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2023 Fall Newsletter Available
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Cherrydale Needs Your 
Leadership and Your Participation

Civic engagement is more important than ever. Join in at the neighborhood level by becoming an active participant in the Cherrydale Citizens Association. Now you can join without paying dues. Just come to our meetings and get involved!
We’re counting on both our long-time residents and our brand-new arrivals in Cherrydale to continue to step up and play a leadership role. We are currently looking for new volunteers to serve as our Secretary, our Website Editor, and our Newsletter Editor. And we almost always have volunteers forming committees or joining in to address particular issues. 

​The CCA plays a unique role in guiding transportation, development, and school issues going on in our neighborhood. We help all our residents and businesses interact with County and State officials as well as private developers who are bringing about many changes in Cherrydale. These changes have a real impact on your lives, so you should be a part of them. The CCA can only serve you if you come to our meetings, where you can meet your fellow Cherrydalers, become better informed, make yourself heard, and, most-importantly, vote. We look forward to meeting you at our next meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 7:30pm, St. Agnes Parish Hall, 1910 N. Randolph St.

Help Us Envision a
​More Connected Cherrydale

The CCA is working with the Lee Highway Alliance to move Lee Highway away from a “cars-first” design that speeds commuters through Arlington to a series of interconnected neighborhood main streets focused on Arlington residents and businesses.
Cherrydalers love to visit shops in and around the Lyon Village Shopping Center. But too few of us walk or bike there because of the narrow, unlit sidewalks underneath I-66, and the long stretch of sidewalks hemmed in by huge retaining walls.

We can change this. First, we hope to light the under-pass and turn it into a destination for walkers and bikers. Second, we need to reclaim the retaining walls, and maybe even an unnecessary traffic lane, and turn them into a fea-ture.

​This is where you come in! We need input on what this will look like in Cherrydale. The NoMa Business Improvement District in DC is leading the way for us on lighting. NoMA is hiring an artist to light the railroad underpasses that divide that neighborhood.T he CCA is already moving forward with the LHA and VDOT to explore our own light installation under I-66. We need your ideas about what our under-bridge lighting project could look like. Do we keep our costs down and follow NoMa’s lead? Do we find our own artists and create our own design? How do we incorporate a design that accounts for sidewalks on both sides of the street and the bike path?
Similarly, we need your ideas for reclaiming the huge stretches of sidewalks that pass underneath the bridge and continue along the concrete retaining walls. Fortunately the County has redesigned the traffic signals and crosswalks at I-66. It’s a great start, but what else can we do? Do we turn the walls into painted murals? Hang other art installations on the walls? Or maybe we reclaim one of the unnecessary driving lanes with concrete planters and industrial-scale art installations?
While always cost conscious, we want to be bold. We invite you to think about what you’ve seen in other parts of Arlington, other parts of the DC area, and other cities around the country and the world that you think could work along this stretch of Lee Highway. Lots of other communities have, without breaking the bank, found creative ways to reclaim spaces for walkers and bikers that were originally designed with only cars in mind. We can do it, too.

How to Get Involved in Arlington

As quick glance at messages on the listserve and Nextdoor or an evening stroll will tell you, Cherrydale neighbors are an opinionated bunch. Many of our ideas, suggestions and complaints relate to the services of Arlington County and Arlington Public Schools (APS).

Luckily, we all live in an accessible jurisdiction, where the staff and leadership of both the county and APS value and act on input from the public. However, sometimes figuring out how to get involved can be daunting. Here are various ways you can find out what's going on and make your voice heard.

1.     Find and comment on the projects that the County and APS are currently working on;
2.     Join or give feedback to county and school commissions and committees (and answer the question “what is JFAC”);
3.     Have your voice heard during the budget process;
4.     Let the County and APS know about issues they are not currently working on but should;
5.     Report a problem/Request a Service

Updating the CCA for the 21st Century

Since its founding more than 100 years ago, the Cherrydale Citizens Association has been an unincorporated association.  Moving forward, it may be better to incorporate the CCA as a non-profit 501(c)(4) association organized to promote the social welfare.  The move would provide greater protection for officers and members alike, and would allow us to explore obtaining liability insurance.  It would also improve our ability to accept donations via credit card payment.  We’ve found a law firm that will donate their services to help us with the process and to file all the necessary paperwork.  If this works out, we hope to move forward with this in the next few months. 

Nominate a New NC Project!

We need your ideas for our next Cherrydale NC project. NC projects can include sidewalks and street lights, street lights only, park improvements, beautification, and other capital improvement projects to benefit the neighborhood.  Download the forms and send completed forms to our NC Representative.   Our next project in sidewalk improvements on North Quebec St. between 17th St. and 18th Rd.  But we are already thinking about our future projects.   Submit your ideas today!​
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Contribute to the Sweet and Sour News

The Sweet and Sour News is a great way for the Cherrydale Citizens Association to reach every Cherrydaler, young and old. It is a unique resource for providing news and information about Cherrydale and Cherrydalers.

​Over the years, we’ve had a number of Cherrydalers contribute articles or even start a column. We’re looking for folks to start doing that again. 
And delivering the Sweet and Sour News is a fun and easy way to join our tremendous network of Cherrydale volunteers. The newsletter comes out five or six times a year, and volunteers adopt a street and have two weekends to hand deliver the newsletter. It only takes about 20 or 30 minutes and is a great way to stay in touch with your neighbors.

​Email CCA President Jim Todd  at president@cherrydale.net and/or Newsletter Editor Mary Byrnes at newsletter@cherrydale.net if you are interested in contributing an article or volunteering. Thanks! 

Sweet & Sour News

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