Special Tinner Hill Music Festival Edition June 6 - 12, 2024
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d e d 1991 • Vol. XXXIV No. 17
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
New Hotel Now Open In F.C., At West End
PAINTING THE RAINBOW
Home2 Suites by Hilton Feted in Grand Opening by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
A grand but still soft opening of a fourth new hotel in the City of Falls Church last week is the latest inflection point in the coming to pass of major new, income and tax revenue-creating development here. Home2 Suites by Hilton is now up and running in the middle of the massive West End development next to the new Meridian High School. A ribbon cutting and some salutary remarks were made by representatives of Home2 Suites, the Hoffman and Associates group that is the master developer of the wider 10-acre project, and Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi. It marks the fourth new hotel in the Little City, joining the Sonesta on Hillwood Avenue, and the Hilton Garden Inn and Meeting House on West Broad. This one is closest to a Metro station, and as the West Falls Station Boulevard running through the center of the West End project, and on which the new hotel is located, gets completed, will be a short jaunt to the West Falls Church Metro station. Rapidly, new retailers are opening in the project, while The Oaks condominiums have begun selling residences, and a lot more is on the way.
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WITH THE START of LGBTQ+ Pride Month last week, F.C. Mayor Letty Hardi was present with a group of young volunteers who worked to refresh the rainbow paint job at a F.C. City Hall crosswalk. (Courtesy Photo)
Beyer Notes Sharp Contrasts With Trump, GOP by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The City of Falls Church’s forever favorite son in national politics, U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. was a keynote speaker at the region’s largest political gathering of the season last Sunday, a sold-out Democratic Party event in next door Tysons that was brimming with energy coming on the heels of the conviction on 34 felony counts of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Beyer kicked off his remarks to the gathering of over 350 by commenting on last week’s conviction of Trump, saying that May 30 marked “a very sad day for American history, but a glorious day for the Rule of Law.” Beyer was joined by Rep. Gerry Connolly, civil rights attorney Philip Hirschkop and presumptive Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia in the election next year, U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, as key speakers at the assembly, which was billed as Fairfax County’s third annual Blue Fairfax event.
Sen. Tim Kaine sent video remarks. On the program but unable to attend was Michael Fanone, a Fairfax resident who became a national hero, a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, for his actions as a member of the Metropolitan police force during the January 6, 2020 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Fanone was unable to attend due to the high volume of threats against him and his family in the wake of the court verdict on Trump Thursday. As the first speaker on the
program, Beyer said of the Trump verdict, “It has been disappointing to wait so many years for justice for a man who has bragged forever about how many people he has cheated, stolen from, and lied to, a man with no love in his heart, just rage and ego and tearing down other people and ideas, perhaps the world’s most famous narcissist.” He added about Trump, “If a sociopath is defined as someone with zero empathy for other living
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