After two years away from the ring, Alexandria world champion Muay Thai kickboxer Amine “The Lion” Ballafrikh has announced his comeback.
Earlier this month, Ballafrikh announced on social media that he’d spent the last two years with his young family, building his Atlas Muay Thai gym (2395 S. Dove Street) and coaching his fighters.
Alexandria is holding a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on its plan to improve safety at a high-crash location on Duke Street while reducing neighborhood cut-through traffic.
The Duke Street and West Taylor Run Intersection Project has been in the design stage since 2024, with construction estimated to occur in 2027 and 2028. The final design of the project will wrap up this year, according to the city.
Two alternatives to a larger plunge pool for the Taylor Run stream stabilization project — with fewer impacts to trees — were proposed as the project moves closer to construction.
The city is conducting the Taylor Run Infrastructure Stabilization project on about 1.7 acres around Chinquapin Park near Alexandria City High School. It replaced the original stream restoration project that City Council sent back to study in 2021 amid controversy over its environmental impacts. The project aims to address erosion around the stream while protecting surrounding infrastructure, including sanitary sewer pipes, manholes, stormwater pipe outfalls and the park’s trail.
Alexandria residents have until next Friday to submit feedback on the city’s developing Taylor Run Infrastructure Stabilization Project plans.
Currently at 30% design completion, the project is focused on “protecting critical, at-risk stormwater and sanitary sewer infrastructure, through a targeted, minimal intervention approach,” according to a city announcement. The full design is anticipated to be complete by September 2026, with construction commencing one month later.
Metro Motor Towing is looking to open another towing office and storage lot in Alexandria.
The 14,250-square-foot property at 3106 Colvin Street in the city’s Taylor Run neighborhood is just off Duke Street and was previously home to Road Res-Q. Metro Motor Towing, which operates repair shops and tow lots at multiple locations in the city, D.C., and Maryland, is looking to operate at the property 24 hours a day with a parking capacity of 20 vehicles.
Alexandria Natural Resources Manager Rod Simmons has been a prominent voice for environmental concerns around the city in recent years, but Simmons told ALXnow that battles behind the scenes have led him to retire after 27 years in city government.
Simmons, a city employee with the Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs, was at the center of controversies related to Taylor Run and other projects.
The Alexandria Police Department is investigating reports of gunfire approximately 100 feet from Bishop Ireton High School on Monday night.
Five gunshots were reported in the 2800 block of Nob Hill Court at around 6:23 p.m. on Nov. 6, according to the APD scanner. No injuries were reported, and APD discovered that one bullet smashed through an apartment window 350 feet away in the 2900 block of Seay Street, according to scanner traffic.
The City of Alexandria spent $1.8 million on its Taylor Run and Strawberry Run restoration projects and, at a meeting earlier this week, Mayor Justin Wilson said the city has virtually nothing to show for it.
That $1.8 million went into the project before shovels ever hit the dirt. The plan was to combat erosion and improve the flow of the waterway, but the city’s design attracted considerable pushback from some local environmental activists and city watchdogs who said the plans could do more harm than good to the stream. Critics also noted that pollution levels in the stream were being calculated based on modeling rather than testing in the actual waterways.
Plans to convert a West End auto dealership into an affordable apartment complex are expected to be finished by late 2025, nonprofit Community Housing Partners tells ALXnow.
It’s been more than a year since plans were first released for Witter Place, the current location of Lindsay Cadillac at 2712 Duke Street. Once built, the four-to-five story building will be home to 94 units affordable for households earning 40% to 60% area median income.
The first time the Taylor Run and Strawberry Run restoration projects went to City Council, some in the community were angry. The second time around, it’s city leaders that are angry.
The core of the problem seems that, in an effort to appease everyone involved, Alexandria ended up with a solution that accomplishes virtually nothing when it comes to Strawberry Run.
Alexandria is sending $3 million in grant funding back to the state after controversial stream restoration projects fell through.
When the stream restoration projects return later this year, city leadership made it candidly clear that Alexandria taxpayers will likely shoulder more of the cost thanks to the lost grant funding.
