News

Early voting for November’s general election starts on Friday, Sept. 19, across Virginia. Here’s what you need to know in Alexandria.

Early voting starts 45 days before election day, and the only contested elections voters can decide on in Alexandria are for the Virginia governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.


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Alexandria will unveil redevelopment plans for Old Town Pool (1609 Cameron Street) at a community meeting next week.

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the city’s Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities will present the plans at the Oswald Durant Center (1605 Cameron Street). The meeting will be held at 7 p.m.


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Interior demolition work started last week at a new French cafe in Old Town.

Aug. 28 was the last day for public comments on Maman Coffee Baking Kitchen’s special use permit application (SUP) to operate a cafe, bakery, restaurant, and accessory event space at 701 King Street. The building is located at the corner of King and N. Washington Streets, and is the former home to Foxtrot, which closed in 2024.


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Alexandria is hosting its Recovery Month Celebration on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at Ben Brenman Park (4800 Brenman Park Drive).

The free event from the city’s Department of Community and Human Services will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. and includes live music, food trucks, and local resources to help with the recovery from opioid addiction. More from the city is below.


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The landlords of a popular beer garden in Del Ray have filed a civil claim for eviction against their tenants in Alexandria’s General District Court.

The filing from Twenty-Third Street Corridor LLC cites that the owners of The Garden (1503 Mount Vernon Avenue) are paying the default rent and operating on a month-to-month lease. Before the filing, The Garden’s owners, Jeremy Barber and Justus Frank, filed a suit in the Alexandria Circuit Court against the landlord, who listed the property available for rent.


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We made it to Friday, Alexandria! Here’s a look at our most-read stories this week.

Our top story is on a new speakeasy Bar 86 opening next month at Café du Soleil (215 S. Union Street) in Old Town. The Tiki bar has been in development for a year, and is the work of owner Chef Samuel Darlo and consultants Jacob Sunny and Kelvin Sone.


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The owner of the dilapidated former Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town North will conduct guided tours of the property next month.

HRP Group bought the former power plant in 2020, and plans to convert the 18-acre site at 1300 N. Royal Street into a mixed-use development. The guided tours will be held Friday, Oct. 3, and Saturday, Oct. 4, and “will give community members the chance to meet the project team and visit the site, which has been inaccessible to Old Town North for decades,” according to HRP Group.


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Hundreds of Alexandria City High School students held a walkout on Friday, Sept. 5, demonstrating against gun violence in schools.

The walkout at ACHS’s King Street and Minnie Howard campuses started at 11:30 a.m., and lasted for less than a half hour. The demonstrations are part of a national walkout, were organized by Titans Demand Action and held on school grounds. Media was not permitted to observe, except from the public sidewalk. Students held signs, threw water bottles and chanted, “End the violence!”


News

Federal agents were spotted in the city’s Arlandria neighborhood on Friday, Sept. 5.

There were no reports of arrests. Footage taken by ALXnow at around 9:30 a.m. shows multiple vehicles with Texas license plates in the parking lot of The Birchmere at 3701 Mount Vernon Avenue. A photo submitted to ALXnow also shows federal officers speaking to people at Four Mile Run Park near Casa Chirilagua (4109 Mount Vernon Avenue).


News

An Alexandria man has been sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to collect and send the Chinese government national defense information.

Michael Charles Schena, a former South Caribbean Desk Officer in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs with the U.S. State Department, sent classified documents to individuals he believed were agents of the People’s Republic of China, and received between $13,000 and $37,000 in return, according to court records.


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