Beyer Denounces Trump’s Sunday Drive-By — “Why did they approve it? What precautions were taken? Who else did they interact with? The continuing lack of transparency from the White House is unsustainable and dangerous.” [Twitter]
Mayor Congratulates After Successful Flu Clinic — “Thanks to our Health Dept, @AlexandriaVAPD @AlexandriaVAFD @AlexVASheriff & our Medical Reserve Corps volunteers for administering another 962 flu vaccines today (1,802 at 2 clinics) in an extremely well-organized operation. Get vaccinated, Alexandria!” [Twitter]
Second Virtual Read-In on T.C. Williams’ Racist Past This Thursday — “Who was T.C. Williams and what was his impact on our students decades ago? What does T.C. Williams the high school represent today? See the highlights from our first Community Read-In: T.C. Williams the Superintendent.” [Facebook]
Councilwoman Jackson Shares Mom’s Breast Cancer Story — “My mother received her breast cancer diagnosis during my sophomore year of high school – she was 46 years old. Young. Very young. My world, as an only child of a single mother, collapsed. I was devastated.” [Zebra]
City Holding Public Hearing on Mobility Plan —Â “The Alexandria Mobility Plan (AMP), a strategic update to the City’s 2008 Transportation Master Plan, will guide decision-making and outline priority strategies to ensure that transportation in the City continues to serve the needs of residents, businesses, and visitors as the region grows and new technology adds to the ways we get around. The City will hold a virtual town hall presentation, including Q&A, on Thursday, October 15 at 6 p.m.” [Facebook]
Today’s Weather — “Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals (during the day). High around 70F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Clear skies (at night). Low 47F. Winds light and variable.” [Weather.com]
New Job: Property Manager — “Full Time Property Manager needed for a 160 unit apartment community. This position requires a take charge, reliable individual with strong management skills and excellent verbal and written communication. Qualification requires at least 2-5 years of property management experience managing the site staff and day to day operations” [Indeed]
Mayor Reports COVID-19 Cases Increase by 14 — “Positive tests up 14 to 2,749 in the City 7-day Positivity Rate up to 5.9% 0 new hospitalizations Still safer at home, wash hands, wear masks and support our essential workers.” [Twitter]
Beyer Asks U.S. Park Police Chief to Implement Body Cameras After Lafayette Square Incident — “Beyer seeks commitment to body cam program funded/authorized by Congress from acting Chief Monahan given USPP’s transparency failures in the killing of Bijan Ghaisar. Monahan: USPP not ‘in a position to successfully implement, manage, and sustain a body-worn camera program.'” [Twitter]
New Deli Opening in Old Town North — “The Chewish Deli announced they will be opening a location at 807 Pendleton St. in the next few weeks. According to the business’s website, founder Greg Linzey is known for his hand rolled, NY-style water bagels. In addition to bagels, The Chewish Deli offers coffee as well as breakfast and lunch sandwiches.” [Alexandria Living]
The Irish Walk is Closing Today — “The last day is tomorrow for this wonderful Irish Store in Old Town Alexandria. Stop in and visit and get the last of the remaining treasures. @AlexandriaNow #OldTownAlexandria #Irish – The Irish Walk has been such a treasure and it will be missed.” [Twitter]
Photos Show Flooding From Last Week’s Storm — “Photographer Alex Snyder shared photos of the Thursday flooding with Patch to demonstrate that the city has ‘stormwater runoff problems that is costing taxpayers thousands.’ The photos show ‘waist-high’ flooding at Ashby Street and Glebe Road in the Del Ray area.” [Patch]
City Advises on Hurricane Preparedness — “Today the city advised residents to prepare for hurricane season through November. And they know the pandemic makes doing so a challenge. Officials though stress it is important to be ready. Their recommendations follow.” [Zebra]
Today’s Weather — It will be mostly sunny with a high temperature of 93 degrees. [Weather.com]
New Job: Scooter Collector — “As a Scooter Collector, you’ll be responsible for collecting scooters from the street and dropping them off at the Spin warehouse. This is a night-time role in which you will be using your personal vehicle to transport scooters.” [Indeed]
After a launch delayed by the pandemic, mobility company Helbiz has started putting scooters onto Arlington and Alexandria streets.
The company announced yesterday that it would immediately move forward with bringing 100 new scooters to locations in Arlington and 200 to Alexandria. Like other scooter companies, like Lime or Bird, Helbiz scooters are unlocked by scanning a code in an app, riding with cost determined by distance, and parking.
“The vehicles will also be able to operate between these cities’ for riders’ convenience,” the company said in a press release. “These fleets follow the company’s successful launch of e-bikes in neighboring Washington, DC, highlighting Helbiz’s continued growth in the area and its commitment to offering eco-friendly micro-mobility solutions to the community.”
