Last week, Mayor Justin Wilson said he sands the city to take another pass at renaming streets throughout Alexandria named for Confederate leaders.

The announcement comes around two years after the city’s last major push to de-Confederate Alexandria, an effort that saw the Appomattox statue on S. Washington Street removed. The city renamed Jefferson Davis Highway through Alexandria to Richmond Highway a year before that.

There’s a fairly extensive list of around 31 streets that are confirmed to be named after Confederate leaders. Another 30 are listed as possibly named after Confederates.

Confederate statues and other honors were widely used throughout the south as a method of furthering the Lost Cause mythology and intimidating Black residents. In Alexandria, some of that history of Confederate street naming goes back to an addition to the city code in 1951 that all north-facing streets be named after Confederates.

Alexandrians making less than half of the region’s area median income could qualify for a new program that will give them $500 per month with no strings attached.

Those living alone and making less than $49,850 per year are eligible, with the income scaling up based on the size of the household.

The program, Alexandria’s Recurring Income for Success and Equity (ARISE), was funded as part of the city’s Covid recovery.

During the pilot phase, 170 randomly selected individuals who meet certain household income limits will be selected. Those selected will be provided with $500 every month for 24 months to spend in any way they choose.

“Guaranteed income pilots have proven to impact poverty and economic inequity by enabling participants to determine for themselves the budgetary strategies that will most benefit them and their families,” the city said in a release. “ARISE will help the city test a bold, new way to ensure people have what they need to make decisions to support their well-being.”

(Updated 3 p.m.) With Halloween just over a week away, do you plan on wearing a costume?

Some locals have been going all-out on Halloween decorations and even some local restaurants have been getting into the holiday spirit.

There are some costumed events around town, like The Birchmere’s annual Halloween event, but there are also more subdued events where costumes aren’t expected, like the Edgar Allen Poe reenactment.

Do your holiday plans involve getting dressed up in a costume this year or something else? If you are planning on getting dressed up, what is your planned costume?

Is Alexandria’s pizza status supreme or is it still a little crusty?

Earlier this week, two new pizza joints opened in Old Town. While among the few by-the-slice restaurants in town, astute readers noted that Fairlington Pizza also serves by-the-slice.

Reaction to the news was a little mixed on social media, with most excited about the new pizza options but a few were a little peeved — saying the city has too many pizza places.

Stop this! We have enough pizza!!! pic.twitter.com/Lsi0B1EAzP

— Becky Hammer (@beckyhammer) October 13, 2022

What do you think? Is Alexandria a good place to get pizza? Are there too many spots or too few? What’s your favorite place to get pizza in Alexandria?

Tomorrow, Alexandria’s City Council is set to review a proposal to bring speed cameras to the city for the first time.

Though scattered across nearby D.C., until a few years ago Alexandria was prohibited from utilizing speed cameras by state ordinance. Now, the city is looking at installing five cameras at various school zones across the city.

The city has seen an overall 10-year decline in car crashes.

“Crash totals from 2011-2020 show a downward trend for all crashes, including those that involved fatal or severe injury,” a city report (page 31 of the pdf, page 4 of the docket) said. “The 2016-2020 annual crash averages by all modes (vehicle-only, pedestrian, bicyclist) and crash type (all and KSI) are less than those seen during 2011-2015. Year over year, vehicle-only crashes had the highest number of KSI crashes followed by pedestrian and then bicyclist crashes.”

Despite the progress, Alexandria has still struggled toward its Vision Zero goal. In addition to speed cameras, Alexandria has also filed for grants to work on overhauling some of the city’s most crash-prone intersections.

Last Friday, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced that the Potomac Yard Metro station would not be opening this fall, as they’d been insisting it would for months.

The new opening date is set as sometime in 2023. The announcement also came with an update that the shutdown cutting Alexandria off from the rest of the Metro station would be extended into November.

The delay is the latest in a long series of screw-ups connected to the Potomac Yard project, from a delay earlier this year to Metro and city officials concealing information about the station losing a southern entrance back in 2018.

