Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: Expect a mostly sunny day with temperatures reaching a high near 89 degrees and a south wind of 3 to 8 mph. Thursday night will be partly cloudy, with the low temperature around 70 degrees and a south wind of 6 to 8 mph.
🚨 You need to know
The curse of “Fake Alexandria” strikes again.
Washingtonian Senior Editor Andrew Beaujon criticized the New York Times and other news outlets for saying Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito — in the news thanks to a flag-flying controversy — lives in Alexandria when in fact he lives in Fairfax County.
Samuel Alito lives in Fairfax County. His Fort Hunt neighborhood is about six miles from Alexandria’s city hall, about as close to that building as the Jefferson Memorial is. His taxes go to Fairfax County. He’s about five miles south of the closest Metro station, and he’d likely have to take a Fairfax Connector bus to get there. He can’t vote for who will replace retiring Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. And yet, in the eyes of many national outlets, Alito is an Alexandrian.
The Fairfax confusion stems from outdated zip codes that don’t line up with actual city/county boundaries. It can lead to confusion about emergency situations and other errors, like Target in Fairfax inadvertently paying $1 million in sales tax to the City of Alexandria.
An ALXnow poll from 2022 found that 66% of respondents said they believed Alexandria should refer exclusively to the area within the city borders. Even though one of the first ALXnow stories was about that divide, we’re still not immune from that error now and then.
“As a resident of the city of Alexandria, I once again beg national news outlets to learn the difference,” Beaujon wrote. “Consider it my appeal to heaven.”
📈 Wednesday’s most read
The following are the most-read ALXnow articles for Jun 12, 2024.
- Police searched for National Harbor homicide suspect in Alexandria (2746 views)
- Alexandria Mayor admonishes Vice Mayor for using picture with former fire chief in campaign mailer (2278 views)
- Notes: Southern Baptist Convention expels Alexandria church for allowing women as pastors (1737 views)
📅 Upcoming events
Here is what’s going on today in Alexandria, from our event calendar.
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