Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
🌤 Today’s weather: Clear throughout the day. High of 59 and low of 47.
☔ Tomorrow: Possible light rain starting in the afternoon. High of 60 and low of 46. Sunrise at 7:18 am and sunset at 7:17 pm.
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News
For some Alexandrians, the question of renaming streets that currently honor Confederate leaders isn’t “should it change” but “what happens to my address?”
As Alexandria moves through a new renaming process, City Council member Sarah Bagley said the City Council Naming Committee heard from residents at a recent meeting who have practical concerns about how renaming will impact everything from paying bills to getting friends to their house. At a City Council meeting last night, Bagley and other members of the Council provided an update on the street renaming discussion.
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(Updated 2 p.m.) The Alexandria Fire Department (AFD) has put out a fire in a home on the 200 block of South Fairfax Street.
AFD spokesperson Raytevia Evans said Alexandria units are responding to a single-family residential building fire. The 200 block of South Fairfax Street and some of the surrounding streets have been closed.
It turns out that the work on Mount Jefferson Park isn’t finished after all.
The 4.6-acre park has been closed since January 2022 and is part of an agreement by developer Stonebridge to build the Oakville Triangle project. The project, which includes removing invasive species and reshaping trails, was initially scheduled to wrap last September but encountered delays with weather, supply chain issues and design revisions.
Good Wednesday morning, Alexandria!
🌤 Today’s weather: Clear throughout the day. High of 47 and low of 33.
🌤 Tomorrow: Clear throughout the day. High of 58 and low of 32. Sunrise at 7:19 am and sunset at 7:16 pm.
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The tense discussions between Alexandria’s City Council and School Board came to a head over Alexandria City High School’s Chance for Change Academy.
The joint work sessions are a chance for the school and city leaders to close the $7.5 million gap between the School Board’s $58.7 million request and the City Manager’s proposed $51.3 funding to the schools in the fiscal year 2024 Capital Improvement Program (CIP). But while both sides agreed relations between the two bodies are better than they’ve been in the past, the conversation still reopened old wounds between the two leadership teams.
Fights over historic preservation are nothing new in Alexandria, and a recent edition of the city’s This Week in Historic Alexandria offered a look back at one of the controversial projects from the 1960s that shaped Old Town as it’s known today.
This year marks 60 years since Alexandria’s City Council approved the “Gadsby Commercial Urban Renewal Plan” in 1963 — a project that saw the large-scale demolition of much of King Street’s older buildings once construction began in 1965.
There were no injuries or arrests after gunfire was reported near the intersection of Quaker Lane, King Street and Braddock Road on Sunday.
The Alexandria Police Department received multiple calls for service at around 2:45 p.m. to the 1700 block of W. Braddock Road — about two blocks away from Alexandria City High School’s King Street campus.
Watch out, there are some strong winds around Alexandria and the surrounding localities.
Gusty winds are expected to persist throughout the day an into the overnight hours Wednesday. With gusts of up to 50 mph, downed trees and power outages are possible.
Alexandria is hoping a federal grant could help push Alexandria’s DASH bus network a little closer to full electrification.
A memo from Deputy Director of Transportation Hillary Orr to the Transportation Commission said the city is hoping federal funding can help cover a sizable budget gap looming for electric bus replacement plans.
A new survey shows widespread support for the installation of metal detectors within Alexandria City Public Schools.
There were 4,374 respondents to the survey, which ACPS opened on Feb. 24 and closed on March 8. Included in the survey were 1,181 students, 609 staff, 2,295 family/guardians, and 289 community members. About 85% of survey respondents supported using weapons screening equipment in all or some schools, and 58% of respondents want the metal detectors in every school.