It’s been nearly 4 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we’ve lost an entire spring and too many lives, jobs, and sacrifices all around. While new positive cases in Falls Church have significantly slowed and Virginia has made progress on testing, tracing, and hospital capacity – we […]
You’ve marched, donated, signed petitions, ordered new books. Now what? If your social media feeds and neighborhood chatter are like mine, the cynical part of me worries that this activism is already fading. Easy wins like new band-aid colors and bringing down monuments by themselves are hollow. How will you […]
Today is Juneteenth, the first observance of the holiday in Virginia and the City of Falls Church. As more become more aware of Juneteenth, it’s important to learn about its significance (my kids will watch this read-aloud after breakfast). Juneteenth is not the day that enslaved people were freed or the […]
After a week of amazing turnouts for racial justice, I am proud to see our community so loudly stand on the right side of history. Falls Church is now one of the first cities in the region to have accepted President Obama’s pledge on police reform. Chief Gavin is an exceptional, humble […]
With no City Council meeting this week, I debated taking a week off to use this platform judiciously to let other voices be heard. Like the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been paralyzed by the enormity of the job ahead. There is much to learn and many worthy causes to […]
Today marks an important turning point in the pandemic – Northern Virginia has entered Phase 1 re-opening, which is a tiptoe and not yet a complete re-opening. Read on for the specific restrictions still in place and what you can expect from businesses. The US also surpassed another grim milestone […]
Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council Dear Friends, Ahead of this holiday weekend, I know this year’s start to summer just won’t be the same. In lieu of our annual Memorial Day festivities that have been canceled, […]
The big news, which you’ve liked heard by now, is that Virginia is slowly re-opening today (Phase One of the “Forward Virginia” plan), with the exception of Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Accomack County (latter two were added yesterday) due to local leaders appealing to the Governor that we have not […]
Today marks eight weeks since the beginning of the pandemic closures in Falls Church. It’s not the kind of milestone anyone wants to celebrate, so I will cut to the chase this week. 1. Small Business Saturday – we declared every Saturday of May as “Small Business Saturday 2.0” in Falls […]
This week’s post is like a “feedback sandwich” – positive news bookending a morsel or two of not-so-great news in the middle. If your eyes glaze over whenever I write about the budget, you have an incentive to read to the end for a palate cleanser. This week’s post will […]
This year we’re paying attention to Richmond more than ever. In pre-pandemic times, I was looking forward to progressive legislation on many Falls Church priorities, such as gun legislation, LGBTQ equality, clean energy, and affordable housing. While the world is very different now, all eyes were still on the General […]
This week’s post is early so that I can help make a final push for the Falls Church t-shirt campaign you may have seen. It ends tonight, so you still have a chance to contribute – support a small business, help a family in need, and get some new threads at the […]