I walked to Arlington Town Day earlier this month. It was a nice ramble, in relatively decent weather. Most of my Town Day memories involve a lot of unseasonable heat. The crowds were there as before, but I thought I detected a bit of a breeze in the air.
Arlington has a very strong, active community and its local organizations – as well as its businesses – reflect that. I’m always amazed at the number of community organizations at Town Day, everything from student groups, to sister city initiatives, to sustainable life and development and more. Arlington’s small businesses are out in force as well, of course. Not surprisingly, I also ran into some of our member organizations.
At some point I visited the Arlington Housing Corporation table and chatted a bit with its Executive Director (and AE member) Pam Hallett. Check out the work of the housing corporation if you hadn’t done so before. They do great work in the community and help make Arlington a more affordable, equitable place to live.
I also met the new Director of Libraries, Andrea Nicolay. I’m looking forward to seeing her again in my many trips to the Robbins Library (a/k/a “My second home”).
AE member Bob Sprague of YourArlington.com also made an appearance, along with his wife and local author, Marjorie Howard. Marjorie and fellow author Barbara Goodman are in the process of publishing the book “Legendary Locals Arlington.” Be on the lookout for it!
There’s an arts area at Town Day, in front of the Jefferson Cutter house on Massachusetts Ave. It’s there I ran into Linda Shoemaker, Executive Director of the Arlington Center for the Arts. I just checked their website a moment ago and it looks like there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on: Arlington Open Studios in October, along with its regular lineup of courses and events.
Before finishing up, I thought I’d give a shout out to our Arlington business association neighbors, The Capitol Square Business Association and the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. It’s good to know we’re all here and pulling together for the economic development of our town!
Check out all that Arlington has to offer. It’s just a walk, bike ride or short walk away!