A City, If You Can Keep It

In one of the earliest issues of this newsletter we talked about how Alexandria is an honest to god city with a population pushing 160,000 people, a theme we’ve returned to frequently in these pages in the years since. This topic feels particularly pertinent today given the current administration’s determined demonization of American cities, as well as the inclusion of “Northern Virginia” on a reported list of places that ICE is targeting alongside New York City, Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

It matters that we’re a city because that identity holds in it a specific set of challenges and benefits. And it’s truly unfortunate that the ascendent conservative MAGA fascist movement in this country is fixated exclusively on the challenges that cities regularly grapple with. Issues like public safety, high housing costs, and inadequate opportunities for youth engagement are indeed things that cities face more acutely than smaller municipalities, and all are issues that we’re navigating here in ALX as well. But to see these challenges and somehow draw the conclusion that cities are something to be feared, that they are a failed and inferior model of governance and community? Infuriating and insane.

Much of the conservative media ecosystem runs near constant coverage of cities as terror domes of failed infrastructure and Joe Chill types lurking in every alleyway waiting to steal your mom’s pearls and make you an orphan (sorry Bruce). This is a conception of cities as less real places, and more a manifestation of everything about progress that scares them. And it simply makes no sense—could you imagine being scared of Alexandria? We have a cat cafe for chrissake! But in taking the real and serious challenges of cities and turning them into a Batman cartoon they inadvertently lay bare the manipulation at the heart of their efforts. They want people afraid of cities because cities are great! Again—we have a cat cafe here! More importantly, cities—and cities alone—deliver the most important ingredient in tolerance and diverse community formation: proximity. 

When you are constantly in close contact with other people you learn how fundamentally alike we all are, despite superficial differences. You are exposed to different ideas, different opportunities, different ways of socializing which allows us to embrace and appreciate that these differences are interesting and wonderful. You learn how similar we all are, in terms of our dreams for ourselves and our hopes for our families, similar in our worries and our concerns and our care for others.

There’s that Malcolm Gladwell (terrible writer) thing about 10,000 hours of practice being necessary to master something (pop-psychology and lame pseudoscience in service of his efforts to sell the same book five different times) and it is true that the more reps you get on something the better you get at it, and fundamentally cities give us reps with other people. You simply cannot avoid these interactions, and you get them at such a higher rate and variety in a dense, walkable community than you can anywhere else.

It is not an exaggeration to say that cities are a frontline defense against authoritarian movements because they put immediate lie to the fear of other people that fuels the rise of such leaders. Cities connect us, when the animating energy of such movements is one of division, of isolation, of retreat into self-interest. So it is not surprising to see our urban communities targeted at a moment like this, because we are the evidence that makes their entire con fall apart. Understanding this leads to the inevitable conclusion that both the easiest and most important thing Alexandria can do in this moment is to continue proudly as we have for 275 years and counting—as a city.

Things You May Have Missed Because You Have a Life 

• We were all set to plug the latest episode of the Council Connection podcast (a packed lineup of topics including leaf blowers, stadium lights, and the Torpedo Factory) anyway, but then they went and namechecked this very newsletter and you know we aren’t going to pass up a chance to highlight some sweet, sweet relevance and validation.
• With our area’s permanent new Oops! All Rain weather pattern we don’t actually get to play baseball here any more, but if we were still able to play baseball we’d encourage you to try and get out to an Aces game, whose season kicked off a couple weeks ago.
• Alexandria was included in The Independent’s list “twelve of America’s most surprisingly walkable cities” and at first we were like, “surprisingly”??? But then we remembered this is a British publication and they probably assume that any person attempting to cross a road on foot in this country would be immediately pulverized by a Chevy Silverado, which isn’t entirely wrong, so we’re just going to let it slide and take the compliment.
• It wasn’t all that long ago that much of the local political intrigue was fixated on trying to guess what our Keens-bedecked former mayor Justin Wilson would do with his post-elected life. Of all the things that were bandied about we’re not sure anyone had “internet food influencer” on their bingo card but the man is out here putting in the work, posting about some legendarily hyped noodles recently arrived in our fair town and you know what… it worked.

