Mark your calendars: Port City Brewing Company is hosting a sip-and-shop event early in May.
On Saturday, May 4, the brewery is collaborating with Made in ALX to host 30 artists from around the city with pop-up shops. The event will be held at the brewery at 3950 Wheeler Avenue.
According to a release:
This fun sip-and-shop event features craft beer from the award-winning Port City Brewing Co. along with food, shopping and activities for all ages.
About 30 artists from Alexandria and the region will pop-up with gifts for Mother’s Day, spring birthdays and just because. Signed artists for the May 4 event include Daniel Horowitz Art, CalmConnectWell Self Care Gifts, Chandra Designs, Garden Home, Ambitiously You, Silvergirl Handmade, Puzzles from Art and more than 20 other local makers.There is easy street and off-street parking at Port City Brewing Co., at 3950 Wheeler Ave. in Alexandria’s West End.
The market is scheduled to open at noon and close at 5 p.m. While some of the beverages are adult/human-only, the event is also kid and pet-friendly.
Artists can apply to be in the market online.
Photo via Made in ALX/Facebook
For those who don’t want to get their hands dirty but still want to contribute to Earth Month, a local non-profit needs help from local talent to put together a show highlighting sustainable fashion.
UpCycle Creative Reuse Center is a local nonprofit that collects items for reuse in arts and crafts and learning purposes. The organization hosts classes and workshops highlighting reusability.
UpCycle is hosting a ‘Re-Fashion Show’ on April 20 at The Garden ALX (5380 Eisenhower Avenue) to benefit UpCycle. The runway show kicks off at 5 p.m., followed by an after-party from 6-7 p.m. According to a release:
The Trash to Treasure Movement, a sustainable shopping and creative reuse advocacy resource, will be presenting a sustainable fashion show that will highlight the work of creative reuse fashion designers for 2024 Earth Day weekend. All proceeds of the event will benefit UpCycle Creative Reuse Center and their mission to inspire all people to explore and create by engaging our community in art-making experiences with reuse materials.
Tickets to the show are $20 but several volunteer positions still need to be filled, including:
- Fashion photographer
- Hair and makeup stylists
- Master of Ceremonies
- Videographer
- Fashion show stage crew
- Social media manager
Help promote re-usable fashion. Event planners, photographers, stylists, videographers, social media mavens are needed to help make the ReFashion Show a success. The event take place on Saturday, April 20 from 4 to 7 p.m. #VolunteerALX https://t.co/nsdOyC4sKQ pic.twitter.com/D7M0cnfp0F
— Volunteer Alexandria (@Volalex) March 26, 2024
Photo via UpCycle Creative Reuse Center/Facebook
April is Earth Month and anyone hoping to contribute locally can help out at an event in Old Town next week.
The City of Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Services Stormwater Management Division is hosting a stream clean-up event at the shoreline of Windmill Hill Park on Saturday, April 6, from 9-11 a.m.
Participants will meet at S. Union Street and Gibbon Street for a sign-in and event briefing before walking to the shoreline.
According to the release:
The clean-up event is held during Earth Month, celebrated annually during the month of April. Eco-City Alexandria will be hosting events throughout the month to extend Earth Day celebrations and to continue its commitment to sustainability. Earth Month is recognized as an opportunity to empower residents to make a positive impact on the environment.
The City will provide gloves, bags, and first aid kits during the events. Participants are encouraged to dress appropriately, in long pants and covered footwear, and to bring water.
To register for the event or request more information, contact nolan.compton@
alexandriava.gov.
Italian restaurant L’Italiano Vero is coming to Old Town North, the Washington Business Journal first reported.
The new restaurant is moving into a 4,695 square-foot space at 682 N. St Asaph Street, the same block as Trader Joe’s and formerly Sunday In Saigon, which closed last November.
According to a release from broker Divaris Real Estate Inc., the restaurant is slated to open sometime this May.
Alexandria’s School Board is starting to kick off plans for redistricting and some of the early discussion has been around a unique and controversial placement regulation in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS): capacity reassignments.
Capacity reassignments allow the superintendent to put caps on the number of students at a school and reassign students to other schools if that limit is reached.
