Construction on the Potomac Yard Metro station is 70% complete, and Mayor Justin Wilson said he’s knocking on wood in hope that it will open this fall.
On Tuesday, City Council received an update on the massive project.
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City Council
Alexandria residents and workers are planning to rally at a City Council meeting tonight (Tuesday) to try and push the city to demand developers of the former GenOn power plant to go beyond current affordability plans.
In a release, local union and tenant organizations said the city should require commitments to higher-wage jobs and more housing.
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The George Washington Birthday Parade returned to Alexandria on Monday after a two year hiatus. The streets of Old Town were lined with celebration for Washington’s 290th birthday.
Alexandria’s health care workers and first responders marched as parade grand marshals. The parade, which started at Gibbon and Fairfax Streets and snaked around City Hall, was attended by thousands. The event is the largest of its kind in the world honoring the founding father and first president.
An upcoming City Council meeting could see the city helping to fund a significant boost to Arlandria’s affordable housing stock.
City Council is scheduled to review a $10.5 million loan to the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) for the new Mount Vernon-Glebe Affordable Housing Project at a Tuesday, Feb. 22 meeting. The new development would have 482-units, all of them set aside for various levels of affordable housing.
The former GenOn power plant is a closed-off stretch of urban decay, but new plans headed to the City Council paint a picture of the area as a new mixed-use community.
The plans show around 2.1 million square feet of new development at the site with a mix of residential, retails, arts spaces and more. The new development is also positioned as the crown jewel of an Arts and Cultural District in Old Town North approved in 2018.
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Despite complaints from neighbors, Alexandria’s City Council renewed Classical Movements’ permit to continue holding concerts in Old Town and even expand offerings.
Last year, international music tourism company Classical Movements (711 Princess Street) won approval from the city to transform the outdoor space behind their building into a venue for classical music performances. On Saturday, the City Council approved an earlier Planning Commission recommendation with a few amendments.
The Alexandria School Board unanimously adopted Superintendent Gregory Hutchings’ $346 million fiscal year 2022 Combined Funds Budget last Thursday night.
The proposal, which was approved without discussion, is a nearly 4% increase ($9.3 million) over last year’s request from the City, and asks for approximately $248.7 million from the city to give employees a 2.6% salary step increase and a 2.5% market rate adjustment. The school system is banking on the hope that the city will endorse former Governor Ralph Northam’s proposal to raise teacher pay by 10.25% across the state.
After nearly two years of hosting outdoor classical music concerts in Old Town, Classical Movements wants to expand their operation.
City Council, which approved Classical Movements’ request to operate last year, will review the application to expand hours and increase seating for the venue at The Rectory at 711 Princess Street at its meeting on Saturday, Feb. 12. Classical Movements wants to increase outdoor seating from 50 to 181, and expand hours from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
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An unmasked Governor Glenn Youngkin made a surprise stop at the Bradlee Shopping Center Safeway yesterday (Thursday), and afterward the Alexandria Democratic Committee tweeted for him to “get out of Alexandria.”
Youngkin, a Republican, spoke without a mask inside of the store at noon. He discussed “the elimination of the grocery tax, the rising costs of groceries, and the impacts of inflation on Virginia families and the high cost of living,” according to an email.
Just hours before a Joint City Council/School Board Subcommittee meeting, new Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon spoke with Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr.
Parajon, who started work earlier this month, said it was a great conversation and that he looked forward to working collaboratively with Hutchings, who wants a 2.6% salary step increase and a 2.5% market rate adjustment for all eligible ACPS employees in the upcoming fiscal year 2023 budget.
Alexandria voted in 2019 to stick with one high school across two campuses, but how exactly students get from one location to the other remains a topic of some consternation.
The City Council was supportive of plans for the Minnie Howard campus of Alexandria City High School presented at the meeting on Saturday — with the Council voting unanimously in favor and Mayor Justin Wilson calling it an example of positive collaboration in an occasionally fraught relationship. But getting students from Minnie Howard to the King Street campus and vice-versa is still a nagging cause for concern.