A new advocacy group called the Communities for Accountable City Council (CACC) is pushing for Alexandria to return to a wards/district system for City Council elections.
Currently, all members of Alexandria’s City Council are elected at-large. A ward or district system would, like the School Board, have City Council members elected from and represent certain neighborhoods.
CACC leader Tom Kopko said he formed the group after City Council voted to end single-family-only zoning last year. Kopko said his hope is a ward system would make city leaders more accountable to the residents of the city’s neighborhoods.
“We’re a group of people who are totally frustrated with the obvious intransigence and lack of accountability of City Council,” Kopko said. “There’s a long list of grievances, the latest is Zoning for Housing. They betrayed homeowners and, against massive opposition, passed [Zoning for Housing] unanimously.”
Kopko said the at-large system makes it harder to get city leadership to focus on neighborhood-specific issues.
“Citizens have no recourse against seven elected officials and staff, all because they’re elected at large,” Kopko said. “Who is the person who cares about your neighborhood?”
The current City Council expressed unanimous opposition to the idea of wards last year, with some saying it would create more infighting as City Council members worked to secure funding for their neighborhoods at the cost of others and to city-wide programs.
“I would not be supportive of returning to wards,” said City Council member Kirk McPike. “Wards tend to foster competition and division between parts of our city. A lot of challenges we face need to be a whole city effort to address them, not one part or another bearing more of the weight. Under the current system, we can take a broad view on issues such as some of the flooding issues that affect a small geographic area but are incredibly expensive to address.”
Mayor Justin Wilson said wards could backfire on those hoping for better neighborhood representation given that representatives of one neighborhood could still easily be outvoted by the rest of the Council, which would have no incentive to cater to the needs of a neighborhood outside of their ward.
“If anything, it could make the Council less likely to incorporate the concerns of localized opposition,” Wilson said.
Kevin Harris didn’t like the way the 2021 City Council primary went down and now he’s taking another shot.
Harris was edged out by just 750 votes, with Council Member Kirk McPike taking the sixth and last available Council spot. Now he faces 11 opponents in the upcoming June primary.
“This truly is a family affair for us,” Harris said. “Obviously some tears were flowing from my wife and children… It’s a commitment to be up here, and it’s a privilege to have been working on all the things I’ve been doing in the city of Alexandria.”
Harris has been president of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) Resident Association for more than a decade. He’s a lifelong city resident and lives in Old Town with his wife and four children in an ARHA property near to where a rash of shooting incidents have occurred.
ARHA and the police erected video cameras in the area and patrols have increased over the years. Harris says that when the city hires a new police chief that community policing and officers on foot patrols need to be brought back to the area.
“I’m talking about community policing in terms of having a real relationship, real connection with your residents,” Harris said. “Where people can identify the officers, they know their names, they don’t feel threatened when they see an officer coming towards them.”
Harris got his Bachelor’s Degree in business from Alabama State University, where he got a full athletic scholarship and was named captain of the basketball team. He later played professionally for the Dakota Wizards. In 2003, he founded Hoop Life Inc. and has since taught basketball camps, clinics, classes and after-school programs throughout the region. He’s also an ordained Minister at the Love of Christ Church in Del Ray, where he teaches Sunday school.
On the failed Potomac Yard arena deal, Harris said that it’s better that the Washington Wizards and Capitals are staying in D.C.
“Aside from the huge fact that the deal could have caused displacement for marginalized communities, partially sidelined labor unions, and created a complex traffic situation, it was clear from my talks with community members from various sects of the city that the vast majority of Alexandrians didn’t want it or were indifferent towards it,” Harris said. “Regardless, this situation has sparked a unique opportunity for our city to continue in dialogue on the real issue, how to boost our commercial tax base.”
Harris has gotten endorsements from NOVA Labor, former City Council Member Willie Bailey, as well as the ARHA Resident Association and other labor groups.
Harris said that outgoing Mayor Justin Wilson will be missed, and needs to be replaced with “someone who listens.”
“Before you get into the technicalities of what it takes to run a city, you got to first really care,” Harris said.
Harris would like to see a free trolley, like the King Street Trolley, drop visitors at the city’s historic spots. He also said that the city should look for creative solutions before deciding on a tax increase and needs to favor a more welcoming small business environment.