Local Discourse Power Rankings

1. Is Our Children Learning (Last week: 1). We wouldn’t have blamed you if you thought what with schools being [double-checks calendar again just to be sure, while tossing salt over our shoulder] finally out for the summer the pace of ACPS related headlines might have slackened somewhat, but you’d have been wrong. In fact, topics related to our local schools have been the only thing we’ve been hearing about the last couple weeks. The departure of the ACHS principal to a high school in Arlington—marking just the latest Alexandria principal to decamp to ARL, a trend which has gotten so bad we’re forced to wonder if ACPS actually stands for Arlington County Personnel Supply—kicked off a major discussion about both ongoing issues with Central Office leadership and the multi-campus high school model. A rather keen-edged letter from the PTSA added further fuel to the fire. And all of this followed right on the heels of a final vote on redistricting that left a number of stakeholder groups (West End families, middle school families, fans of shapes like hexagons that never got their day in the sun) feeling generally frustrated with the outcome. What happens next? The hell if we know–but it’s clear there’s a lot that needs to be done between now and August.
2. Democracy (Last week: NR). As we’ve lovingly poked fun at many times in this publication, Alexandrians love to vote, especially when it gives us an outlet for the existential despair we’ve been battling for the last six months. Will voting in a state Democratic primary fix all the problems facing our country? No. Will it fix any of them? Probably also no. But we don’t have a lot of options right now and we’ll take what we can get!! Tuesday’s turnout was pretty low by ALX standards—only 13% of registered voters. Maybe that was because there were enough lieutenant governor candidates on the ballot to cast a full season of Survivor: Richmond, and who the hell has time to figure out which one is the pragmatic progressive versus the progressive pragmatist? Even still, it was the sixth highest turnout in the commonwealth. And it was the best showing in Northern Virginia if you consider the fact that Arlingtonians (14% turnout rate) were highly motivated to vote against the local candidate who blanketed their county with yard sign manifestos printed in 4-point font, and Falls Church (15% turnout rate) only has like thirty people, that’s basically a homeowners association. So yeah, we’re gonna go ahead and chalk this one up as a win.
3. For Sale: Old Town Stores, Never Used (Last week: NR). In many ways the last decade has been a story of success for lower King Street (motto: Now With Fewer Wig Shops!) as the once flagging commercial corridor has revitalized. Vacant storefronts saw new businesses move in, while less ideal uses like used car lots moved out. A significant participant in all this was the real estate investment firm Asana Partners who bought up numerous King Street properties and moved in brands like Patagonia, Conte’s Bikes, and Jeni’s ice cream. Asana’s role was always a stark illustration of the central tension in placemaking and urban revitalization. Were the brands they were bringing in better than vacant or low-foot traffic businesses? Yes. Would it have been preferable to see more homegrown local businesses in these spaces? Also yes. There was also risk in one property owner consolidating such a large chunk of our key commercial corridor—as we see now with Asana announcing that the entire 21-property portfolio is for sale—and we can only hope now that the new owners (should it sell) aren’t big fans of bank branches and pizza places because we swear to god we will figure out how to bring back the wig shops if it comes to that.
4. You Idiots Are Doing This Road Corridor Wrong (Last week: NR). Public meetings are underway to gather input on the new Duke Street Land Use Plan, which will cover the stretch of Alexandria from the future Landmark/West End development all the way over to the Amtrak station. At a big launch event last week people got to provide feedback (including via collage—we love a multimedia group project!!) about what they want to see in the plan. Most participants listed things like green space, improved transit, and housing affordability… and listen, we’re not saying those are bad ideas. Not at all. What we’re saying is… why not think bigger? If we’re updating the plans for the whole corridor, this is our chance to ask for what the community really needs, which is [Editor’s note: repeat after us] an east-west gondola line across the city. Also, a new sign for a business that’s opening soon but that never actually opens. We need to have at least one! So let’s get those creative juices flowing, guys. At the next meeting if we don’t see comments on the collage boards that say stuff like “bring back that shitty bowling alley,” “service roads that have service roads,” or “Taco Bell with forks,” we’re going to be very disappointed in all of you.

