Redistricting Fever: July 3 Will Still Be Their Independence Day

Do you like celebrating the nation's birthday with hotdogs, fireworks, and a nuisance lawsuit trying to force Fairfax County Schools to redistrict a boundary change so no one ever has to go to South Lakes, or any county school with the initials "S" and "L" in its name ever again? Well, then, great news! The lawsuit's still on!

Fairfax Coalition of Advocates for Public Schools, a group of parents who oppose redistricting plans in the western part of Fairfax County, struggled to raise the last few thousand dollars needed to go forward with a lawsuit against the Fairfax County School Board, but the group received the remaining $15,000 that it needed for legal fees last week.

FairfaxCAPS Director Scott Chronister said, “Everyone that we’ve talked to is amazed at the public response.” Chronister said that last week the group raised about $1,000 each day, which was “absolutely tremendous.” FairfaxCAPS and the Fairfax County School Board are scheduled to meet in court on July 3.

Wow. It's moments like this that make us proud to be Americans.

Affordable Housing in Great Falls Crossing... wait, what?

An odd story in an unexpected place.

A few years ago, Ezzeldin Ezzeldin was contemplating a move to a bigger house. The Ezzeldins owned a house in the Reston neighborhood of Amberlea, in Great Falls Crossing.

Due to a confluence of lost or ignored paperwork and miscommunication, Ezzeldin and about 30 of his neighbors have based their lives around the belief that their houses would revert out from under ADU price controls in 2013, allowing the properties to be sold at market price.

It turns out that Ezzeldin's home, along with many of his neighbors' homes, is still under a control period that stretches until 2047. In almost all the cases, the homeowners would be under the 2013 control period if they or the previous owners of their houses had formally filed to have the covenant changed by a series of deadlines.

Shocking. Unconsciable. Isn't there a law that bars any development with the words "Great" and "Falls" in its name from being affordable?

Meet Your Neighbors: Whenever you see the words 'bloody trail' in a headline, you know you're in for a good time

Meet a fun-loving Reston native who, when he wants to shake off the mauve dust of our beloved New Town(tm), goes to Fredericksburg to blow off some steam. Want to catch up with him? Just follow the trail of blood.

A trail of blood led police to a man suspected of trying to break into a Fredericksburg residence a short time earlier.

City police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said a resident in the 300 block of Hanover Street was awakened by the sound of breaking glass about 3 a.m. Sunday.

Officers followed a trail of blood and found the suspect at the corner of Hanover Street and Kenmore Avenue a short time later. Blood was still dripping on the sidewalk and one arm was cut badly enough to require about a dozen stitches, Bledsoe said.

[A 27-year-old Reston man] was charged with unlawful entry, destruction of property and public intoxication. The suspect told police he'd been celebrating at Spirit's downtown earlier in the evening but declined to say how both of his arms got bloodied.

Of course he didn't say -- what happens in Fredericksburg stays in Fredericksburg.

Reston: Let there be (some) light

So the mighty RA won the battle against all the RVs and boats and trailers and whatnot, and saw that it was Good. Now Reston is turning its attention to the another horrible scourge: the dark.

“People say Reston is dark, which is a good thing in some respects and not in others,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Catherine Hudgins said at the meeting.

Whoa -- too much information! Could someone break this down for me?

“Most lights are currently in the northern end of Reston,” added Milton Matthews, CEO of the Reston Association. “The southern community has very few lights – Glade Drive, for example, is very dark."

Something tells us these folks would probably agree.

Anyhoo! No worries about that, because apparently Reston will soon be bathed by lighting so awesome and powerful, it'll be visible from outer space (or at least Dranesville).

On May 5, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to more than triple the limit of streetlights in the Reston project from 76 to 350.

An original task force was created in 1983, which five years later led to the “Reston Streetlight Demonstration Project,” a pilot program that Hudgins last week said “has probably outlasted its time.” Last Thursday, Hudgins hosted a community meeting on outdoor lighting to gain direction from her constituents for the placement of additional outdoor lighting in Reston, including areas that have developed since the project's implementation in 1988.

Awesome! A community meeting! That'll bring out the reasoned discourse of sensible community members!

“It just isn't true,” boomed Reston resident Chris Walker, a member of the International Dark Sky Association. “Reston has the worst of all possible policies and they are not working,” he said as he stood up at the meeting.

