Two members of Alexandria’s City Council have announced that they will not be running for reelection this year, paving the way for new faces in city leadership.
Accordin to Angela Turner, Director of Elections & General Registrar, three new candidates have filed their paperwork to run for City Council this year.
Alexandria Police are making preparations in case the unrest from the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden spills into the city.
Last night, Police Chief Michael L. Brown updated City Council on plans to keep Alexandria safe during inauguration week. Brown said that the siege on the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a tragic event where five people lost their lives, and that he has participated in conversations with his regional counterparts and the assistant director of the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Alexandria City Councilman Mo Seifeldein wants the underutilized 60-year-old Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center to shut down.
Staff from the City of Alexandria, Arlington County and Falls Church will make recommendations over the next several months on how to proceed with the building at 200 S. Whiting Street in the West End, which houses youth with serious offenses and behavioral issues from the three jurisdictions.
Alexandria Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker will not seek reelection and is running for the 45th District seat currently held by Del. Mark Levine as he runs for Virginia Lieutenant Governor.
A political newcomer going into her election as vice mayor three years ago, Bennett-Parker said she is running to improve the environment and help area families struggling with the pandemic. A Democrat, she is the first person to announce a run for the seat.
The Heritage, a new development in Old Town widely reviled at a September Board of Architectural Review meeting, is headed to the Planning Commission on Tuesday, Feb. 1, for review after some architectural fixes.
The plan is to demolish four 1970s-era buildings in southeast Old Town — along South Patrick and North Washington streets — originally built as an urban renewal project in the historic Black neighborhood The Bottoms. Despite community objection, the BAR and City Council found that the buildings do not meet historic preservation criteria.
Crime, hazardous weather, debates over city transportation policy: it’s another week down in Alexandria.
With courts being back in session, news coverage of trials and convictions is back in full swing with the sentencing of a local teen who murdered a young couple that gave him a ride to southern Virginia and a pastor’s wife who had money laundering added to earlier fraud convictions.
New plans for the Oakville Triangle received an overwhelmingly positive reception from the City Council at the public hearing on Saturday and unanimous approval.
Plans for the Oakville Triangle include a new Inova HealthPlex and other land use changes. Plans presented to the City Council show dramatically scaled back retail and office space in the area compared to what was approved in 2015.
At the finishing line for the mandatory affordable housing requirement for development, the policy hit some stumbling blocks as the City Council and a representative of the developers clashed over last minute changes and additions as Saturday’s City Council meeting.
Several proposed changes have been in the works for years that would essentially codify an existing voluntary contribution for additional density in developments into a mandatory requirement.
As the state legislature continues to work towards marijuana decriminalization, members of the City Council at a meeting last night urged that revenue and opportunities from legal marijuana sales work their way back into communities long punished for its use.
“My concern is that any revenue generated by [decriminalization] is where those funds are going to,” said City Councilman Canek Aguirre. “It’s important to stress this going to people whose lives affected [and] who were locked up.”
Alexandria’s police department leadership has openly supported calls for reform in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, but a central pillar of that reform — more civilian oversight of the police — has hit a stumbling block.
City Councilman Mo Seifeldein has spearheaded a plan to set up a civilian board to independently investigate allegations of police misconduct. The board was unanimously approved despite concerns from Police Chief Michael L. Brown, but Seifeldein has been vocally frustrated that attempts to give the board teeth by having greater investigative and disciplinary power have gone nowhere.
Honestly, kind of a slow week in Alexandria — must have been the tryptophan in the Thanksgiving turkey.
As we head into the end of the year, the city and many local organizations are working to lay the groundwork for a better 2021. Even as the Campagna Center recoils from cancelling the Christmas Parade, the organization is working to ensure fundraising stays consistent for the local non-profit’s early childhood programs. The City, too, is planning for a looming budget setback when CARES Act funding expires.
