Mayor Alyia Gaskins at The Wall That Heals opening ceremony (Staff photo by Ryan Belmore)
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins has been chosen to participate in the ninth class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a prestigious executive management training program designed to strengthen municipal leadership.
Gaskins joins 47 mayors from 17 countries in a nine-month professional development program, a collaboration between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School. The initiative was created to address the gap in executive development opportunities for public sector leaders.
Senator Mark Warner during media availability on July 17, 2025
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) sharply criticized the Trump administration’s successful effort to cut $9 billion in previously approved federal spending, warning that the reductions will damage America’s global influence and national security interests.
Speaking to Virginia media Thursday (July 17), Senator Warner said the Senate’s late-night passage of what’s known as a rescission package represents a dangerous retreat from decades of American leadership worldwide. The legislation strips about $8 billion from foreign assistance programs and more than $1 billion from public broadcasting.
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.
Continues Arcade at 1050 N. Fayette Street (staff photo by James Cullum)
Get your index fingers ready, because Continues Arcade is opening next week near the Braddock Road metro station.
The inside of Continues Arcade is still being finished, but features more than 60 classic arcade games, as well as large leather couches and sectioned off tables to hook up TVs to classic gaming systems like the Nintendo NES or Sega Genesis.
Meet Abi, a sweet 4-year-old boy who loves to explore a grassy yard and hang out with his humans. This 59-pound love bug is the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria’s (AWLA) featured adoptable dog this week, and he’s receiving rave reviews from his current foster family.
At four years old, Abi is out of his puppy stage but still has lots of energy to play and join you on all your adventures. He loves a good run in the yard and playing fetch with his people, although he is still working on returning items during fetch. He’s eager to please and learn new things, making him an ideal companion for an active family.
Since launching in March 2025, 130+ Alexandria residents have already joined the ALXnow Press Club – and we’re inviting you to be next in supporting the local coverage that matters most.
While most Americans encounter paywalls daily, ALXnow.com remains free for every Alexandria resident. Over 9,200 neighbors receive our daily newsletters, and 130+ have stepped up as Press Club members in just four months.
Simone Fennell, CEO and owner of Good Brows LLC, will relocate her brow studio from Alexandria to Arlington on August 1, marking the end of her seven-year presence at 421 S. Washington Street in Old Town.
The business will move to The Beauté Co-Op Suites at 4830 31st Street South in Arlington’s Fairlington/Shirlington neighborhood. The Beauté Co-Op operates as a Black-owned beauty collective that houses multiple service providers.
810 Prince St, Alexandria, VA 22314. Listed By Andrea Courduvelis 703-307-3170, TTR Sotheby's International Realty,
Co-Listing Agent: Nihal Horne 202-818-9860,
TTR Sotheby's International Realty
Good morning, Alexandria! Today is Thursday, July 17, the 198th day of 2025. There are 167 days left in the year.
🏠 On this day in 1946, the city established the Old and Historic Alexandria District, becoming only the third historic district in the United States after New Orleans’ Vieux Carre and following Charleston’s pioneering model. This groundbreaking ordinance extended zoning powers beyond traditional land use to regulate the aesthetic appearance of buildings—a concept that would remain legally unchallenged for over three decades until the Supreme Court’s 1978 Penn Central decision involving Grand Central Station.
Virginia governor candidates Abigail Spanberger (left) and Winsome Earle-Sears. (Spanberger photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury, Earle-Sears photo by Parker Michels-Boyce for the Virginia Mercury)
Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger is opening a financial and polling gap in the race for governor, outraising her Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by nearly 2-to-1 last quarter and entering the final four months of Virginia’s statewide election season with more than triple the cash on hand.
New campaign finance filings show the Democrat raised a record-breaking $10.7 million in the second quarter — including $4.3 million in the final weeks of June — and ended the period with $15.2 million in the bank. Earle-Sears brought in $5.9 million over the same three months, finishing June with $4.5 million on hand.
A painting of U.S. Rep. John Lewis outside The Linder Academy at 607 S. Washington Street in Old Town. (staff photo by James Cullum)
Alexandria residents will commemorate the fifth anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s death Thursday with a rally designed to carry forward his legacy of nonviolent action and defend democracy.
The “Good Trouble Lives On” rally, scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m., will take place at Judy Guse-Noritake Park (600 N. Henry Street) at the corner of Pendleton Street and Henry Street. Indivisible is hosting the event Do Something NCR, a non-partisan community organization whose objective “is to push the country to be kinder and more progressive, ensuring all people are represented and cared for”.