Okay... well, maybe it'll bring up some true believers in the Reston ethos:

“We appreciate the trees and the woods and the spirit of Reston,” answered Sarah Fershee of the Marco Cluster off Glade Drive. “But there is lots of movement at night by people who do not live in our cluster. We are concerned for our safety.”

What? Why worry?

Reston: More Jocks Than a High School Gym Locker Room

We're a bit confused. One week, we hear Reston is a haven for old nerds, and now we're learning it's where Olympic dreams come true.

After soaking his legs for almost 15 minutes in a large trash can filled with ice and water, U.S. middle distance star Alan Webb walked gingerly from his garage and into his three-bedroom house in Reston. He limped through the foyer, past bunches of brown boxes with Nike apparel spilling from them, up a carpeted staircase speckled with faded brown stains.

Once he reached the top, Webb plopped down on a silky olive couch, clicked on a 52-inch plasma television and laid his sculpted legs on a cluttered coffee table next to a PlayStation controller and a "Rambo" DVD.

"Dude, you get dinner?" Webb said, looking to the other end of the couch at Joe Zak, his roommate and best friend of nearly 20 years.

All in all, it sounds like your typical day in Reston. Who doesn't start the morning by soaking their legs in a trash can full of ice? Still, Webb definitely knows how to keep it real:

The American record holder in the mile and the country's most highly touted middle distance runner, Webb prefers his existence here in his home town. Signed to a reported $250,000 annual endorsement deal by Nike in 2002, Webb has turned down lavish, state-of-the-art training compounds in favor of the modest contemporary house he bought four years ago, where he shares laundry time and parking spaces with Zak.

Tough choice there: Work in a climate-controlled, state-of-the-art training compound, maybe in Montana, staffed by incredibly hot Nordic trainers wearing spandex, or jog along Reston Parkway? But we've got something those hoity-toity training centers don't: mauve. That, and a down-home feel.

In Reston, "I get recognized for something positive that I've done, or am doing, but at the same time it's not craziness, it's not like People magazine or something like that," Webb said. "It's not like Britney Spears in rehab, like every moment is being photographed. It's cool that I get recognized, but it's not over the top."

We dunno. We're pretty sure we saw the paparazzi chasing Robert E. Simon the other day as he left the Macaroni Grill, starlet on each arm.

Meanwhile, this weekend is the Reston Town Center Grand Prix, which sounds like it should include Formula racing cars made out of balsa wood piloted by effete elitists with lots of extra 'i's at the end of their names but really involves high-speed cyclists zipping around the Fake Downtown(tm), menacing pedestrians on their way to the Pizzeria Unos. Meet Victor Siegfried, one of the folks who will be cheating death as they zip by the Banana Republic.

“Last year, I crashed into an obstruction in the road, went airborne, and broke one of my ribs and my right shoulder,” Siegfried said. “When riders are riding handlebar to handlebar at 35 to 40 miles an hour, a crash like that can happen fairly quickly and leave you with a lot of road rash and other injuries. In a case like that, most racers will be more concerned about their bikes than themselves,” he noted.

We hate it when we get the Road Rash. The race has more in common with NASCAR than the Grand Prix -- it's apparently a chance to watch a lot of horrific crashes and spandex. Lots and lots of spandex.

This Week in Crime: Another Week, Another Incredibly Creepy Assault

Another creepy, middle-of-the-night assault has taken place in Greywing Square, this time after the assailant entered an apartment through an unlocked door.

Police are investigating a reported burglary and sexual assault that occurred early Saturday morning in Reston. At 2:45 a.m. on June 21 officers responded to an apartment in the 12000 block of Greywing Square. The victim, a 22-year-old Reston woman, was asleep in her bed when she awoke to an unknown man touching her. The victim yelled and the suspect fled out her sliding glass door. He then jumped off the balcony and ran away. The victim had no apparent injuries.

An investigation determined the suspect entered through the unlocked sliding glass door. The suspect was described as possibly Hispanic and 20 to 30 years old. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall and 150 pounds with brown hair. He was wearing a light-colored, polo-type shirt with stripes and jean shorts.

The description matches the person who allegedly creeped out a couple of women in a laundry room in the same complex last fall. We've poked fun at people who'd found themselves in trouble after wandering the mean streets of Reston alone in the middle of the night, but it's a bit different when something like this happens inside someone's house. And by "a bit different," we mean it sucks.

