City Council | ALXnow

City says first responders’ desired pay increase could mean substantial tax rate increase

Published November 9, 2021 at 2:45PM | Updated November 9, 2021 at 4:48PM

(Updated 4:45 p.m.) At the start of a City Council retreat this weekend, acting Human Resources Director Jen Jenkins laid out some numbers behind the ongoing discussion over a pay increase for city employees.

City employees — first responders in particular — have criticized city leadership’s handling of employee pay and lamented that the city is, in some respects, lowest in regional pay. The city has laid out plans for a 1.5% pay increase, which unions representing first responders called an insulting lowball.

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Alexandria lays out state legislative priorities as ‘house money’ days come to a close

By Vernon Miles

Published November 9, 2021 at 11:00AM

After a few years of somewhat jubilant legislative sessions, the City Council is moving into preparation for a legislative package with a more grim outlook.

The legislative package is an annual list of asks and recommendations from the city to the state government. These sorts of legislative packages are particularly important in Virginia where, as a Dillon Rule state, the authority of the city is limited to only those areas explicitly granted by the state. With Republicans winning control of much of the state government in last week’s election, the all-Democrat City Council’s days of “playing with house money” could be coming to an end.

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Electric scooter program rolls into final review in Alexandria this week

By Vernon Miles

Published November 8, 2021 at 9:50AM

Electronic scooters could become a permanent part of the city ordinance this Saturday (Nov. 13) even as they head into their seasonal decline.

The approval comes after nearly two years of the program being in a pilot phase — even as scooter usage in Alexandria heads into its seasonal decline. Ridership typically falling to less than 10,000 trips city-wide between December and March. The chart also shows that scooter usage hasn’t come close to reaching its pre-pandemic highs in April and May 2019, though 2021 was still a stronger year for scooter usage than 2020 was. In spring 2020, scooter usage fell abysmally low, despite scooters being encouraged as a healthier alternative to riding the bus or carpooling.

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ACPS says no major infrastructure work planned for Alexandria middle schools

By Vernon Miles

Published November 4, 2021 at 11:00AM

George Washington Middle School (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

After recent infrastructure work, Alexandria City Public Schools confirmed that it’s satisfied with the conditions at Alexandria’s middle schools — for the time being.

In what one school official described as a pleasantly “boring” meeting between the City Council and School Board after recent City Council-School Board turmoil, school staff said some recently completed work at George Washington Middle School and Francis C. Hammond Middle School should be the last big investments in those schools for the foreseeable future.

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City Council to step up fight against Comcast internet monopoly next week

By Vernon Miles

Published November 4, 2021 at 9:50AM

Empty municipal fiber cables to be laid in the ground (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

Alexandria’s City Council is scheduled to throw down the gauntlet on Comcast next week as the city works to break the company’s stranglehold on local internet access.

The city broke ground in August on a new municipal fiber-optic network that would boost internet speed at city facilities and public schools, but the part of bigger interest to the public was that a second underground system was being laid simultaneously to allow a private company to step in later and franchise it.

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BREAKING: Wilson wins mayoral reelection, Amy Jackson poised to win vice mayor

By ALXnow.com

Published November 2, 2021 at 10:45PM | Updated November 4, 2021 at 3:42PM

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson speaks at a vigil against police brutality at the Charles Houston Recreation Center in Old Town on June 4, 2020. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated 4:15 p.m. on Nov. 3) With 31 of 33 precincts reporting, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson won a victory over Republican opponent Annetta Catchings on Tuesday.

The general election win came months after Wilson defeated his political rival, former Mayor Allison Silberberg, in the June primary.

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Heritage project appealing appropriateness to City Council after BAR rejection

By Vernon Miles

Published November 2, 2021 at 3:45PM | Updated November 2, 2021 at 4:46PM

Rendering of Block 1 of the Heritage Project, via City of Alexandria

(Updated 4:45 p.m.) After being denied a certificate of appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), Old Town PropCo LLC is taking the case for The Heritage project to the City Council.

The Heritage is a project that will replace four buildings in southeast Old Town ( 900 Wolfe Street, 450 and 510 S. Patrick Street, 901 Gibbon Street, and 431 S. Columbus Street) with three new apartment buildings. It’s attracted some criticism from neighbors close to the project, but was eventually unanimously approved by the City Council.

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Alexandria election sees high numbers of early votes while in-person voters trickle in

By ALXnow.com

Published November 2, 2021 at 3:05PM

Voting at Alexandria City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (staff photo by James Cullum)

Counting both in-person and absentee ballots, a little under half of those registered to vote in Alexandria have shown up to the polls as of noon today (Nov. 2).

This year, Alexandria voters are voting for a slew of competitive state and local races, including:

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Alexandria seeking applicants for community policing review board

By Vernon Miles

Published November 1, 2021 at 9:55AM

Alexandria Police at night (staff photo by James Cullum)

The City of Alexandria is looking for locals to comprise the new Independent Community Policing Review Board, a body created by the City Council last year as part of an effort to provide greater police accountability in the wake of the George Floyd murder and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.

The new review board is an eight-member panel that will review complaints against the police department after an internal investigation by the police department. Ordinance adopted on April 17 earlier this year described the board as part of an effort to enhance policing legitimacy and to maintain trust between the police department, City Council, city manager and the public.

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Apology? Alexandria City Council wants restitution from Dominion Energy for ‘Art On The Avenue’ power outage

By James Cullum

Published October 27, 2021 at 2:30PM | Updated October 27, 2021 at 4:10PM

Alexandria City Hall (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria City Council wants more than answers from Dominion Energy for a recent power outage on the busiest day of the year in Del Ray — they want restitution.

After a 2020 hiatus, the weather was perfect for Art On The Avenue on October 2 along Mount Vernon Avenue. But a 16-hour power outage that morning ended up shuttering many businesses throughout the festival, which brought an estimated 50,000 visitors to Del Ray.

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Coronavirus partially to blame for uptick in airplane noise over Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published October 27, 2021 at 11:00AM

At Gravelly Point, a man in a folding chair reads a book as planes land outside Reagan National Airport (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

As it turns out, the uptick in airplane noise over Alexandria is one of the many little side-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At an update to the City Council last night, Steve Thayer, the city’s representative on the Reagan National Airport Community Working Group, said that there have been a few recent changes that may be causing locals to hear more planes overhead. On paper, airplanes leaving National Airport are not supposed to turn away from a path down the center of the Potomac until they hit a point south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.