A race through Old Town this weekend will cause some road closures on Saturday and Sunday.

The PNC Parkway Classic is scheduled for Sunday, April 28. The city said in a release that there will also be a couple of closures on Saturday — we’re told that’s for race setup near Oronoco Bay Park.

According to the release:

For the safety of those involved, there will be numerous road closures in Old Town beginning Saturday, April 27
at 8 a.m. through Sunday, April 28 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, April 27, 8 a.m. – Sunday at 2 p.m.
N. Union between Oronoco Street and Pendleton Street
Pendleton Street between Fairfax Street and Union

Sunday, April 28
5 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.
Fairfax Street will be closed to through traffic between Canal Center and Pendleton Street for buses to shuttle race participants.

6 a.m. – 2 p.m.
S. Washington Street closed from the city limit on the south side of the city to Washington and Gibbon

7 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Franklin Street between Washington and Union Street
Union Street between Franklin and Oronoco Street

The start line for the 5k is at Oronoco Bay Park, the 10-mile run starts at Mount Vernon. There will be no parking on Mount Vernon and towing will be enforced.

Photo via PNC Parkway Classic/Facebook

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 local nonprofit is donating a $50,000 scoreboard at the Kelley Cares Miracle Field outside the Nannie J. Lee Memorial Recreation Center in Old Town.

The scoreboard is a gift to the city from the Miracle League of Alexandria and it will be presented to City Council for approval on April 2. Additionally, the $3,000 installation for the scoreboard’s support beams is being donated by the Simpson Development Company.

MLA built the synthetic baseball diamond in partnership with the Kelley Cares Foundation in 2012. The field is next to the Ruthanne Lodato Memorial Playground for people with special needs.

Kelley Cares Miracle Field is named in honor of Kelley Swanson, a T.C. Williams High School student who died after a graduation trip in 2005.

The scoreboard was paid for by Sheri and Mark Jessell in honor of their 18-year-old son, Dan, who loved baseball and died in 2018, and Sheri Jessell’s sister, Loey Seligman, who died in 2020.

“The scoreboard will enhance the experience for players in the Miracle League, as well as for others who use the field,” MLA Board Chair Mac Slover wrote in a letter to the city. “The scoreboard will be installed beyond the right field fence and will be 10-feet-wide and 16-feet-tall. It will be raised another six feet so that it can be above the sightlines of the existing fence.”

The Jessell family lives in Florida and were inspired to donate to the Alexandria nonprofit after seeing an MLA video. At first, MLA received a $50 donation from the Jessell family in last year’s Spring2ACTion fundraiser, and after corresponding with the family, Slover was informed months later that the family wanted to make a substantial donation.

“In 2020, we had done a video about how much we missed our players because of Covid, and it brought her (Sheri Jessell) to tears,” Slover said. “She and her family wanted to donate $50,000, and we were able to get the scoreboard, which has been a dream of mine since we built the field in 2012.”

Slover wants to install the scoreboard in August and dedicate it in early September.

Nothing punctuates your feelings like throwing an ax, and now there’s a new place to do it while drinking a beer in Alexandria’s West End.

Bad Axe Throwing opened at 617 S. Pickett Street in October, offering walk-in and appointments for customers to hone their axe and knife-throwing skills. After signing a waiver, it costs between $30 and $40 per-person to hurl the sharp objects at the wooden targets.

Staff joke that the experience is cheaper than getting therapy, but just as rejuvenating. The business also serves alcohol and some food.

“We’re all about getting people out of the house, the office, and having fun together,” said Skylar Mills, Bad Axe’s operations manager. “We’ve got team games, mini tournaments, and even a reoccurring league to get those competitive juices flowing. More chill and laid back? Our trained staff will always show you the ropes, make sure everyone’s throwing safely, and will gladly serve you some drinks and food on-site.”

Manager Alissa Henkel and her staff teach customers one and two-handed throwing techniques.

“It’s all about finding your throw, your technique,” she said. “Once you get it’s a lot of fun, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.'”

The Canadian-based company has more than 40 locations, with 21 locations in the U.S. The nearest to Alexandria is the Fairfax location, which opened in 2019.

