Moving Forward Together: Video Highlights Arlington's 2013 Accomplishments

Arlington County has released a video highlighting the local government's accomplishments for 2013.

It covers a broad range of projects — the renovations of the baseball diamond at Barcroft Park, construction of the Arlington Mill Community Center and the new $50 million Rosslyn Metro Station entrance to name a few.

"Although Arlington is facing challenges, the state of the county is strong," outgoing Arlington County Board Chairman Walter Tejada said Tuesday night. In January, Tejada unveiled a Moving Forward Together agenda, a theme that was reiterated Tuesday during the debut of the county's video and Tejada's State of the County speech. 

Moving Forward Together — or "juntos hacia adelante" as Tejada, an El Salvador native often refers to it — breaks down into four key areas:

• Affordable housing, including new ways to finance such housing and working to end homelessness.
• Fitness and health, including promoting healthy lifestyles and working to prevent childhood obesity.
• Urban agriculture, or working to provide healthy food to the community.
• Pedestrian and bike safety, including the promotion of the county's "Be a PAL" campaign; the principles of the campaign — predictable, alert and lawful — are aimed at motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.

The board earlier this month made substantial progress on affordable housing in particular, creating a fund to subsidize certain properties so that they can qualify for a state low-income housing credit, initiating a system where new development pays into affordable housing along Columbia Pike and creating an assistance fund for low-income renters.