A new pho restaurant is now open for business in Old Town — five months after the fact.
Pho Nam, the second location for the Gaithersburg-based company, was under construction for six months at 606 King Street. It was supposed to open in May, but got held up because of the pandemic. The restaurant officially opened on Oct. 20.
Say your farewells to the traffic circle at the end of Eisenhower Avenue, because later this month work is scheduled to start on a widening and roadway improvement project that will replace it with a T-intersection.
A construction open house is scheduled for Tuesday, December 15, at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
New Torpedo Factory Art Features Local Waste — “The AlexRenew Wastewater Treatment Facility treats a mix of sewage and storm water. The facility runs the wastewater through a series of settling tanks and treatment processes to remove nutrients before discharging it to tributaries of the Potomac River. The brown-colored media was crowdsourced from thousands of area toilets, according to Len.” [WWD Magazine]
Work Resumes on the Fairfax Building with the Massive Fire — “It’s been 10 months since a devastating fire at the South Alex construction site near Alexandria, Virginia, but the project is back up and running.” [WTOP]
“My money for food!” shouted a vocal group of tenants facing eviction at the Southern Towers apartment complex in the West End on Thursday.
Resident Sami Bourma was one of them. He’s back to working part-time as a cook, but is $11,000 in the hole with his rent. His wife is expecting to give birth to their third child any day now, and he hasn’t fully paid for his $1,515-a-month one bedroom apartment since March. He got a couple months of it covered through city resources, but now has to go back to court in January to seek a third extension from eviction.
Construction has started in Fairfax County at the new home of Beyer Automotive Group’s Land Rover Alexandria.
After more than 20 years at 2712 Duke Street, the dealership plans to move into its new home on a 5.9-acre lot at 5636 S. Van Dorn Street in 2022.
A fall in late November at indoor climbing gym Sportrock (5308 Eisenhower Avenue) led to a hospitalization for one climber.
On Nov. 29, a climber lost control during a climb and fell, at which point the belayer lost control of the rope and was unable to stop the fall, according to Sportrock. Fire Department spokesperson Raytevia Evans confirmed the department responded to a medical call at the facility for a fall.
A leading Alexandria nonprofit that has given away more than 1 million pounds of food since the pandemic began is ready for the winter.
ALIVE! Executive Director Jennifer Ayers says that her organization is now giving out upward of 180,000 pounds of food every month. Before COVID-19, ALIVE! was giving out about 30,000 pounds of food every month.
Alexandria could have the COVID-19 vaccine this month, but the first doses won’t be available to the general public until next spring.
Nearly a half million healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents across Virginia at risk of being infected will get the first doses from the Virginia Department of Health, and it is not yet known when the rest of the public will get the vaccine.
While a poll showed most ALXnow readers don’t need convincing, Virginia Tech is still pulling out all the stops as it works to get its name added to the Potomac Yard Metro station.
Virginia Tech is in the process of creating Innovation Campus, a new 1 million-square-foot campus at the northern end of Potomac Yard planned to have planned to have around 750 students by the time its completed in ten years. The school has pushed to have the nearby Metro station named “Potomac Yard — VT” to highlight the campus.
Waterfront Shipping Container Bar Starts to Take Shape — “On Monday morning, the shipping containers were moved from the barge to the pier for a portion of the restaurant.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]
Drop Boxes Announced for Medication Disposal — “Unwanted medication can be dropped off at one of these 3 locations. Do not flush unwanted medications down the toilet or drain.” [Twitter]
Unemployment keeps trending in the right direction in Alexandria.
The Virginia Employment Commission reports that there were 1,375 continued claims for the week ending Nov. 28. That’s a 9% dip from the previous week total of 1,513 continued claims, and is 16% down from the 1,628 continued claims for the week ending Nov. 14. It is also 41% down from the 2,340 continued claims that were made for the week ending October 24.