Helbiz — an Italian-American transportation company founded in 2015 — also brought scooters and e-bikes to Washington D.C., according to DCist. While Helbiz was approved for e-bike use in Alexandria, the company said those plans have hit a snag.
“We plan to launch a fleet of 200 e-bikes in Alexandria in Q4 of this year,” said Gian Luca Spriano, Director of International Business Development. “Unfortunately, our bike manufacturer experienced delays due to COVID, and we’re working closely with them to get our bikes in Alexandria as soon as possible.”
The distribution and access to scooters have faced some concerns at the Alexandria City Council that the programs disproportionately favored wealthy, predominately white Old Town at the exclusion of lower-income communities. In response, Helbiz said in a press release that it has launched the Helbiz Access Program to provide discounts on rides for low-income residents.
Photo via Helbiz/Facebook
The July 4 holiday weekend is here, and it’s hard to believe that 2020 is more than halfway over. Not only has the year flown by, but so has the last week.
Alexandria joined the rest of Virginia in entering into the third phase of its reopening, the oldest resident in the city turned 109, a police officer was charged with assault and battery for a January arrest
Here are some of the top stories in Alexandria this week:
- Margaret Chisley Celebrates 109 Years in Alexandria
- Alexandria Police Officer Charged With Assault and Battery for Unjustified Use of Force
- New State Laws Pushed by Alexandria Take Effect Tomorrow
- Old Dominion Boat Club’s Waterfront Revival Plans Resurface
- Alexandria Renters Ask Governor to Extend Moratorium on Evictions
- Businesses Face Tough Recovery as Alexandria Lags Behind Neighbors in Consumer Spending
- New Catholic University Location Coming to Carlyle
- Old Town Garden-Style Apartments to Be Replaced by Multifamily Apartment Complex
- City Recommends Riding E-Scooters for Errands and Social Distancing
- Reminder: Next Phase of Reopening Starts Tomorrow but Indoor Mask Requirement Still In Effect
Be safe this weekend, and feel free to add to the discussion in the comments.
Staff photo by James Cullum
Electric scooter companies have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and the city says the transportation option “can be an alternate mode of travel while distancing.”
The city said it is also working with e-scooter companies on their disinfecting practices.
“Spin, Bird, and Razor devices are available to the community to access essentials (grocery stores, medicine, etc.), and Lime has paused its service in the City,” according to the city’s dockless mobility program page. “Shared mobility can be an alternative mode of travel while social distancing. To reduce risk to users and the community, the City is coordinating with each company on their disinfecting practices.”
The city also recommends that riders wash their hands before and after trips, or wear gloves, in addition to disinfecting the handlebars and other points of contact.
For months, Spin scooters were barely in Alexandria and their competition was even more scarce to be found. Permits in the city were issued to Lime, Bird, Razor, Spin, and Helbiz. Lime reportedly laid off 13% of its employees around the world, Bird laid off a third of its workforce and Uber and Lyft have laid off hundreds of employees, according to the Washington Post.
Matt Harris, the president of the Colecroft Community Homeowners Association, which is made up of 135 homes near the Braddock Road Metro Station, has been against the scooters in the city since day one, but now thinks they can actually be useful.
“I actually see a place for scooters in our COVID environment, as people remain reluctant to take mass transit,” Harris told ALXnow. “Maybe it will be seem more widely as a true transportation option and less as a form of recreation.”
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
(Updated at 3 p.m.) Micro-mobility company Helbiz is poised to be the first company in Alexandria offering both e-scooters and e-bikes in Alexandria.
“Helbiz…Â has been awarded a permit to operate both its innovative e-bikes and e-scooters in Alexandria, Virginia, making it the only company to offer both transportation solutions in the market,” the company said in a press release. “This permit follows the launch of the company’s fleet of e-bikes in neighboring Washington, D.C. and highlights Helbiz’s continued commitment to offering eco-friendly micro-mobility solutions in the area.”
Gian Luca Spriano, a spokesperson for the Italian-American company, said it would be partnering with Alexandria’s Department of Transportation to ensure safety is prioritized and the company has met all the regulatory standards.
The press release noted that the company plans to operate 200 e-scooters and 200 e-bikes in Alexandria, deployed at some point “in the coming weeks.”
The e-scooters and e-bikes are accessible through the Helbiz app, in which users can locate, rent, and unlock the devices.
Photo via Helbiz/Twitter
Don’t worry. Even though Hal Hardaway just closed on a house in Williamsburg, he’ll still be around half the time.
If you don’t know the 70-year-old Hardaway by sight, you might know his famous garage, or the emails the Old Town resident sends to more than 1,000 people on a daily basis railing about the Alexandria waterfront or videos he shares of electric scooter violators.
“I see four-year-old kids on scooters,” Hardaway told ALXnow. “Multiple kids on scooters, fathers with their little toddlers, you know, hanging on, going full speed down the street without helmets. I mean, that is just wrong. And then you get to the point, and we could talk about this for three hours, of how are we going to enforce the law?”
