We’re nearing the end of the first full week of October, and around the city, various homes and local businesses are starting to get into the spooky mood.
Visit Alexandria has put together a roundup of Halloween-themed activities around town. While the pandemic is still ongoing, there’s been progress since last October when some iconic Alexandria Halloween events (like Lee Street trick-or-treating) were shut down.
Next month, the City Council is set to review plans that could make the pedestrianization of the 100 block of King Street a permanent feature.
Since last spring, one of the blocks of King Street closest to the Waterfront, between Lee and Union streets, has been closed to vehicle traffic. The streetscape around businesses like Pop’s Old Fashion Ice Cream and Paper Source is a pedestrian zone, and local restaurants have outdoor dining areas.
The city is going through a process of opening up some limitations on co-living — units with up to six individual suites that all share communal amenities.
Co-living is a little different from most apartments; typically having more residents than apartments and at a lower cost. Co-living is currently allowed in Alexandria, but requirements to go through a development special use permitting process and public hearings, among other restrictions, have been hurdles city staff are hoping get rid of. The new policy would certain development in residential zones to build up to two co-living units — with up to six-total suites — by-right, meaning without the need for public hearings and the city’s extensive permitting process.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is eyeing a new Blue Line route that could be realigned to run from the Huntington Metro station in Fairfax across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over to National Harbor.
The project was cited as one of the higher performing projects in a list of options aimed at boosting ridership. A cost-benefits analysis put the new Blue Line route, which would also go up to Georgetown, above alternatives like a Silver Line Express tunnel.
Shows are back across Alexandria, with venues like The Birchmere and Little Theater of Alexandria opening their doors again.
This weekend, Little Theater is showing August Wilson’s “Fences” and last month, The Birchmere featured Three Dog Night.
Alexandria students returned to classrooms for a full five-day school week last Tuesday, marking the start of what could hopefully be the first full year in-school since the pandemic started in early 2020.
Across the school division, Alexandria City Public Schools faced a series of hurdles — from extremely minor like a fox in the vicinity of a middle school to more serious, like a violent brawl in Alexandria City High School.
What a busy week in Alexandria. Here’s the rundown.
Alexandria City Public Schools reopened their doors to full-time in-person instruction on Tuesday, and there have been a few hiccups. On Friday, we published a video taken of a brawl inside Alexandria City High School, and a teenager was hit by a car while walking home from school in Del Ray on Thursday.
(Updated 11 a.m.) The city of Alexandria is considering implementing a new 5 cent bag tax at local stores; aimed at curbing plastic bag use and providing funding for enviromental clean-up and other projects.
A similar 5 cent bag tax was implemented in D.C. in 2010, and groups collecting trash around the area reported a three-quarter decrease in the amount of plastic bags being picked up and overall decreased plastic bag use — though some of those results have been brought into question.
What a week in Alexandria.
Public uproar over Sunday’s flooding spilled out throughout this week, which continued to be threatened by near-daily flash flood advisories from the National Weather Service.
In what’s become at least an annual occurrence in Alexandria, heavy rainfall led to severe flooding for many Alexandrians, particularly in Del Ray neighborhood.
City leadership has promised to accelerate the timetable for planned flooding mitigation efforts, but warned that major infrastructure projects will still take some time to process.
What a hot week in Alexandria. Here is the rundown.
Our top story this week was on the five men arrested after shots were fired in Old Town last month. There were quite a few crime incidents to report on, in fact, including a man who was arrested in the Landmark area after shooting his cat and a man arrested for selling marijuana and illegally possessing a gun.