“I always say that a budget is a moral document,” he said. “That’s my key thing, and understanding that our children are really important. But running the city is not not too much different than running a household. A lot of times you know, you have to make sacrifices.”
Harris also grew up homeless, living with his single mom at the homes of family friends. Consequently, he says that he’s been a lifelong advocate for affordable housing.
“Basketball has been a tool that has taught me so much in my life,” Harris told ALXnow. “You have to learn how to deal with adverse situations and push through them by using your fundamentals you’ve learned so hard to master. Basketball allows you a better understanding of who you are, and how to leverage your strengths and weaknesses.”
Harris said that Michael Jordan was his idol growing up.
“It was his mindset,” Harris said of Jordan. “He was determined to win, to be competitive and understood what was needed to win.”
The Democratic primary is on June 18.
A new advocacy group has formed in hopes of returning Alexandria to a district/wards election system.
The Communities for Accountable City Council (CACC) describes itself as a non-partisan group of Alexandria residents “exasperated with the intransigent Alexandria City Council that is unaccountable to communities and neighborhoods because of Alexandria’s At-Large election system.”
While the group is non-partisan, leader Tom Kopko said the origins of the group are in the contentious decision last year to end single-family-only zoning as part of a new plan called Zoning for Housing.
“We’re a group of people who are totally frustrated with the obvious intransigence and lack of accountability of City Council,” Kopko said. “There’s a long list of grievances, the latest is Zoning for Housing. They betrayed homeowners and, against massive opposition, passed [Zoning for Housing] unanimously.”
Zoning for Housing faced opposition from local homeowners, but also garnered support from others who say greater density is the only path to building enough housing to make Alexandria affordable.
Kopko said the feeling among residents he’s spoken to is that the City Council is unaccountable because they’re elected at large.
“Citizens have no recourse against seven elected officials and staff, all because they’re elected at large,” Kopko said. “Who is the person who cares about your neighborhood?”
Kopko pointed to a federal judge’s ruling that Virginia Beach’s at-large voting system is illegal as an example of at-large voting being struck down elsewhere in the state.
“Rejection of district elections is a rejection of every other electoral system that we all know and expect,” Kopko said. “The smaller the district, the more responsive the elected representative. That principle applies to anybody, no matter where they live.”
While Kopko said the group was formed in response to opposition to Zoning for Housing, Kopko said he believes the change could also benefit those who live in apartments or supported Zoning for Housing.
Regardless of where people are on Zoning for Housing: nobody had a representative for their community. Everyone had to try and lobby seven different people. That is totally unfair. The Zoning for Housing decision didn’t allow, for example, Del Ray — which was completely betrayed by Zoning for Housing — to hold any particular person accountable. Now they have to try and hold seven people accountable? That’s not the American way, no matter what their community of interest is.
A change to the district or ward system would require changing the city charter, Kopko said.
CACC said the district/ward system is a relic of segregation:
For its first 150 years, Alexandrians elected their city government by district/ward, until 1950 when segregationists installed at-large elections to suppress minority voices. Today, at-large elections similarly insulate the centrally-elected City Council from all voices, even betraying their core supporters.
This is far from the first time wards have been discussed for Alexandria’s City Council. A Washington Post article in 1992 highlighted similar back-and-forth arguments over wards. Reporter and historian Michael Lee Pope wrote that there was a similar battle between Del Ray and Old Town in 1932.
Last year, all current City Council members expressed unanimous opposition to a ward system in Alexandria.
Mayor Justin Wilson said he has mixed feelings on wards; saying that while he isn’t opposed to them in general, he doesn’t think they’d solve problems in Alexandria.
“I’m not categorically opposed to wards, but I generally don’t think they would solve the issues those who advocate for them believe they would,” Wilson said.
Wilson said most advocates for wards are either opposed to a specific land-use decision and believe the result would be different with specific neighborhood representation — as is the case with CACC — or are Republicans and other political groups who believe they could get more representation if the city had wards — as was the case in 1992.
But Wilson said having one member out of seven opposing a project with a citywide benefit won’t derail a project.
“If anything, it could make the Council less likely to incorporate the concerns of localized opposition,” Wilson said.
For those Republicans hoping to get a seat on Council via wards, Wilson said there’s further bad news.
“There is really no way you could draw wards in Alexandria to result in ‘Republican’ districts,” Wilson said. “Our lowest Democratic-performance precincts are still 50+%.”