Reston's Hilarious Condo Boards: Life, Liberty, and the Inalienable Right to Air Conditioning Are Only For Those 'In Good Standing'

You've got to love Reston's many "clusters," homeowner associations and condo associations. Step out of line, and they turn up the heat -- literally.

Shadowood condo owner Mihai Alexei, 46, and his family of four had their air conditioning shut off about 5 p.m. Friday, June 6, just as weather forecasters were predicting an unusual late-spring heat wave.

Sweet! That has a lot more sting than some nerdy, 432-page "disclosure document" liberally peppered with words like "muave," "faded paint," and "unacceptable level of lawn statuary."

Air conditioning is among the amenities the association calls privileges, along with cable TV and parking, that Shadowood's board can withhold if an owner is not "in good standing." That could be because someone is behind on monthly dues or special assessments, or has not paid fines levied for violating various rules.

In your face, you... non-mauve painter of various wooden surfaces! Actually, like Moldgate, this apparently goes far deeper... and, like Moldgate, the whole brouhaha involves... well, mold, or at least water seeping somewhere it doesn't belong.

[Alexi] and the condo board have been arguing for almost a year about who should pay for nearly $1,000 in damage to an apartment downstairs from Alexei's that resulted from a water leak somewhere in or around Alexei's apartment... The matter is scheduled to go before the Fairfax County General District Court next month.

Awesome -- another nuisance lawsuit! But Alexi claims the board timed the shutoff to coincide with the heat wave, something other warm-hearted organizations like the electric company apparently never do.

I asked Olivia whether the board took weather forecasts into account before a shut-off. "We do not make any consideration for the weather," he said. "Why should we? Why would that be fair to people who paid?"

Lest you think the Shadowood Board is completely heartless, let the record show that they did agree to turn the AC back on when Alexi pointed out his daughter was at home recovering from an automobile accident -- but only after he provided a doctor's note. No word on whether it was filed in triplicate, using only recycled paper.

Redistricting Fever: Like It's a Wonderful Life, only with IB classes and Bratz

Hey, remember that time the awesome pro-school group FairfaxCAPS was suing the Fairfax County School Board to make it redistrict South Lakes High School again so its boundaries extended no further than the school's own parking lot, but then they started running out of money to pay the lawyers dedicated public servants who'd copied-and-pasted some legal terms like "carthengia delendo est" and "nolo contendre band programs" into an impressive legal document, so they asked for another $15,000 from people who could have otherwise used that money to send their kids to the Landon School for upwards of 25 minutes before being shown the door by tazer-weilding security guards?

Yeah, that was awesome. Anyhoo, today's apparently the deadline for that extra cash, and as of a few days ago, they were just about halfway there.

One week ago we sent out the following email requesting $15,000 in contributions. We are happy to announce that we have received $8,000 dollars, approximately $1,000 dollars a day. However, we still need to collect the remaining $7,000 within the next 3 days in order to achieve our goal and continue to assure FCPS fairness, transparency and accountability.

Will they get the last seven grand to their attorneys just in the nick of time, as people stand around a Christmas tree singing "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and telling each other that every time a bell rings, a Bratz doll gets its wings? We sure hope so! Otherwise, we'll have nothing to do on July 3 but sit around and watch certain patriotic, anti-IB movies.

Meanwhile, in the other anti-Reston(s): Foreclosure Hell or Loonie-Sized Hail, Pick Your Poison

As the entire D.C. housing market continues to go up in flames, one of the hotspots is likely to be our tolerant neighbor to the west, Herndon.

The Washington region now has one of the fastest-growing foreclosure rates in the nation, as 15,613 homes went into foreclosure during the one-year period ending in February.

Although communities have felt the effects of the housing crisis for months, the report reveals that foreclosures in the Washington region have been increasing at a surprisingly quick pace, outstripping those of most major metropolitan areas.

Although Prince William and Prince George's counties have experienced the most home foreclosures, the report identifies several communities as potential "hot spots" for future foreclosures, including Centreville, Falls Church, Herndon and Vienna in Fairfax County.

Let's just hope that Ed McMahon didn't buy property there.

Or, if foreclosed homes and the mosquitos that can kill you that breed therein aren't your cup of tea, you could try Reston's other doppelganger. No, not the evil Columbia, Maryland, but Reston, Canada, which we learned about when ping-pong sized hail rained down from the heavens, presumably damaging their mauve homes and maple trees and hockey goals and whatnot. But it could be even worse: a nearby community reported "Loonie-size hail."