When not fixing up classic sports cars (he has five), Hardaway, a retired U.S. Navy captain, can routinely be spotted walking around lower King Street in his baseball cap, jeans and Navy jacket. He’s a historian at heart and wants to keep the city’s historic appearance in tact, and jokingly refers to last year’s Mirror-Mirror art display on the waterfront as “Technicolor Stonehenge.”
He also once unsuccessfully sued the city for what he viewed as height violations in the Robinson Terminal South development. Recently, he made a Freedom of Information Act request for information related to scooter companies operating in Alexandria. He found that there have been no fines levied against the companies since their introduction in Alexandria last year.
Lately, Hardaway’s been impressed with the Alexandrians Against The Seminary Road Diet Facebook group, and has commented on a few posts.
“This Seminary Road page is the most organized group I’ve seen on going after the city on these kinds of issues, and a kind of fun thing,” Hardaway said. “It’s really interesting, because people have got their their broad swords out now about City Hall… I wish I could have done something like this, and so I’ve made a couple comments this morning. I hope it expands into something greater, something beyond just Seminary Road.”
An only child, Hardaway grew up with an affinity for fixing things in his father’s machine and welding shop in the small town of Crewe, which is about 45 miles southwest of Richmond. After graduating with a physics degree from The College of William & Mary, he spent 30 years in the Navy and lived all over the world as a cryptologist (code breaking), even working a three-year stint as inspector general of the Naval Security Group Command under the Chief of Naval Operations.
Hardaway moved to the area in the late 1990s for his final naval tour at the Pentagon, and never left. He retired from the Navy in 2002 and then worked for eight years in the private sector before officially retiring in 2010. That was around the time that he got interested in local politics.
“I started attending waterfront meetings,” Hardaway said. “The entire reason the city is here is because of the waterfront, and there isn’t any signage or historical markers telling tourists why it’s so important.”
Hardaway is a member of the Environmental Council of Alexandria and sits on the organizing committee for the Old Town Festival of Speed and Style classic car show, the latter of which he co-founded. He recently bought a house in Williamsburg that will be able to accommodate four of his cars, and will soon be spending about half of his time there.
Like classic cars in need of repairs, he looks at Alexandria as a beautiful but broken machine, and he wants to help fix it.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be here for years,” he said. “I think some progress is being made mainly because lots more people are engaged. Look at the development of the wetlands at Potomac Yard. That’s another one. The city is driven by money, and I like it here, but it’s hurt the quality of life, which is going downhill.”
It was quite a year in Alexandria. It’s safe to say that 202o will be just as busy, but in the meantime let’s take a look at the top stories from the last year.
1. The Seminary Road DietÂ
Few local transportation stories have gotten as much attention as City Council’s 4-3 decision on the Seminary Road diet. The move seems simple enough — consolidating from four to two lanes in both directions between N. Quaker Lane and Howard Street with a turn lane in the middle and bike lanes on both sides. Public discord over the change prompted the creation of a Facebook page, which has dramatically turned up the temperature on the issue, even leading to City Councilwoman Amy Jackson to publicly call for a complete reversal on the decision and restart of the process.
See:Â More Work on Seminary Road This Spring If the State Will Pony Up the Cash
More:Â Virginia Theological Seminary Weighs In Favor of Seminary Road Diet
2. Legendary Titans Pass AwayÂ
Alexandria lost a number of inspiring figures in 2019, including members of the state championship-winning 1971 T.C. Williams High School football team. The team, who were immortalized in the 2000 film “Remember The Titans” starring Denzel Washington, lost coach Herman Boone, assistant coach Bill Yoast and players Petey Jones and Julius Campbell.
3. ACPS fully Accredited for First Time in 20 Years
It took two decades, and in September Alexandria City Public Schools system announced that all of the city’s public schools reached their state mandated benchmarks to be fully accredited for the 2019-2020 academic year. Superintendent Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings said that the success didn’t come by chance and that it took six superintendents and a lot of “planning, preparation and dedication for all students to experience success regardless of their life circumstances” to get ACPS where it is today.
All ACPS Schools Fully Accredited for First Time in 20 Years – ACPS Express https://t.co/mjsBbdCHM9
— Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr. (@DrHutchings) September 30, 2019
4. Ground Broken at Potomac Yard Metro Station
After decades of finalizing plans and making deals, ground was finally broken in December for the construction of the Potomac Yard Metro station. The plan is to open the $320 million station by spring 2022, and while development will result in the demolition of the Regal Potomac Yard movie theater, the area will positively be booming with the eventual addition of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, a new mixed-use redevelopment, Amazon HQ2 in Crystal City and much more.
“This has been a quarter-century in the making,” Mayor Justin Wilson said at the groundbreaking. “This is a big… deal.”