Still, Kopko said the current at-large system is a relic of a bygone era that needs removal.
Pope wrote that advocates of the at-large system argued the removal of “sectorial interests” would create better candidates to lead the city. Meanwhile, opponents of the at-large system argue, as Kopko does, that the at-large system allows the City Council to overlook the interests of parts of the city without facing consequences.
Alexandria Living Magazine reported that the vote for an at-large system in 1950 intentionally limited minority voices.
“The origins of the at-large system are quite ugly, from the segregationist period — from the TC Williams era,” Kopko said. “I don’t know how anyone reading the history of a large system being based on a segregationist system could be in favor of it. How could you?”
Alexandria School Board Member Tim Beaty just won his special election in January, and now he tells us that he’s running for reelection in November.
Beaty won a special election on Jan. 9 to fill the District A seat vacated by former School Board Member Willie Bailey. He was sworn in days later, and said he would spend the next several months learning the intricacies of Alexandria City Public Schools before deciding on whether to run for reelection on Nov. 5.
“I was just at the Alexandria Democratic Committee meeting asking people to sign my petitions, and more than one person said, ‘Didn’t I just sign this for you?'” Beaty said.
Beaty ran on a platform of helping ACPS navigate the new and complex collective bargaining process with licensed teachers and staff. The school system is currently experiencing a staffing crisis, and Beaty says that a strong collective bargaining agreement will improve retention.
Last month, the School Board unanimously approved a collective bargaining resolution, laying the groundwork for a future agreement. Beaty believes he was an important contributor to the process, and said that now the hard work begins.
“Over the last few months, I have enjoyed my interaction with my colleagues on the School Board and with the senior staff in the division,” Beaty said. “I feel like I made a useful contribution, particularly during the debate about the resolution that enables union recognition and collective bargaining.”
Beaty continued, “I believe that this is a process that is going to benefit us, that’s going to be a process in which our employees feel more engaged, more respected, more listened to, and in the end through this process and leading to a collective bargaining agreement, I think we’re going to have a much better labor management relationship going forward. We need that. We need our employees to feel like they’re being listened to, that they have a voice.”
Beaty retired two years as the global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He and his wife moved to the city 10 years ago, and until he was elected was a substitute teacher at two ACPS elementary schools.
He also voted with the School Board to ask the City Council for a tax increase to restore steps and fund teacher raises.
“Our staff is working very hard, and they need a raise,” Beaty said. “We live in an area that is expensive to live in — housing and other things. For them to be able to live a good life and be able to focus on doing a good job every day, we need to compensate them well. So, I was happy to move for funds above the superintendent’s proposed budget.”
District A includes Old Town, Del Ray, Potomac Yard and Arlandria. Incidentally, the filing deadline for School Board candidates is June 18, which is the same day as the Democrat and Republican primaries. So far, only one School Board candidate has filed paperwork to run — Alexander Scioscia in District B.
The political season is officially underway in Alexandria, as the three Democrat candidates for mayor will face off in their first forum on Wednesday. There are also a number of forums and meet-and-greets scheduled for the 11 Democrat City Council candidates and lone Republican candidate.
The Democratic and Republican primaries for City Council are on June 18.
The Del Ray Citizens Association will host the first event for its members via Zoom at 7 p.m. with the three mayoral candidates — Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, City Council Member Alyia Gaskins and former real estate developer Steven Peterson.
The event will run until 8:30 p.m.
The current list forums is below.
April 10 at 7 p.m. — Online Del Ray Citizens Association mayoral forum (members only)
April 15 at 6 p.m. — Mayoral and Council candidate forum at Lost Dog Cafe in Old Town (808 N. Henry Street) hosted by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and the Alexandria Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
April 17 at 7 p.m. — Alpha Kappa Alpha and the League of Women Voters will host a mayoral forum via Zoom
April 24 at 6 p.m. — The Federation of Civic Associations will host a candidate forum at Alexandria Police Department headquarters (3600 Wheeler Avenue)
April 25 at 7 p.m. — The Alexandria NAACP mayoral debate. Location to be determined
May 2 at 6 p.m. — Tenants and Workers United and Grassroots Alexandria will host a candidate forum at 3801 Mount Vernon Avenue
May 7 at 7 p.m. — The PTA Council of Alexandria will conduct a candidate forum in the Alexandria City High School cafeteria (3330 King Street)
May 9 at 7 p.m. — Alexandria NAACP debate with council candidates. Location to be determined
May 11 at 7 p.m. — VOICE candidates forum at Third Baptist Church of Alexandria (917 Prince Street)
May 13 at 6 p.m. — Del Ray Business Association candidate forum. Location to be determined
May 15 — North Ridge Citizens Association mayoral forum. Location to be determined
May 15 at 7 p.m. — The Lynhaven and Hume Springs Civic Association will conduct an in-person and Zoom mayoral forum at the Leonard “Chick“ Armstrong Recreation Center (25 W. Reed Avenue)
June 4 — The Chamber ALX mayoral debate will be held “in the evening” at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial
June 8 at 10 a.m. — The West End Business Association will hold a mayoral forum at Taqueria Picoso (1472 N. Beauregard Street)
Protestors calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas repeatedly interrupted a reelection campaign event for U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) today in Old Town.