Given the fact that the Canadian dollar's now worth as much as the U.S. greenback for the first time in a zillion years, we'll be outside with a bucket.

Welcome to Reston, Home of Old Nerds

Reston was recently named one of the top 10 'brainy' places to retire by U.S. News & World Report. (It's also one of the top 10 'mauve' places to retire, but so far no newsmagazine has devoted a charticle to that criteria.)

According to City-Data.com, 93 percent of Reston's population over the age of 25 have achieved an educational level of high school or higher, with 63 percent achieving a bachelor's degree or higher.

Although Reston is considerably smaller than -- and technically not -- a city, its 63 percent representation of college graduates far surpasses the 53 percent in Seattle, which tops the list of America's most educated cities according to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Included in U.S. News' picks for retirement destinations that attract highly educated people are Berkeley, Calif. and Chapel Hill, N.C., both renowned as being academic epicenters boasting world-famous universities.

Woot! In your face, nerdy hippie Berkeley! It may have a bunch of Nobel winners and whatnot, but what does Reston have?

While Reston does not have one of those, it does contain several satellite campuses, and seven universities with student populations over 2,000 – including George Washington and George Mason – are all within 20 miles.

“It is actually more complicated than that,” said Penny Pompei, president of the Reston Chamber of Commerce. “Some of the major multi-national firms in the world are also here, like Accenture, Oracle and Miscrosoft. They are able to hire the best and bring them to Reston. Reston is a perfect nucleus with access to Dulles Airport, proximity to the federal government and the fact that it is a live-work-play planned community.”

And nerds? What about nerds?

Charles and Harriet Todd, both 85 years old, moved to Reston from Connecticut in 1975, when they were 52. “I got a job with the World Bank in Washington and I knew that their mandatory retirement age was 62,” said Charles Todd. “So we wanted to move to a place where we could stay when I retired.”

“We like it,” Charles Todd said. “Reston has a lot of good restaurants and our neighbors are nice – and smart. What more do you need?”

Smart neighbors, indeed.

Reston's Initiative for Public Art: Mauve Art for Mauve Art's Sake

We've been remiss about talking about Reston's awesome new public art initiative, which could bring even more whimsical hilarious polygonal concrete statuary to the highways and walkways of Reston. People definitely seem to be all over that.

More than 100 people attended a public forum to learn more about creating art in Reston's public spaces. The Initiative for Public Art—Reston, which organized the May 29 event, formed to inspire the community to work together to help create a master plan for public art in Reston.

The IPAR board of directors has hired Todd Bressi and Meridith McKinley, experts in urban design, planning and public art, as consultants for the project. They have already met with hundreds of community members, including the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, Reston Association and the Reston Town Center Association.

Joe Ritchey, president of IPAR's board of directors, said Reston has always embraced art and it should be made available to everyone. It was Bob Simon's vision to include art throughout the community and was something he sought after even in the architecture, Ritchey said.

"Of Bob's seven founding principals [sic], four emphasize art and beauty in public spaces," Ritchey said. "The concept of bringing art into public spaces was less fulfilled in other parts of Reston and that's exactly why the Initiative for Public Art—Reston, or IPAR, was formed."

Yay! What kind of awesome art can we expect from this initiative?

Bressi said in his previous projects it was important that the art be fun, playful and surprising.

Cool! To that end, we propose "Design Review Board Violation" (multiple media, ca. 2008). This mixed-media project would include such "found art" as pink flamingos, distressed appliances, tall crabgrass and misspelled 'Beware of the Dawg' [sic] signs, arranged around a centerpiece scale model of a molding foreclosed townhouse, whose trim would eschew earth tones for various shades of pink, purple and black. For versimlitude's sake, various DRB violation notices and liens would be shoved under its door.

We can only hope it would be as thought-provoking as this masterwork on display at the Reston Town Center Hyatt:

His painting "All Day Long" shows two seagulls, one flapping its wings and the other resting, and Mihalko said at the reception that the title could mean the seagull that is sitting is lazy all day long, or that the seagull flapping its wings could be nagging the other all day long.

Or it could mean that it's a freaking seascape.

