Breakfast with City Council. (Photo via The Chamber ALX)
The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce (The Chamber ALX) is gearing up for its annual City Council Breakfast on Tuesday, May 6. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the National Industries for the Blind (3000 Potomac Ave.).
Several key city officials are scheduled to attend, including Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley, and council members John Taylor Chapman, Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi, Jacinta Greene, and Kirk McPike.
Photo of 2024 Beautifcation Community Award Winner - Simpson Garden. (via Alexandria Beautification Commission)
Good Friday morning, Alexandria!
🌧️ Today’s weather: Showers, mainly after 8 a.m.. High, near 54 degrees. Northeast wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. The chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three-quarters of an inch possible. Showers tonight. Low of around 44 degrees. North wind 8 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. The chance of precipitation is 100%—new precipitation amounts between a half and three-quarters of an inch possible. There will be scattered showers on Saturday. Cloudy, with a high near 51 degrees. North wind 9 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. The chance of precipitation is 40%.
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.
Alexandria City High School Senior Kalina Janevski collecting registration forms. (contributed photo)
Alexandria City High School Senior Kalina Janevski recently earned two of the highest awards Girl Scouts can receive based on her volunteer service, including an initiative to register voters.
Inspired partly by her experience working as a Senate Page, Janevski initiated a voter registration drive, earning the Gold Award. Janevski hosted voter registration booths at local colleges and high schools, collecting 168 completed registration forms and helping others navigate the registration process. Janevski also partnered with the Center for Common Ground, the Black Student Union, and the National Honor Society to send out postcards to victims of voter intimidation and disenfranchised voters in Virginia and Florida.
Concept of the Alexandria City Hall modernization, March 2025 (via City of Alexandria)
Alexandria’s Planning & Zoning Department is launching a new virtual community meeting series to inform residents about larger development projects, changes to regulations, and planning initiatives.
“This series offers community members an opportunity to stay informed about larger development projects under consideration, changes to regulations that affect new development, and upcoming planning initiatives. Learn where to find more information and how to participate in the process,” the City shares in a press release.
Northern Virginia Fairfax Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS) cordially invites you to attend and support our upcoming World Day of Remembrance (WDoR) for Road Traffic Victims.
World Day of Remembrance is an annual event where we honor those whose lives were prematurely ended after being struck by a person driving. This year is particularly painful and sad as we think about the recent death of a 13-year-old Frost middle school student who was struck and killed by a person driving a truck on Pickett Road. We will also honor the nearly 30 other people (as of today’s date) who have been killed on Northern Virginia streets while, walking, biking, or rolling since last year’s day of remembrance.
Cartoonist Rozalia Finklestein draws in Alexandria City High School (staff photo by James Cullum)
Life at Alexandria City High School isn’t easy, not even when you’re a cartoon.
Just follow the latest adventures of best friends Nyx and Soliana in the monthly West End Girls comic in the Alexandria City High School newspaper, Theogony. The cartoon is the creation of comics editor Rozalia Finkelstein, who won two awards for her work at last year’s National High School Journalism Conference.
Student Grace Vareghuse speaks at the Moms Demand Action endorsement of Abigail Spanberger for governor, at the Oswald Durant Center in Alexandria, April 10, 2025 (staff photo by James Cullum)
Grace Vareghuse, who co-leads her school’s Students Demand Action chapter at Hayfield Secondary School (7630 Telegraph Road), kicked off a campaign rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger today (April 10) at the Oswald Durant Center.
“Students like me shouldn’t have to worry about gun violence when we’re trying to get an education,” Vareghuse, a self-described resident of Alexandria, told the audience of a couple hundred supporters on hand at the Oswald Durant Center for a rally jointly held by Moms Demand Action and the Abigail Spanberger Campaign. “We need leaders who will take action to keep us safe.”
Abigail Spanberger with Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala in Alexandria on April 10, 2025, after the candidate formally received the organization's endorsement (staff photo by James Cullum)
Moms Demand Action officially endorsed Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger for Virginia Governor at a rally in Alexandria today (April 10). The event at the Oswald Durant Center drew a couple hundred attendees showing support for the congressional representative’s gubernatorial campaign.
The endorsement comes as Spanberger continues to build momentum in her bid to become Virginia’s next governor. Gun safety advocacy is emerging as a central theme of her campaign.
The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town (staff photo by James Cullum)
The City of Alexandria is seeking information from qualified organizations interested in potentially managing the Torpedo Factory Art Center (105 N. Union St.), a move officials emphasize does not signal changes to the waterfront landmark’s artistic mission.
The city recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) to identify entities with the experience and interest in possibly operating the art center in the future. The RFI, which closes May 16, 2025, is not a formal proposal solicitation but rather a preliminary step to gauge market interest.
Eisenhower Avenue and Metro Road (via Google Maps)
A bicyclist was struck and injured by a vehicle on Wednesday morning (April 9), and the Alexandria Police Department is asking for witnesses to come forward.
The incident occurred at around 7 a.m. near the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and Metro Road near the Van Dorn Metro Station. The victim was struck by a Mazda CR-V and suffered a non-life-threatening facial injury, according to police.