Beyond Potomac Yard, the announcement came on the heels of a new report casting serious doubts about the safety on the rail line after the Metro system reportedly failed to fully address the issues that caused a train derailment last year.

The final community meeting about a proposal to add lights to multiple athletic fields is coming up later this month.

The City Council has approved funding for lighting of two athletic fields, pending the permit approval process, with other locations open for consideration down the road.

The fields being considered are:

• Francis C Hammond Middle School, 4646 Seminary Road
• Patrick Henry K-8 School & Recreation Center, 4643 & 4653 Taney Avenue
• Jefferson Houston K-8 School, 1501 Cameron Street
• George Washington Middle School, 1005 Mt. Vernon Avenue
• Eugene Simpson Stadium Park, 426 East Monroe Avenue

Feedback to the proposal has been mixed, with some saying the lights would add extra hours for fields that are in great demand. Some neighbors at the fields have shared concerns, though, that lights at the field could create noisy activity late into the evenings.

The meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. The project is scheduled to go to the Planning Commission on October 6 and City Council on October 15.

Alexandria Metro riders will be cut off from the rest of the system starting next Saturday (Sept. 10), the start of a series of Metro closures planned through early next year.

The worst of it for Alexandrians will be the stretch from Sept. 10 through Oct. 22 as WMATA works to bring the new Potomac Yard Metro station in line with the rest of the system. After that, the Yellow Line Tunnel connecting the Pentagon station to L’Enfant Plaza will be closed for repairs until spring 2023.

While city staff have said Metro ridership is still only around 30% of what it was pre-pandemic, those who do make use of the Metro will have to find other ways of getting around.

The most obvious replacement is the bus. WMATA has said that multiple shuttle buses will be running along the Yellow and Blue Line routes through Alexandria, with additional shuttles connecting into D.C.

The next closest replacement is the Virginia Railway Express (VRE), a train system that stops at King Street adjacent to the Metro station and continues up to Union Station in D.C. The VRE will be offering free rides all along the route in September and free passage between the Alexandria and D.C. locations in October.

But the city has also been looking at other alternatives to boost to help get commuters to and from Alexandria.

Capital Bikeshare will be offering free rides to anyone going to or from Alexandria, or riding inside of Alexandria, with use of a special code at checkout.

City staff also said in a recent meeting that they are working with the Potomac Water Taxi to get earlier service in Alexandria, shifting the boat’s role from tourism to a commuter focus.

Developer Stonebridge has filed for plans to demolish the Victory Center (5001 Eisenhower Avenue) but is facing pushback from city staff that would rather see the existing building converted.

The Stonebridge proposal would see the long-vacant office building replaced with townhouses, similar to the new development just west of the building.

“This 17-year vacancy demonstrates that a different approach must be taken to revitalize Eisenhower West,” land use attorney Kenneth Wire wrote. “The City and the region have a housing supply crisis not an office supply crisis. This project will provide both rental and home ownership housing units in close proximity to the Metro Station and an affordable housing building.”

But city staff wrote in response to the Stonebridge proposal saying that townhouses don’t meet the level of density the city is hoping for at a side that’s near a metro and an arterial road.

Instead, staff recommended the existing Victory Center building be overhauled once again: this time as a residential conversion.

“Staff recommends retaining the existing office building,” staff wrote in response to Stonebridge’s plans. “The approximate footprint of the existing Victory Center office building (350′ x 142′) compares similarly with other office-to-residential conversions that have been constructed in the city. Continue to work with Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) to locate potential users, which may include non-profit housing developers and senior living facilities.”

Several vacancies have popped up across a dozen of Alexandria’ various boards and commissions — bodies that ultimately help to shape the future of the city.

Some of those boards have more sway than others, like the Board of Architectural Review or the Waterfront Commission.

Applications for those boards are due by Sept. 2, with the City Council voting to fill them on Sept. 13. Applicants can also only apply for one committee at a time.