Firearm-Friendly Midscale Chain Eatery Closes: Only in Reston, Virginia Would This Headline Make Sense

Like all Restonians, gun enthusiasts love their midscale chain dining, too. So the news this morning of the abrupt closing of Plaza America chain eatery Chammps Americana, long-known as a sports bar where folks who pack heat and enjoy watching the Heat (see what we did there?) could enjoy both their passions, must have been especially disappointing.

You see, in its glory days (not those Glory Days), Chammps was known as a welcoming home for (legal) gun toters:

The patrons at Champps, an upscale restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when [a] customer stood up and made an announcement: He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols and revolvers. [He] said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for their attention and sat down.

And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

Check please!

No word yet on whether the gun-toting patrons have since moved on to other midscale chain Reston watering holes. After all, they'd probably get less of a hassle at Reston Town Center with their sidearm than a camera, the end.

Yet Another Fancy "Web Site": RestonNow Launches

There's a new news "web news web site" in town, but it's run by a familiar face. Former Reston Patch editor/BFF Karen Goff is now editor/BFF of RestonNow.com, a sister site of the legitimately awesome Arlington-focused ArlNow site, where they know from transit-oriented development and midscale chain eateries. That's good news for anyone who cares about local news, or about midscale chain eateries -- and in Reston's case, they're often one and the same.

Meanwhile, our currently BFF-less Patch is chugging along, although most of its recent posts have centered around what those of us not in the "experienced journalist" biz like to call "servicey" features about carving pumpkins and whatnot. Not that we have any issues with carving pumpkins, but it would be nice if they included "That Won't Get Cited by the DRB For Being The Wrong Shade of Orange" at the end of the headline to "localize" the servicey content a bit, as those of us not in the "experienced journalist" biz like to say.

A note at the bottom of a letter on the Patch site today says that "Patch is in the hiring process for a new Reston editor," which we hope means we'll have another BFF there soon. The more voices out there to give lazy "web loggers" fodder for their self-indulgent blatherings keep folks honest, the better off we'll all be.

RCA Gives Reston Master Plan Draft a Solid "D," Plans to Oppose It

After attempting to play nice working for some time -- at first quietly, and then less so -- to address what it sees as deficiencies in the Reston Comprehensive Plan that's been developed over several years by the Reston Master Plan Task Force With an Incomprehensible Acronym (¶), the Reston Citizens Association has now opted to formally oppose the draft as it now stands.

In a meeting last might, the RCA's board approved a resolution, replete with the term "whereas," in which it asks the task force to "redress the major shortcomings" in the current plan and said it will vote against endorsing the current draft.

The RCA's basic concerns haven't changed: that the draft doesn't really address our looming transportation gridlock issues, require adequate parks and recreation facilities and other boring stuff like, whazzitcalled, "infrastructure," and offers too much "flexibility" to developers.

This decision comes after the RCA's Reston 2020 Committee drafted a fancy report card for the draft, giving it a solid "D."

Since we're well-known for our positive, supportive analysis, we'll start with the areas where R2020 says the plan does well: the "Overview," which gets a B (for being "generally consistent with Bob Simon's original vision and planning principles" and maybe for using proper margins?) and "Environmental Stewardship," which gets a B ("generally comprehensive" and maybe "used spellcheck"?) "Public Facilities" gets a solid C, though it's marked down for calling for a second elementary school near Dogwood Elementary, not where all the sweet bollardy growth around Wiehle Avenue will actually happen. Everything else gets a D, except for "Urban Parks, Recreation and Culture," which gets a big, fat F. Check it, as the kids haven't said for years:

Why the big push now? The draft is nearing completion, and the problem is that once it's approved, the it will move from the (relatively) friendly confines of the Task Force to the county planning commission, which doesn't exactly have the best track record of acknowledging local concerns -- or even the recommendations of its own planning staff. It's not clear if the RA and ARCH, which recently joined forces with the RCA on master plan issues, will take an equally strong stance, but they probably should chime in before it's too late.

ZOMG Hawt Celebrity Sighting in Reston

In our endless quest to grab some of that sweet sweet organic search cash money, we looked at the exciting entertainment news coming out of downtown this weekend and decided it was high time to find some hawt entertainment news from our own beloved planned community. Fortunately for us, our BFFs at the Connection were on the scene at a blistering-hot red appropriately earth-toned with flecks of red carpet ceremony downtown in the Fake Downtown, as part of the Washington West Film Festival. The voice of the curmudgeon from Up? It doesn't get hawtter than that!