Virginia’s junior senator spoke before a packed house at Augie’s Mussell House (1106 King Street), and was interrupted five times by protestors, who were escorted out of the restaurant.
“Call for a full ceasefire now,” one protestor shouted before being led from the room.
In February, Kaine, who is a member of Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, wrote a letter to President Biden urging a deescalation to the conflict, which started last October when Hamas launched an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip and killed an estimated 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.
Jonathan Krall of Grassroots Alexandria was one of the protestors who interrupted Kaine.
“The political landscape has changed,” Krall told ALXnow after being escorted from the event. “The majority of people want a cease-fire. Many, many people have woken up to what’s going on with national-scale ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and so we’re speaking up. On top of all that, there’s an area-wide starvation of Gaza. People are starving and they’re dropping bombs on them, and we’re funding it. And he refuses to acknowledge that this is a genocide and they refuse to stop the money or weapons going to Israel, like 500 pound bombs. Those are only meant to kill lots of people.”
Kaine has spent the last two days opening campaign offices throughout Northern Virginia as part of his “Standing Up For Virginia” tour — his first official launch week of his 2024 Senate campaign.
Today’s incident echoes a speech he made yesterday in Charlottesville that was also beset by protestors seeking a ceasefire in Gaza.
Kaine did not respond to the protestors today or take questions from reporters after the event. In Charlottesville yesterday, Kaine reportedly spoke with protestors after his speech and said that he does want a ceasefire, but only when Israeli hostages are released.
Kaine asked Biden to support sending defensive weapons to Israel, and said that the war has resulted in nearly 30,000 Palestinian deaths, two-thirds of whom were women and children.
“Tens of thousands have been wounded and over 1.7 million people displaced,” Kaine wrote. “The facilities to deal with an injured and desperate population have been dramatically weakened. The amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza has been grossly insufficient and starvation for thousands is a real threat. Hospitals in Gaza have been badly damaged and most are no longer functioning. These harsh consequences are tragic and are stoking escalating violence in the region.”
Kaine was preceded in his remarks by his wife, Anne Holton, as well as State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), House of Delegates Majority Leader Del. Charniele Herring (D-4) and Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5).
Kaine was Hillary Clinton’s Democratic vice presidential running mate in 2016, and railed against former President Donald Trump.
“At the federal level, we stand up,” Kaine said. “There’s a battle going on in this country, but around the world, between those who stand up for others and stand up together and those who will tear us down and tear us apart.”
Kaine continued, “We are up against the greatest tear-down artist in the history of American politics in the disgraced ex-President Donald J. Trump. He tears down our basic values… like honesty, patriotism, fidelity, respect for others, kindness, tears down rights that we’ve counted on for generations, like the rights of people that make their own reproductive healthcare decisions, tears it down and brags about it. Tears down alliances like NATO, tears down basic concepts like the right of alternative health care.”
There are currently eight Republican candidates in the running to face Kaine this November.
Kaine said that the country needs to coalesce around “meaningful immigration reform that respects our roots as a nation,” with legislation that provides “moral order rather than chaos.”
Kaine also said that he’ll never forget when Republicans attempted to get the Affordable Care Act overturned in 2017, but that the effort was stopped by one Senate vote — by former Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain who voted in opposition.
“We saved healthcare for Virginians and Americans by one vote,” Kaine said. “Sometimes all it takes is one person willing to stand up.”
Steven Peterson is like no other Democrat running for office in Alexandria, and he wants to be the mayor.
