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.
Jacinta Greene says that her two three-year terms on the Alexandria School Board have prepared her for City Council.
Greene faces 10 opponents for the six City Council spots in contention for the June 18 primary. She’s running against four incumbent City Council Members, against a fellow School Board Member, two candidates who are running for their second chance at the nomination after losing in 2021, and some newcomers. She’s raised about $50,000 for her campaign, and as of June 5 has about $31,000 in the bank, according to recently released quarterly finance reports.
A stalled development project in Old Town, called The Heritage, could be getting a boost from the city’s housing authority to get it over the finish line.
The City Council is docketed to consider a resolution “authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) for the Heritage at Old Town Redevelopment Project.”
The Alexandria City Council and mayor could be getting a pay increase, though the pay in Alexandria is still dramatically less than other Northern Virginia jurisdictions.
Currently Alexandria’s mayor earns $41,500 annually, while council members and the vice mayor earns $37,500. Despite how busy the City Council jobs are, most members of council still keep other full-time jobs. Mayor Justin Wilson, for example, is also the senior director of supplier management at Amtrak.
A majority of Alexandria’s Democrat candidates for City Council rank climate action high on their priority lists.
A number of candidates recently expressed their opinions in a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions and Build Our Future questionnaire.
For as much controversy as there can be around short-term rentals — businesses like Airbnb that rent out homes to visiting guests — a city report said there have been relatively few complaints about them in Alexandria.
In a report to the City Council last week, Land Use Services Division Chief Tony LaColla noted that there are 460 short-term rentals registered in Alexandria and 265 estimated unregistered units.
More than 800 Alexandria City High School students walked the stage at today’s graduation at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena.
ACHS executive principal Alexander Duncan III said that the day marked a defining moment in the lives of the 841 graduates.
Alexandria’s controversial zoning overhaul punctuated the final Democrat City Council candidate forum before the June 18 primary.
Anti-Potomac Yard arena candidate Jonathan Huskey didn’t mince words on his opinions against citywide Zoning for Housing/Housing for All overhaul that eliminated single family zoning and allows developers to build homes with up to four units on any property.
The Alexandria City Council unanimously approved new outreach guidelines for the potential creation of a Business Improvement District (BIDs) in Old Town on Tuesday night.
Without buy-in from 60% of impacted property owners, previous efforts to get BIDs started in Old Town failed. Consequently, City Council on Tuesday night approved the amended rules stipulating that property owners will now be sent petitions via certified mail, and that their non-response within 30 days will be counted just as if they vote in opposition.