Just to be safe, we've hard-coded "Lou Grant sideboob" into the meta tags of this post approximately 42 times. We'll just be waiting for those ad dollars to roll in, the end.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old (Interim) Boss: Fulkerson Named RA CEO; Higgins Appointed to Board

In a press release entitled "Reinvesting in Reston starts at the top," interim Reston Association CEO Cate Fulkerson lost the "Interim" part of her title last night, as the RA Board named her the head of the association. She'd been serving in the interim role since the departure of former CEO Milton Matthews earlier this year.

Give us some good blockquote, Press Release with a Vaguely Soviet Title:

“We are thrilled to have Cate assume the role as CEO,” said Ken Knueven, President of the RA Board of Directors. “She brings with her the combination of institutional history and commitment as well as the innovative thinking and creative energy we need to ensure the future success of Reston. She epitomizes the mission of RA, which is to preserve and enhance the Reston community through outstanding leadership, service and stewardship of our resources. We couldn’t ask for a better representative to lead RA.”

Fulkerson has worked with the Reston Association since 1991, when she was hired as a tennis program assistant. In the release, she said that she looks forward to "working with the board and staff to proactively represent and engage the community and Fairfax County during a period of vibrant growth and change, preparing Reston for the next fifty years.”

The RA Board also appointed former board member John Higgins, described in another press release as a "Reston Association expert," to complete the term of Donna Rostant, who resigned in September. He was one of seven applicants who expressed interest in the position. Do we have some good blockquote on that, RA press release?

“While we were fortunate to have so many qualified and interested candidates apply for this seat, we believe the continuity and history that comes with John Higgins is exactly what is needed for Reston and the Reston Association Board of Directors,” said President Ken Knueven.

Vaguely Soviet undertones aside, at a time where the RA has a lot on its plate, we're happy to see a little continuity in leadership as well, lest we fall behind on beet production for the next five-year plan the things that must be addressed now.

Let's Make a Deal: Reston Association Considering Swapping 'Vagrant Restroom' As Part of Lake Anne Redevelopment (Updated)

If you've ever stumbled across -- or over -- one of those shin-height concrete posts with the little "R" on it, you know that the Reston Association guards its common property as jealously as a Pantone book of pink color swatches. They even have a fancy brochure, complete with 14 helpful rules, each with multiple bullet points ("13a. Members interested in performing Geocaching must notify the Association of all cache sites.") But now, as part of the generally awesome proposal to redevelop Crescent Apartments, the RA is proposing swapping a wooded piece of its common property along North Shore Drive so that Republic Land Development, or "Lake Anne Development Partners," as the cool kids like to call it, can build a fancy public parking garage for Lake Anne Village Center. In return, the RA gets two teensy tiny strips of land along Baron Cameron Avenue that it will maintain as a buffer between the new mixed-use hawtness and the proles sitting in traffic on Baron Cameron.

Let's make a deal:

It is the intent of both [Lake Anne Development Partners] and RA that the use of the property be limited to the construction of a parking facility available to the general public to accommodate the needs of the current and future businesses at Lake Anne Village Center and include environmental enhancements as well as bicycle parking and storage. None of the parking on this property is being built to satisfy private residential uses anticipated as part of the proposed redevelopment. LADP is also exploring the option of providing a partially subsidized public or commercial bike-sharing facility within the RA property.

Well then. Are there any enticements to, as we land use experts and filthy "web loggers" like to say, "sweeten the deal?"

LADP would ensure the property is cleared of invasive plants and cleaned of its current debris and waste, as well as replanted to encourage reforestation of native species.

JACKPOT. Suck on that, invasive plants.

Actually, the overall proposal includes nearly a half-million dollars in proffers from the developer, including landscaping, connecting pathways, public art (hopefully not triffid-intensive), and footing the bill for a variety of capital projects, including parks, tennis court maintenance, a tot lot, and the dredging of Lake Anne (eeew). Which is great, but really the kind of proffer any big development should include as a matter of course.

