Vernon Miles | ALXnow

ALIVE! raises $4,000 for local shelters in weekend sidewalk sale

Published June 28, 2021 at 10:45AM

Sidewalk sale, via ALIVE!/Twitter

Alexandria non-profit ALIVE! took over a block of S. Payne Street this weekend for a sale that helped raise $4,000 for the program.

The sidewalk “yard sale” helped benefit residents of ALIVE! House and Friends of Guest House, two programs offering temporary shelter for women and families in need. The event featured sales on items like donated clothing, jewelry and games.

News

DASH bus driver dies from COVID-19

By Vernon Miles

Published June 28, 2021 at 9:45AM

This weekend, Alexandria bus network DASH suffered its first death from COVID-19.

The bus service is not releasing the victim’s name, but marketing and communications manager Whitney Code said the victim was a bus driver.

News

City talks strategy on making Chirilagua/Arlandria neighborhood Amazon-proof

By Vernon Miles

Published June 25, 2021 at 2:45PM

A mother and child at a food distribution outside Casa Chirilagua in Arlandria on Thursday, May 21, 2020. Casa Chirilagua is one of the recipients of the ACT Now COVID-19 Response Fund. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Residents of the Chirilagua/Arlandria neighborhood been besieged over the last year.

As a largely Latino community disproportionately impacted by job loss during the pandemic, local residents have pushed back against rent payments. But even as Alexandria starts to pull out of the pandemic with an eye toward job recovery, the city is working through efforts to build a plan to save Chirilagua — less than a mile from Potomac Yard and Crystal City — from the gentrifying effects of Amazon.

News

Parker-Gray tiny lot home moves forward with some unique challenges

By Vernon Miles

Published June 25, 2021 at 9:45AM | Updated June 25, 2021 at 12:15PM

Rendering of 1117 Queen Street home, courtesy Matt Gray

It will be a cozy fit, but a local home builder is hoping to turn a small, empty gravel lot at 1117 Queen Street into a new single-family home.

The home first went to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) in April where the appeal was approved with the condition that no construction can occur within three feet of a neighboring property. It’s now heading to the Board of Architectural Review on Wednesday, July 7, with questions remaining from the BZA about fire code implementation and setback requirements.

News

Researchers call out shoddy craftsmanship in buried 18th century Alexandria ship

By Vernon Miles

Published June 24, 2021 at 4:45PM | Updated June 24, 2021 at 8:18PM

The discovery of the Old Town Armada was an unexpected boon to Alexandria archeologists. But impressive as it is that so much of the three ships have remained intact after centuries underground, recent archeological work has uncovered an interesting detail on one of them.

Somebody screwed up.

News

Lee-Fendall House raises over $5,000 to repair collapsed 200-year-old wall

By Vernon Miles

Published June 24, 2021 at 3:30PM | Updated June 24, 2021 at 4:08PM

Damage to Lee-Fendall House Museum garden wall, via Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden

The garden wall of the historic Lee-Fendall House (614 Oronoco Street) in Old Town took a beating earlier this week, but support from the local community has helped put the wall on the road to repair.

A few days after announcing that a significant portion of the home’s wall had collapsed, the home has raised $5,005 to help boost repair efforts.

News

Alexandria City Public Schools scraps recreation center classroom plans

By Vernon Miles

Published June 23, 2021 at 1:30PM

Alexandria City Public Schools won’t be looking for classroom space in recreation centers.

That’s according to last week’s virtual meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission, which looked over a slew of updates for various projects throughout the city.

Opinion

Poll: Would transit improvements in Alexandria make you more likely to take the bus?

By Vernon Miles

Published June 23, 2021 at 10:50AM

A DASH bus in Old Town Alexandria (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

A new Duke Street overhaul that aims to make the street more transit-friendly is starting its community outreach phrase.

The Duke Street in Motion plan aims to create a corridor of more reliable and frequent bus service along Duke Street between the King Street Metro station and Landmark Mall — where developers is in the early phases of redeveloping the site into a mixed-use corridor and hospital.

News

With eviction moratorium expiring, city pushes renters and landlords toward rental assistance

By Vernon Miles

Published June 22, 2021 at 2:30PM

The thrice-extended moratorium on evictions, put into place to keep renters in their homes despite worsening economic conditions, is about to run out.

With the moratorium set to expire on June 30, the City of Alexandria is directing local renters and landlords toward local and state rental relief programs to help prevent evictions in Alexandria.

News

City Council emphasizes marketing funding for Alexandria’s ‘Hot Girl Summer’

By Vernon Miles

Published June 21, 2021 at 4:15PM

City Council member John Chapman has the distinction, marked in the record, of being the first on the dais to use the phrase “hot girl summer” — and in the most unlikely of contexts.

Chapman’s millennial moment came through at the end of hours of public discussion on where the American Rescue Plan Act funding is going. No decision was reached at the City Council meeting this weekend — and final passage is scheduled for Tuesday, July 6 — but the City Council did indicate interest in emphasizing the city’s tourism and overall marketing in the funding package.

News

No cut-through traffic relief in new Duke Street plan, but it could be addressed this fall

By Vernon Miles

Published June 18, 2021 at 2:40PM

West Taylor Run and Duke Street, via Google Maps

If you’ve traveled along Duke Street during rush hour, you probably recognize the intersection above, and might even have a visceral reaction to it. The one-late turn from Duke Street onto Telegraph Road, and by extension to the Beltway, faces frequent backups not only along Duke Street, but in surrounding neighborhoods packed with cut-through traffic.

The bad news: the Duke Street transit overhaul isn’t going to touch that intersection.