At Lake Anne, a Different Kind of Peep Show

Those of you who read the Washington Post "news paper" are no doubt aware of the fancy Peeps contest they hold each year. But imagine our surprise when our favorite brutalist playground was so faithfully recreated using marshmallow confectionary by the folks at Chesapeake Chocolates and Lake Anne Florist! We especially like the recreation of Bronze Bob on the bench. All in all, it's a different kind of peep show than we've associated with Lake Anne in recent years, so that's a Good Thing.

We're off on one of our lavishly paid Web Logger Vacations, maybe checking out the wonders of far-away Oakton. So enjoy spring break -- and be excellent to each other.

Reston: The Marathon a Run Through Awesome Recent History

Yet another sign that our beloved earth-toned community is All Grown Up is that we're getting our very first marathon (not to be confused with our first forced march). Yep, on Sunday, the Runners Marathon of Reston will begin and end at South Lakes High School, filling lanes of streets and paths throughout South Reston with attractive orange cones. But while those endorphins kick in, you can relive some great moments in recent and not-so-recent Reston history as you make your way through South Reston. If, like us, you'll be enjoying a mayonnaise-intensive sandwich instead, click on this larger map of the route and follow along.

As you start at South Lakes High School, you can rest assured that if you twist an ankle during your run, you won't be subjected to a Death Panel, thanks to the efforts of right-thinking patriots in that very spot. Heading up Soapstone, enjoy the ambiance of the dieted suicide lane as you pass several parcels of land of indeterminate zoning status. Turning right on South Lakes, you'll take in the scene of the most daring heist in Reston history before heading off in the general direction of Reston's antecedent community of homicidal nudists. Then you'll run through Reston's horse country before swinging back towards Soapstone, near the site of the pivotal Battle for Glade Pool. Sadly, you'll have to settle for having those cups of water or Gatorade handed to you instead of a Big Gulp, but at least that will spare you from having your aesthetics offended by DRB violations and denuded stream beds.

All in all, it's a pretty eye-opening route. It almost makes us want to get up from whatever public access programming they'll be showing on the teevee at that time, whenever it is.

Welcome to the Big Time: Reston Band RDGLDGRN Makes TeeVee Debut

Legitimately awesome Reston band RDGLDGRN (pronounced "Red-Gold-Green"), which has slowly but steadily been building "cred," as the kids today no longer say, in the music scene, made their national television debut last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Sadly, ABC doesn't allow videos to be embedded, so clicky here and skip ahead to the 40-minute mark, almost as if you were pressing the fast forward button on a VCR or something.

Between RDGLDGRN, pop music's number-one hit maker and American Idol contestants, Reston is becoming quite the music scene! Who knows, by the time the Metro arrives, we could be besieged by knit cap-wearing hipsters, eager to find the next Austin Seattle transit-oriented development where food trucks visit once a week. Oh, wait -- too late.

Seriously, we wish RDGLDGRN the best, and hope that their much-deserved success finally allows them to buy some vowels for their name, the end.

Updated: Okay, here's a video embed of last night's performance Maybe it'll work: that annoyingly auto-plays whenever you load the page, so follow the link instead. Very 1998, ABC, very 1998. And here's the other song they played during the credits.

And here's a music video from the Fab Four Mauve Three:



Washington Post web logger Tom Jackman has more.

On the YouTubes: RA Board Candidate Statements, Plus a Fanciful Bollard for Eye Candy

As we begin this month's edition of Reston Today, dulcet-toned Andy Sigle leans casually against a fanciful bollard (NO SRSLY) and introduces us to the three candidates running unopposed for the RA Board -- Ken Kneuven, Timothy Cohn, and Eve Thompson. Please to enjoy each candidate sharing their official statement, filmed before a backdrop of calming nature scenes and WHOA MUTANT BIRD.

We're too unsettled to watch the rest.

Update: The RA has extended the election deadline until April 5. Vote early and often, kids, so they can meet the 10 percent quorum and we don't have to do this all over again.

Get on the Bus: RA Joins Call for Added Service

The Reston Association has written Fairfax County transportation officials a letter (PDF) asking for additional bus service once Metro arrives, in part to "encourage Silver Line riders to leave their cars at home."

