As the city continues to adapt to primarily virtual meetings, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker is spearheading an effort to open up new ways for the public to provide input on city affairs.
While the move coincides with the extended online-only year of city governance, Bennett-Parker said the issue also taps into earlier lack of online access for city residents.
There’s been another indecent exposure in Del Ray, this time in an alleyway in the unit block of East Bellefonte Avenue.
The incident occurred at around 6:30 a.m. on Friday, November 20. There was also another incident in the 2200 block of Mount Vernon Avenue at around 6 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, according to Del Ray activist Gayle Reuter. The police did not file a report for the Nov. 13 incident, Reuter said, as the officer told the victim who witnessed the exposure to call him if she saw the suspect again.
With the approach of the yuletide season, the Lee-Fendall House (614 Oronoco Street) in Alexandria has decked out the home in full 19th century regalia for candlelight tours.
“Celebrate the holiday season with evening candlelight tours of the Lee-Fendall House decked out in Victorian splendor,” the Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden said on Facebook. “Our antique toy exhibit will also be on view.”
After a unanimous vote at the Alexandria School Board meeting last night, the names T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School were voted out — with the replacements still to be decided.
Over the next few months, the School Board will seek public feedback before settling on a new pair of names. The new names will be chosen by the Board in the spring and go into effect at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.
Alexandria Library Offers New Online Learning Tool — “During this time of school closures, expanded online learning, and social distancing recommendations, access to premium research tools that provide access to information from reliable sources is important. Alexandria Library Offers Online Resource Tool EZProxy to make access to these resources easier to use.” [Zebra]
Southern Living Profiles Alexandria at Christmas — “Although it may look the part, Alexandria, Virginia, is not the kind of Hallmark-movie small town where all the locals grew up together and you’ll undoubtedly run into your high school sweetheart while picking up a fresh baguette at the neighborhood bakery. The community here is tight-knit, but anyone can join.” [Southern Living]
The 45th Annual Turkey Trot and Food Drive for ALIVE! started virtually on Saturday, and the nonprofit has set up food collection points all over the city through November 29.
“We have given away 1.1 million pounds of food since the pandemic began,” ALIVE! Executive Director Jennifer Ayers told ALXnow. “The food need continues to grow. The need is still there and we need all the food and financial support we can get to continue to do what we have to do.”
Just as the scooter program was starting to take off in Alexandria and the electric vehicles became ubiquitous on Old Town streets, new data shows the pandemic tanked scooter usage in the city throughout 2020.
A report going to the City Council tomorrow (Tuesday) showed that while scooter usage exceeded 2019 levels in January and February of 2020, by March the pandemic had started to hit scooter usage. In April and May — during the stay-at-home order, ridership tanked to near non-existence in the months that had been the peak of ridership in 2019.
The old Robinson Terminal North, once the abrupt northern end to the Old Town waterfront, is no more.
Demolition was mostly wrapped up this weekend after a quick tear-down, and the plan is to make the location part of the broader effort to reform Old Town’s sewer system called the RiverRenew program.
Old Town neighbors raised eyebrows at a proposed development at 1415 Princess Street that staff said would fit all the zoning requirements, but still puts nearby residents in a tight bind.
Viewed from the street, 1415 Princess Street appears to be a house-sized vacant lot on the largely residential street in the Parker-Gray neighborhood. But the empty space at 1415 Princess Street is actually part of a three lot segment, two of which came forward to the Board of Architectural Review as part of a proposed development that would rub right up against the front doors of neighboring homes.
An Alexandria man in his 30s is the latest victim of COVID-19, as the number of cases in the city has ballooned over the past week.
The death count from the virus now stands at 77 in Alexandria.
Police announced yesterday that local resident Justin Benedict (55) had died as a result of injuries from a vehicle crash in Old Town on Friday.
“The Alexandria Police Department is investigating a vehicle crash that occurred on Friday, November 20, 2020, at S. Washington Street and Wilkes Street,” Alexandria police said in a press release. “At approximately 4 p.m., police responded to a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian.”
