One Loudoun celebrated its groundbreaking July 24.
One Loudoun Downtown, LLC, a joint venture of Miller and Smith and NORTH AMERICA SEKISUI HOUSE, together with civic and community leaders, and business representatives, today broke ground on Phase One of the new Downtown One Loudoun, a mixed-use development located within One Loudoun, a 358–acre master-planned community in Loudoun.
Phase One of Downtown One Loudoun features 210,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space including an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema scheduled to open 2013. The project is actively leasing with plans for an array of high-quality restaurants, a boutique grocer, health club, upscale shops, and offices encircling a vibrant public
plaza. More than 100,000 square feet of mixed-use space will be LEED certified. Phase Two will follow with a hotel, additional shops and offices, luxury townhomes and
multifamily residences. When complete, Downtown One Loudoun will encompass approximately one million square feet of mixed-use development.
“Downtown One Loudoun will become “the” new economic focal point for commerce in Loudoun County with a dense pedestrian-oriented mix of uses and public amenities. We have designed the downtown area with every detail in mind with superior architecture and advanced urban design principles. We are creating a unique environment that seamlessly integrates quality of life with an outstanding retail and business environment,” said Bill May, Vice President, Miller and Smith.
How does a small town graduate itself into a destination? By hosting a wine and food festival.
“We wanted this to be something Purcellville can be known for,” said Jeff Sheehan, the finance manager at Purcellville’s Magnolia’s at the Mill restaurant. “Purcellville is a little off the beaten path and we wanted to make sure people know we’re here.”
By hosting its first Wine and Food Festival July 21, the town will showcase seven local wineries, four Purcellville restaurants and a host of local musicians. The outdoor event is the brainchild of Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro and will shut down the historic downtown area on 21st Street from 4-9 p.m. Admission is free and the event is rain or shine.
Lazaro said the festival is an extension of the popular winter event, the Loudoun Grown Expo, which this year saw 2,000 attendees. He said he hopes the festival will showcase the thriving downtown that is home to multiple small businesses. Sheehan, who helped organize the event, echoed Lazaro’s sentiment saying that the festival will be a great way for the town to publicize its eclectic mix of shops.
The participating wineries include 8 Chains North Winery & Vineyard, Fabbioli Cellars, Bogati Bodega & Vineyard, North Gate Vineyard, Otium Cellars, Twin Oaks Tavern Winery and Sunset Hills Vineyard. Magnolia’s at the Mill, Anthony’s, Lothar’s Sausages and Boodacades BBQ restaurant will vend the event. Local musicians will include Acoustic Burgoo, The Polka Dots, Andros, Andrew McKnight, Mark Cullinane and Michael & Paige. For more information, visit Purcellvillewineandfood.com.
For nearly a decade, Verizon told its costumers, “we never stop working for you.” But this week, 45,000 of its employees have done so.
Caroline Greenfield and other members of the Communications Workers of America union are on strike against Verizon who is asking the workers to make compensation concessions.
Contract negotiations between the telecommunications giant and two groups representing the unionized Verizon employees, Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, fell through Aug. 7, resulting in a strike of Verizon union workers up and down the East Coast.
From Massachusetts to Virginia, workers are donning red shirts and carting placards reading, “CWA On Strike For Middle Class Jobs,” in front of Verizon stores, including its campus in Ashburn.
The workers are striking because Verizon is preparing to make wide-spread wage cuts and to increase the amount employees contribute to their health care plans and pensions, among other things.
Leesburg resident Steffan Ahalt has worked for Verizon for more than 10 years. He said he sometimes works seven days a week for the company that now wants to eliminate several of his paid holidays and sick days.
He estimates that Verizon’s new health care proposal would result in him having to meet a $7,500 annual deductible in order to provide health insurance for his family.
The concessions Verizon is currently proposing translates to a $20,000 decrease in benefits, said another Verizon worker and fellow striker, George. George wished to be identified only by his first name.
The strike only affects the company’s wireline division, which includes FIOS, its television and Internet services. Verizon’s wireless division is not, and never was, unionized.
