Mt. Vernon $689,900 9200 Forest Haven One of the Most Admired Homes in All of Mt
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PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Alexandria, VA Permit #482 25 Cents Attention Postmaster: Time-sensitive material. Requested in home 8/1/08 Vol. XIX, No. 31 Mount Vernon’s Hometown Newspaper • A Connection Paper July 31, 2008 Slower Is Faster This is the most urban setting ever for using a variable speed limit. Photo by Photo By Chuck Hagee Gazette Louise Krafft Louise rivers on the Capital Beltway, traveling in the area of the Tele- Dgraph Road Interchange Project, as of Monday, July 28, became technological and sociological /Gazette Packet guinea pigs. They have unknowingly vol- unteered their driving psyche to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). An innovative traffic management system, dubbed Variable Speed Limit (VSL), is now Haley Maxwell tries out the hula hoops at the sixth annual Luau hosted by Amanda Jordan. The benefit in effect on the Inner Loop from the Mary- was to raise money for the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. For more see page 10. land shoreline through the Telegraph Road Interchange work zone and on the Outer Loop and from the Springfield Interchange through that work zone. It’s primary pur- pose is to keep traffic moving by slowing it Foreclosure Hot Spots on Route 1 down intermittently as bottlenecks develop. This will be done through the eyes of 18 strategically placed roadway sensors and There seems to be more acceptance than anger this time around. cameras monitored 24/7 from a control center at the WWB Project headquarters on By Chuck Hagee Foreclosures in Fairfax County homebuyer base and led to home price 600 600 Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria. As the Gazette SOURCE: Realty Trac, GMU Center for Reginal Analysis escalation,” according to the COG re- specially trained observer sees a backup 552 port. Between March 1, 2007 and Feb- occurring at a given spot on their flat screen n a rare Saturday session July 26 the 500 500 ruary 29, 2008, more than 15,000 monitors they have the ability to change the U. S. Senate joined the U.S. House 444 homes went into foreclosure through- I 400 400 of Representatives in passing legis- out the Washington Metropolitan Area, See Slower, Page 25 371 lation to aide home owners facing the COG reported. Art 300 300 Former Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald prospect of foreclosure. President Bush But, it is not only the owners of fore- An Authentic Space emerges to launch a new gallery. P has agreed to sign the bill. closed properties that suffer, according By Michael Lee Pope rapher in his own right who made a name hoto 200 200 Gazette Packet for himself as an artist before launching a political career with an unsuccessful cam- C ontributed hat was once the cluttered paign in 2000 and then getting elected in However, as helpful as the legislation 183 to COG, “Neighborhoods suffer as fore- office of an elected official 2003. When his personal life began falling Whas been transformed into apart in early 2007, the strains of public Alexandria’s newest art gal- life became too much for him and he 146 lery, a space where former Vice Mayor An- abruptly resigned, prompting a special elec- may be, it is not the be all and end all of closed properties often attract vandal- drew Macdonald can launch the next incar- tion in which Justin Wilson was elected to 100 115 100 nation of his public persona — art mogul. fill the remainder of Macdonald’s term. Af- 103 Over the past few months, Macdonald has ter the resignation, Macdonald’s wander- been quietly finding his way back into pub- lust took him to Antarctica, where he met lic life after his unexpected resignation from an Australian photographer named Valery the housing market meltdown. That will 21 24 27 ism, crime, and unhealthful conditions.” City Council last year, renovating his old Muhin on a cruise ship. 12 60 office into a gallery and filling a vacant po- Macdonald was lecturing on geology; sition on the board of the Old Town Civic Muhin was driving zodiacs. Both were Association. He’s also hard at work with working on the ship so they could spend occur when market inventory decreases 0 0 Foreclosed properties also can have an friends from the Athenaeum to document their free time photographing the Antarc- Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb the history of the building. On Aug. 8, he tic wilderness. The two struck up a friend- will host the grand opening of AHM Gal- ship, and