Reston Real Estate: The High-Low Game, Pt. 6

After a lengthy absence, it's time once again for everyone's favorite soft-market game of wheelin' and dealin', the Reston Real Estate High-Low Game! So grab the home edition and a purple crayon if you're playing along at home, and let's dive right in:

At just shy of $1.4 million, this lovely home on Purple Beech Drive is right on Lake Thoreau:

Breathtaking lake views from the moment you open the door! Spectacular lake front home with windows! Soaring ceilings! 3-decks! State-of-the-art gourmet Kitchen! Redesigned & Award winning Master Suite with fireplace & deck! Pool! Dock! This elegant home must be seen to be appreciated! Wonderful floorplan - main level Master! Exceptionally private location with views down the length of Lake Thoreau!

Actually! this! place! looks! lovely! We don't have much to say about it, except that the Realtor(tm) in question is apparently named "Boofie."

On the other end of the spectrum, this $251,000 home on Cocquina Drive in South Reston is one of the least expensive single-family homes we've seen in a while. The listing points out that it's got a "beautiful split foyer" and is a short sale, but still... a 5-bedroom home for $251,000? Maybe the photo at right wasn't just amateurishly taken with a $50 digital camera. Maybe the house really leans to one side. That would explain the "split" foyer, anyway.

So, what else is new? The building that houses Tavern on the Lake in Lake Anne Plaza is still on the market. Also, the 'ole distillery that's up for sale? Here's a choice nugget from its own listing: It's "zoned to be able to build 11 unit condo on property."

So much for that awesome Macaroni Grill View B&B.

Redistricting Fever: Of Bratz and Legal Billz

FairfaxCAPS, the awesome group that's suing the Fairfax County School Board to re-re-re-redistrict South Lakes High School so no one ever has to go there again, except maybe for people who can't afford the modest, entry-level $750,000 homes in their own neighborhoods, has reached something of a crossroads. And by "crossroads," we mean "running out of money."

The legal action resulting from the School Board’s decision on the West County Boundary Study has come a long way. We submitted a petition to Fairfax County Circuit Court on behalf of the petitioners. The School Board’s attorneys responded, denying nearly everything and stating that the petitioners do not have standing and the court has no authority to make a ruling on the redistricting. The petitioners’ brief was recently submitted and the School Board’s attorneys will respond shortly. The final activities by the petitioners’ attorney includes reviewing the School Board’s brief, preparing for the hearing, and lastly, appearing at the hearing.

In addition, more than $100,000 has been raised for legal fees. We need to raise an additional $15,000 by June 20th to cover the remaining costs. If we do not receive the funding, we will not be able to go to court and the School Board will win by default — just the way they wanted.

Guess that awesome Stu Gibson dunking booth and delicious Indian takeout weren't enough to pay the bills. We still think they should have taken our advice and raffled off a guaranteed pupil-placement at Langley High School, but bygones are bygones. Ask not what your nuisance lawsuit can do for you, ask what you can do for your nuisance lawsuit:

I am confident that you will make a contribution of $500 or an amount that you feel represents your financial means and your commitment to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in the Fairfax County School Board.

Wow. Five Benjamins will buy a lot of Bratz.

Meanwhile, at South Lakes High School, the Ground Zero of Bratzgate, they had the gall to actually celebrate the elaborate disinformation campaign students and parents used to bamboozle the school board into allowing the boundary change--obvious lies involving silly, IB-influenced concepts like "school pride" and "dignity." The nerve!

Members of the South Lakes High School Community gathered in the school’s gym on Tuesday, May 20th to celebrate the hard work of the parents, students and faculty who supported South Lakes during the boundary process.

The South Lakes leadership class was also honored for their involvement. Leadership teacher and South Lakes graduate, Lindsay Trout, said of her students at the hearings, “they displayed the most class and dignity of any group involved.” Speaking about the hearings themselves, Trout continued, “I was shocked with the intensity of the negativity and the falsities; the perceptions people had, based on zero truth, of some of the parties involved.”

Senior Leadership student Sierra Little felt it was important to attend the meetings and have the students’ voices heard. “I came here my sophomore year and when I first came here I called this my family. I live in Loudoun County and pay to go here, the opportunities and the classes and the people; I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. It’s just like someone bad mouthing my mother,” said Little.

The students were shocked at what they witnessed at the meetings. “We’d expect for adults to be more mature, they were attacking us,” said Senior Leadership member Fatima Ellitinay. “It was like a big jungle, there were parents stomping, shouting; they knew we were there and they were still acting that way,” said Junior Leadership student Roya Zaka.

That just couldn't be true!

