(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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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.”
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.
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.
(Updated 1:30 p.m.) A woman was allegedly stabbed in the head by the father of her child after he allegedly forced his way into her apartment in the Arlandria neighborhood of Alexandria.
The incident occurred on September 26 at around 9:15 p.m. in the 700 block of Tennessee Avenue.
Beyer Enthusiastic After American Rescue Plan Passage — “THERE IT IS: the House just passed the American Rescue Plan, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk for signature! We did it!!!” [Twitter]
Metro Service Cuts Averted With Passage Of COVID Relief Bill — “While it will take more time to work out all the details, including Metro’s exact share of this funding, the $1.4 billion provided by the American Recovery Plan for our region’s transit agencies will allow us to avert the painful service reductions and layoffs that were on the table.” [Patch]
A young child is safe after the vehicle they were sitting in was briefly stolen on Tuesday afternoon in Arlandria.
The child was left alone in the car for a few minutes and the engine was left running in the 3900 block of Executive Avenue. When the car owner returned from inside an apartment, he saw a man stealing his car with the child sitting in the back seat.