According to the ACPS regulations:
Each year by April 1, the Superintendent will publicly present the projected number of students by school and by grade level for the following school year. The Superintendent and School Board will review proposed class size caps and the number of homeroom sections for each school at each grade level during the budget process each spring.
Under certain conditions listed in Policy JC/JCD, the Superintendent may place restrictions limiting the assignment of elementary students to a particular school or grade level based on capacity. If an enrollment limit for a grade level is reached, the Superintendent or authorized designee may reassign elementary students to the school closest to the student’s residence where there is capacity. Because ACPS transportation resources and utilization impact placement procedures, “school closest to the student’s residence” is determined by the shortest driving distance (mileage).
Capacity reassignments move students away from the schools closest to them to cut down on classroom sizes.
At a work session last week, staff told the Redistricting Steering Committee that one of the suggestions in this year’s redistricting discussion is the elimination of capacity reassignments, noting that no other school division has a system like ACPS’.
School Board member Abdel Elnoubi said eliminating capacity reassignments would require a different set of solutions, like trailers at schools.
“We continue to not want to put that idea on the table,” Elnoubi said. “We can’t have it both ways. If we’re going to eliminate capacity assignments, we need to be open to other solutions… we need to start thinking creatively.”
Elnoubi also said removing class size caps would increase inequity in Alexandria schools.
“Heck no, I would never support removing class size caps,” Elnoubi said. “This is going to increase inequities.”
School Board member Meagan Alderton said the School Board will have to make unpopular decisions to address capacity issues.
“I feel like our biggest problem when you look at all of these things: we don’t want to change with the times,” said Alderton. “We want to stay a small town. We love our little city on the hill, but that’s not where we are. We are continuously trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and this is why we’re having all these issues.”
Alderton said School Board members “have to take the heat over something.”
Policy revisions are the focus of the Redistricting Steering Committee this spring. From Aug. 2024 to May 2025, options will be developed and ACPS will gather community feedback. Recommendations are scheduled to come back to ACPS for a vote sometime between June-December 2025.
Once the new redistricting policies are approved, families will be notified of the impact between January and July 2026, with the new boundaries implemented for the 2026-2027 school year.
Alloy Personal Training held a grand opening for a new studio this weekend at 1070 N. Fayette Street in the Braddock neighborhood.
The new studio — with the somewhat geographically loose title Alloy Personal Training Old Town — celebrated its ribbon cutting on Saturday, March 23. Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce joined Alexandria resident and studio owner Russ Merbeth at the opening.
“We cater to people of all fitness levels,” said Alloy Personal Training studio owner Merbeth. “Our personal training system is uniquely focused on clients who want to be in the best shape of their lives — not just the younger set that many gyms target. We know that people do better with personal coaching, encouragement, support, and accountability. Our clients want to look good, feel great, and live life to the fullest.”
The studio is offering a “First Session is on Us” special.
There are 240 Alloy Personal Training locations nationwide, but the new studio is the first in Alexandria.
The conversion of some King Street blocks to pedestrian zones has been a fairly popular move. Now, the city is merging those long-term planning efforts with waterfront flood mitigation, hopefully streamlining improvements to the 100 and unit blocks of King Street.
A report prepared for a Traffic and Parking Board meeting later today (Monday) said the city is looking at long-term plans for the pedestrian zones as well as incorporating the project into the broader waterfront flood mitigation plans.
“Staff have been working closely with the Department of Project Implementation and representatives from the community to advance the Lower King Street Long Term Closure Project,” the report said. “The long-term project seeks to create a more active and engaging pedestrian and user experience in the heart of Old Town Alexandria.”
The report said combining the projects should help streamline various design elements and run a little more efficiently.
“By combining the two projects into a single delivery, the City will ensure the design, stormwater, utility, infrastructure elements, and construction sequencing of the two projects are fully coordinated to maximize efficiency and reduce costs and risks to the City,” the report said.
Design for the Waterfront Flood Mitigation Project — now including the Lower King Street Long Term Closure Project — is scheduled for design in the summer and fall 2025, with construction to start in fall 2025.
A public presentation and open house on the projects is scheduled for 7 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Charles Houston Rec Center (901 Wythe Street).
☀️ Today’s weather: Sunny with a high near 55. Increasing clouds tonight with a low around 37 and cloudy tomorrow.