Of the experience Principal Bruce Butler said, “It helped pull the greater school community together, when kids go to bat for their school like that, it’s really special.” Speaking about the hearings Butler continued, “Change is always difficult especially when it relates to our kids, I never saw it as sides, it’s a process.”

It's a process, all right. A legal process which, at this point, will only serve to better the attorneys whose own kids go to Langley or a private school.

Metro Silver Line: Maybe We Should Keep Clapping, Just In Case

Things are going so awesomely with Metro's Silver Line that Gov. Tim Kaine is coming to Reston today to bask in its reflected, silvery glory.

On Wednesday, June 11, the Dulles Corridor Rail Association (DCRA) will celebrate its 10th anniversary and honor Governor Tim Kaine at a reception hosted by The JPI Companies and the new Westin Reston Heights hotel.

That's right -- the high-density development that's across the freaking highway from the planned Metro station. Assuming it gets built, that is, after some Ron Paul libertarian types brought back to life some inane procedural lawsuit that's been around since roughly 1609, when the Metro tracks were made out of wood and moccasin strings.

A proposed extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, already on precarious footing, was dealt another setback yesterday when the Virginia Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit to go forward challenging plans to use Dulles Toll Road receipts to fund construction.

At issue is whether Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) violated the constitution when he announced plans -- without General Assembly action -- to transfer the state-owned Dulles Toll Road to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which intends to raise tolls and use the proceeds toward the cost of the rail line.

"I would just like for them to take the constitution seriously," said lawyer Patrick M. McSweeney, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, who represented the plaintiffs.

So this dork managed to do what the developers grassroots movement known as Under, Not Over couldn't -- possibly slow this sucker down. But despite losing their deepest pockets, the developer selfless grassroot organizer who bankrolled TysonsTunnel.org to the tune of $3 million, the group is pressing on with its demands that a tunnel plied by glass-bottomed Metro cars be built to preserve Tysons' unspoiled beauty. They recently met for lunch and raised a "couple of thousand dollars" to continue fighting for the cause.

Several tunnel boosters in the room said they would rather see no rail at all than an elevated track through Tysons.

"It will be so unsightly and noisy; it will be such a distraction visually," said Nancy McLeod, a longtime resident of the McLean Hunt neighborhood near Tysons.

Nose, meet face. Have fun cutting yourself off!

Not that it matters. A track fire here, another derailment there, and soon enough Metro won't have enough trains to get out to Arlington, much less the airport.

This Week in Crime: Saddest. Police Blotter Item. Ever.

- A bench was reported stolen from a residence in the 12300 block of Brown Fox Way (link).

There are no words.

Some Politics Are Local: You Mean There Was a Primary Yesterday?

We thought that all that "hope" and "change" bidness was over. Actually, judging by the primaries held yesterday, it actually might be, as the incumbents serving Reston and Herndon won handily.

By even wider margins, Reps. James P. Moran Jr. (D) and Frank R. Wolf (R) withstood primary challenges yesterday. In the fall, Wolf will face Democrat Judy M. Feder, who beat back a primary challenge yesterday from Mike R. Turner. Wolf defeated Feder handily in 2006. Moran defeated lawyer Matthew T. Famiglietti in the 8th Congressional District primary and will face Republican Mark W. Ellmore, who beat Amit K. Singh yesterday in a close contest.

Gerald E. Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, also beat former representative Leslie L. Byrne to run for retiring Rep. Tom Davis' seat in the fall.

The Post points out that less than 6 percent of all voters showed up for yesterday's primaries -- a figure that would have been far lower if American Idol was still on the air.

Reston Real Estate: The 'Ole Distillery's Up Fer Sale, Jeb!

Once upon a time, in a kinder, gentler era before Design Review Boards or mauve paints marketed under names like "russet," there was a town called Wiehle. A kinder, gentler town, where the men were men, the women were women, and apparently everyone was drunk out of their minds 99.9 percent of the time, given that the one enduring establishment was a distillery.

In 1886 Carl Adolph Max Wiehle, a doctor from Philadelphia, purchased 3,228 acres of land located where Reston is now located. The distillery was built in about 1892, and originally served as the Wiehle Town Hall and the Wiehle Methodist Episcopal Church.

According to the documents, Wiehle wanted to create a planned community of about 4,000 residents, but the town began to struggle after Wiehle died in 1901.

Hmmm... Talk about a man ahead of his time, with a humdinger of a dilemma: Create a series of planned urban developments with arbitrary landscaping regulations and covenants... or get hammered? Tough choice there, for the hardy residents of Wiehle.