From his opinions on racial undertones killing the Potomac Yard arena deal to wanting to reverse a slew of zoning reforms approved last year by City Council, one thing is crystal clear: Peterson is unfiltered.
“My father used to tell me ‘Only the lead dog has a good view,'” Peterson said. “I have no interest in becoming a city councilperson. I don’t want to be one of six. I want to be in spheres of influence.”
A newcomer in the small world of Alexandria politics, the “semi-retired” real estate developer decided before Christmas to run against Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and City Council Member Alyia Gaskins in the June 18 Democratic Primary for mayor.
“This is not a stepping stone for me in the future like it might be for Gaskins and Jackson,” Peterson said. “If I believe in something, you might not like my opinion, but you’re gonna know why.”
As for what he wants to accomplish in office, Peterson gave a simple, Reagan-esqe answer.
“I want people to be able to say, I have a better quality of life now than I had three years ago when Peterson started,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re a janitor or a billionaire. Everyone wants a better quality of life.”
Peterson is the son of legendary real estate developer Milton Peterson, founder of Peterson Companies and longtime chair of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. The family is firmly Republican, and Peterson Companies is one of the largest private developers in the region. The company managed the development of National Harbor, and Steven Peterson, in fact, was the project manager in that particular large-scale development.
“I learned a hell of a lot from the guy,” Peterson said of his father. “He had a big following. He had a big ego, but he also knew how to get the best out of people to come to a consensus.”
He also spent $30,000 on a “polling study” to determine his chances in the election. The phone poll was conducted in March, according to multiple sources.
“After conducting a $30,000 polling study on various issues that involve the city, I was surprised that the issue of crime was not higher on people’s agenda,” Peterson said. “There was somewhat of a feeling as though, ‘Well, if my car wasn’t stolen or I wasn’t personally robbed, it’s not high on my agenda.’ Well, I can assure you that the fact overall crime was up 30% in 2023 and car thefts were up 58% will be a major mandate on my agenda.”
On April 4, the filing deadline date, Peterson submitted the necessary signatures and paperwork to officially run for mayor. Incidentally, he doesn’t want to be identified as a Democrat, or a Republican, despite running in the June 18 Democratic primary. He also says, if elected, he’ll take on the job full-time and donate his salary to the Alexandria Police Foundation.
“I don’t want to be seen as a Republican or a Democrat,” Peterson said. “I want to be seen as a guy who cares about the issues and wants to create solutions based upon the problems.”
Peterson takes pride in having declared himself as the first mayoral candidate to go against the recently failed Potomac Yard arena deal. The “about” page of his campaign website is exclusively devoted to his opposition of the plan to move the Washington Wizards and Capitals from D.C. to Alexandria. He also likes to joke that Jackson followed his lead when he openly opposed the arena.
“Amy Jackson did the Michael Jackson Moonwalk,” he said. “The reason she did the Moonwalk backwards? Maybe it was that Peterson is totally against it. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m reading the tea leaves. I gotta go against it.'”
Peterson says that there were racial undertones at play between Senate Pro Tempore Louise Lucas (D-18), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Republican Governor Glen Youngkin during the General Assembly’s consideration of the proposal. Lucas effectively killed the House of Delegates’ Potomac Yard arena bill in committee, denying Youngkin the chance to include it in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
According to Peterson, “The undertones of the racial issue with Lucas being the first Black (woman) with power in the State of Virginia, she’s the first one that comes out and says, ‘I’m the first one and I’m not gonna screw this up. I’m not gonna let Youngkin screw this up. I’m not going to be saying, ‘I was the first Black woman in power and I screwed it up. I’m not going to allow that.’ And I respect that decision.”
On the future of the 12-acre Potomac Yard property, Peterson echoed the latest sentiments of landowner JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly, who recently told the Washington Business Journal that the area could turn into a tech corridor.
“Good real estate is always gonna find a good use eventually, right?” Peterson said. “It’s just not gonna be an arena. You’ve got a nice site that is located right near Metro, less than five miles from the world’s capital. You’re in a pretty good position, and you got companies like Amazon that want to move here. Why? There’s a reason why Virginia Tech put a billion dollars in, because you got good Metro, you got a good infrastructure, you got a quality citizen base for employment.”
Peterson is already anticipating attacks from his new political rivals.
