Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson took fire from one of her colleagues Tuesday night (June 14) against the appointment of former School Board Member Christopher Lewis to the Alexandria City Public Schools Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) Advisory Committee.
Jackson said that Lewis already serves on the city’s Community Policing Review Board and recommended Mike Mackey, the director of the Alexandria Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Service Unit.
Mayor Justin Wilson says its time to take a step back and reassess Alexandria’s approach to student safety.
In a joint City Council meeting with the School Board on Monday night (June 13), Wilson said that the community needs to be educated on how the city and school system plan to make schools safer.
In the wake of the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Luis Mejia Hernandez, the Alexandria City Council is taking an active role in reducing violence in schools, according to a Council memo that will be discussed tonight (June 13).
Up for discussion is the creation of “a citywide, multi-year plan with clear objectives, activities, agency roles and contributions, and performance metrics” by this September, as well as a youth safety and violence prevention summit by the end of July.
(Updated 5 p.m.) Next week, the City Council will review a set of new parking rates (Item 19) for Old Town that aim to push drivers off the street and into the city’s underutilized garages.
The new ordinance would expand the area of Old Town where drivers who don’t have residential or guest permits must pay by phone to park. The current rate in those zones is currently $1.75 per hour, but the new ordinance would allow the Director of Transportation and Environmental Services to set a rate of up to $5 per hour.
(Updated 6/14) A pair of new affordable housing projects are headed to the City Council for financing.
Both of the new developments will have just under 100 units; all locked in at various levels of affordability.
The Potomac Greens neighborhood has voted overwhelmingly in favor of new parking restrictions aimed at keeping the residential streets from being overrun by commuters.
The proposed parking district, which would encompass the Potomac Greens neighborhood, is scheduled for review at a City Council meeting (item 17) on Tuesday, June 14.
As COVID numbers continue to rise, the Alexandria City Council will allow the city’s state of emergency to expire on June 30.
The declaration was made by Council in March 2020, and has been extended five times.
Updated at 3 p.m. There was sadness, relief, and also great happiness at Alexandria City High School’s graduation on Saturday (June 4)
Nearly 800 ACHS seniors walked the stage to receive their diplomas for the first in-person, indoor graduation in three years. The event was held at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena.
Updated at 7:45 p.m. — A short-staffed Alexandria Police Department is reducing its services to the community, the department announced on Wednesday (June 2).
Police will no longer respond to calls for service that fall under another agency’s responsibility or respond to old crime scenes that show no danger to the public.
West End residents now have a new hub to to take care of food insecurity and other basic living needs.
On Thursday morning (May 26), nonprofit and city leaders cut the ribbon for the ALIVE! West End Food Hub at 510 S. Van Dorn Street in the Van Dorn Station Shopping Center. The brick and mortar location was made possible by funding from the American Rescue Plan.
(Updated at 5:45 p.m.) Alexandria Police were at the scene of Tuesday’s brawl prior to the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Luis Mejia Hernandez, according to video of the incident obtained by ALXnow.
Hernandez was stabbed during a brawl with 30-50 teenagers in the McDonald’s parking lot. A video of the incident obtained by ALXnow showed police cruisers at the scene and an officer attending to Hernandez immediately after he was stabbed.
