Good Friday morning, Alexandria!
🌦️ Today’s weather: Expect a slight chance of showers after 2pm with a partly sunny sky and a high near 75. The east wind will blow at 3 to 7 mph, with a 20 percent chance of precipitation. Friday night, showers will be mainly after 2am with a low around 59 and a southeast wind at 5 to 7 mph. There’s an 80 percent chance of precipitation and new precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch are possible.
All of Bishop Ireton High School skipped classes today for a good cause.
More than 700 students, teachers and administrators participated in a cleanup of 30 sites in and around Alexandria, including along the city’s waterfront, Holmes Run and Four Mile Run Park.
The conversion of some King Street blocks to pedestrian zones has been a fairly popular move. Now, the city is merging those long-term planning efforts with waterfront flood mitigation, hopefully streamlining improvements to the 100 and unit blocks of King Street.
A report prepared for a Traffic and Parking Board meeting later today (Monday) said the city is looking at long-term plans for the pedestrian zones as well as incorporating the project into the broader waterfront flood mitigation plans.
(Updated 11:15 a.m.) A new ‘windowfront exhibit’ about the Buried Ships of Robinson Landing is coming to Old Town early next month.
The exhibit features scale models of four 18th and 19th-century ships discovered during excavations of the Robinson Landing Site.
Black History Month kicks off next week and events around Alexandria throughout February will explore, commemorate and celebrate Black history in the city.
One of the biggest new additions is the “African American Waterfront Heritage Trail” running along the waterfront.
After years of stalled planning, the Washington Business Journal first reported that Robinson Terminal North redevelopment could be revived.
The Journal reported that a new development concept plan has been filed with the city’s planning department. The plan will include multifamily residential, ground-floor retail and a restaurant, with mixed-use residential buildings straddling N. Union Street.
Patrick O’Brian enthusiasts rejoice: another Age of Sail replica ship is coming to Alexandria.
The schooner Pride of Baltimore II, a replica of the 1812 ship Pride of Baltimore, will be docking at Alexandria’s marina later this month.
Alexandria’s waterfront turns 293 this year and, may we just say, it doesn’t look a day over 200.
A symposium called The Alexandria Forum is returning next month to look back those nearly 300 years of history at the edge of the Potomac River. This year’s theme is The Waterfront Revisited: Birth and Rebirth, 1730-2023.
Changes are coming to Chart House, the popular restaurant with panoramic views of the Alexandria Waterfront.
The restaurant at 1 Cameron Street filed a special use permit request to modestly increase the footprint of the outdoor dining terrace and install a motorized retractable pergola.
A new report on the city’s Floodplain Management Plan offers a look at what’s ahead for flood mitigation projects around the city.
Two items in the report highlight progress on flood mitigation along the waterfront. Two parts of the mitigation plan are re-grading sections of lower King Street and nearby streets to improve drainage and minimize flooding and the construction of an elevated walkway along the waterfront.
Thousands attended Alexandria’s birthday celebration on the waterfront on Saturday.
For a minute it seemed that rain on Saturday would result in a washout, like last year when the event was postponed. But skies cleared and grass dried enough for the event to continue as planned.
