Pumpkins in Old Town (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
More Single Tracking Planned on Metro Friday — “From 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., trains will single track on the Yellow and Blue lines between Pentagon City and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stations. The Yellow Line will run between Huntington and Greenbelt.” [Metro/Bluesky]
Appeal of 301 N. Fairfax Street Development Fails — “The Supreme Court of Virginia denial follows a denial of the residents’ appeal from the Virginia Court of Appeals. Nearby residents, led by Corzine, appealed the case after an Alexandria Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the City of Alexandria, City Council and the 301 N. Fairfax St. property owner to proceed with the development after residents sued.” [Alexandria Times]
The weather will be mostly sunny with a high of 88°F and a southwest wind at 5 to 8 mph. On Friday night, expect a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mostly cloudy skies, and a low of around 60°F, with a north wind at 7 to 10 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
Among the movers serving Alexandria, VA, 495 Movers stands out for a simple reason: its local hourly rate includes packing materials, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and protection for floors, walls, and elevators. The company has been in business since 2009 and has completed more than 20,000 moves, a number that keeps climbing.
Anyone who has hired movers in the DC area knows the familiar pattern. A low hourly rate wins the call. Then the invoice arrives with a charge for boxes, a charge for taking the bed apart, a fee for the stairs, and another for the elevator. By the end, the number on the bill has little to do with the number in the ad. 495 Movers was built to avoid that.
495 Movers at a glance
In business since: 2009 (17 years)
Moves completed: more than 20,000, local and long-distance
Licensed in: Virginia
Serves: Alexandria and the rest of the DMV
Local hourly rate includes: packing materials, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and home protection on every move
No separate fees for: stairs or elevators
Also offers: junk removal, custom crating, and self-storage
Reputation: 4.7 stars across nearly 1,000 Google reviews
Who is 495 Movers?
495 Movers is a full-service moving company serving Alexandria and the rest of the DMV, founded in 2009 by people who had worked as movers for several other companies first. They wanted to do it differently.
“We wanted to take a different approach, offering a simple, honest, and transparent approach for the customer,” said Moti Kachlon, co-owner at 495 Movers. For local moves, that meant building the most common extras into the hourly rate. Seventeen years and more than 20,000 moves later, the company is still growing.
What makes moving in Alexandria different?
Alexandria is a hard place to move. A truck on an Old Town block gets watched by neighbors, property managers, and a family wondering whether the sofa will make the turn on a staircase built long before sofas got this big.
Old Town’s rowhouses have narrow staircases and tight turns, which is why large furniture often has to come apart to get out. Del Ray’s bungalows and rowhouses have basements that hold more than anyone remembers. And condo and apartment buildings in Carlyle, Potomac Yard, and the West End often require movers to carry a certificate of insurance and book the elevator, with building managers who care a great deal about scuffed hallways. The street adds its own complications, from cobblestones to limited curb space.
That’s the context for how 495 Movers prices its work.
What does 495 Movers include in its hourly rate?
For local moves, the rate covers four things that many movers bill separately:
Packing materials. Boxes, tape, paper, and wrap are provided at no additional cost, whether a move needs a few or a few hundred.
Furniture disassembly and reassembly. Beds, tables, desks, sectionals, and wardrobes are taken apart, moved, and put back together at the new home. In an Old Town rowhouse, that’s often the only way a dresser gets down the stairs.
The Alexandria School Board at its meeting on Aug. 27, 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum)
The Alexandria City School Board will tentatively announce the city school system’s new superintendent at its upcoming meeting Thursday, Oct. 22.
School Board Chair Chris Harris told the Alexandria City Public Schools community in an email today (Oct. 1) that the board has completed its interviews with candidates and has “moved into the contract negotiation process” with the selected candidate.
A view of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge from Old Town, Alexandria (staff photo by James Cullum)
Passage of a boat will prompt a drawbridge opening at the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge tonight (Oct. 1). The drawbridge will open around 11 p.m. to allow the boat Sweet Pea to pass underneath, the bridge management reported.
According to the city, the opening is expected to last for 15 to 20 minutes. Drivers should plan for travel delays when the drawbridge is open.
If you are interested in learning more about Continuing Care Retirement Communities (also known as "Life Plan Communities"), whether for yourself or for a loved one, please join our free workshop on Wednesday, November 4 from 5:00-7:00 at the Arlington office of Long & Foster. We are hosting this workshop in conjunction with Lisa Bates of the Williamsburg Landing community, which is a particularly excellent model of the way these communities work, and one you may wish to consider!
– How do Continuing Care Retirement Communities work? – What do they offer? – How much do they cost, and what are the financial models offered? – How do you how to evaluate them, and choose the one that's right for you? – How do you make a plan for a move like this? – How do you handle a lifetime's worth of possessions?
Lululemon on King Street in Old Town (via Google Maps)
Three women from D.C. face felony charges after being arrested for allegedly running out of a yoga store in Old Town with handfuls of clothing.
The three women were arrested by Alexandria Police Department officers in the early afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 6 for allegedly stealing more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from the Lululemon store at 700 King Street and the Alo Yoga store at 814 King Street, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
Alexandria police cruiser (staff photo by James Jarvis)
An Alexandria woman faces child abuse and drug possession charges after a 6-month-old male infant she was babysitting suffered an overdose, according to the Alexandria Police Department.
The child’s mother told police that she’s a single mother living in Maryland, and regularly dropped off her child with her cousin in Alexandria before going to work in D.C. Around 7:45 a.m. on Friday, March 6, she said she dropped the child off at her cousin’s condominium in the 200 block of Ellsworth Street in the Taylor Run neighborhood.
Food and drinks at the Royally Spooked Halloween Pop-up (courtesy of Alexandria Restaurant Partners)
Royal Restaurant has transformed into a horror fan’s paradise in time for Halloween season.
The restaurant at 730 N. St Asaph Street opened Royally Spooked Halloween Pop-up today (Oct. 1) on its patio. The pop-up with themed food and drink specials runs from 3 p.m. to closing.
A previous Fashion Without Limits show (courtesy of Angela Harris)
Angela Harris is encouraging Alexandrians to look at fashion from a different perspective this fall — the perspective of a person with a serious visual impairment.
Harris and her organization, the IMperfeKtly Made Foundation, are hosting their fourth annual Fashion Without Limits fashion show, featuring models and designers who are experiencing vision loss.
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial illuminated in purple, seen from Carlyle (staff photo by Emily Leayman)
On This Day in Alexandria History — “On October 1, 1931 the Alexandria City Council appointed the George Washington Bicentennial Commission to arrange and promote activities in Alexandria associated with the 200th birthday of our nation’s first president. Chaired by former Mayor William Albert Smoot, who resided at Lloyd House, now the headquarters for the Office of Historic Alexandria., the celebration would be one of the first to officially promote Alexandria as a tourism destination. Not only did Washington regard Alexandria as his hometown, but he had even helped survey the land that became Alexandria when he was just 17 years of age. Among the major physical landmarks that grew out of the Bicentennial Commemoration are the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.” [Historic Alexandria]
DASH to Reign in Budget After $3.7M Overspending Error — “[DASH General Manager & CEO Josh Baker] added that about $2.5 million of the overspending can be attributed to those decisions to ‘invest in maintenance and operations,’ while about $1.2 million came from unexpected costs including ‘increased parts costs as a result of inflation and tariffs.'” [Alexandria Times]
