After the hiatus result from COVID-19, AHCA will be resuming monthly meetings in June with a virtual online format. Please REGISTER HERE to receive a confirmation email with details about joining the meeting and the option to add a reminder to your calendar. For those unable to use Zoom, we expect to also stream the event live to Facebook @aurorahighlands (no app or Facebook account required). Our Arlington Ridge and Crystal City neighbors are welcome to join in this meeting as well.

Have you noticed lately that we are using our sidewalks, streets, parks, and other public spaces in different ways? Or wondering why we aren’t already doing more to make these resources more useful for the neighborhood? Wondering what our fellow neighbor Amazon has been doing during the Covid crisis or how the HQ2/MetPark buildout is going? And what about all of the businesses and restaurants in our area, many locally owned – how have they been holding up?

Then join us Wednesday, 7-9pm for our June meeting, as we’re fortunate to have a terrific lineup talking about those topics. Each 10-20 minute presentation will be followed by a 10 minute Q&A session.

• Phil Myrick, CEO of Project for Public Spaces (PPS) will be our headliner, speaking about the value of public spaces (parks, plazas, sidewalks, streets, etc.) during the recovery, and how we should be thinking differently about them long-term. We’re very fortunate to have him, and very timely given all of the changes on tap for this area.
  
   

  Read a few recent PPS articles, “The Recovery Will Happen in Public Space” and “The Ligher, Quicker, Cheaper Transformation of Public Spaces” to get a taste of their expertise, which echoes many of the important goals we’ve identified for the area in our own Livability 22202 work.

• Brooke Oberwetter, Head of External Affairs at Amazon will discuss their COVID response in the area, progress on Met Park buildout and hiring, and provide a community engagement update.
  
   

  Hopefully the pile driving for MetPark6/7/8 wasn’t so loud that you didn’t hear the call out to provide your feedback on the initial design concepts for the public space at Met Park or hear that Amazon has been supporting our 23rd street restaurants with massive orders for front line workers.

• Tracy Gabriel, President of the Crystal City Business Improvement District will round out the presentations with an update on the work they’ve been doing supporting our businesses and the state of businesses in the area.
  
   

  If you’ve been following the news, you’ll know the BID officially expanded to cover Pentagon City in Aurora Highlands last year. It is expected to be officially renamed National Landing BID soon, and can begin officially programming in our area starting in July. We look forward to working more closely with them as they introduce their core set of services, programming, events and placemaking to all of National Landing, while continuing to celebrate Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard as unique and distinctive communities.

This will be AHCA’s first virtual meeting. We expect it to go well, but there may be hiccups. Our bylaws did not envision virtual meetings, so we will not be performing any official actions such as making motions and taking votes. If you have an issue that you feel needs to be raised, please contact an officer afterwards and we’ll discuss with you.