An Alexandria City Council member and School Board member have announced plans for a “community listening session” to get public input on the state of the city and schools.
The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 10, at 10:30 a.m. in the Beatley Library (5005 Duke Street).
One month after the Traffic and Parking Board unanimously approved a new sidewalk along Polk Avenue, neighbors in opposition to the project are appealing the decision.
The city’s plan is to build a new sidewalk connecting two dead-end parts of sidewalk at either end of the bottom of Polk Park. The park’s thick undergrowth comes right up to the road, where the side of that road is used as a stretch of parking for nine vehicles.
The 2021-2022 school year was “crazy”, says René Islas, the parent of four Alexandria City Public Schools students.
Islas leads The Community Group, a new movement of locals with a list of safety recommendations for the city and school system. After a school year punctuated by violent events, Islas said ACPS needs to work on prevention, justice, and accountability.
It moves at a snail’s pace, but Alexandria’s tunnel boring machine is ready to drill through 100-foot-deep soil to prevent millions of gallons of combined sewage from flowing into the Potomac River, Hooffs Run, and Hunting Creek.
On Thursday, Alexandria’s leaders were on-hand for the unveiling and dedication of AlexRenew’s RiverRenew Tunnel Project. The $454.4 million project is the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history, and will result in a 12-foot-wide, two-mile-long waterfront tunnel, which will divert approximately 120 million gallons of sewage every year.
Former Alexandria Mayor Kerry Donley died unexpectedly at his home in Alexandria on Wednesday, July 13.
Donley was 66 years old and died of a heart attack, according to the Alexandria Times. He lived in the city for nearly six decades.
Alexandria firefighters say the city and its mutual aid partners in neighboring jurisdictions were left unprepared in the event of an emergency last week, but the Alexandria Fire Department says everything was covered.
In a tweet on July 7 (Thursday), the International Association of Firefighters Union 2141 issued a public safety announcement that the city had only two fire trucks and no rescue apparatus in operation.
With fireworks, cupcakes and music, Alexandria celebrated its 273rd birthday on Sunday, July 10.
Thousands were in attendance for the free party, which also celebrates America’s birthday and was supposed to be held on Saturday (July 9), but was held off due to rain. What resulted was a less crowded event than years past — with performances by Town Crier Ben Fiore-Walker, Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO).
ALXnow had another slightly shortened week thanks to Fourth of July celebrations.
The big news this week is the GenOn Power Plant redevelopment plans moving forward despite pushback from local tenants and worker unions and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).
Earlier this week, Alexandria’s City Council approved two major steps forward for plans to redevelop an abandoned power plant at the north end of Old Town’s waterfront.
The project faced some pushback from tenants and worker unions and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), but ultimately the city voted to approve a master plan amendment for the site and a coordinated development district (CDD) to encompass the project. The master plan amendment was unanimously approved, but the CDD was approved in a 6-1 vote with Council Member Alyia Gaskins voting against it.
Even after pushback by groups ranging from tenants and worker unions to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), Alexandria’s City Council approved a major step for the GenOn Power Plant redevelopment’s Coordinated Development District (CDD) in a 6-1 vote at a meeting last night (Tuesday).
As with earlier contentious developments, City Council members said they acknowledged concerns about the project, but Mayor Justin Wilson said the prospect of finally cleaning up the power plant site eclipsed those issues.
Alexandria is developing a request for proposal (RFP) to potentially sell a tiny parcel of land at 2 King Street on the Alexandria waterfront.
The 1,825-square-foot property is between Waterfront Park and The Strand Street, and has been rented out as a parking lot for neighboring businesses since it was acquired in the 2014 land swap with the Old Dominion Boat Club.
