A new ambulance service is likely heading to Alexandria, though it won’t be able to respond to medical emergencies in the city.
City Council will consider a resolution tomorrow on allowing RIDE24 LLC, a new private ambulance service located at 2121 Eisenhower Avenue, to provide non-emergency related services within Alexandria.
Alexandria is still working out the kinks in its short-term rentals policies, but rentals on sites like Airbnb have already taken over a considerable amount of the city’s transient lodging market.
In a newsletter, Mayor Justin Wilson said there are over 700 short-term rentals in Alexandria, comprising less than 1% of the city’s housing stock, but that those rentals account for over a quarter of the city’s transient lodging tax revenue — a market traditionally defined by hotels.
Artwork formerly located at Waterfront Park and exploring the complex relationship between Alexandria’s economy and slavery is making a return: this time to a new permanent home at the Braddock Road Metro Station.
The artwork “Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies” by artist Olalekan Jeyifous opened in Waterfront Park in March 2020 and is inspired by “Alexandria’s rich and complicated industrial and merchant history.” The artwork was relocated to the Old Town Pool at 1609 Cameron Street, but the location was temporary until a more permanent location could be found, in part due to 2-5 years of construction planned at the Old Town Pool.
Three years after being established by City Council, Alexandria’s Independent Community Policing Review Board is still not up and running. Now after another delay, the board will have to postpone investigating hundreds of allegations of police misconduct until at least the fall.
It’s been more than four years since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin. The event sparked international outrage, also resulting in protests in Alexandria where Mayor Justin Wilson and city leaders called for police accountability.
City Council will consider a lease agreement tonight to move a portion of the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services to a 5,600-square-foot office space at AlexRenew Headquarters.
The city’s wastewater authority at 1800 Limerick Street finished construction of its headquarters in 2016, and was designed for expansion on the fifth floor.
Alexandria is experiencing a shortage of mental health staff, and City Manager Jim Parajon is asking City Council for $900,000 to solve the problem.
Tonight Council will consider releasing the funds from contingent reserves to pay for strategies to hire and retain the city’s mental health staff.
Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon is recommending that City Council not sell a tiny parcel of land at 2 King Street on the Alexandria waterfront.
Last year, the city issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the 1,825-square-foot property between Waterfront Park and The Strand Street. The city received two responses from the RFP, and since then Parajon’s office and the city’s Real Estate Committee came to the conclusion that it should cancel solicitation of the project until the waterfront mitigation project is completed.
The Alexandria City Council incumbents have held onto their nominations in the Democratic primary.
While incumbents John Chapman, Sarah Bagley, Kirk McPike and Canek Aguirre have secured their spots as the Democratic candidates, along with newcomer School Board Member Abdel Elnoubi and School Board Member Jacinta Greene.
At a recent City Council meeting, Council member John Chapman pushed back against critics of the city’s new rainbow crosswalks in Old Town celebrating the LGBTQ community.
The crosswalks, a project City Council member Kirk McPike helped spearhead, debuted this year in time for Pride Month. The crosswalks at the intersection of King and Royal streets are a permanent new addition to the city’s streetscape.
There’s pawsitive news for dog owners: Alexandrians can officially adopt more than three dogs.
At a City Council meeting this weekend, the city amended its ordinance to increase the limit on the number of dogs per dwelling unit from three to five.
Sarah Bagley says that Alexandria residents have invested time and energy into making her an effective member of the Alexandria City Council, and she says she’s running for reelection to honor that investment.
A lot has changed in the city since Bagley was first elected and then virtually sworn in in January 2022. Alexandria was on the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since gone through a crime surge, the introduction and the failure of the Potomac Yard arena deal, a number of key changes in departmental leadership (namely the police and fire chiefs) as well as the controversial upending of the city’s residential zoning policies.
