Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and the new City Council were sworn into office on Thursday (Jan. 2), ushering in a new era of city governance with the new year.
Gaskins is the first Black woman to be elected mayor of the city. She stood alongside her husband and two children and took the oath of office from Clerk of the Court Greg Parks onstage at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center (4915 E. Campus Drive) at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus.
Pretty soon email inboxes won’t get those monthly newsletters from Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. It’s the end of an era in the city, as Wilson leaves office in January.
Wilson is looking forward to it.
Alexandria City Council Member Sarah Bagley won the most votes in Tuesday’s election, making her the presumptive vice mayor-elect.
Bagley won a second term, receiving 42,291 votes in Tuesday’s election, just 664 votes more than Council Member John Taylor Chapman, who got the second-most votes with 41,627 votes.
While thousands of mailed absentee ballots remain uncounted, Alexandria Democrats declared victory on election night.
Mayor-elect Alyia Gaskins said that when the provisional and mail-in absentee votes are tallied that the city’s Democratic candidates will make up the seven-person City Council.
Alexandria City Council Member Alyia Gaskins made history tonight by becoming the first Black woman elected mayor of the city.
Gaskins was surrounded by her City Council colleagues and Democratic supporters as she accepted the results at Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray.
The conduct and power of the Alexandria School Board was criticized by multiple City Council candidates on Wednesday night.
The hour-and-a-half-long debate was moderated by Washington Post reporter Teo Armus and hosted by the Potomac Yard and Taylor Run Civic Associations.
Cupcakes, music and fireworks punctuated Alexandria’s 275th birthday on Saturday.
It was a clear night for a party at Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison Street) along the Potomac River. Mayor Justin Wilson and city leaders spoke onstage before handing out thousands of birthday cupcakes.
Sarah Bagley says that Alexandria residents have invested time and energy into making her an effective member of the Alexandria City Council, and she says she’s running for reelection to honor that investment.
A lot has changed in the city since Bagley was first elected and then virtually sworn in in January 2022. Alexandria was on the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since gone through a crime surge, the introduction and the failure of the Potomac Yard arena deal, a number of key changes in departmental leadership (namely the police and fire chiefs) as well as the controversial upending of the city’s residential zoning policies.
With the June 18 primary for Alexandria mayor and City Council around the corner, candidates have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for what is anticipated to be a low-turnout election.
The only seats in contention for the Democrat primaries are Mayor and City Council, and there is also a single candidate running for Council in a Republican primary.
A majority of Alexandria’s Democrat candidates for City Council rank climate action high on their priority lists.
A number of candidates recently expressed their opinions in a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions and Build Our Future questionnaire.
Alexandria’s controversial zoning overhaul punctuated the final Democrat City Council candidate forum before the June 18 primary.
Anti-Potomac Yard arena candidate Jonathan Huskey didn’t mince words on his opinions against citywide Zoning for Housing/Housing for All overhaul that eliminated single family zoning and allows developers to build homes with up to four units on any property.