A. Smith Bowman purchased the land on which the town was located in 1927, and he renamed the area, which he made his farm, Sunset Hills. When prohibition was repealed in 1934, Bowman decided to convert the building into Virginia's only legal whiskey distillery, selling Virginia Gentleman bourbon. The distillery stayed in the area for 54 years before the growing business relocated to Fredericksburg, Va., in 1988.

Where it remains today, producing hooch so undrinkable that only obnoxious fraternity types from a certain state college can swallow it. But, anyhoo, why dredge up the past?

Because the distillery is now up for sale, for a cool $1.6 million.

The Bowman Distillery on Old Reston Avenue has sat vacant and slowly deteriorating for years, but last month the building went up for sale, sparking new hopes of the historic structure's revitalization. The $1.6 million asking price includes the 14,000-square-foot lot that contains the old distillery, as well as a 5,000-square-foot lot that is adjacent to the building.

John Scira has owned the building since 1998 and originally planned to convert the piece of Wiehle history into a bed and breakfast or condominiums.

Hard to believe that B&B idea didn't work out. Who wouldn't want to get away from the daily grind of suburban life by "roughing it" with a 150-yard walk to the nearest Pizzeria Uno? (We won't talk about the untenable two crosswalks separating it from the Macaroni Grill.)

Anyway, prospective homeowners, be warned. We're guessing it's going to take a bit more than a couple of cans of russet-colored paint to bring the 1892-era building up to DRB standards.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 22 and This Week in Crime: Double Secret Probation

Remember when a Reston business illegally sold power amplifiers to Red China, which if it actually had oil instead of a billion workers happily filling the shelves of Wal-Mart with low-cost tchotchkes for Right-Thinking Americans, would be accused of using said power amplifiers, whatever they are, to build a nuclear weapon or weapons of mass destruction or a deadly remote-controlled blimp or something else that Will Not Stand, necessitating a 100-year war in a sandy country, but since they do and they are, we'll just slap the company here with a fine and hope they don't make our currency implode by continuing to buy our increasingly worthless debt by the wheelbarrowful?

Wow, that was a mouthful. Anyhoo, the company, Wavelab Inc. of Reston, got probation and a $15,000 fine.

WaveLab Inc. was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, after pleading guilty back in March to a single count of unlawful export of electronic components.

In court documents, the company's chief executive, Walter Zheng, admitted that WaveLab shipped hundreds of power amplifiers to China even though it knew the technology had military applications and required an export license that WaveLab lacked.

Maybe we're not the most savvy of Wall Street types, but we didn't even know companies could get probation. We thought probation was for folks who shoplifted at the Target or something, not a building with cubicles and a chain-smoking secretary out front. Does the company have to go to a seedy building once every other week and meet with a coffee-mainlining probation officer? Is it forbidden to leave the state, except for certain family events? Or is it even more insidious than that?

Road Rules: Hey cyclists, it's all your fault

Turns out the real menace on Reston's highways and byways aren't all those environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, nor the all the parked boat trailers and other reminders of blue collar, red state America. Nope, the real menace are those pesky walkers and cyclists.

Pedestrians and bicyclists in the jurisdiction of the Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station crashed with vehicles 24 times in 2007, without any fatalities. Of the 24 accidents, vehicle drivers were found to be at fault eight times.

"The most surprising thing is that majority of these accidents are not the fault of the vehicle," said Lieutenant Mike Shamblin of the Reston District Station. He said the 2007 statistics are consistent with accidents from prior years, where pedestrians and bicyclists are at found to be at fault in about 70 percent of the crashes with vehicles.

When will someone stop the madness and ban these threats to Reston's way of life? Oh, wait -- that would involve widening all the bike paths and trails to accommodate SUVs. Maybe it would be easier to just make things a bit easier for cyclists and pedestrians instead.

Fairfax County bike coordinator Charlie Strunk went through a list of pedestrian and bicycling project priorities in the Hunter Mill District. "A lot of these have been started," said Strunk looking at the list. For example, a request was made in 2007 to lengthen the pedestrian’s cross time and countdown signal on Fountain Drive crossing New Dominion Parkway in the Town Center district. In 2008, the requests were answered. Another request from last year’s summit was to install a crosswalk, a signal and a right turn lane into Reston Town Center at the intersection of Market Street and Town Center Parkway. While the signal was not delivered, the crosswalk was installed and a dedicated right turn lane to Reston Town Center now exists.

