News

In the midst of everything else that’s happened over the last year, the Seminary Road debate can feel like a relic of another age, but there was a time when the Complete Streets program was at the center of a community-wide debate.

Complete Streets is an Alexandria program that aims to redesign roadways for the benefit of all users, with pedestrians and cyclists in mind along with motorists. The program stirred up some local controversy over plans to reduce travel lanes on Seminary Road in favor of bike lanes. A form put out by the city allowed locals to weigh in on street resurfacing.


News

A Tysons coffee shop specializing in Turkish blends is planning to move into a former chocolatier space in Old Town.

Turkish Coffee Lady is a cultural and coffee/tea kiosk in Tysons Corner Center that is applying to open a store at 1001 King Street, Zebra first reported. Owner Gizem Salcigil White has filed a special use permit (SUP) for a change of ownership for the building that once housed Blüprint Chocolatiers and, more notoriously, white nationalist Richard Spencer.


News

Sudshare app-based laundry service launches in Alexandria — “Sudshare has launched in Alexandria to connect people who hate washing clothes (or don’t have time to do it) with people who are willing to do it for you.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]

Alexandria gets another new mural — “The newest Alexandria mural was unveiled on Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 11, at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School.” [Zebra]


News

New Capital Bikeshare stations have recently been installed in Alexandria, with more on the way this month and next.

On Friday, Capital Bikeshare installed a new dock at S. Pickett Street and Shillings Street, near the Contempo NOVA (né Modera Tempo) apartments at 5760 Dow Avenue.


News

After the 2019 decision to maintain one high school, Alexandria City Public Schools is finally getting ready to send its expanded campus concept to the city for review.

Plans specifically for the current Minnie Howard campus are scheduled to go to the Planning Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 4:


News

Alexandria School Capacity The Focus Of Proposed Capital Budget — “The latest Capital Improvement Plan proposal includes funding for a newly acquired office building that will become a school.” [Patch]

The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa to open next weekend — “It’s time for dogs to move over, because there’s a new cat in town – or a cat hotel and spa, rather.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]


News

In the last few months, a head-long battle between Alexandria’s police and firefighters against city leadership has come to a head as first responders unions say underpayment has left staffing at critical levels.

City staff recently laid out the potential costs to implement a pay raise for first responders, but unions representing those first responders say that sticker shock is less intense in the broader context of the budget.


News

The PT Blooms LLC development at 805 Columbus Street is returning to the Board of Architectural Review for a certificate of appropriateness after having its hand slapped earlier this year for being too Old Towny.

The proposed development — designed by the Penney Design Group — is a five-story building with 78 residential units built on what is currently a vacant lot in the heart of the Braddock/Parker-Gray neighborhood. While the building would tower over some of the nearby two-story homes, the application notes that it’s tapered at the upper levels of the building to shift the height away from the street. Even so, several pending five-story developments for the area indicate that this sort of building could be the norm in the area within a few years.


News

The story of Hybla Valley’s lost airport — “Every American with their own plane? Strangely enough, this was a widespread belief during most of the 1920s and ’30s — a motive which, at the time, led to the creation of Alexandria’s prestigious and unique Hybla Valley Airport.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]

New sports field opens at Francis C. Hammond Middle School — “The new multipurpose futsal court at Francis C. Hammond Middle School was finally unveiled on Monday, Nov. 8.” [Zebra]


News

(Updated 5 p.m.) Alexandria has a long history of beer, from Port City to prohibition, and a new excavation on the waterfront is sifting through one of the city’s older breweries.

City archeologists are currently at work at the Roberdeau’s Wharf/Harborside site (400 South Union Street), where they recently found a brick furnace and a coal bin associated with the circa 1830s brewery, according to the Alexandria Archaeology Museum’s Twitter account.


News

(Updated 4:45 p.m.) At the start of a City Council retreat this weekend, acting Human Resources Director Jen Jenkins laid out some numbers behind the ongoing discussion over a pay increase for city employees.

City employees — first responders in particular — have criticized city leadership’s handling of employee pay and lamented that the city is, in some respects, lowest in regional pay. The city has laid out plans for a 1.5% pay increase, which unions representing first responders called an insulting lowball.


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