5. Alexandria’s Summer Metro ShutdownÂ
Did you have to get creative in your commute over the summer? You weren’t alone. Thousands of commuters in the area were forced to make alternate plans so that Metro could make crucial improvements to all of the station platforms south of the Reagan National Airport station. The shutdown meant expanded Metro and DASH bus routes, morning trolley rides from the King Street station, Potomac Riverboat Company Water Taxi ferries from the Alexandria Waterfront into the District and more. The renovation is part of a $300-$400 million project to rebuild 20 outdoor platforms throughout the Metro system. Once reopened, commuters were introduced to new speakers for clearer public announcements and emergency notifications, stainless-steel platform shelters, passenger information display screens and energy-efficient LED lighting.
Alexandria's Metro stations are open again after a summer-long construction shutdown! How was your commute this morning? https://t.co/mwpM0mf7eM pic.twitter.com/fQMqsGT4bf
— The Zebra (@ZebraAlexandria) September 9, 2019
Electric scooters’ tempestuous relationship with Alexandria sidewalks has just come to an end.
At the City Council’s public hearing on Saturday, Dec. 14, the council voted to approve a second phase of the pilot program with a few notable changes from the current program.
The biggest change is the removal of scooters from sidewalks. Under the current system, scooters were only prohibited from two sidewalks near the waterfront, where bicycles are also banned from sidewalks. The original plan for the second phase of the pilot program was to have scooters banned from Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray and a large portion of Old Town, but concerns were raised by some on the City Council about enforcement and education of the public on where exactly scooters could or could not be ridden.
Instead, at the Saturday meeting, the City Council amended the language to ban electronic scooters from sidewalks across the city. The new ordinance reads: “Riding a micro-mobility device on all sidewalks within the city shall be prohibited.”
Other changes included requiring the scooter companies to distribute scooters more equitably across the city, one of the goals pushed for by several members of the City Council. Of scooters in the city, 15 percent will be required to be located west of Quaker Lane and east of I-395, while 10 percent will be required west of I-395. An additional five percent will be required to be placed in Arlandria. Currently, most are scattered around Old Town.
Council members Amy Jackson and John Chapman also pushed for the language to be refined to ensure that the Ad Hoc Scooter Task Force include representatives of the West End, rather than being monopolized by Old Town residents.
City Council members noted that scooter corrals recently added to Old Town — intended to reduce instances of scooters being scattered across sidewalks — could also be coming to Del Ray, Carlyle and Potomac.
The new regulation also specifically banned more than one person from riding a scooter, though Mayor Justin Wilson joked that after passing the regulation the companies would come back with tandem scooters.
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
It’s one thing to make rules for scooters, but on Alexandria’s City Council, there are concerns about how the city can enforce proposed new restrictions in Old Town.
During the City Council meeting last Tuesday (Nov. 26), the council worked to fine-tune the next phase of the city’s electric scooter pilot program and shape how that implementation looks when it’s applied on Alexandria streets.
The first phase of the program saw 230,000 scooters trips taken by 15,000 users, as WTOP reported, noting that the indiscriminate parking of scooters on sidewalks was a major concern among city residents. Another concern: the unsafe operation of scooters on sidewalks teeming with pedestrians.
The latest development for the second phase of the scooter pilot program is that scooters will be banned from sidewalks in a large square section of Old Town — from Montgomery Street in the north and Wilkes Street in the south, and from West Street at the western edge to the waterfront.
But Councilman John Chapman said he was concerned the specific boundaries could be confusing to those who don’t know the layout of city streets. Chapman compared the approach to San Antonio, where he visited the week before and which, he said, benefits from a simple citywide “no sidewalk” rule.
“As a tourist to Alexandria, they don’t know how far Wilkes Street to Montgomery street is,” Chapman said. “Some of the stops people will have to do will be people who don’t know the area. Setting that up as a potential conflict is also concerning.”
Staff said signs would have to be posted regularly throughout areas where the electronic scooters are banned. Council members were unconvinced, though, that the best use of police time was monitoring Old Town’s sidewalks for electric scooter riders.
“How realistic is enforcement?” asked Councilman Mo Seifeldein. “Is that something we really want to push to the Police Department? It’s nice to say ‘it’s not allowed here’ but is it worth having a police officer patrolling this square? Is that the most efficient way of utilizing our resources? I don’t know how realistic the enforcement is, to be honest with you.”
Seifeldein said enforcement would be a challenging and complex operation. He was uncertain that it merited the end result of adding the criminal offenses to people’s records.
In another comparison to San Antonio, Councilman Canek Aguirre said the city has time restrictions on scooters to limit the risk of them being operated by people coming home intoxicated. Aguirre urged staff to consider similar time restrictions near bars, but Mayor Justin Wilson cautioned that time restrictions are a double-edged sword.
