Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: Expect sunny skies and a high of around 51, as light south winds shift to southwest at 5 to 10 mph during the morning. For Thursday night, the sky will remain mostly clear, with temperatures dropping to a low of about 32. The west winds at 6 mph will become calm as the evening progresses.
The Alexandria Police Department was the victim of a swatting call on Sunday night (Jan. 8), after a male told a 911 dispatcher that he “accidentally” shot his brother in the chest after playing with their father’s gun.
The call was made at around 11:25 p.m. on Sunday. The caller told police that the incident occurred in an apartment in the 5400 block of Richenbacher Avenue near Holmes Run.
Among all the hubbub about the Potomac Yard arena, there’s been one looming question: how would people travel to and from the new facility?
Transportation has been the key item of concern for both public critics of the project and many civic leaders. While Mayor Justin Wilson said the development will minimize parking to reduce the amount of people taking cars to the site, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said the newly built Metro cannot handle the levels of arena traffic proposed in this development.
A 42-year-old Alexandria man was arrested last month for allegedly brandishing a firearm against a neighbor living in the same West End apartment building.
Antwain Young, 42, was arrested Dec. 21, six days after the alleged incident. He was charged with brandishing a firearm, possession of a firearm by a nonviolent felon and possession of 11 to 49 marijuana plants. The marijuana charge was dismissed, and Young goes to court for the other offenses on Feb. 16.
I have bad news for anyone else tired of reading about the Potomac Yard arena: the city announced a three-month schedule of public engagement for the project.
The schedule includes community engagement events, listening sessions, project briefings, site tours and more.
Good Wednesday morning, Alexandria!
🌤️ Today’s weather: Expect partly sunny skies and a high near 49, accompanied by a breezy southwest wind of 16-21 mph, gusting up to 39 mph. For Wednesday night, the sky will be mostly clear with a low around 31, as the west wind transitions from 8-13 mph to a light southwest wind after midnight, with gusts potentially reaching 18 mph.
(Updated at 11:30 p.m.) Tim Beaty, the retired former global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was declared the winner in tonight’s special election for the open School Board District A seat. He defeated Gina Baum, an Alexandria City Public Schools parent and former longtime member of the city’s Park and Recreation Commission, and will be sworn into office next week.
Beaty won the election 1,270 votes (56%) to Baum’s 962 votes (43%), and 5.5% of the registered voters in District A (41,335 voters) cast ballots on this rainy Tuesday. District A includes Old Town, Del Ray, Potomac Yard and Arlandria. The results will be certified in the Alexandria Voter Registrar’s office near City Hall on Friday.
Talk about a good pairing: An Ethiopian honey wine-tasting room just opened on Vine Street in Alexandria’s West End.
Gize Negussie has a steadily growing list of about 40 Ethiopian shops and restaurants that he sells wine to, and late in the fall opened Negus Winery and Meadery Tasting Room in a renovated space in an industrial area at 5509 Vine Street.
The impact that the proposed Washington Wizards/Capitals arena at Potomac Yard will have on local businesses will be discussed in a virtual town hall meeting this week.
Stephanie Landrum, CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP), will speak about the ramifications in a Zoom meeting at noon on Thursday (Jan. 21).
Update at 1:45 p.m. — Alexandria City Public Schools has canceled all afternoon and evening activities. According to ACPS:
Due to the inclement weather forecast for our region, all afternoon and evening activities scheduled at Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) facilities are canceled at this time.
The Linder Academy, a private school that opened at 607 S. Washington Street in 2021, has applied to open a new location at Ross Dress for Less at 112 N. Washington Street.
The school, which currently has around 105 students at the existing location, is applying to have a maximum of 160 middle and high school students at the new location.
