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 brings back summer cooling and senior care program

By Vernon Miles

As temperatures start to go up, Alexandria’s annual program aimed at helping residents without home cooling make it through the summer is coming back.

The Summer Cooling program allows residents to beat the heat at several recreation centers and libraries around the city. The program came in handy for residents last summer during a heat wave. Like last year, however, there are some capacity restrictions due to COVID-19.

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City Council candidate thinks divisive local issues are Republican comeback opportunity

By Vernon Miles

It’s been nearly ten years since Republicans had a spot on the City Council, but Republican City Council candidate Darryl Nirenberg is hoping several divisive issues that have cropped up over the last couple years can help break the blue stranglehold on the city this November.

“Prospects for a Republican are better now than they have been for years,” Nirenberg said. “The issues facing our city, such as divisive plans to house adults on school grounds; road diets; promoting more density in the midst of a pandemic; neglect of our storm drains and infrastructure; and destroying green space — are not partisan.”

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Former City Council member Willie Bailey announces bid for School Board

By Vernon Miles

(Updated 6/3) In an election where former School Board member Bill Campbell is hoping to move to the City Council, former City Council member Willie Bailey is hoping to make the move in the other direction.

Bailey, an Army veteran and Deputy Chief of the Office of the Fire Marshal for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, was elected to the Alexandria City Council in 2015. Over the next three years, Bailey was one of the Council’s prominent advocates for greater emphasis on affordable housing and supporter of a controversial 1% increase to the city’s meals tax, and lost reelection in 2018.

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Volunteers needed this weekend to help clear dangerous stretch of Mount Vernon Trail

By Vernon Miles
Mount Vernon Trail (photo via Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail/Twitter)

Anyone who has walked or biked along the Mount Vernon Trail is familiar with a few of its scary parts — places where cyclists or runners round corners without having a clear view of what’s on the other side.

Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail is looking for some help clearing up vegetation around one of those spots: the area just north of Old Town but south of Daingerfield Island where two parts of the trail converge.

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Virginia Theological Seminary is making reparation payments to slavery descendants

By Vernon Miles
Virginia Theological Seminary (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Virginia Theological Seminary’s (VTS) ongoing effort to pay $1.7 million in reparations to the descendants of those enslaved at the school was highlighted this week in the New York Times.

The reparations program was launched in 2019, but the school started to issue payments to more than a dozen families in February.

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Mayor releases figures for ongoing eviction crisis in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles
A rally to extend the moratorium on rent evictions in front of the Alexandria Courthouse on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

As the nation was going through economic turmoil and the city’s unemployment reaching historic highs, at least 1,899 residents have also faced eviction threats from their landlords.

In a newsletter, Mayor Justin Wilson noted that from last July to this April, there were 514 eviction judgements in the city and 1,128 evictions that were pursued but eventually dropped or dismissed. There are 257 cases pending.

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Ownership of Landmark’s streets could make a big difference down the road

By Vernon Miles
Landmark Mall rendering (image via City of Alexandria)

The building blocks for what will become a sweeping mixed-use development replacing Landmark Mall are almost in place. A small discussion about street ownership could also have big implications for the future of the site’s identity.

The Eisenhower West Landmark Van Dorn Implementation Advisory Group met on Monday to put some of the finishing touches on some of the initial framework discussed over the last few months. One of the major points of discussion is over who will own the roads.

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Thousands affected by large power outage in the West End

By Vernon Miles

For thousands of customers in Alexandria’s West End, power is still out after last night’s storms.

According to Dominion Energy’s power outage map, 3,703 customers in the West End — from the border with Shirlington down to the Van Dorn Metro station — are currently without power.

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Alexandria private school to move into Old Town church

By Vernon Miles

Update 6/1 — Potomac Crescent Waldorf School said reached out to ALXnow to provide an update on some of the details. PCWS is not planning to return to the Waypoint site after departing at the end of this year. The plan will also not have pickup or drop-off on St. Asaph’s Street.

Earlier: The kids at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School need a place to stay, and Old Town Community Church is offering to take them in.

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