The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously voted on Saturday to align the city’s face mask ordinance with the state’s guidance.
That means that Governor Ralph Northam’s recent lifting of the mask mandate applies to vaccinated city residents, and that any additional changes his office makes will not need local approval.
For the second year in a row, the Alexandria Old Town Art Festival packed the Carlyle neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday.
Dozens of artists and exhibitors from all over the country displayed their work throughout the weekend to large numbers of gatherers and art admirers.
What a week in Alexandria.
Our top story this week is on Gregory Elliott, a special education teacher at T.C. Williams High School. Elliot also goes by the name of “Sugar Bear” for the D.C.-based go-go band Experience Unlimited, and their song “Da’ Butt” from the Spike Lee movie “School Daze” was featured at the Oscars, along with actress Glenn Close dancing to it.
(Updated 5:30 p.m.) Most of Alexandria’s City Council candidates met in person for the first time in Arlandria on Thursday night, and affordable housing, school resource officers and access to health care led the bilingual discussion to a mostly Spanish-speaking audience.
The forum was hosted outside by Tenants and Workers United and Grassroots Alexandria.
Fuel shortage hits Alexandria gas stations — “A Shell station on Duke Street in Alexandria had run out of all grades of gasoline. The Mobil station next door “got lucky,” an employee said, and received a shipment of fuel overnight after running out late Tuesday. The line at Mobil spilled out onto Duke Street just west of Telegraph Road.” [Alexandria Living]
Alexandria’s COVID-19 percent positivity falls to lowest level — “We continue to watch the percent positivity of COVID-19 tests. Alexandria’s 7-day average positivity is now 2.9%. This is our lowest rate ever. Only 3 other Virginia health districts are lower. Wear your mask, get your vaccine and let’s be done with this.” [Twitter]
Alexandria was approved for $59.6 million in American Rescue Plan funding, City Manager Mark Jinks announced to the City Council on Tuesday night.
Jinks said the city’s Congressional delegation was successful in convincing U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to include Alexandria as not only a city, but as a county as well, resulting in the City taking home double what it would have otherwise received.
Mark Jinks isn’t getting any younger, and the Alexandria city manager says he is closing in on the end of his career.
“I turn 70 in 2022,” Jinks told ALXnow. “I am closer to the end than the beginning, that’s for sure.”
Most of Gregory Elliott’s students at T.C. Williams High School know him as a longtime, dedicated special education instructor.
But for parents and staff, many remember Elliott as frontman “Sugar Bear” for D.C.-based go-go band Experience Unlimited — also known as E.U.
The last class to graduate from the school under the name T.C. Williams High School will have their change to gather with their peers and loved ones in person.
At a school board meeting on May 6, a group of seniors from the school led a presentation of a plan they’d put together and run by school staff for how to make in-person graduation happen amid lingering concerns about coronavirus.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) The Alexandria City Council will consider adjusting the city’s face mask ordinance to evolve with Governor Ralph Northam’s executive order, which is continually being amended to loosen statewide coronavirus restrictions.
The ordinance states that all city residents under the age of five years old are required to wear face masks except while exercising, eating and drinking or if they have a verified health condition. The ordinance was approved last September and expires this September.
Stark differences were on full display Saturday night, as Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson and former Mayor Allison Silberberg sparred in a contentious debate on local issues.
Wilson defended his record since taking the mayorship from Silberberg in 2018. Silberberg, however, said she wants to restore the public trust, and that the city is at an inflection point.
