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.
A task force recommended to the City Council at a meeting last week that the Torpedo Factory Art Center (TFAC) be converted (item 9) to a “quasi-public entity.”
According to a presentation, the task force said:
Alexandria is seeing an uptick in contractors striking gas lines, partly thanks to outdated utility maps.
At a meeting of the Alexandria Local Emergency Planning Committee (full disclosure, this reporter served on the committee) last week, Fire Marshal Russell Furr said there is a “higher than normal number of gas lines being struck.”
Police were investigating reports of shots fired at a McDonald’s on Van Dorn Street early this morning.
Scanner traffic indicated that shots were fired at the McDonald’s drive-thru at 505 S. Van Dorn Street sometime around 4 a.m.
While people around the region have been discussing the proposal to move the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards to a new Potomac Yard arena, Alexandria Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Stephanie Landrum said one of the most popular questions she’s been getting from Alexandrians is “What will happen to the Target?”
The Target (3101 Richmond Highway) at Potomac Yard was controversial back when it opened, according to a Washington Post article from 1997.
With WMATA announcing potentially drastic cuts to the Metro system, some Alexandria leaders are saying the Potomac Yard arena announcement can be leveraged to get Virginia to pony up more support.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, last week Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took to the stage with local leaders and Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis to announce plans to build a new arena in Potomac Yard.
With two City Council members throwing their hats into the ring to become Alexandria’s next mayor, there will be at least two new faces on the Council next year: James Lewis wants to be one of them.
Lewis, chair of the Traffic and Parking Board, previously ran for City Council in 2021.
WMATA is having a pretty tough week, with bus lines on the chopping block and ten stations facing possible closure — including, awkwardly, the new Potomac Yard Metro station that’s a central part of plans for a new arena.
To make matters worse, it comes on the 40th birthday of three Alexandria Yellow Line stations.
After a decade running Visit Alexandria, the organization’s president and CEO Patricia Washington announced today that she’s retiring in June.
Washington took over the tourism agency in 2012 and has overseen a growth in city tourism pre-pandemic and a difficult rebound after Covid. Visit Alexandria receives funding from both the city and state sources.
Washington Post food critic Tim Carman cited Del Ray’s Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ (2000 Mount Vernon Avenue) as one of the top ten best casual restaurants in the region.
The restaurant opened in the backyard of Del Ray’s Evening Star Cafe earlier this year. The restaurant later got after-the-fact permission from the City Council to use outdoor smoker grills despite complaints from neighbors.
The DASH bus network has had a pretty good year / and this week they’re hoping to spread holiday cheer.
Today’s (Thursday) ‘stuff the bus fundraiser’ will be at the Bradlee Shopping Center / in hopes of giving those in need some supplies for winter.
Yesterday’s announcement of the possible new arena at Potomac Yard turned a previously scheduled conversation with Mayor Justin Wilson into one of the first public discussions of the contentious project.
The Del Ray Citizens Association was packed with 375 participants on a Zoom call to ask Wilson questions about the new project. Across social media — and at a small protest outside the announcement — concerns focused on the secrecy around the project, car congestion at the site, and the Potomac Yard Metro’s ability to handle the amount of traffic.
