The county board room was packed, noisy and vibrant with colored protest signs on Saturday, June 11, during the routine early morning public speakers time slot. Opponents of the pending Missing Middle Housing initiative, under a strategy from Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future and the Arlington Tree Action Group, had chosen this day to make “our voices count,” as one placard read. Several dozen showed up even though the ongoing study of whether to loosen the zoning code to permit more-reasonably priced multi-family houses was not on the immediate agenda.

There is little doubt now that the City of Falls Church, our tiny 2.3 square miles, has to be considered one of the most desirable places to live anywhere. The newest study, reported on Page One of this edition, released jointly by CVS and the U.S. News and World Report, finds the Little City to be just about the very best place around to live.

I typically focus my June column on the bills that passed during the most recent General Assembly Session, since the laws we pass during our regular session are effective on July 1st and July 1st is the first day of the fiscal year, the date on which the new budget becomes effective. This year we are running a little bit behind. We finished the regular session in March without a budget, forcing the new Governor to call us back for a Special Session on April 4th.

Another tragic vehicle/pedestrian crash, this time near Oakton High School in the Providence District, killed two teen-aged girls walking home from school, and sent another to the hospital with serious injuries. The teen driver and a passenger from the striking car also were injured; two other passengers in that car ran from the scene, but later were identified by police.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar this spring, is the only concrete suggestion for action to preserve local newspapers going forward offered in the wake of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” report on the dying local newspaper industry last weekend.