Alexandria’s location has seven lanes and 14 wooden targets.

Bad Axe Throwing is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m., on Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. It is closed Monday.

Cold, wet and exhilarating: Alexandria parent Southerlyn Marino learned so much about her high schooler’s crew-rowing that she wrote a book about it.

Marino’s youngest son Pierce (now 17) started rowing for Gonzaga College High School three years ago, and learning about the sport was a step-by-step, word-of-mouth process for her. Last month, Marino published Crew: A Guide to Rowing for parents who quickly want to get up to speed on the sport and know which side of the boat is starboard.

“I wanted to share what I learned,” Marino said. “It’s early, it’s muddy, it’s cold. You think it’s gonna be this grand sport. It’s not. You’re more like a birder, and you see your child for like six seconds, and you’re not really sure which one’s yours because they all kind of look alike in the river.”

Marino is a public relations consultant and started writing the book last summer.

“There’s a parent culture in every sport, for sure,” she said. “Like football has a super different culture from crew, and I couldn’t find any books about it to understand crew races, the structure, any of that.”

Marino said that the sport is a good outlet for her son.

“It’s a sport that can really transform them, and it can really help them develop and grow.

The book includes:

• How and where to get started
• Key features of rowing boats, gear and equipment
• Crew and seating positions
• Rowing strategies
• Training techniques
• Nutrition
• Rowing etiquette
• Competition and racing tips
• How to support your child’s crew journey
• Recovery and injury prevention techniques
• How to balance rowing and academic study
• The lifelong lessons of crew racing.

If Alexandria’s tentative deal to see a sports arena and entertainment district built in north Potomac Yard, it must include a rehabilitation and renovation fund, Mayor Justin Wilson said Monday night.

Wilson told the Alexandria Democratic Committee that the agreement, which is still in its initial planning stages with Monumental Sports, needs a funding source to account for the wear and tear that time and throngs of annual visitors will have on the arena and numerous planned amenities. The renovation fund is included in Alexandria’s deal with Monumental Sports.

Wilson said that no such rehabilitation and renovation fund was included in D.C.’s deal with Monumental Sports when the Capital One Arena in D.C. opened in 1997. He also said that it was no accident that D.C. recently approved a fund to maintain Nationals Park.

“I’ve gotten a lot of emails about a lot of bad sports deals around the country, and I think we have tried to use those as a lesson,” Wilson said. “One of the things that I think we’ve tried to learn really from some sports deals here in this region is first of all, obviously having a long term lease, having relocation provisions that prevent the team from going away.”

Wilson said one of the lessons is not repeating the Capital One Arena mistake.

“What happened in Capital One, which open the year I graduated high school, and I’m not that old, was that there was never any funding source or funding plan for how to renovate and rehabilitate an arena over time,” Wilson said.

On transportation, Wilson said congestion at the arena will be lessened by patrons using thousands of available parking spaces at neighboring Metro station parking lots and arriving via Metro and shuttle buses.

The deal is projected to generate 30,000 jobs in Alexandria, as well as bring in the Monumental Sports headquarters with about 600 professional employees, the arena itself that would house the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, a practice facility, concert venue, television studios, hotels and apartments.

“A big part of the vision is how to use those spaces as a way to get people into the area and then use transit in different ways to get people on to the site for events,” he said. “We’ll have a lot more planning to go as we as we determine whether this use is compatible.”

Wilson also said that one of the advantages of the arena property being owned by the Virginia Stadium Authority is that if the teams decide to relocate at the end of the 40-year lease, the facility would be owned by the city.

“We could knock down and build something else,” Wilson said. “We would have the resources as well as the ownership and control of the property to be able to do what the community would like to do.”

Don Dinan, the cofounder of the Alexandria Aces summer collegiate baseball team, died after a period of declining health on Monday. He was 74.

A D.C. resident, Donald Robert Dinan spent decades as an international trade and intellectual property attorney. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, and was raised in Ellicott City, Maryland, and met his future wife Amy at Mt. St. Joseph High School in Baltimore. Dinan earned degrees from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, Georgetown University Law Center in 1974, and the London School of Economics in 1975. In addition to being a practicing attorney, for 30 years he taught a course in international trade law at Georgetown University.