now Muhin’s photographs of ab- lery, a quiet second-floor over Old Town original life in Australia will become the pre- substantially, now estimated nationally 07 08 adverse impact on adjacent property val- Coffee, Tea and Spice that takes its name from Macdonald’s initials. “Once I got rid of all the clutter — the political clutter — I started to Valery Muhin will be the artist for MacDonald’s first exhibit. at an 11 month supply, time on the mar- ues. think about how I could create an art gallery that had a real perspective,” miere show at the AHM Gallery. The “A gallery is a retail space,” said Frank said Macdonald, an Alexandria native show opens with a 6 p.m. reception Poland, who owns the first-floor Coffee, Tea who was a member of the City Coun- on Aug. 8 and will run at the gallery and Spice. “Someone needs to be there, ket decreases in the most hard hit areas, But, as they also note the Washington Although most of the foreclosures in cil from 2003 to 2007. “It took a long through Sept. 15. minding the store or it’s not going to work.” time to decide what I wanted to focus “A lot of these traditional commu- on.” nities are collapsing,” Macdonald said MACDONALD INTENDS for his gallery The tagline of AHM Gallery is “cel- as he scans a series of Muhin’s im- to be a successful retail venture, and he has and prices, which elevate equity, again be- regional market is better off than many oth- Northern Virginia have occurred in the out- ebrating authentic places,” a mission ages. “These photographs have an installed new hardwood floors and a light- statement Macdonald said will inform authentic quality to them that cap- ing system to properly display the art. Al- the choices he makes in terms of what tures the kind of perspective I want though he plans to show his own work kind of art will be displayed. He’s al- that gallery to have.” about once a year, most of the art displayed P ready talked to some friends from h The gallery is lo- gin to escalate without triggering a sharp ers throughout the nation. The reasons be- lying areas, western Fairfax, Loudoun and at AHM Gallery o t cated in a building Greenpeace about displaying an exhibit o will be the work of featuring photographs of whaling. And b known as the “Car- “The gallery is a y others. To empty he recently spent some time in Antarc- L riage House” al- o his gallery space of u though that was business, but I also tica documenting the ravages of global i personal clutter, he s rise in interest rates. ing the relatively low unemployment rate Prince William counties, which COG re- e warning. Other potential themes could never the purpose K acquired another r of the structure. It have a perspective include some of Macdonald’s longtime a room upstairs to f passions, such as environmental conser- f was built in 1830 t use as an office / about it.” vation and historic preservation. The first G by the Atchison and installed a a — Andrew Macdonald The new legislative bailout applies to the and the resilience of this area’s economy, ferred to as “hot spots,” they also empha- show will take place in August, with an z Lumber Company e professional-grade t opening reception slated for Aug. 8. t as a storage ware- printer — one that e “The gallery is a business, but I also have P house for windows and sashes. he used to print all of Muhin’s images for a c Macdonald first acquired the sec- a perspective about it,” Macdonald said as k the premiere show. e national mortgage picture. As noted in the which still relies heavily on federal govern- sized, “There are several neighborhoods a Van Morrison CD played quietly in the t ond-floor studio space in 1998. “Andrew took some time to focus on him- background. “I have a particular love of Although he intended to use the self and do the things he needed to do,” ald photography, but I don’t want the gallery rew MacDon space as a gallery, he ended up e Mayor And said Boyd Walker, who managed Former Vic reception on to necessary be limited to photography.” allery with a using the space as an office as Macdaonld’s 2003 campaign. “So I’m look- pens up his g opening sentence of a recent Washington ment activities even though it has become across the COG region where foreclosure o his public career dominated an ing forward to the re-emergence of Andrew 8. MACDONALD IS a well-regarded photog- Aug. increasing amount of his time. Macdonald into public life.” Fine Arts Area Council of Governments (COG) report much more diversified. activity was moderate in 2007 but is rising See “All Fired Up” from Aug. 5 Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Ave.