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Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins says her participation in a recent gathering of local leaders around the world at Harvard University was “transformative” and shared a story about confronting a property manager over mold.

From April 12-14, Gaskins was included in the ninth cohort of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, joining leaders from 45 cities and 16 countries to exchange insights on local governance. She now says that the initiative has inspired her to focus more of her efforts on workforce development. Alexandria was also chosen for an “innovation track,” through which city staff will have the opportunity to learn how to better use data and innovation to work with residents and employers to enhance existing workforce strategies and explore new ones.


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Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon unveiled his proposed $977.3 million Fiscal Year 2027 budget last night (Tuesday).

While the budget is a 2.2% increase from the current FY 2026 budget, Parajon’s proposal keeps the real estate tax rate of $1.135 per $100 of assessed value, and does not change the city’s refuse rate. He was able to achieve the feat through $9 million “in efficiency reductions, cost cutting savings, and vacant position reductions to balance the budget.”


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Alexandria crews were quick to finish clearing Sunday’s snowfall, aided in part by some warmer temperatures and a lack of “snowcrete.”

As of last night (Monday), all primary, secondary and residential streets have been cleared, as well as Alexandria City Public Schools buildings, bus stops, city facilities and adjacent sidewalks, according to a city announcement. Roads are clear as ACPS students and staff make a return to classrooms today on normal schedules, following yesterday’s synchronous learning plans.


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Mayor Alyia Gaskins says one lesson to be learned from January’s snow and ice storm is the importance of timely messaging that reaches a large audience.

“It’s given us a lot of lessons learned,” Gaskins said at a roundtable yesterday (Wednesday) hosted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).


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Hundreds gathered to see the group of Buddhist monks on a 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace” as they passed through Alexandria today (Monday).

Joined onstage by city officials, the group’s leader, the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, gave an address outside Christ Church, touching on themes of mindfulness and reflection in today’s heavily digital — and often divided — world.


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Alexandria will recognize a group of Buddhist monks on a 2,300-mile journey to D.C. on Monday as they near the end of their months-long “Walk for Peace.”

The group of monks, who began their pilgrimage on Oct. 26, 2025, at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Texas, are expected to pass through Old Town on Monday and interact with passersby at Christ Church (118 N. Washington Street) around noon.


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Alexandria is one of more than 80 local governments and leaders to join a coalition challenging the Trump administration’s recent surge of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota.

The coalition, co-led by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, has filed an amicus brief arguing that Trump’s deployment of more than 3,000 armed ICE agents to Minnesota — called “Operation Metro Surge” — is unconstitutional. Along with Alexandria, signatories include the governments of major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, alongside legal nonprofit Public Rights Project.


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A long-vacant office property along Eisenhower Avenue is slated for conversion into a 377-unit all-affordable apartment building.

The redevelopment of the 9.73-acre Victory Center at 5001 Eisenhower Avenue site was approved in late 2024. Now property owner Stonebridge, the City of Alexandria and Amazon’s Housing Fund have announced the “unprecedented” full conversion for the 11-story building, with completion estimated by 2027.


News

City Council last week made a few changes to a review board’s conditional approval of the upcoming City Hall and Market Square project.

On Jan. 13, City Council considered an appeal of the Board of Architectural Review’s approved certificate of appropriateness with conditions for the City Hall and Market Square project on Nov. 19, 2025. The Council voted to remove the review board’s recommendation to maintain decorative chimneys on the south-facing side of City Hall, as well as colonial-style windows at the center entrance pavilion.


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Alexandria honored the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with song, dance and poetry, as well as a thorough rebuke of political violence and societal divisions under the Trump administration last night (Thursday).

The 53rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Program began with an impassioned invocation from the Rev. Quardricos Bernard Driskell of Beulah Baptist Church, who said King is remembered as “a prophet who named America’s sins and paid his life for it.” Driskell denounced current approaches to immigration enforcement, military spending and “taking over sovereign nations for profit, power and greed.”


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Soccer fans in Alexandria are in for a treat, as the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) has announced it will be staying in Alexandria during the FIFA World Cup this summer.

The team’s base camp will be in Alexandria, where players will stay at the AKA Hotel at 625 First Street in Old Town and train at Episcopal High School as they participate in the World Cup. Games will take place across Canada, Mexico and the United States from Jun. 11 through July 19.


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