With about four months to go until the City of Alexandria completely bans the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, the city government will hold a meeting Tuesday on specifics of the ban.
Residents, business owners, property owners and landscapers are invited to the meeting on the ban from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, July 21. There are options to attend in person at the Charles Houston Recreation Center in the preschool activity room or virtually through Zoom (meeting ID 972 6916 1416 and passcode 575982).
Alexandria’s 277th birthday ended with a bang and a fizzle on Saturday (July 11), as the evening of entertainment at Oronoco Bay Park was capped with a dazzling fireworks show and a brief rainstorm.
Raindrops started to fall just before 9:30 p.m. as the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra started to play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, sending hundreds of people under cover of tents and umbrellas at the very start of the fireworks. The evening was otherwise overcast and cool, and city leaders, the town crier and poet laureate rang in the annual celebration onstage and handed out birthday cupcakes from Wegmans.
After climbing through Alexandria’s political spheres, it’s almost as if R. Kirk McPike is starting over.
The new 5th House District delegate to Virginia’s General Assembly resigned his seat on the Alexandria City Council just before winning a special election in February to fill the seat vacated by now-state Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-39). In order to comply with state law, the Democrat also had to quit his full-time job as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA).
Alexandria will rededicate a West End street this weekend that was named after a Confederate leader more than 70 years ago.
On Saturday (July 11), Mayor Alyia Gaskins will help rededicate Stevens Street as Moses Stevens Street for a Black entrepreneur who founded Mount Jezreel Baptist Church. Since 1953, the street was named after either Confederate Brigadier Gen. Clement Hoffman Stevens or Confederate Brigadier Gen. Walter Husted Stevens, the chief engineer of the Army of Northern Virginia.
After many of the D.C. region’s fireworks shows have come and gone, Alexandrians will have another to look forward to this weekend.
The Alexandria and USA Birthday Celebration is set for Saturday, July 11 at Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison Street). This year’s event celebrates Alexandria’s 277th birthday and America’s 250th.
Alexandria City Council voted yesterday (Wednesday) to deny an extension of Virginia Paving Company’s operations in the West End.
The asphalt production plant, which has been at an 11-acre site at 5601 Courtney Avenue since 1960, had been given Jan. 1, 2027 as a date to clear out operations. The special use permit extension would have allowed it to continue to Jan. 1, 2032.
In recognition of Pride Month, Alexandria leaders joined hundreds of visitors in celebrating the city’s annual LGBTQIA+ Pride Fair on Saturday (June 27).
With City Hall in Old Town under renovation, this was the first time that the Pride fair was held at John Carlyle Square (300 John Carlyle Street). Dozens of vendors lined the park for the event, which was hosted by the city, the Del Ray Community Partnership, Inova Pride Clinic, Kindred Tree Healing Center and VEG ER for Pets.
Alexandria City Council voted Tuesday to create an ad hoc committee to discuss possible Alexandria City School Board election reforms such as terms and the size of the nine-member board.
City Council’s approval allows the committee to discuss term lengths, staggered term elections and overall board size and composition. The action comes after School Board Chair Michelle Rief requested the joint committee to seek city charter amendments on School Board terms. Specifically, the School Board is requesting moving members from three-year terms to four-year staggered terms, with one member from each of the three School Board districts being elected each year.
After multiple failed attempts over the past decade to bring a Business Improvement District to Old Town, Alexandria City Council is asking for other strategies to give the corridor an economic boost.
On Tuesday (June 23), City Council endorsed a memo from Council Members Sandy Marks and John Taylor Chapman directing the city manager to assess “how we can address the needs of the Old Town business corridor a little more intentionally.” City staff will review existing research on services and financial investments the city is making in Old Town and alternative options to boost tax revenue.
As the city reviews an operator proposal for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria City Council will consider extending leases to current artists and galleries.
City Council will have a July 1 public hearing on extending leases in good standing for artists through March 31, 2027 and for founding members and galleries through Sept. 30, 2027. The proposal is for leases that would expire Sept. 30, 2026.
With minimal discussion on Saturday (June 13), Alexandria City Council voted to move forward with an “enhanced gravity storm sewer system” to combat flooding along the waterfront in Old Town.
The City Council action was taken four months after the National Park Service denied the city’s plan to build a pump station at Waterfront Park (1 Prince Street). The city’s previously approved proposal would have closed Waterfront Park and Point Lumley Park from the fall of 2026 until the fall of 2028 to rebuild segments of the sea wall and to install the pump station to recirculate water in flood-prone areas back to the Potomac River. The denial by NPS forced the city to make “significant modifications” to the plan, project manager Matt Landis told Council.