Ahalt said he’s most frustrated that Verizon won’t meet CWA at the negotiation table. CWA represents nearly 35,000 of the workers and IBEW represents the remaining 10,000 employees. Ahalt and three other men will walk back and forth in front of Verizon’s Market Street location until CWA and Verizon can reach an agreement, they said. Their red shirts are emblazoned with cobra snakes alongside an inscription, “Will strike if provoked.”
But neither Ahalt, George nor “Faye,” who is striking with nearly 10 other workers in front of Verizon’s Ashburn campus, want to be on strike.
“With the economy the way it is, I’d rather be working,” Ahalt said. CWA pays the workers $120 per week to strike while negotiations ensue. Negotiations could continue for days, weeks or months.
George insists that if the union worker’s wages drop, so will the wages of Verizon’s contract workers.
“This is a fight for middle-class jobs in the U.S.,” he said.
Faye, who also did not wish to be named, echoed his sentiments saying that if Verizon wins, its workers – union and non-union– will suffer, and that worker’s winter holiday packages will be severance packages.
“They’re taking everything back that we’ve earned over the years,” she said.
Faye was joined by Caroline Greenfield, and the two women blocked the entrance into Verizon’s Ashburn campus Sept. 8 asking, “Do you really want to cross a picket line?”
Faye has been with Verizon for 10 years and Greenfield for nearly 30 years. Greenfield marched in front of the entrance waving at the cars who occasionally honked their horns in support of the union workers.
“They’re literally selling us off piece by piece,” Faye said.
The union workers are perplexed that Verizon, a company that is currently profitable and has a former chief executive officer, Ivan Seidenberg, who made the Forbes list of top CEO compensations at $37 million, is asking its workers to make concessions on their compensations.
Waving at the copper electrical lines above, Ahalt said Verizon has already paid for its infrastructure work throughout Loudoun, as its FIOS plan is completely built out. The company is now accruing profit on that initiative, he said.
“For someone who’s making billions of dollars a year, we just want [our wages] to stay the same,” he said.
The Capital Skyline Hotel hosts pool parties each weekend during the summer.
This is a shot I took when I visited yesterday with friends. The hotel is
decades-old: The exterior facade rings true of the 1960s, but I can’t be
certain, as the hotel’s website unfortunately gives no history of the building.
The ppol parties are adult-focused, there are go-go dancers, large speakers
booming out house music and at least three full-service bars that I counted. I
wouldn’t advice bringing your young children, although I did see some there
amongst the European-style shortie shorts and Brazilian-cut bikinis.
Having sworn off dessert for the time being, I’ve rekindled my love of baking
just to torture myself. Thankfully, eager eaters await at home and at work. I
made these apple strudel muffins using a Duncan Hines mix. It takes two eggs, a
half cup of water and a quarter cup of oil. You mix them all together before
adding the apple bits in cinnamon sauce. Next, dish them out into the muffin
tins. Once they’re filled, you sprinkle the oats on top. Mmmm.
My mom just dropped off these juicy tomatos of all shapes and sizes. I just
love the yellows, oranges and reds together—it’s what makes eating summer
vegetables such a sparkling experience. She’s also spent the last few weekends
pickling jars of beets—can’t wait to dig into them.
And, just because I can, I’ve added a picture of my shoes today.
I’ve been a little ambitious today as I’ve taken not one, but four photos
chronicling my day.
I had the pleasure of sitting in on a staff meeting at the accounting firm of
Updegrove, Combs & McDaniels in Leesburg. The managing
partner, Dave Updegrove, and I share a common great-great-2x removed
grandfather — such a small world.
Dave Updegrove behind his desk.
Later, when it was coffee time, Laura and I walked
to Shoes Cup and Cork Coffee. It was closed due to a power outage and we shed a tear.
Ever the caffeine addicts, we walked three blocks to King Street Coffee,
where I noted the gorgeous tea containers.
Tea - not strong enough to cure that two o’clock feeling, but beautiful to look upon. I purchased a delicious sugar-free vanilla latte.