The RA letter, among other things, calls for peak period service to the Wiehle Avenue station, improved bus service around Reston (we're still hoping for an express Macaroni Grill-McTacoHut route), elimination of long layovers at Reston Town Center (they should probably start with the wait times at Rio Grande), "bi-directional loop service" (whatever that is), and "automated information systems" (an iPad strapped to each bus stop sign).

The RA isn't alone. Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, after initially claiming that the 2,300-space parking garage at the Wiehle Avenue Metro station wouldn't affect traffic, has -- wait for it -- gotten on the bus as well, asking for $2.2 million worth of additional service, writing that:

"Many participants urged that the system not just focus on moving commuters to and from the Silver Line stations, but also create viable alternative transportation means for all residents in the community," Hudgins said in a memo. "The change in transit philosophy will take a great deal more investment and planning."

Our BFFs at the Reston Citizens Association have also written a report calling for similar improvements. RCA, which points out that it created Reston's first bus service some four decades ago, notes that Connector budget cuts and the service's own proposals for Silver Line bus routes "are inadequate to meet Reston's needs over the next five years."

Maybe it's us, but it seems a teensy bit troubling that all of this is starting to be talked about now, just nine months before the first Silver Line train will could pull into the Wiehle Avenue station. Here's hoping some progress is made sooner rather than later, before our trips to the Pentagon start looking like this:

Flashback Monday: It's Hip to Be Square

Like fancypants "new towns," cutting-edge art is supposed to confound our expectations by presenting the mundane in ways that challenge us as viewers. And if there's one thing we know about Reston, it's that it's way too progressive to be constrained by the usual expectations of society. No, even our art has to "push boundaries," if not by breaking through the fourth wall, then by challenging our conception of what the very canvas should look like.

Enjoy "Untitled" or perhaps "We Don't Know The Title," this fancy piece of Reston-themed art we found on the Googles. Just don't get too close to one of the edges of the frame -- it might poke your eye out!

Beyond--or perhaps because of--the genre-busting presentation, however, it's somehow comforting to see a very familiar Reston as the subject of this "artwork": a home with excessive balcony exposures painted in nondescript earth tones obscured by dangerous trees. Which, for serious students of art history and semioticians like us, brings to mind a question: When someone decides to do the first serious artistic rendition of the Field of Parallelograms, will they deliberately put it in a correctly oriented frame?

An Early St. Patricks Day Surprise That Wasn't All That Surprising: Police Helicopters

How did you spend your St. Patrick's Day? Did you enjoy a drink or two of a beverage spiked with some FD&C Green No. 3? Wish you could be spending the day in an oddly familiar corner of the land of poets and saints? Our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought-After South Reston, shares how much of South Reston spent theirs:

Begorrah! The tranquility of Peasant World Headquarters, and much of the rest of Less Sought After South Reston, was rudely disturbed in the wee hours of St. Paddy's Day by the non-stop circling overhead of one of the Fairfax County Police Department's new Bell 429 helicopters. It could have been worse; at first we feared that a DRB Predator drone was conducting a dreaded night raid and had locked its Mulchfire missile onto a target-rich environment of forbidden red mulch.

Nevertheless, from 12:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. March 17th, Deep South Reston was treated to the sight and sound of this helo flying lazy loops that seemed to pivot around the intersection of Myrtle and Fieldstone, just a Molotov cocktail's toss away from Much Much More Sought After Oakton. At times the helo was even illuminating the target environment with its Trakkabeam A800 xenon searchlight. Also headed to the scene of the incident were police cars, a fire department ladder truck, and an ambulance. The Peasant's 19-pound Maine Coon cat was not at all amused by the hoopla, even when informed it was not a joint raid by Fairfax County Animal Control and Mayor Bloomberg's Fat Cat Anti-Obesity Squad.

For some time we remained in the metaphorical dark as to what happened. We were beginning to surmise the worst, that perhaps an overly frisky leprechaun had been apprehended for wearing a non-regulation shade of Kelly green and subjected to a special rendition back to the Old Sod.

