Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire received praise from City Council Tuesday night for a 30% overall crime reduction in 2025.
In a presentation to City Council, McGuire said that violent crime went down an average of 29%, a difference of 111 offenses. Overall property crime was down by an average of 30%, a difference of more than 1,300 offenses.
Alexandria City Council directed staff on Tuesday to pursue a new preferred option to combat flooding along the Alexandria waterfront — one that does not involve a pump station.
City staff presented the council with a number of options in the wake of the National Park Service’s denial last month of the city’s plan to build a pump station at Waterfront Park. The city’s preferred option, Option 3, is an enhanced gravity storm sewer system, with “automated back flow prevention devices.” Option 3 also means that infrastructure improvements to Point Lumley Park and the bulkhead would be deferred.
Alexandria City Council approved a $4 million loan yesterday (Tuesday) for Naja, the second and final phase of Housing Alexandria’s affordable housing project being built at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Glebe Road in Arlandria.
The $4 million City Housing Opportunities Fund loan is the final installment of the city funding package for Sansé and Naja, which will have 495 affordable housing units and more than 20,000 square feet of commercial space. City Council also approved $400,000 in rental subsidies for eight units at Naja. Before Tuesday’s approval, the city’s funding support for the project had totaled $79.7 million, according to a city staff memo.
Two people were displaced after a fire was extinguished in an Arlandria apartment Tuesday evening, according to the Alexandria Fire Department.
AFD responded at around 6:30 p.m. to a kitchen fire on the first floor of a three-story apartment building in the 3800 block of Milan Drive. No injuries were reported, and no neighboring apartments were affected by the fire, according to the fire department.
Alexandria City Public Schools is preparing to move hundreds of students and reassign staff as part of its redistricting process beginning in July.
The school system has been working on the transition since the Alexandria City School Board approved the plan last June. On Thursday (March 26), ACPS staff will update the board on the plan, which will shift 860 students to new schools in the coming school year.
On This Day in Alexandria History — “On March 25, 1844 a meeting of the African Colonization Society was held at The Lyceum. Known formally as The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, an organization that supported the resettlement of free blacks in American back to Africa … Ironically, members of the ACS represented two diametrically opposed constituencies; Quakers, evangelicals and other abolitionists that opposed slavery, and ardent slaveholders in the Chesapeake region that fought against regulated abolition but saw free blacks as a potential threat to the institution of slavery that could incite slave rebellions.” [Historic Alexandria]
Next Budget Work Session Focuses on Government Accountability — “This week’s Work Session will focus on Accountable and Effective Government. Listen in on alexandriava.gov/Dockets or attend in person on Wednesday, March 25 starting at 7 p.m. at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center.” [City of Alexandria]
Good Tuesday evening, Alexandria. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Mar 24, 2026.
Here are today’s most-read articles:
Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Alexandria, from our event calendar.
Expect partly sunny skies with temperatures reaching a high of about 59°F and a south wind blowing at 6 to 9 mph. Wednesday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 49°F and a continued south wind at 7 to 9 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“Do not watch the clock. Do what it does. Keep going.”
– Sam Levenson
Thanks for reading!
Alexandria’s Office of Housing director Helen McIlvaine will retire at the end of April, the city announced today (Tuesday).
McIlvaine joined the city in 2006 as the deputy director of housing and has been housing director since 2015. Starting on May 1, Deputy Director Aspasia Xypolia will serve as acting housing director.
Alexandria City Council will consider the appeal of the Traffic and Parking Board’s decision to remove parking and reconfigure a portion of Braddock Road for bike lanes.
City spokesperson Ebony Fleming told ALXnow the appeal consideration is tentatively scheduled for City Council’s May 16 public hearing. The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Council Chamber at Del Pepper Community Resource Center (4850 Mark Center Drive).
More regulations on what vape products can be sold and increased enforcement of underage sales are included in new legislation heading to Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D).
In a news conference yesterday (Monday), Attorney General Jay Jones (D) highlighted the plan for increased oversight of tobacco product retailers under Del. Patrick Hope’s HB 308 and former State Sen. Adam Ebbin’s SB 620. The legislation would shift license and enforcement of liquid nicotine and retail tobacco products from the Department of Taxation to a new permitting system led by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Authority.
Tonight (Tuesday), Alexandria’s City Council will consider providing a $4 million loan to Housing Alexandria to build the second and final phase of its Sansé and Naja affordable housing project at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Glebe Road in Arlandria.
The Sansé and Naja project represents Alexandria’s most “significant affordable housing investment” to date, according to a city staff memo to City Council. The development will deliver 495 affordable rental units to the 3.2-acre site and could be fully occupied by 2028.
