There are dozens of volunteering opportunities in Alexandria.
“We need hundreds of people per week,” Volunteer Alexandria Executive Director Marion Brunken told ALXnow. “More people are in need now than ever.”
News
A former office building turned residential complex in the West End is headed back to the City Council on Saturday, Sept. 18, for some new amenities — like replacing a surface parking lot with a dog park.
The Park + Ford apartment buildings at 4401 Ford Avenue opened earlier this year but developer Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group is already back to the city looking to add to the project. The developer is proposing to replace a pair of parking spaces across the street from the building with a new amenity space and a dog park — both private, unfortunately for West End locals looking for an alternative to the Shirlington Dog Park.
Kristin Carpenter’s services are in demand.
This month, she and her team opened The Linder Academy at the corner of S. Washington and Gibbon Streets in Old Town, joining their smaller McLean location, which opened in January.
The Landmark area is getting one step closer to the city’s goal of being a mixed-use community at tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting.
At the meeting tonight, the Council is scheduled to review several amendments to the city’s Landmark-area ordinances ahead of the area’s planned mixed-use redevelopment. Among these is the creation of a new Community Development Authority (Item 36), a new five-member board that will be in charge of overseeing several aspects of shaping Landmark Mall. In particular, the CDA will manage the financing, designing, and construction of the area’s public infrastructure and services, financed through a combination of bonds, private contributions, and other sources.
Alexandria chooses historic trolley as 2021 holiday ornament — “The City of Alexandria is now taking orders for its 2021 Trolley ornament, depicting Car 303 of the Mount Vernon Alexandria & Washington Electric Railway. The fleet of art deco cars were purchased in 1918 for the essential trolley line that connected Del Ray commuters to DC and tourists to Mount Vernon. Car 303 ran until the railway’s closure in 1932. It became a diner in 1936.” [Zebra]
Missing 83-year-old West Ender found safe — “Mr. Navia has been located.” [Twitter]
The Alexandria City Council, on Tuesday, will likely extend its local emergency declaration until January 31, 2022.
The declaration, which was first approved by Council in March 2020, has been continually updated every six months, and finds that “the emergency continues to exist and will exist into the future.”
Alexandria Police are reporting double-digit increases in burglary and drunk driving arrests so far this year.
In an update to the Health and Safety Coordinating Committee, police reported a 35% increase in driving while intoxicated arrests (136 incidents) — as of August 2021.
The Alexandria City Council will likely hire the next city manager before the end of the year, and next week the city will hold a hybrid town hall on the “qualities and values” the next manager should possess.
After six years as the highest-ranking government employee in Alexandria, City Manager Mark Jinks hinted to ALXnow in May that he was going to retire, and then made it official a month later. The city is currently undergoing a national search for his replacement.
News of over a dozen school deaths from COVID in Miami has led ACPS to reconsider it’s earlier position of allowing staff to decide whether to be vaccinated or not.
At a School Board meeting last week, the board voted to make it clear that in the coming weeks a plan will be put together on requiring all staff to be vaccinated — unless that falls into the broad category of claiming a medical or religious exemption.
Visit Alexandria launched a new advertising campaign last week focusing on attracting Black visitors. Using federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, Visit Alexandria hired D.C.-based Creative Theory Agency to develop the “Drop-in” campaign with help from business owners and leaders around the city.
“We’re thrilled to roll out this major new campaign to build on our last 8 years of painting a more complete and inclusive picture of Alexandria,” said Visit Alexandria President & CEO Patricia Washington. “Our destination is more ready than ever for this campaign given the City of Alexandria’s investment and development of new Black history experiences through the Office of Historic Alexandria, citywide priority around race and social equity, as well as newly-opened businesses and the transformation of our waterfront.”
City leaders mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks — “A solemn gathering in Waterfront Park to remember those lost and commemorate the selfless service of so many during and after the attacks of September 11th. Honored to have @RepDonBeyer and the leaders of @AlexVASheriff @AlexandriaVAPD & @AlexandriaVAFD with us.” [Twitter]
Old Town’s ‘Art On The Avenue’ festival needs hundreds of volunteers — “As an entirely volunteer-run event, Art on the Avenue seeks over 200 volunteers to help with pre-event set up, business set up, monitoring the food court, handing out posters, and more before and throughout the day. Each volunteer may sign up for a specific position and shift time. The average shift is between 2 and 3 hours; there is no limit to how many hours one can volunteer.” [Zebra]