Citizens for a Better City (CBC) civic organization announced this week that it is launching the application process for its ninth year of sponsoring Falls Church City youth representatives on City boards, commissions and civic groups. The Youth Representatives Initiative was started by CBC in 2014 in an effort to involve the City’s youth in local government, support boards and commissions and promote civic leadership development.

Falls Church’s four-term mayor David Tarter was right on time with a highly-upbeat summary of how things are going in the City delivered to the first in-person monthly meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, as it preceded by a day the shocking announcement of a double-digit single year increase in residential real estate assessments (see story, elsewhere this issue).

The total taxable assessed value for all properties in the City of Falls Church, as of January 1, 2022, is $5,093,848,600, the highest in City history and an overall increase of 11.42 percent from January 1, 2021, according to a report issued from City Hall yesterday.

The City of Falls Church announced new real estate assessment numbers today, and the totals are shocking. The City release states that the total taxable assessed value for all properties in the City of Falls Church, as of January 1, 2022, is $5,093,848,600, an overall increase of 11.42 percent from January 1, 2021, primarily resulting from extraordinary increases in sales prices of residential real estate in the city last year. Assessment notices will be mailed to property owners by March 25. Updated assessment information will be posted on the City website by Monday, March 21.

The organization of Virginia’s 133 school superintendents issued a letter to Gov. Youngkin’s office today assailing decisions the governor made contained in his Executive Order 1 on key issues of public education, including against a 30-day report on the impact of the order issued to the governor’s office pertaining to the impact of the policies.