But in the investigative spirit of Woodward & Bernstein, a call to the local constabulary provided a much more mundane explanation: a large party in the Fair Oaks District that abuts our earth-toned paradise evidently had gotten out of hand. Who knew -- Fair Oaks as the new Delta House! Just remember, Fair Oakers, the immortal words of Dean Wormer: "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life."

Update: The Peasant informs us that there's now a police report about the incident, which apparently happened at a long-vacant McMansion :

PARTY, 11300 block of Stoneledge Court, 3/17/13, 12:05 a.m. Officer responded for a loud party. Officers from several district stations, K-9 teams, and the helicopter assisted. Thirty-eight individuals were detained. All juveniles were released to their parent/guardian. All adults were charged with unlawful entry. Several alcohol related charges were also made. The case is still under investigation.

Or, in the spirit of the holiday, perhaps we should call it a vacant MacMansion, the end.

Please to be Enjoying Pictures of Glorious Metro Construction, Wiehle Station 'Most Complete' of Them All

Much like the great representational art of the Soviet Union, please enjoy this photo of a union thug glorious worker doing… well, something to the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station. Much as everything about Reston is Above Average, you'll be pleased to know that our very own Metro station is the "most complete" of all the new Silver Line stations.

Construction of the five stations in Phase 1 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail stations is now focusing on interior finishes, installation of elevators and systems. The Wiehle-Reston East Station, the temporary end of the Phase 1 alignment, is now 82 percent done and is the most complete of all the stations.

Yet another feather in Reston's cap! Just ask these guys, who look like they're doing something Very Important to the tracks leading to the station:

The Silver Line isn't even open yet, of course, but our local Congresscritters are already pushing to extend Metro to Centreville and Ikea Dale City.

Two congressmen from our area, Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran, have introduced the “Northern Virginia Metrorail Extension Act,” which would study extending the Orange line to Centreville, the Yellow line down Route 1 to Fort Belvoir, and the Blue line down I-95 to the Potomac Mills mall in Woodbridge.

“We have to start talking about choices and alternatives right now,” Connolly told me. “We may decide that light rail is better. Or bus rapid transit. But let’s have the debate now. That’s what’s been lacking.”

We can't wait to jump right out of the future Cheesecake Factory, or whatever midscale chain eatery pops up at the Wiehle Avenue interim retail center, hop on the Metro, and just several short hours later after changing trains three times, arrive at the Cheesecake Factory at Potomac Mills Mall. Excelsior!

Meanwhile, folks who ride the Less Awesome Blue and Orange lines are already bracing for reduced service at peak hours, on account of trying to squeeze all our fancy new Silver Line trains through one aging tunnel. We're thinking it may make sense to see how well the existing system handles the current bump-up in service from the Silver Line before considering building any more fancy fun tracks to such exciting exurban locales as the future Dumfries Towne Centre, or whatever, but that's just us, the end.

Oops: Uncaught Typo Stalls Unopposed RA Elections

You may be forgiven for forgetting all about the Reston Assoiciation Asocciation Assoxquigff-the RA board elections, given that all three open seats are being sought by unopposed candidates. While uniformed federal agents delivered our official ballot to Restonian World Headquarters this very morning, it turns out that they had been delayed due to a spelling error. Lay it on us, BFFs at Patch:

New vendor Intelliscan discovered on Feb. 26 that "Association" was misspelled on the ballot guide, Fulkerson said.

"Our in-house team was surprised, as was I, on learning of the error," she said. "Especially since we were using design work from the prior year. We learned that the mistake existed last year but were not informed by the former printing firm-- who fixed the mistake without letting us know the error existed."

"Needless to say, we could not let the incorrect ballots go out to Members," said Fulkerson. "This caused a two-day delay in mailing."

The good news is that the mistake apparently didn't cost the RA a cent. And since the three candidates are running opposed, each only needs a 10 percent quorum to be elected -- although reballoting if the quorums aren't met would cost considerably more than fixing a typo. So vote early and often, kids!

Reston: The Pants Now Available in a Rainbow of Unsurprising Colors

Will the cavalcade of products named after our beloved earth-toned community never cease? First, there was the highly contagious disease. Then there were the stove burner covers, foam pads, and stools. Then there was the magazine, the opera, and the major motion picture. But now, we can all show our civic pride by wearing the fancy Marmot Reston Pant. Eighty-five dollars seems like a small price to pay for a garment that counts among its features 50 UPF to "shield against harmful UV rays" and a "gusseted crotch" (not going there).

