Arlandria | ALXnow

New mixed-use development headed to the heart of Chirilagua

Published July 1, 2021 at 5:00PM

3811 Mount Vernon Avenue listed as proposed development, via City of Alexandria

Developer Mid-Atlantic Realty Partners is scheduled to host a meeting in two weeks to discuss a mixed-use development in the heart of Chirilagua/Arlandria.

According to a press release from the city of Alexandria, the meeting will discuss redevelopment plans for 3811-3825 Mount Vernon Avenue, currently the Mount Vernon Shopping Center. The new development, the press release said, will be a mixed-use project with multifamily residential market-rate and affordable units, along with ground floor retail including a grocery store and open space.

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City talks strategy on making Chirilagua/Arlandria neighborhood Amazon-proof

By Vernon Miles

Published June 25, 2021 at 2:45PM

A mother and child at a food distribution outside Casa Chirilagua in Arlandria on Thursday, May 21, 2020. Casa Chirilagua is one of the recipients of the ACT Now COVID-19 Response Fund. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Residents of the Chirilagua/Arlandria neighborhood been besieged over the last year.

As a largely Latino community disproportionately impacted by job loss during the pandemic, local residents have pushed back against rent payments. But even as Alexandria starts to pull out of the pandemic with an eye toward job recovery, the city is working through efforts to build a plan to save Chirilagua — less than a mile from Potomac Yard and Crystal City — from the gentrifying effects of Amazon.

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published May 14, 2021 at 3:30PM | Updated May 14, 2021 at 4:21PM

What a week in Alexandria.

Our top story this week is on Gregory Elliott, a special education teacher at T.C. Williams High School. Elliot also goes by the name of “Sugar Bear” for the D.C.-based go-go band Experience Unlimited, and their song “Da’ Butt” from the Spike Lee movie “School Daze” was featured at the Oscars, along with actress Glenn Close dancing to it.

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Alexandria City Council candidates focus on health care, police and race relations in Arlandria forum

By James Cullum

Published May 14, 2021 at 1:15PM | Updated May 14, 2021 at 7:59PM

City Councilman John Taylor Chapman speaks at a candidate forum at Tenants and Workers United in Arlandria on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated 5:30 p.m.) Most of Alexandria’s City Council candidates met in person for the first time in Arlandria on Thursday night, and affordable housing, school resource officers and access to health care led the bilingual discussion to a mostly Spanish-speaking audience.

The forum was hosted outside by Tenants and Workers United and Grassroots Alexandria.

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AHDC proposes nearly 500 units of affordable housing for Arlandria

By Vernon Miles

Published May 12, 2021 at 11:00AM

AHDC's proposed Arlandria housing development (image via AHDC)

The City Council unanimously approved a $500,000 loan to get a new affordable housing development for the Arlandria neighborhood off the ground.

As part of an effort to preemptively combat gentrification likely incoming with Amazon’s arrival, the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) has put together plans to build a new affordable housing complex at 221 W. Glebe Road, former location for Safeway.

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Silberberg addresses old defeats and new challenges in campaign to reclaim mayorship

By Vernon Miles

Published April 14, 2021 at 4:45PM

Former Mayor Allison Silberberg very publicly didn’t plan on running against Mayor Justin Wilson in the Democratic primary, but as weeks slipped by and no other challenger came forward — and Council Member Mo Seifeldein dropped out — Silberberg said she felt she needed to step up.

Three years after Silberberg lost her reelection bid to Wilson, she’s back to reclaim the position.

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Morning Notes

By James Cullum

Published April 13, 2021 at 5:00AM

City nominated for Condé Nast award — “The Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious recognition of excellence in the travel industry. Alexandria has placed among the Top 5 Small Cities in the U.S. for the last three years alongside Charleston and Santa Fe.” [CNTraveler.com]

Alexandria to get first DashMart in DC Metro area — “Brought to you from the folks at DoorDash, the company plans to open a warehouse later this year in Alexandria at 826 S. Pickett St. (just west of South Van Dorn Street) where it will house the items for delivery around the clock.” [Alexandria Living]

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City looks to Landmark Towers deal to save Arlandria

By Vernon Miles

Published April 7, 2021 at 3:30PM

Landmark Towers has a problem.

The West End residential property at 101 S Whiting Street, originally built in 1964, was more or less falling apart and a planned ten-year rehabilitation project was prohibitively expensive.

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Neighborhood Health vaccinating thousands at sites in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County

By James Cullum

Published April 1, 2021 at 9:35AM | Updated April 7, 2021 at 1:59PM

There’s a line nowadays that snakes around the corner from the old Pet Valu store at 3819 Mount Vernon Avenue in Arlandria. The store has been repurposed as a vaccine site for Neighborhood Health, which has given away more than 16,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to low income and mostly minority residents.

“We have provided 16,000 vaccines between all the sites, and 85% of them have been to people of color,” Neighborhood Health Executive Director Dr. Basim Khan told ALXnow. “We’ve ramped it up over time since we started. So at this point we’re at 5,000 vaccines a week.”

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Alexandria races to put Arlandria affordable housing plan in place before Amazon’s arrival

By Vernon Miles

Published March 23, 2021 at 10:45AM

The Arlandria-Chirilagua area of Alexandria is one of the last bastions of market rate affordable housing in Alexandria. With the arrival of Amazon on the horizon threatening that, the City of Alexandria is working on a plan to try to keep the area’s gentrification at bay.

A pair of Zoom meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, March 30, to present a drafted series of affordable housing recommendations. The first, at 6 p.m., will be held in Spanish with English interpretation. The second, at 7:30 p.m., will be in English with Spanish interpretation.

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Man shot in Arlandria on Wednesday night

By James Cullum

Published March 18, 2021 at 10:45AM | Updated March 18, 2021 at 12:56PM

A 26-year-old man was shot in the leg in the 200 block of W. Glebe Road in Arlandria on Wednesday night.

The incident, characterized as a felonious assault, occurred at around 11:30 p.m., and was reported by Alexandria police just after midnight via Twitter.