Of course, this has become controversial. On Patch, people have called the RA property to be traded away everything from a magnificent collection of "old, high value trees" to a "a place where vagrants hang out and drink, sleep, and use as a restroom." Others question why RA is being put on the hook to maintain a buffer between the residential property and Baron Cameron into perpetuity. Our Facebook BFFs at Lake Anne Plaza are urging people to email their RA representative to tell them to support the project, calling the garage critical to the success of Lake Anne Plaza, which, yeah, it probably is.

RA will be holding a public hearing at 7pm this Thursday to consider the proposal. Ceding common space is rarely a good idea, but in this case, the sheer value of the overall project makes us wonder if the deal just might be worthwhile. After all, what exactly's behind Door Number 2?

Update: The RA Board postponed its decision on the land swap until Nov. 21. You can provide feedback by phone or email; see details at the link.

The Jetsons Meet the Restonians: Our Latest Public Art Project

We've driven by Reston's newest (but no longer brand new) piece of public art festooning the condo-intensive quadrant of Reston Town Center so many times, we've sort of gotten used to the Jetsons-meets-Mayan Apocalyptic theme it's got going on. But, as semioticians and filthy "web loggers" are fond of asking, What Does It Mean? Let's "unpack" this piece of art, as the all the kool Ph.D. kids no longer say:

A slice of the RTC skyline, under a merciless and uncaring sun. No cyclist near the abandoned bicycle, no people enjoying lunch on their rooftop patio. Already, dramatic tension is creeping into our reading of the work.

This bus looks sad. More dramatic tension.

Maybe everyone's inside, trying to avoid the imminent collision of car and airplane in the skies above RTC, as a mini-Death Star/DRB drone looks on, suspended by a string.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

And then there are the triffids, soon to arrive on the other side of Reston Town Center and devour us all surround RTC in public art on all sides.

Our reading? Art as harbinger of overdevelopment and doom? A much-needed spark of life in an otherwise bland forest of red brick and metal? A meditation on the depersonalization fostered by carbon-powered transit options? An excuse to make cheap shots about triffids?

Yes.

(Photo courtesy of Reston Confidential Operative "Joel," who told us we could probably "do better" in terms of photography. Clearly "Joel" doesn't know us that well, the end.)

Have You Submitted Your Statement of Candidacy for the RA Board?

Don't get enough meetings at your day job? Worried about people smoking e-cigarettes on trails, outside? Well, it's not too late to submit a statement of candidacy for the open at-large seat on the Reston Board of Directors. You have until October 21 to explain your hopes and dreams qualifications and goals; the RA Board will then invite "qualified candidates" to meet with them at their Oct. 24 meeting. The board will ultimately appoint someone to finish the term vacated by Donna Miller Rostant, who had to leave the board last month after it chose not to add her non-RA property to the friendly confines of our earth-toned community. Earlier this year, the board appointed Ellen Graves to complete the term of Hunters Woods/Dogwood board member Cheryl Beamer, who resigned in May, so it's been a busy year on that front.

It's also an important time for the RA board, what with having to hire a new CEO and attempting to play an active role in the master planning process that will guide development for years to come.

What's funny is that while five people vied for an appointment to the last vacated seat, the elections for three open seats earlier this year were all uncontested. We hope that's not the case this time around, so apply early and often kids, the end.

Bummer: Reston Patch Editor Leaving

Reston Patch BFF and editor Karen Goff is leaving AOL's local news venture, according to our exclusive backchannel sources (okay, fine, our Facebook "wall.") Patch has fallen on hard times of late, and the company just laid off a whole slew of people, but our exclusive sources (okay, fine, Facebook again) tell us that she's leaving voluntarily to go to another gig.

This is a bummer for anyone who cares about getting local news from sources other than lazy, link-heavy filthy "web logs" or self-interested PR efforts. Many local Patch sites, frankly, are pretty crappy -- they either hired people who didn't know much about journalism or who were parachuted into a local community (or covered it from the adjacent county) -- or both. Karen had deep roots (get it?) here and a legit journalism background, so Reston kind of got lucky. Hopefully the folks at AOL will find the dusty resume of someone with a real journalism background in their warehouse full of unmailed promotional CDs from the late 1990s and hire a decent replacement, or else we'll have to actually leave the house figure out what being an "experienced journalist" is all about, the end.

