Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: Widespread haze. Areas of smoke. Sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming west around 6 mph in the afternoon. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 68. Southeast wind around 6 mph.
(Updated 4:35 p.m.) Police are investigating a child’s death at an apartment building on the 200 block of Yoakum Parkway around 2 p.m. today.
Police Chief Don Hayes said police found a three-year-old boy who fell from one of the upper floors and died.
(Updated 4:20 p.m.) Alexandria’s School Board is meeting tomorrow for a seemingly innocuous budget revision, but city leaders say the truth is the School Board is walking back a potentially illegal decision made without communicating with the City Council.
Like previous work sessions, a joint City Council/School Board meeting became tense as the discussion turned to funding. The fiscal year 2024 combined funds budget for Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) details the revenues and expenditures.
After considerable pushback, the city is rethinking its bonus height provision as a way to build affordable housing in Alexandria.
The city’s controversial zoning for housing plan proposes to upend a number of zoning ordinances. One of them is a bonus height amendment that would incentivize developers to add affordable housing to projects in exchange for two additional stories of construction in areas where height limits are 45 feet or more.
Poets and Poetry Lovers: Please join us for our next Del Ray Poetry Reading on Friday, June 5 (7-9pm) at St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub, 2300 Mt. Vernon Ave. Our featured reader is poet Claire Kinnane. After her reading we’ll open the mic for all to read their poems. The theme this month is “Summertime.”
Your Cohosts,
Longtime Deputy City Manager Debra Collins is retiring at the end of this week after nearly 20 years working for the city.
Collins’ 19-year career in the City of Alexandria included helping to kickstart ACT for Alexandria and the consolidation of city services in the West End.
(Updated 6/29) After nearly seven hours of public comment, Alexandria’s City Council voted to move forward with the Duke Street Transitway.
The gist of the plan is to reconfigure sections of Duke Street to make the road more accessible to public transit, as well as making improvements to the pedestrian and cyclist experience along the arterial road.
Good Wednesday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind around 10 mph. At night: Mostly clear, with a low around 64. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Alexandria and Arlington police are searching along Four Mile Run for a grand larceny suspect who fled from officers near the West Glebe Road bridge.
Alexandria Police spokesman Marcel Bassett said the department requested assistance from Arlington police to search along both sides of Four Mile Run.
(Updated at 11 a.m. on June 29) U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to CIM Group highlighting the concerns of residents regarding evictions, increased rents and living conditions at their Southern Towers Apartments complex.
In a letter Monday, the Virginia Democrats urged the building owner to resolve long standing disputes with residents. Since buying the property at the height of the pandemic in 2020, residents have protested against evictions, claiming that CIM Group has raised rents and evicted hundreds of residents from deteriorating properties.