But why, you may wonder, would they name these pants after Reston? Take a gander at the available color options:

Yep, that's about right.

Flashback Monday: A Land Before Home Depot, or Memco, or Whatever

This exciting photo may appear to be from a deleted scene of the Dukes of Hazard, but in fact this backwoods, seemingly hillbilly-intensive crossroads is none other than the intersection of Baron Cameron Avenue and what is today Reston Parkway, many moons before Memco Hechingers the Home Depot would grace our beloved earth-toned community. Guess that white van is hauling some 'shine to the then-farm town of Herndon, instead of waiting at an endless traffic light before getting loaded up with shingles, and plywood, and grout, and whatever else is needed to build one of those particleboard palaces in Loudoun County.

Apparently, you only had two choices at this intersection: head down then-Reston Avenue or go back to Baron Cameron, Village Road, and the friendly confines of Rt. 7. There's no HERE THERE BE DRAGONS sign in the other directions, but we guess that's just implied.

'Fat and Happy' Reston to be the Epicenter of Federal Budget Cuts, Says Newspaper Not From Reston

To explore the "human impact" of "sequestration," the fancy New York Times dispatched a "reporter" -- which is kind of like a blogger, except they occasionally put on hard shoes and leave the house -- to "check out the story," as we've heard them say in movies about newspapers. Said reporter apparently took the Acela down to DC and, using highly honed investigative journalism skills, found himself on the 595 to Reston.

To listen to the human side of sequestration, wait in line here for the 595 bus to Reston, Va., a journey across a suburbia grown fat and happy on a federal spending boom in the past decade, primarily military.

Fat and happy? Sounds like a positive story!

While the rest of the country experienced a corrosive recession, unemployment in Arlington County, home of the Pentagon, never rose above 5 percent. Nearby Fairfax County, with a cyberintelligence industry that took off after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, gorged on government contracts to private companies.

Wow, that turned quickly. Haters gonna hate.

But there's no denying that the impact of federal budget cuts will have an impact on the area, even if the sequester, whatever that is, is addressed by Congress.

The Washington metropolitan area, especially Northern Virginia, is in line to experience the largest economic hit of any region from the $85 billion in spending cuts that President Obama made official late Friday.

Because the automatic cuts, known as sequestration, fall unevenly across the country, many Americans are greeting them with a shrug. Their nonchalance is heightened because the 2.4 percent lopped from a federal budget of $3.55 trillion is relatively small and will not happen all at once. Moreover, Congressional Republicans have accused the White House of exaggerating the impact for political gain.

But in Northern Virginia the cuts will be deeply felt, economists said, assuming there is no political deal to undo them, a dimming prospect. The White House said the Defense Department would furlough 90,000 civilian employees based in Virginia, the most of any state, reducing their salaries by 20 percent this year.

The ripple effect, as those employees pare expenses, put off car purchases and delay buying a home, is expected to be large. Some economists predict that Virginia will slip into recession.

“No more movies, no more out-to-dinners, no more fun,” Robin Roberts, a civilian budget employee in the Defense Department, said as she waited for the 595 outside the Pentagon for the ride home. She and her husband, who is retired, have canceled their summer vacation. They switched to a cheaper phone plan. “It’s just pay the mortgage, pay the utilities, no more frills.”

Americans far from Washington who say government spending is reckless and unsustainable may not shed a tear for its suburban counties, 6 of which are among the 10 richest in the country, according to the census. But that prosperity has largely rained down on government contractors; federal employees, especially younger ones, depend on their middle-class wages.

“Most of my paycheck goes toward child care,” said Sarah Stein, another rider of the 595. “We’ve cut out what we can cut, and we’re going to be in trouble.”

The Pentagon has told civilian employees to plan on taking 22 days off without pay. Ms. Stein said she would not be able to save on child care even on the days she is home. “We still have to pay for five days a week, whether we go or not,” she said. “People are just very worried.”

