Alright! Last snow post: for now.
Snow stopped falling a few days ago, but it’s still all around the city and is still having some residual impacts.
Opinion
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) says Virginia workers shouldn’t pay state tax on tips they get from customers.
Adopting the policy — supported on a federal level by both president-elect Donald Trump and vice president Kamala Harris during the recent election — would let tipped workers keep an extra $70 million each year throughout the Commonwealth, the governor’s office said in a press release Monday.
This weekend, Alexandria will light its annual tree lighting in Market Square (301 King Street), but the timing of the lighting has spurred some consternation about Christmas decorations going up before Thanksgiving.
The lighting is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23, almost a week before Thanksgiving on Nov. 28. The event is free to attend and will include an introduction from town crier Ben Fiore-Walker, caroling, along with a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus to meet families.
From the 100 block down to the waterfront, King Street is a pedestrian zone. Now, that zone could be expanding a little further west to the 200 block of King Street.
The pedestrian-zones are closed to car traffic except where King Street intersects with perpendicular roads like S. Union Street. The closure, which started out in 2020, has since become a permanent feature of the Old Town blocks.
A new report from housing nonprofit HAND last week found that roughly 57% of households in Alexandria were renters, which has us wondering: do more ALXnow readers rent or own homes in Alexandria?
That’s higher than the nationwide average, where only 36% — though that’s to be expected for a more urban area.
One of the most popular stories on ALXnow this week has been a link to a Zebra article about a lobster food truck near the Bradlee Shopping Center.
While this is possibly more of a testament to this being a relatively slow news week in Alexandria, it raises the question: do Alexandrians yearn for a better food truck culture?
It’s been a hot few days in Alexandria, and it doesn’t seem to be cooling down soon.
This weekend, the Portside Festival was canceled due to the extreme heat. The region hit 100 degree temperatures over the weekend.
This Friday (May 17) is Bike to Work Day, an annual event that encourages locals to bike to the office.
The city and community organizations will operate pit stops around the city with giveaways, coffee and more.
A new advocacy group called the Communities for Accountable City Council (CACC) is pushing for Alexandria to return to a wards/district system for City Council elections.
Currently, all members of Alexandria’s City Council are elected at-large. A ward or district system would, like the School Board, have City Council members elected from and represent certain neighborhoods.
A new piece of art is making an impact on Alexandria’s waterfront.
The art piece Interstellar Influencer (Make an Impact) was installed this week in Alexandria’s Waterfront Park. The work represents the asteroid that impacted with Earth 35 million years ago and helped shape the Chesapeake Bay.
The National Park Service tweeted out a bloom watch update: the cherry blossoms are at a phase called ‘peduncle elongation’ — roughly stage 4 of 6 for the blossoms — meaning peak bloom is just around the corner.
Cherry blossom season often evokes a mixed reaction in Alexandrians and others around the region.