“They’re gonna take their shots at me and say, ‘He’s a Republican, he’s a rich developer,'” Peterson said. “I don’t think Republican or Democrat, whether it’s crime, affordable housing and smart growth, whether it’s responsible land use. We have budgetary issues that we have to address as we move forward.”
Peterson is often accompanied on the campaign trail by his wife, Martha Shaw Peterson, and the pair have seven children. He’s lived in the city for 25 years, during which time he’s been a member of multiple boards, including the boards of St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, the Inova Alexandria Hospital Foundation, and Middlebury College in Vermont. He also has a degree in liberal arts from Middlebury College.
Peterson wants to reverse last year’s overhaul of zoning ordinances, including Council’s citywide elimination of single family zoning. The zoning reforms were seen by Council as a way to increase affordable residential development in the city.
“They basically took up the Constitution of Virginia and said to hell with it,” Peterson said. “I would go back to the where we were (the city’s previous zoning policies prior to the Council action) and I will talk to about the citizenry about this.”
Peterson says that public distrust of Council has opened an opportunity for his leadership. While he has nothing against City Manager Jim Parajon, he says that Wilson runs the city like a dictator.
“What I’ve ever seen over the last six, eight months is not the way I would run the city,” Peterson said. “As a former developer, I don’t like the way he just comes in and mandates from the top down. There’s not my style, and that’s not what I’m going to do if I’m the mayor, and I think that’s gonna resonate with people.”
Peterson said Parajon seems to be a fiscally disciplined businessman.
“You’re dealing with an $850 million budget,” he said. “You got to spread that money around somewhere and everyone has their hand out, right? And I think that by the mere fact Wilson’s got a big ego, and he runs that city, as I’ve said, like a dictatorship, and he won’t mess around with him (Parajon) too much, which leads me to believe that he’s pretty successful at what he does.”
Still, Peterson echoes the sentiments of other candidates who criticise an imbalance in the city’s tax revenue structure.
“Twenty years ago, 50% of the residential taxes were paying for the budget,” he said. “Now it’s 82% are paying the $850 million budget. That’s not good, smart, responsible government. You just can’t put it on the citizens.”
Three days before filing his candidacy, Peterson emailed ALXnow a statement on his various political positions. That full statement is below the jump. Read More
Alexandria City Council candidate Abdel Elnoubi has been making legislative waves recently as a member of the School Board, and says residents should expect the same kind of results if he gets elected.
Elnoubi is one of 11 Democrats running to fill six seats on City Council, including four incumbent Council members running for reelection in the Democratic primary on June 18. The field also includes Jacinta Greene, a fellow School Board Member.
Elnoubi is a freshman politician sworn in virtually during the pandemic in 2021. The last several years meant contending with staffing shortages, learning loss, school safety and budgeting issues. He says that alleviating staffing woes is an important solution for the school system, and consequently added a $4.2 million bonus in the ACPS budget request to the City Council for staff who were excluded from step increases in fiscal year 2021.
That move, and other additions by the School Board, will likely result in a residential tax increase during an election year.
“It’s your decision to decide whether you want to raise taxes or not,” Elnoubi told City Council last month. “If you do that, if you decide to raise taxes, I’m 100% with you.”
Elnoubi, an engineering project manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, also made big changes to the ACPS collective bargaining resolution. Most notably, he gained support to eliminate a voting threshold for ACPS staff to establish unions to begin the bargaining process with the school system.
“We just can’t pay our teachers enough, so it’s personal for me,” Elnoubi said. “In my early days at Metro, I was a young engineer making $66,000. I could hardly afford to live in Alexandria. My family was growing. We (at WMATA) got a raise because the union had a new agreement… Not just that, they got us back pay, and that made a significant change in my life. It made me feel more financially secure. Now all of a sudden I have extra money for savings, I’m making a little bit more money with this newborn that I just had. So, I saw firsthand the impact of being part of a union and having a collective bargaining agreement.”
Elnoubi lives in the Landmark area with his wife and two children.
Early on in his School Board tenure, Elnoubi said he wouldn’t be a “rubber stamp” for former ACPS Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr., and frequently went against established Board practices by speaking with the press.
“I believe in transparency, and I made it a point to be accessible to the press,” he said. “Because I came to this country for Democracy, for opportunity, for the things that make this country great, that we can hold government accountable.”