And with 37 percent of the region's economy dependent on Uncle Sugar, we can't help but wonder what this means for all the awesome bollardy development slated for Reston. The mauvescraper on Reston Parkway, to give just one example, is unlikely to start reaching skyward until it has a tenant, and if there are fewer dollars flowing to the bomb-to-dolphin-strapping defense contracting industry, it's hard to picture a company forking over the cash for a "trophy" office building. If Once the dust from the current budget gridlock settles, it'll be interesting to see what happens to the area's long-term trends. It's another sign that the champagne wishes and caviar dreams of developers may never come to their full fruition, and we may be stuck in a hellish future of midrise garden apartments, golf courses, and Ford Focuses. The horror!

Update: Our hometown newspaper also weighs in.

Welcome to the Nanny State: Expansion of Reston's No-Smoking Zones Worse Than Communism, Teal Trim

Are you ready to be pushed 50 feet away from our glorious communal facilities the poolhouse if you want to smoke and be assaulted by polite signs "suggesting" you might want to quit with the cigarettes, already? Well, welcome to Moscow Reston, where the RA Board voted 7-1 last week to extend the no-smoking zone around RA facilities to 50 feet and put up the scolding helpful signs.

FREEDOM. CRUSHED. The move was discussed as a compromise, given ongoing pressure on the RA to ban smoking in all common areas outdoors, including the paths. The board has already bought a bunch of fancy no-smoking signs, although the army of tiny drones equipped with infrared cameras capable of spotting people smoking in the woods from 300 yards and tiny inkjet printers to dispense violation notices are apparently still on back order.

Interestingly, the discussion led to a rare public clash among RA board members. Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Patch:

Hunters Woods/Dogwood Director Cheryl Beamer suggested the board members were racist and classist in their thinking.

"I find it just amazing that all of you think there is such an enormous problem out there," Beamer said. "It is a way to feel superior, perhaps. Think about the statement we are making to people who smoke. This is not about a culture or courtesy for others. It is just 'we don't want you standing in front of 7-Eleven waiting for a job. It is also code for 'if you have a mental health issue, this is a way to roust you way from the pathways.' "

At-large director Donna Rostant called Beamer's statements "preposterous."

To namby-pamby non-smokers/NPR listeners like us who consider Alan Alda to be our personal role models, 50 feet doesn't seem that bad. But we'll go to our Chief Civil Liberties Correspondent for his reaction:

Snowcovenantviolation 2013: The 'Live Web Log'

Remember this gem from way back the last time we had this much snow predicted to fall? Yeah, it's been a while. We're also not digging the Snowquester name that was imposed on this storm -- it makes us Washington-area folks seem wonky, and overly obsessed with things folks in flyover country "outside the Beltway" have no clue about. So we coined our much more relatable, HOA-friendly phrase, as you can see above.

We'll be "live web logging" as long as the power and our copious supply of canned food holds out. See earlier updates, etc., etc. after the jump.

Behold the Promise of Transit-Oriented Development: An Interim Retail Center

If you've driven by the future Wiehle Avenue Metro station in the past few weeks, you may have noticed that the project has completely filled the Sleestak pit "topped off," to use construction parlance, and now there's actually a building rising heavenwards above the future "civic plaza." Sadly, it appears that all of the edges of this first building intersect at disappointing 90-degree angles, but it's a start!

Our BFFs at the Reston Citizens Association recently gave a foreign delegation a tour of Reston Station, and were told that this impressive structure will house an "interim retail center" that will greet weary Metro commuters with, we dunno, an interim Starbucks or an interim Cheesecake Factory or maybe an interim Container Store for those who don't have time to drive across town to get a plastic laundry tub on the way home from work. Eventually, it's destined to become the lobby of a future hotel -- we're keeping our fingers crossed that it'll be one of these, but that seems unlikely, given that the first brushful of neon orange paint would cause klaxons to sound at DRB headquarters.

After all this time, it's sort of exciting to see this work come to fruition. Yet, something still seems missing…


Oh, right. Much better.

Flashback Monday: When Sesame Street Came to Reston

Phriday Photo Phun: Insult to Injury

Way to rub it in, Spectrum, way to rub it in.

(Photo courtesy of Confidential Restonian Operative "Ed.")