Royal Restaurant, now under new ownership, is the latest Alexandria restaurant to seek permission to swap out some of its parking space for more outdoor seating.
The restaurant is hoping to trade 10 parking spaces for 60 outdoor seats. Another 30 seats will be added to an alley on the west side of the building.
Halloween is right around the corner and there’s no locality in the region that goes as all out for the year’s spookiest holiday as Alexandria.
There are events throughout the weekend, including multiple costume contests, and the Del Ray Halloween Parade on Sunday — noted as one of the best Halloween parades in the country.
Hilco Redevelopment Partners said a new mixed-use development at the former GenOn Power Plant site takes inspiration from the Renaissance Revival-style Flatiron building in New York. Reception online was mixed.
The Flatiron, built at the start of the 20th century, is an iconic design at 175 Fifth Avenue. While the proposed developments at Block B have a similarly tall and narrow shape, the Alexandria building still has strong elements of the fast-casual architecture style dominating recent development around the region.
Despite some pushback from city leaders this weekend, the name WestEnd is likely here to say for the redevelopment at the former Landmark Mall site.
City Council members said the name is a baffling choice given that the project is located within the larger West End neighborhood.
The Zoning for Housing/Housing for All proposals were finally unveiled last night and opinions have been decidedly mixed.
The plan focuses on incremental changes in zoning policy that weren’t quite as ambitious as some hoped and others feared.
As in Arlington, the discussion of undergrounding power lines has been on the minds of a lot of folks in Alexandria.
The scope of outages hit a breaking point in Alexandria in 2021 when a widespread power outage derailed the Art on the Avenue festival, sparking a new battle between city leaders and Dominion Energy.
This week, leaders on both sides of the Torpedo Factory discussion raised the issue of the city’s plans once more ahead of the center’s 50th anniversary.
The Torpedo Factory is celebrating 50 years as an arts center next year, but questions linger about what the long-term future of the building looks like.
Plans submitted for the West End development replacing Landmark Mall include a potential ice rink, but reception to those plans seemed mixed.
The plans, submitted by Foulger-Pratty Development, indicate the seasonal rink could be located on a park in the middle of a mixed-use development adjacent to the planned Inova Hospital campus.
After the 2021 election, two-thirds of Alexandria’s nine-person School Board were brand new to the job.
Over several recent elections, the elected body that leads Alexandria City Public Schools has had a significant turnover. It’s led to concerns that, every few years, the School Board is functionally starting from scratch and there’s a sizable adjustment period as the majority new members get adjusted to the job.
Yesterday, around the region, residents of Arlington and Fairfax lit off fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, fireworks remain illegal.
The Alexandria Fire Department cited safety as a major factor, noting a 25% increase in fireworks injuries in the U.S. between 2006 and 2021. Currently, fireworks are only allowed at city-led events like the birthday celebration on July 8.
Eugene Simpson Stadium Park is going from natural turf to artificial turf, and feelings in the community seem decidedly mixed.
At a meeting this past Saturday, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of a new plan that will replace the field with synthetic turf. Sentiment in the public hearing was mixed, with some concerned about issues like creating a heat island and others saying the synthetic turf will make the fields more usable.