Earth-Toned Autobots Unite! RA, RCA, ARCH Team Up Again on Reston Master Plan (Updated)

You know when a postcard-sized mailer gets sent out, stuff's about to get real, as the kids might have said as recently as two years ago, maybe? Well, continuing a partnership that started with other existential threats to our beloved earth-toned community, the Reston Association, Reston Citizens Association and the the Alliance of Reston Clusters and Homeowners (ARCH) are again joining forces to address concerns with the draft master plan that will guide development in Reston, a product of several years' work by the Reston Master Plan Committee Task Force With an Unprononcable Acronym (¶).

Our BFFs at RCA recently issued an epic smackdown of the master plan draft, calling it "amorphous, incomplete, and ultimately dysfunctional" and arguing that it doesn't protect Reston residents while requiring them to foot too much of the bill for the improvements required by all that sweeeet midrise bollardy goodness. They've also pointed out that the state transportation department has called B.S. on the traffic assumptions guiding the plan, which aren't particularly optimistic even in their current, rose-colored form.

And that's all before we even get to the fun part, when ¶ turns its eye to the existing village centers in Phase 2 of the master plan.

In recent weeks, RCA, the RA and ARCH have decided to join forces in working with the task force, with RA and RCC agreeing on six principles that should guide the master plan, including sustainability, open space, mobility (meaning no endless gridlock and one blinking light at a crosswalk in front of the future Metro station), and having developers pay a fair share of infrastructure improvements. The three groups are also planning a community forum on Thursday night to explain why the master plan is of concern to folks other than SimCity obsessives and filthy web loggers.

In his own "web log" post, RCA President Colin Mills explains why the partnership with RA and ARCH is so important:

RCA has been working very hard on the Task Force, but it has been a long and lonely struggle at times. As you know if you have followed our comments, we believe the draft Comprehensive Plan less than ideal for Restonians in a lot of ways. But we’re only one voice on the Task Force; there’s only so much we can accomplish on our own.

Happily, we’ve discovered that we aren’t alone. In conversations with leaders from RA and ARCH, we’ve found that we have a lot of views in common. And we agreed that our voices would be amplified if we spoke up together. So we decided to stand up together on behalf of the citizens of Reston.

Like a good marriage, our collaboration allows us to benefit from each organization’s strength. We at RCA bring our analytical skills and deep involvement throughout the process to the table. RA brings its formidable resources to the table. For instance, they’ve been able to hire a land use attorney as an advisor (something we could never afford), and they have a much larger megaphone to communicate with our citizens. ARCH contributes its community connections and experience in complex community issues. When we unite those strengths, it’s a very powerful combination.

The community forum will be from 7-9pm Thursday at RA headquarters. Why is it important, in good blockquote form, Mssr. Mills?

The developer representatives, while they don’t agree on everything, have shown themselves as a fairly united force throughout the process. They know how the game is played, they know what they want, and they know how to get it.

Sounds about right to us.

Update: Pop the popcorn and break out the Snugglie -- video of the two-plus hour forum is now online:

Goodbye Local Watering Hole, Hello Chain Drinkery: The Midscale Chaining of Reston Continues

A South Reston institution, if a "bar serving somewhat mediocre food" can be considered an "institution," is closing its doors this month. The Lakeside Inn will leave its decades-old perch at South Lakes Village Center after -- everyone together now, folks -- it could not come to an agreement on lease terms with the property owner. The end of many a locally owned business comes to this, and we're sure Chipoltes Junior or Macaroni Grill Express will reduce its corporately mandated pieces-of-faux-antique-flair-per-square-foot ratio to accommodate the inconvenient lake views.

But fear not! Just a increasingly traffic-clogged short drive across the Toll Road, another good-time drinkery is opening in yet another Reston village center! Glory Days, a "regional chain," is taking the long-vacant Blockbuster Video spot at North Point. It already has a location at Fox Mill and "each location has more than 25 TVs for maximum sports viewing," our BFFs at Patch tell us. Huzzah!

Our BFFs at Patch also tell us that Reston residents have mixed emotions about Lakeside closing. We are here to bury it, not praise it, but it does stink that shopping centers seem to push out locally owned businesses (and some well-loved, not-so-local ones) any chance they can get.

Also, the e-mail jokes Lakeside sent every week were pretty awesome. Here's an example:

An elderly man was stopped by the police around 2 a.m and was asked where he was going at that time of night.

The man replied, "I'm on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking and staying out late."