Born in Chicago, Elnoubi lived in Falls Church until he was eight years old, and then moved with his family to Alexandria, Egypt. He says his return to America and political aspirations in Alexandria, Virginia, makes for a literal “Tale Of Two Cities,” where quality of life issues stand in stark contrast.
“The police there (in Egypt) don’t work for the people,” Elnoubi said. “They’re an instrument of the regime to crush dissent… Education is totally underfunded, especially public schools. Teachers are paid very badly and can’t afford basic life necessities.”
At 21, Elnoubi returned to the U.S. after three years of college in Egypt and transferred to the City College of New York, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering. He later earned a Master’s in engineering management from George Washington University, and moved to the city in 2012. Prior to his election in 2021, he was also the president of the PTA at Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School and was a member of the city’s Community Criminal Justice Board and the Building Code Board of Appeals.
Elnoubi is Muslim and says he was inspired to run for office after former President Donald Trump was elected and signed an executive order initiating a travel ban to seven Muslim countries.
“My kids know no other country but the U.S., and I didn’t want them growing up in their own country feeling they do not belong or were being discriminated against,” Elnoubi said. “I started talking to people, and they advised me to join the Democratic Committee, to become a grassroots activist, to get involved more than I was. I did.”
He continued, “We can’t take this Democracy for granted. I’ve seen what happens when you don’t have Democracy. Corruption, bad quality of life, you can’t hold government accountable, you’re risking your life just by speaking up. And now I’m like, oh my God, could that happen here? And guess what? We found the answer four years later. It almost happened. You almost had a coup four years later.”
Elnoubi says that he’s a goal-oriented engineer, setting achievable benchmarks and closely measuring progress with data. He said that the failed Potomac Yard arena deal lacked safeguards to shield Alexandria residents from hundreds of millions of dollars in financial liabilities “in the event of unrealized projections.”
“The deal neglected the needs of our commuters posing adverse implications through the anticipated surge in traffic, compounded by insufficient state funding allocated for essential public transportation enhancements aimed at mitigating such concerns,” Elnoubi said. “The deal’s environment details were lacking. The deal failed to prioritize the welfare of our workforce with lack of sufficient labor protections and commitments to uphold union standards.”
On affordable housing, he said that he will use “zoning and permitting regulations, tax incentives, and partnerships” to allow residents of all income levels to live in the city.
Elnoubi admits that he’s got his work cut out for him in this primary election. He also says that his experience on the Board sets him apart.
“I’ve seen how hard the work is, how much effort and dedication it takes,” he said. “I love to roll up my sleeves and get involved.”
Alexandria City Council members and candidates are opening up about their positions on the city backing out of the Potomac Yard arena deal.
Mayor Justin Wilson said that the city will be spending a lot of time unpacking what led to the announcement that it was backing out of a plan to move the Washington Wizards and Capitals from D.C. to a new arena with an entertainment district in the city’s Potomac Yard neighborhood.
The deal is now a historic defeat, joining the failed attempt in the 1990s to build a stadium for the Washington Redskins (now Washington Commanders) at Potomac Yard.
“We’ll spend some time unpacking all of this,” Wilson told ALXnow. “But in the end, this proposal got caught up in some powerful politics in Richmond. Now, as a result of those very same politics, some very significant priorities of Alexandria are very vulnerable in Richmond. That’s a shame.”
Wilson said those components of the state budget include funding for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, education and public safety. Wilson was enthusiastic about the deal since it was announced Dec. 13, remaining steadfast in his support of its economic potential until yesterday’s announcement. Wilson is currently vacationing with his family and has been responding to the situation from Greece.
“Gun legislation has already been vetoed, and I imagine many, many vetoes to go,” Wilson said.
All of City Council sat on stage alongside Wilson, Governor Glenn Youngkin and Monumental Sports & Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis at the surprise announcement on Dec. 13 in Potomac Yard. Youngkin characterized the move as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, wanting the arena to open next door to the Potomac Yard Metro station in 2028.
The $2 billion project stalled in the Democrat-controlled Virginia State Senate, held up by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Louise Lucas, who refused to include it in the state budget. This week, Lucas said that Leonsis could pay for the entire project himself instead of relying on $1.5 billion in bond financing from Virginia taxpayers.
Former Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg joined the Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard in Richmond to protest the move during the General Assembly’s session earlier this month. She said that the city backing out of the deal was a great relief.