Dinan was active in local politics, volunteering as president of D.C.’s Ward 6 Democrats and as General Counsel for the D.C. Democratic State Committee. He also represented D.C. as a superdelegate at three Democratic National Conventions and served on the DNC’s rules and bylaws subcommittee.

In 2006, Dinan founded the Alexandria Aces with Alexandria’s Pat Malone and was the executive director of the nonprofit for more than a decade.

“Without Don there would be no Alexandria Aces,” Malone said. “He was an amazing guy, the kind of person you could call up any time to pick up a conversation that you’d had with him weeks before.”

Malone said that Dinan contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the Aces, and that he’ll be thinking of him at the first Aces game this summer.

“Losing Don is a gut punch for me personally,” Malone said. “He loved Alexandria and being a part of the community with the Aces. It was his pride and joy. He bought all the equipment for the team, and he paid for the dugouts. The dugouts at Frank Mann Field are 55-feet-long. They’re huge, and he paid for them.”

Dinan is survived by his wife, his daughter Emma Ellenrieder and her husband, Matthias, his siblings James Dinan and his wife Elizabeth Miller, William Dinan, Mary Anne Dinan and Barbara Guiltinan with her husband Edward.

A visitation will be held at DeVol Funeral Home (2222 Wisconsin Avenue, NW) from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11. A mass will be celebrated in his honor at St. Peter’s Church in D.C. (313 2nd Street, SE) on Monday, Feb. 12 at 9:30 a.m., followed by an internment at Congressional Cemetery (1801 E Street, SE). Dinan’s family asks in lieu of flowers that donations be made in his name to Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore, or to The Society to Preserve H.L. Mencken’s Legacy.

(Updated 2:30 p.m.) A group called the Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard is holding a rally tomorrow near the site of the proposed arena.

For those just now waking up from a month-long coma: Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis announced, along with city leaders and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, that the teams would be moving to a new arena in Potomac Yard — pending a series of approvals from various levels of government.

City, state and federal representatives said at the announcement that the announcement would be a significant economic boon to the city and accelerate development plans for Potomac Yard.

Public backlash was swift, with protestors gathering outside of the tent where the announcement was being held and jeering at officials inside.

The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard was formed, hot on the heels of another coalition protesting against zoning changes. Former Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald, chair of the Environmental Council of Alexandria, said the Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard is holding its first event on Thursday, Jan. 4, at 11 a.m. just north of the Potomac Yard south station.

“The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard will be holding its first media event at Potomac Yard to explain why we oppose the plan to build a sports arena in Alexandria,” Macdonald wrote. “We will answer questions about the project’s impacts on the community and taxpayers in Alexandria and Virginia.”

Macdonald led the charge, along with former Natural Resource Manager Rod Simmons, against the city’s Taylor Run Stream Restoration plans in 2021.

Last month, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) released a summary of an economic report from consultant HR&A advisors. The summary noted that the district would generate 30,000 jobs and nearly triple the economic output compared to what was currently planned for the Potomac Yard development.

The summary faced some criticism, though, from methodology to AEDP releasing a ‘summary’ rather than the full report.

The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) released a summary of an economic impact report for the new Potomac Yard arena, but so far, much of the online reception has been skeptical.

AEDP hired HR&A Advisors to write an economic impact report in June. The full report has not been released, but AEDP released a summary of the report last week.

According to the summary:

Key takeaways from this analysis are provided here, with additional detail on methodology and findings provided in the sections below.

• Development of an entertainment district would generate approximately 30,000 permanent jobs for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
• An entertainment district is projected to generate roughly 2.5 times the economic output of what would otherwise be built based on current development plans.

Terry Clower, professor of public policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, told ALXnow the project would likely be a “spectacular amenity for the City of Alexandria,” though Clower said it remains to be seen whether the new development will bring new economic investment to the region or just cannibalize development from the Gallery Place arena.

However, other Alexandrians are skeptical about the economic benefits of the project. Several concerns were raised about the summary, both in the comments on this site and across social media.