The officer then asked, "Really? Who's giving that lecture at this time of night?"

The man replied, "That would be my wife."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Something tells us you won't find jokes like these on the back of the newsprint Macaroni Grill kids menu, the end.

Reston: The Door

We've been remiss in poring over the fall issue of Reston: The Magazine that was delivered by uniformed federal agents to Restonian World Headqaurters some time ago. But before we could even get to the "Necessity of Neighborhood or Cluster Walk-Through Inspections" article, we were stopped cold by this photo of a door featured in an exciting, Modern Architecture-worthy spread of the featured properties on the Oct. 19 Reston Home Tour.

First off, wow. As Reston doors go, it lacks the institutional metal slab je ne sais quoi of the doors the DRB knows and loves. It looks more like the entrance to an elite Danish sauna.

We made an even more frightening discovery when we realized we'd somehow misplaced our print copy of Reston: The Magazine and had to go looking for it "on line": check out the first thing that pops up on the list of "related publications" while you are perusing the usual list of swim lessons and tennis schedules:

NOOOOOOOOOO NOT ONE OF US NOT ONE OF US

Indecision 2013: 1 of 3 (4-5-4-U) Anti-Rec Center Candidates Wins RCC Board Seats

The results of the 2013 Reston Community Center "preference poll" are in, and only one of the three candidates who ran on a platform opposing the funding model and plans for a new indoor recreation facility won a seat on the RCC's board of directors. John Mendonca was appointed to the nine-member board, along with current RCC Board Chair Beverly Cosham and newcomer Michelle Moyer.

The other two candidates who ran on the "3-4-5-4-U" slate -- Sridhar Ganesan and Tammi Petrine -- failed to win seats on the board. The rec center proposal has been on hold since early summer, with RCC board members pledging to look at alternate funding models and sites beyond Baron Cameron Park, which was transferred to the Fairfax County Parks Authority in 2012 ahead of the proposal's unveiling in February.

The official statement and vote tallies are here.

As Metro Opening Nears(ish), Portents Abound

It won't be long before we start seeing these guys stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on Wiehle Avenue. And that's not the only sign that the Silver Line is getting closer to (maybe) opening early next year, though no one's willing to say exactly when.

Our BFFs at the Toll Road are getting ready, preparing for an exciting "upgrade" of its tolling facilities. They're still going to take cash at the manned booths, but those fun plastic baskets that have tempted us to do over-the-shoulder quarter layups will soon be history:

The Dulles Toll Road was built in 1984, prior to the advent of electronic toll tags, and has always been a cash-centric system by design. While some E-ZPass-only lanes have been added in recent years, the exits and main toll plaza feature manned tollbooths and exact change lanes at which drivers toss coins into a basket.

With more than 80 percent of toll road users making the switch to the electronic toll tags and tolls reaching the level that a driver now needs seven quarters to use the exact change lanes, it is time for the airports authority to consider updating the system, said Chris Browne, vice president and manager of Washington Dulles International Airport.

“A lot of what we are spending is keeping these old baskets and coin machines going,” he said.

Of course, the real reason for the changes?

With a modern collection system, the board can consider options like distance-based toll pricing or having different toll rates at different times of day.

Can't wait.

Meanwhile, Metro has launched a fancy website dedicated to our favorite subway line. Will you enjoy riding 60 feet above the storied architectural beauty of Tysons Corner? Appropriately Diverse Stock Photo People say yes!

Sadly, when you click on the map for the Reston/Wiehle East "neighborhood," none of the exciting retail and/or dining experiences are within walking distance (yet). Some of the options are actually in Herndon, and they inexplicably included Kmart and not its much-touted retail neighbor.

Guess we'll need to borrow Stock Photo Business Guy's bicycle and messenger bag, the end.

Your Weekly Dose of Sad: Where the Divorced Guys Are

Our BFFs at Patch ran this map using U.S. Census Data showing where Reston's divorced men live, and boy, is it a pile of Sad. Unlike our (apparently) committed friends in "Great" Falls and the McMansion-studded far north of Reston, we're all apparently a bunch of dysfunctional, broken people you'd be just as likely to find on the pages of a Jonathan Franzen novel as in one of our midscale chain restaurants.

But let's take a look at that one (relatively) divorce-free patch in the center of the map. What can we learn from it?

Apparently we should all spend more time on the links, the end.