"Capital projects-wise, there is a lot going on and there is a lot more to accomplish," said Strunk. In terms of bicycle improvements, Strunk said he hopes an access point to the Washington and Old Dominion Trail would be built soon near Reston Town Center.

That's so crazy, it just might work.

Reston's Vibrant Economy, Part 21: Somehow Ed McMahon's involved in all this

Reston's vibrant economy certainly knows how to capitalize on market trends. We're now apparently the place the phone rings when someone gets a foreclosure notice on their particleboard McMansion in West Spittle, Ohio:

I'm spending the day in Reston, VA at one of the big offices of Fannie Mae. Employees here are volunteering at a call center for a foreclosure phone-a-thon being run out of Cincinnati, OH.

A phone-a-thon? Sounds fun! All we need is a washed-up game show host! Sounds like we're in luck!

I know everyone is gasping today over news that Ed McMahon is over a half a million dollars behind on his mortgage, but he's really not all that different from these callers, give or take a few million dollars in income. Ed needed to sell his home in order to pay off his loan, but nobody's buying. Same story everywhere.

Everywhere? It couldn't happen here! And if Ed had any common sense, he would have sunk his residual checks into stucco and mauve wood trim, and he'd still be on easy street!

The Night The Lights Went Down in Reston

Power's been restored to Restonian world headquarters, and not a moment too soon! It rained, and it was windy, and a couple of tree branches came down, and the traffic lights were out so we had to drive extra carefully to Herndon, where for some reason they had electricity, then we came home and had to blog by the light of a kerosene lamp, much as our grandparents did generations ago, the end.

This Last Week in Crime: Maybe We Shouldn't Go for That Stroll in South Reston at 3:45am

For the second time in as many weeks, a Reston woman was the victim of a crime in the early morning hours.

A 32-year-old Reston woman reported being robbed while walking on South Lakes Drive. The victim was on the sidewalk near Soapstone Drive on Thursday, May 29 at 3:45 a.m. when the suspect appeared. The victim was pushed to the ground and the suspect demanded money, while implying he had a gun. He took property and cash. The suspect fled, and the victim was not injured.

The suspect was described as black, in his 20s. He was approximately 6 feet tall and 175 pounds. He was wearing a black, long sleeved sweater and dark jeans.

This, after another woman was the victim of an indecent exposure incident, this one at the comparatively decadent hour of 5:30 am. Slackers! Everyone knows that Reston is such an idyllic, sylvan place that to truly appreciate the beauty of its natural surroundings, one must rise at 2:30 am and take a brisk stroll. Alone. Under the comforting glow of Reston's abundant, bright street lighting.

Fortunately, after two robberies in Herndon and another one across the street from Reston's Fake Downtown last week, the police are on the case. So are all these crimes related?

"I wouldn't consider this a trend at this point," said 1st Lt. Andy Hill, assistant commander of the Fairfax County Police Department’s Reston District Station. "These all happened in such a short time period and in different parts of the district. Generally a rising trend occurs over a longer period of time in one general area."

Good enough for us. We'll set the alarm for 2:15 this morning.

RA declares war on trailers, boats, motor homes and other staples of Americana

For everyone who naively thought it was their God-given right as an American (and a Reston resident, which is the Next Best Thing) to park their 18-wheeler, family motor home, boat trailer or other slice of wheeled, gas-guzzling Americana on the mean streets of Reston (or at least Soapstone Drive), the RA has just one thing to say for you: It's on.

The Reston Association Board of Directors passed a resolution at its May meeting on Thursday, May 22, to send a letter to Fairfax County Supervisor Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) requesting an establishment of a Large Area Community Parking District (CPD) in Reston.

The district would restrict certain vehicles from parking on public streets in residential areas. The restricted vehicles include boat trailers, boats, motor homes and trailers or semi-trailers — even when attached to a vehicle. Vehicles parked up to 48 hours for the purposes of loading, unloading or preparing for a trip are exempt from the restrictions.

Because what Reston really needs is more signage! Seriously, this will be a relief to folks who live along Soapstone Drive or Ridge Heights Road, whose pristine vistas of the 7-11 and/or the Home Depot have been obscured by such unsightly conveyances. Plus, it's annoying and unsafe for Reston's high percentage of small, fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and Smart Cars.

Now if we can just get rid of the spastically dancing open house sign, the mean streets of Reston will be safe once more.