The summary said HR&A Advisors used the IMPLAN input-output economic impact modeling tool to analyze the project’s economic impacts.

IMPLAN is frequently used in economic impact studies, though it’s also come under fire in the past as a model that only shows benefits to a potential project rather than the total economic impacts.

Another issue raised multiple times was that, while the study was independent, there are accusations of bias due to the study being paid for by AEDP. One of AEDP’s board members, AJ Jackson, is executive vice president of JBG Smith, the real estate investment trust that would develop the site.

Of note: AEDP has also not released the full analysis, only a summary of information from the report, and no date has been set for a release of the full report.

Again, reports commissioned by people who want to spend tax dollars on a stadium are not "studies," they are PR documents. Actual economic studies have demonstrated time and again that stadiums do not spur economic development are bad public investments. There are no exceptions. https://t.co/C0IXxq6gO0 pic.twitter.com/ceMrjJpNID

— J.C. Bradbury (@jc_bradbury) December 26, 2023

We’re working on it now, but would like to take some time away for everyone to enjoy their holidays, including you and your family. We’ll expect to be in touch after the holidays.

We’d also like the full impact analysis to be published ASAP.

— S (@sc7128) December 24, 2023

Yes —That's essentially the response that several people have received from him when they asked that question. The teams should stay in DC and we should look at other ways to redevelop PY.https://t.co/cLWs6KlADo

— Environmental Council of Alexandria Virginia (ECA) (@EcaAlexandria) December 25, 2023

The economic arguments over the Potomac Yard arena are, in part, tied in with broader questions about the impact of sports stadiums on local economies.

While a portion of the funding will come from Ted Leonsis — a $400 million downpayment — the City of Alexandria and the Commonwealth of Virginia are funding the project through the same tax mechanism that paid for the Potomac Yard Metro station. The city and the state are taking out debt on the project to be paid off in revenue from the project.

Stadiums are almost always bad investments for cities, with some reports showing stadiums don’t bring in the jobs or tourist revenue claimed.

“There are a lot of bad stadium deals around the country,” Mayor Justin Wilson said. “That’s why, when we went into this discussion, we had to have private money in this… A public-private partnership should not be entirely public. There are stadium deals around the country, even in this region, that have been entirely public. We, as we went through this process, tried to ensure that we learned the lessons of those failed deals.”

The Potomac Yard arena faces challenges in more than just economic analysis though: one of the biggest questions is how to handle transportation demands at the arena.

Wilson said the city would deliberately keeping parking levels low at the site to discourage car traffic, but Wilson and Metro General Manager Randy Clarke both said the Potomac Yard Metro station doesn’t have the capacity to handle sports arena traffic.

A new Change.org petition opposing the new Washington Wizards/Capitals arena at Potomac Yard is slowly gaining steam.

Last week, Ted Leonsis, the CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and owner of both teams, announced the move alongside Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. The $2 billion proposal would mean a new entertainment district for the area, which critics say will worsen traffic and decrease property values.

The petition, posted “on behalf of residents in the Alexandria and NoVA region,” launched on Dec. 13 and has garnered more than 300 signatures. It says that Virginia lawmakers are finalizing a deal that “will bring a new, disruptive entertainment and sports arena to Potomac Yard.”

“We call on our state and local officials to listen to their constituents and stop this initiative from ruining our communities,” the petition states. “Bringing this enormous commercial facility to the area will completely undermine what Alexandria is and the value it brings to residents, homeowners, families, and local businesses. Everything that makes this area great will go away.”

The petition says that the development will:

• Greatly worsen traffic
• Deteriorate integrity of historic communities
• Disrupt lives of families & children
• Decrease property values
• Increase crime
• Diminish small neighborhood dynamic
• Negatively impact natural environment
• Bring noise pollution
• Put taxpayer money into billionaire pockets

A recent ALXnow poll on the subject garnered more than 2,500 votes, with 46% voting that the new arena plans are terrible, 31% voting that it’s a great idea and 23% reserving judgement until more plan details are released.

The development has raised serious transportation concerns, recently from Metro General Manager Randy Clark, who said that the nearby Potomac Yard Metro station can’t handle arena-size crowds.