ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

This week, Alexandria streets were under the microscope as the city eyes changes both in their design and their names.

Five years after adopting Vision Zero, the city’ total number of crashes has continued to trend downward, but the number of crashes resulting in severe injuries or death has remained consistent.

Part of the city’s changing approach to transportation infrastructure has been creating more pedestrian and cyclist-focused streetscapes. Nowhere has that change been more extreme than the pedestrian zones construction at the 100 and unit blocks of King Street. But while those changes have proven popular, city staff said it won’t be easy to take those same ideas and apply them to the 200 block.

Lastly, the city is looking at expediting the current process for renaming streets that honor confederate leaders, with a current goal of renaming three streets per year.

The top stories this week, by readership, were:

1. Notes: New bill could kill snow days in Virginia for good
2. SCOOP: A new French bistro is opening in the heart of Del Ray in two weeks
3. D.C. man arrested after armed carjacking on S. Van Dorn Street
4. Alexandria aims to rename three Confederate-honoring streets per year
5. ‘The most blighted property in the West End’ gets redevelopment recommendation from Planning Commission
6. Saving herself: Alexandria author kidnapped by Somali pirates to publish second book
7. Notes: Popular D.C. brewery opening new location in the Carlyle neighborhood
8. Poll: Should Alexandria implement more ‘no turn on red’ restrictions?
9. Next week sees the return of dueling ‘restaurant weeks’ in Alexandria
10. Fairfax County man arrested after residential burglary near Fort Ward