🚨 You need to know
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said a last-ditch effort to pair the Potomac Yard arena with a Fairfax casino was “disappointing.”
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that an alternative plan formed between political leaders and developers to merge the arena and the Northern Virginia casino.
Apparently, however, both Monumental owner Ted Leonsis and Gov. Glenn Youngkin shot down the proposal before it could get off the ground.
Wilson said the proposal would circumvent the public process and isn’t how business should be done in Virginia.
This is not the way that business should be done in our Commonwealth.
The City has worked to give Alexandrians an opportunity to consider a unique economic development opportunity.
This is disappointing.https://t.co/jCa45s4i5G
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) March 24, 2024
📈 Friday’s most read
The following are the most-read ALXnow articles for Mar 22, 2024.
Updated 3/23 — A spokesperson from Monumental Sports and Entertainment responded “We fundamentally disagree with the Attorney General’s opinions, which are contradicted by the DC General Counsel as recently as 2019 when the city ratified the Ground Lease.”
Even as Monumental Sports and Entertainment faces an uncertain future for its Potomac Yard plans, D.C. could be throwing a new legal challenge into the mix, Washington City Paper first reported.
The letter from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said that D.C. publicly financed $50 million in extensive improvements to the current arena in Chinatown in 2007, ten years after it opened, and part of that agreement was a condition to play home games at the arena through 2047.
#BreakingNews – DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb tells Ted Leonsis in a stern letter this week that Leonsis’ DC contract means Leonsis cannot legally move his Caps & Wizards teams to Virginia until 2047 — 2047, that Leonsis can’t just pay off bonds early & move in 2027. @wcp
— Tom Sherwood (@tomsherwood) March 22, 2024
“The Council expressly conditioned that public financing on [DC Arena LP’s] commitment to extend the original ground lease for an additional 20 years, thereby ensuring the District and its taxpayers that the Wizards and the Capitals would continue to play their home games at the arena through 2047,” Schwalb said.
Schwalb went on to say the 2007 legislation did not authorize [DC Arena LP] to extinguish or revoke the lease extensions upon prepayment of the outstanding bond debt.
Schwalb said D.C.’s conclusion is Monumental Sports and Entertainment is obligated to keep the Wizards and Capitals at the arena through 2047.
“I am advising you that the District does not agree with your legal conclusion that MSE’s proposed arena move to Virginia does not violate or breach its legal obligations to the District,” the letter said. “To be clear, the District very much prefers not to pursue any potential claims against MSE. It remains committed to maintaining and growing its partnership with MSE and to keeping the Wizards and Capitals at the arena until the end of the existing lease term in 2047, if not beyond.”
BREAKING: DC's attorney general told Monumental Sports on Monday they can't move the Washington Capitals and Wizards from DC until 2047, citing a 2007 bond/lease agreement. @DCAttorneyGen says Monumental can't break agreement even if they paid off bond debt early. @DCNewsNow pic.twitter.com/qX3LBqoC62
— Ben Dennis DC News Now (@broadcastben_) March 22, 2024
A new piece of art is making an impact on Alexandria’s waterfront.
The art piece Interstellar Influencer (Make an Impact) was installed this week in Alexandria’s Waterfront Park. The work represents the asteroid that impacted with Earth 35 million years ago and helped shape the Chesapeake Bay.
The work was crafted by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang. It’s the sixth piece of public artwork installed at Alexandria’s Waterfront Park and will be on display from March through November 2024.
“We want this representation of the asteroid and its impact to raise awareness of the fragility of our shared existence on this planet and the extraordinary (and sometime extraterrestrial) foundation of our modern cities and waterways.” Klimoski said on the project’s website. “We all share this one planet and live within the history of events that shaped it. Sometimes you have to look at it from the point of view of an asteroid hurtling through space 35,000,000 years ago to appreciate just how incredible it is we’re here at all.”
Scene from my Thursday morning run:
Is it an asteroid or a new approach to flood mitigation on our waterfront?
(It’s actually “Interstellar Influencer (Make an Impact),” our newest public art installation in Waterfront Park!) pic.twitter.com/e7pBm90E1I
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) March 21, 2024
