Author: Vernon Miles

Vernon Miles is the ALXnow cofounder and editor. He's covered Alexandria since 2014 and has been with Local News Now since 2018. When he's not reporting, he can usually be found playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons with friends.

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Alexandria hopes cutting parking requirements can boost city’s auxiliary dwellings

By Vernon Miles
Street parking on Main Line Boulevard in Potomac Yard (staff photo by James Cullum)

The City of Alexandria is considering increasing the number of auxiliary dwellings allowed in commercial buildings and nixing the parking requirements for most of them.

One of the biggest behind-the-scenes projects at City Hall has been an effort to make auxiliary dwellings — formerly accessory dwellings, we’ll get into that later — more viable in Alexandria.

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Woman seriously injured after being struck by driver in Taylor Run

By Vernon Miles
West Taylor Run Parkway and Janneys Lane (image via Google Maps)

A woman was critically injured after being struck by a driver this morning in Taylor Run.

The call for a pedestrian struck went out around 6:40 a.m. this morning (Wednesday). Alexandria Police spokesman Marcel Bassett said a female pedestrian was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of West Taylor Run Parkway and Janneys Lane. She suffered a serious but non-life-threatening injury.

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Alexandria plans to bring lights to more athletic fields, but some neighbors say lights bring more hassle

By Vernon Miles
Alexandria City High School Friday Night Lights at Alexandria City High School on September 17, 2021. (Via Elijah Walter Griffin, Sr.)

Alexandria’s athletic fields could get new lights to keep games running later, but the prospect has already drawn backlash from some field neighbors who say the lights only create more of a nuisance.

In a community meeting last week, Jack Browand, division chief of Parks and Cultural Activities, said the lights are part of a push by city government to extent the usable hours of the city’s overcrowded fields.

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Arlandria housing project heads back to city review after local Catholic church refuses to yield alleyway

By Vernon Miles
Rendering for Mount Vernon and Glebe, via AHDC

A few months after its initial approval, a new 474-unit affordable housing development in Arlandria is headed back for city review with a few amendments spurred on in part by Saint Rita Catholic Church holding onto an alleyway central to the housing developer’s plans.

The  Alexandria Housing Development Corporation‘s (AHDC) Mount Vernon and Glebe project — which presumably will get another name before the development is finalized — is headed to review at the Planning Commission on Thursday, June 23 and to the City Council on Tuesday, July 5.

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Alexandria facing another Metro shutdown, this time without DASH filling the gap

By Vernon Miles
A DASH bus on King Street in Old Town Alexandria

The City of Alexandria could be turning to state funding to try to mitigate the impacts of a pair of upcoming Metro closures.

At the same time, city staff wrote in a memo that it’s increasingly apparent the city’s DASH bus network doesn’t have the manpower to support additional bus routes making up for the loss of Metro service.

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Arlington leather repair shop Best Foot Forward moving to Bradlee Shopping Center

By Vernon Miles
Leatherworking at Best Foot Forward (image via Best Foot Forward/Facebook)

After twenty years in Pentagon Row, family-owned leatherworking shop Best Foot Forward is moving to the Bradlee Shopping Center in Alexandria early next month.

Victoria Lopez, operations manager at Best Foot Forward and daughter of the shop’s founder Wilfred Lopez, said they are planning on moving to the new Bradlee location sometime in early July.

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

It’s been a busy week in Alexandria.

Just two weeks after an Alexandria City High School student was killed during a brawl at the Bradlee Shopping Center, there was another murder in the City’s West End. Enoc Cruz Villafuerte, 22, was arrested at the scene of a shooting in a West End apartment complex and was later charged with the murder of his brother, Jonathan Cruz Villafuerte.

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Old Town pay-by-phone parking cost could increase in effort to push drivers to garages

By Vernon Miles
A parking meter in Old Town Alexandria on King Street

(Updated 5 p.m.) Next week, the City Council will review a set of new parking rates (Item 19) for Old Town that aim to push drivers off the street and into the city’s underutilized garages.

The new ordinance would expand the area of Old Town where drivers who don’t have residential or guest permits must pay by phone to park. The current rate in those zones is currently $1.75 per hour, but the new ordinance would allow the Director of Transportation and Environmental Services to set a rate of up to $5 per hour.

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Lane closures start tonight on Duke Street in the West End

By Vernon Miles
Duke Street bridge of I-395, photo via VDOT

Drivers along Duke Street in the West End should expect lane closures starting tonight and continuing intermittently through Friday, June 24.

The closures are connected to work on the Duke Street bridge over I-395 near Lincolnia. Planned improvements for the bridge include replacing the concrete bridge deck and beams, upgrading the westbound sidewalk to a shared-use path and widening the eastbound sidewalk.

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