Times-Mirror Staff Reporter Laura Peters goes “woo ooh, woo ooh.” Photo by Hannah Hager
Our fearless and over-zealous leader, John Geddie, has propostioned the
newsroom with a 30-day challenge. For some reason, he believes we all need to
change for the better. After a few days of pondering what I would do, I decided
not to give up any of my vices—this isn’t Lent. Besides, I already exercise
daily and have sworn off alcohol and chocolate. If I gave up my other iniquity,
caffeine, my coworkers would receive the brunt of the pain.
So, photography it is. I’ve always looked upon photographers as
untouchables—possessing an impalable skill that did not belong to me. This was
further substantiated when I learned that photography entails a lot of math. All
I know is the rule of thirds. If you cut a picture into three vertical parts, it
is more interesting if the subject matter is situated within either the left or
the right one-third of the frame.
As a writer, I have also felt a sort of aversion to photography, choosing to
paint the scene of a story with my words. A story is worth a thousand pictures,
if you will. It’s time to stop making excuses.
I will be posting a picture to my blog every day until Sept. 1. My inaugural
picture is of Times-Mirror Staff Reporter Laura Peters doing the “owl meme” on
our conference room table. Behind her beckon the Times-Mirror’s 50+ years of
archives. Owling is a new trend going around the Internet (ie. Facebook) of
people perching on various home and office furniture in the same way an owl
would. This meme was preceded by the “planking meme,” but that was so two months
ago.
Twinkle, twinkle crooked toes
And, here is a picture of my Nine West shoes for added measure.
Curling up with an electronic reader on a rainy day may be the way of the future, as big-box bookstore Borders will soon close its doors.
Hundreds of people trekked to the book retailer in Sterling as “Going out of business” and “Everything must go” signs blared from its shop windows. A liquidation sale continues to draw bookworms of all ages – the check-out queue stretched to the far end of the store July 22, as residents aim to fill their home libraries with collections of paper and hardbacks that will surely be harder to come by in the future.
Borders in Sterling had a steady stream of customers and lines extending toward the back of the store July 22.
“This is ridiculous, I almost feel bad about buying books just because you’re supporting a business going out of business,” said Alexandria resident Clint Greenlee.
Greenlee said he doesn’t like the idea of people being even more dependent than they already are on electronics to purchase music, videos and books.
Despite the advent of electronic readers, 16-year-old Herndon resident Jessica Wharton echoed Greenlee’s sentiments, saying she is “the type of person that likes to flip through my books and see what’s in it before I buy it.”
“I read a lot on the computer, so I’ve been thinking a lot about getting an e-reader,” she said. “But if I have something I’m going to carry around with me, I’d rather have the book.”
Some believe the fall of Borders at the hands of e-readers may be an unceremonious harbinger to the demise of the printed word.
Sterling resident Bob Phillips said his dentist advised him to visit Borders’ closing sale because in the future everyone will be reading electronic books.
“Not me, I’m not going to read electronic books,” Phillips said. “I think they should find some way to stay in business.”
Borders filed for bankruptcy protection in February as it tried to reposition itself as a smaller company, announcing that it would close 30 percent of its stores that month. Last week, the company said it faced too many competitors in the online marketplace and was unable to repay its debts, announcing that it will close all of its 399 stores nationwide by September. Borders has two stores in Loudoun – the Sterling location employs eight people and a Borders Express at the Dulles Town Center employs 10 people.
Tanya Bittenbender, the executive director for the Loudoun Literacy Council, said the organization is benefiting from Borders’ closure – they’ve already received 34 donated boxes of books from the retailer.
Still, residents will lose a space to share in the joy of reading books, Bittenbender said.
“It’s about creating a culture that is focused on pulling people together and reading the written word,” she said.
Public libraries are stepping up to fill the hole in reading programs where Borders will leave off, she said, but Loudoun’s access to bookstores and good books stores will diminish. Books-A-Million will be the sole big-box retailer in Loudoun when it opens an expanded store later this year at the Village at Leesburg.
“There’s just something to be said for picking up a paper-bound book and holding it in your hand, and it’s war torn after you’ve taken it out,” she said. “[Readers] empower themselves through the written word and that’s what will be missing.”
This article was first published by Hannah Hager on LoudounTimes.com.
Hannah Hager 