“The financial risks were terrible for the Commonwealth and our city, as well as the traffic impacts that would have overwhelmed our city over 275 nights a year,” Silberberg said. “I hope the city will now focus its economic development vision on more compatible uses for this property. As I have said often since 2018, I envision a tech corridor with the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus as the anchor and catalyst in addition to mixed use development.”
Jonathan Huskey’s campaign to be a member of Alexandria’s City Council is centered around his opposition to the Potomac Yard arena development.
Huskey says that the city government failed residents with last December’s surprise announcement that Monumental Sports & Entertainment reached a deal with Governor Glenn Youngkin to move the home of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals from D.C. to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood.
“Certainly the governor is the main backer of this idea, but our Council and our mayor deserve to be in the storyline here,” Huskey said. “They are major players in the way that this has gone down, and in the way that there has been a lack of transparency.”
The $2 billion arena is currently at an impasse within the Virginia General Assembly, where Senate Democrats led by Sen. Louise Lucas (D-18) refused to include it in the state budget. Local legislators contend that Youngkin hasn’t negotiated with Democrats on the issue, and Huskey says the deal highlights a lack of transparency and accountability in the deal-making process.
“I’m stepping up to say we’ve got to have this debate in public,” Huskey said. “We’ve got to talk about it.”
Huskey says that the city did not adequately prepare, consult or provide residents with rationale for the project.
“That has really soured this in the eyes of our city, the legislature, the region,” he said. “So, I’m running because this cannot happen again, and we can’t be divided by a Council cutting deals with billionaires before they talk to their own constituents or the people who live within eyeshot of this thing.”
Huskey is the communications director at the State Revenue Alliance and lives with his wife and two children in Warwick Village, which is next door to Del Ray and near Potomac Yard. A native of Salina, Kansas, he has a degree in political science and government from the University of Kansas and has lived in Alexandria for 12 years.
“I know I’ve got a lot to learn about some of the various city departments, but I am certainly not a novice,” he said. “I am a policy professional. I know local and state government, how it works, and how to get things done. I think I’ll be ready to govern on day one and I’m going to embark on a lot of meetings with the police department and parks department and city boards to get an understanding where they’re coming from so I’ll be knowledgeable come the start of my tenure on council.”
He’s also never served on a city board or commission, and says he never found issue with City Council’s handling of large development deals until the arena plan surfaced. Since then he’s been a vocal member of the Coalition to Stop the Potomac Yard Arena.
“I have generally been supportive of this council and mayor’s decisions on development,” Huskey said. “I’ve not been an activist around any of the other debates that have happened around development, but this one is different for me.”
Huskey said that he started to consider a Council run last month when there were not more anti-arena candidates on the ballot. Currently, Charlotte Scherer is only other vocal anti-arena candidate running for Council, as are mayoral candidates Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and Steven Peterson.
“It’s not personal,” Huskey said. “I’m not upset at anybody in any personal way, but I do think this was a big boo-boo by the City Council and that it does show that there is some change that needs to happen at City Hall.”
Huskey is in favor of creating a ward system for City Council, and says that the city should get independent studies on major development proposals. By the end of his term, if elected, he says that Council should lobby Richmond for a more “progressive” tax structure that provides more revenue for schools.
“I can be part of the solution where we can actually fund the things that we need without deals like the Potomac Yard arena,” Huskey said.
Huskey also questions revenue projections for the project, and says that Youngkin made the deal because of the fiscal cliff the state faces with federal Covid relief funds drying up next year. He said that City Council made a choice to latch onto the project to solve its financial woes.
“They made a choice to latch onto this project built by a Republican governor and a billionaire who wants to move a team four miles for what?” Huskey said, adding that Monumental owner Ted Leonsis had an opportunity to get a “mini city” built by taxpayers. “Nobody asked for it.”
Huskey continued, “I fundamentally also think that is morally wrong, that they would even entertain such a thing. It is unjust to seek billions in public financing for a billionaire who has access to all of the money that would be needed to build that stadium and the facilities around it. He can pay for this thing if he felt like he needed to. And that has never been properly vetted through this council and it should have been.”
Huskey does not have a campaign manager, and said that he will likely take vacation from his job to run for Council.
“I plan to hit the ground running,” he said. “I have a plan to do that. I’m going to run a credible, hard campaign and hopefully we’ll see on June 18 that I get enough votes to be in the top six.”
