If your property is damaged by a city vehicle, there’s a good chance you could be out of luck when it comes to seeking payment.
With its blue background and city seal, the marker set up in the yard at Shuter’s Hill within eyeshot of the backside of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial could be mistaken for an official sign, but the sign tells the story of one resident’s struggle with the City of Alexandria over an archaic legal precedent.
A new noise ordinance could impose Old Town’s decibel limits citywide, but one local restaurant isn’t taking the news lying down.
Lost Dog Cafe, a popular restaurant at 808 N. Henry Street near the Braddock Metro station and part of a regional franchise, expressed frustration at the proposed limits on Twitter.
St. Elmo’s Coffee Coming to Old Town North — “St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub could be getting a second location. The Del Ray coffee shop submitted an application to open at the Gables Old Town North mixed-use development.” [Patch]
City Refuses to Pay for Damaged Fence — “Have you ever heard of something called sovereign immunity? Basically, it lets local governments off the hook if they damage your personal property. It’s what an Alexandria man learned the hard way after he caught a city trash truck damaging his iron fence.” [Fox 5]
The City of Alexandria announced today that it will be launching APEX, a loftily-named new permitting and land use application system, early next month.
The goal of the new system is to take the complicated application system — which currently requires a trip to City Hall — and make it simpler and entirely digital. APEX is designed to handle everything from permits to add a new deck to a home to land use applications for larger projects, according to a promotional video for the new system.
Faced with declining utilization, the City of Alexandria is will decide whether or not to shutter the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center.
The facility, located at 200 S. Whiting Street, is a 70-bed detention center that takes in teenagers from Alexandria, Falls Church and Arlington County with a misdemeanor or felony offenses.
In-Person Absentee Voting Underway — “Beginning Saturday, October 26, Alexandrians who qualify to vote absentee for the November 5 General Election may cast their ballots in person at the Charles E. Beatley Jr. Central Library (5005 Duke St.), or the Alexandria Voter Registration Office (132 N. Royal St.).” [City of Alexandria]
Aslin Beer’s ‘Weird Vibe’ in Alexandria — “Aslin Beer Company doesn’t have exposed brick walls, it isn’t decorated with string lights and it doesn’t use wooden barrels as high top tables. Straying from the traditional industrial vibe at a lot of breweries and tasting rooms, Aslin has an eclectic, colorful atmosphere enhanced by patterned walls, neon signs and a giant robot.” [Alexandria Times]
City staff has found that a proposal to build a new western access to the Braddock Road Metro station doesn’t justify the substantial costs associated with the project.
Currently, the station is separated from the trail by the CSXT tracks. To access Del Ray and the trail, pedestrians have to walk a block south to Braddock Road.
Gone are the days when the Alexandria City Council and School Board’s joint meetings were bloody affairs where both sides would haggle over monumental budget gaps. But under the surface, members of the City Council were dubious at last night’s (Wednesday) joint session that enough is being done to align city and school interests when it comes to new development.
One of the most-discussed goals of the collaboration between the city and schools is co-locating facilities — moving away from new developments being single-use and towards projects that might include a school along with recreational facilities or housing.
While geofencing for scooters generally means blocking them from scooting through an area, new geofencing measures in Alexandria are aimed at keeping scooters parking in certain places.
New scooter regulations have blocked scooters from parking in a multi-block stretch east of N. Union Street, between Oronoco Street and Prince Street. The result has been an 80 percent decrease in scooter parking on the waterfront, staff told the Waterfront Commission at its meeting last week.
The City of Alexandria is once again preparing to shut cars out of the end of King Street and convert it into a pedestrian-only walkway.
A plan is currently in the works to close the 100 block of King Street to car traffic on weekends to turn the area near the waterfront into a pedestrian boulevard. At the Waterfront Commission meeting yesterday (Tuesday), city staff presented the timeline for when that closure could happen.
When Alexandria officials said they hope to see birds return to the Four Mile Run wetlands, they weren’t referring to Bird scooters — but yet, there was at least one there, in the water.
Concerns about scooters on sidewalks have dominated the local debate about the personal mobility devices, but the issue of abandoned scooters is nonetheless something with which Alexandria policymakers will have to grapple.