Alexandria’s Hottest Club Is… Wishing Donald Trump a Very Unhappy Birthday

While the president marked his special day by grumpily watching a parade with more inappropriate song choices than attendees, Alexandrians turned out in force for Saturday’s No Kings rally in Market Square. This demonstration had everything: funny signs, spirited chants, respect for the First Amendment, and most importantly zero tanks. Thousands of people showed up even though it was a classic hot and steamy mid-Atlantic summer afternoon—nobody wanted to miss this festive rejection of authoritarian nonsense, immigrant scapegoating, and so-called leaders who think “patriotism” means paying Lee Greenwood to jump naked out of a cake shaped like an F-35. 

From babies in Future Voter onesies, to Boomers looking like they were ready to throw hands (or at least post a strongly worded Facebook status), to Don Beyer getting the crowd fired up to fight fascism by joining their local boards and commissions, the vibe was defiant and delightfully Alexandria. Ultimately, while Trump gifted himself two hours of awkward pageantry sponsored by a cryptocurrency exchange, we gave him something truly special: a roaring chorus of “lol, no.” Please enjoy this photo roundup from the real party.

Overheard in ALX

From a fun recent ARLnow poll:

“We’ve been around for awhile, but it seems that quite a few folks aren’t sure how you’re supposed to pronounce our name. Some pronounce it kind of like a pirate — Arrrrrl Now — while others go for the full “Arlington Now” or the sound-out-every-letter method of “A-R-L Now.”

This got us thinking about our own name and how readers pronounce it. We’ve heard “A-L-Extra” (correct), “A-L-X-Extra (why are you working so hard), "that rude blog with the potty mouth" (fair), and even “Alex Extra” (what). Tell us in the comments—how do you pronounce it, and better yet, what would you have called the newsletter instead [Editor’s note: at one point ALXplainer was in the mix and… yikes].

We Get Letters

Guess who’s back? Back again? Alex G., longtime friend of the blog who’s clearly angling for a spot on the non-existent ALXtra payroll, wrote us another fantastic letter this week about school redistricting and housing policy. Please enjoy his very smart words and absolutely do not tell us in the comments what you think the shape he drew around Duke Street looks like.

The ACPS redistricting saga has finally wrapped up…assuming nobody in our very litigious city sues about it. The School Board voted to approve the Triangle 3 Plan for elementary schools, and Option E for middle schools. Surely, everyone is happy with how things ended up! 

As I wrote at the start of this process, the School Board had an impossible task. Aiming for equitable neighborhood schools, they had to balance priorities that often conflict with each other: encourage neighborhood schools, minimize bus dependency, promote diversity and inclusion, and balance capacity. 

There were always going to be tradeoffs, and there are. Kids living across the street from Hammond are zoned for a middle school on the other side of the city. Kids in Foxchase get tossed around like a hot potato between elementary and middle school. Some neighborhoods were split, some remained intact, and some were reunited from the splits in today’s maps.

Did the Board do the best job possible? I really don’t know.

I do know they had to play the hand they were dealt, that it wasn’t a great hand, and that the hand is dealt by decisions way upstream of anything the Board can decide. We have to take our responsibility to our kids seriously when we make those upstream decisions, which are often made not by the Board but by City Council as they determine land use and housing policy.

The Board’s task was more difficult than it had to be. Because of where we’ve decided to allow (and, conversely, prohibit) housing growth, we have a lot of ACPS students around the edges of our city and very few in the middle. The issue is compounded by the fact that the homes in the middle of the city also tend to be more expensive, making Central Alexandria neighborhoods both wealthier and less diverse on average. 

No school board can create equitable neighborhood schools when we don’t have equitable neighborhoods in the first place. The Board had to do a lot of funny footwork to try and dance around this reality.

So, what can we do about this? Well, we can allow for more equitable neighborhoods! Council recently took a small step in the right direction with Zoning for Housing, which legalized slightly more affordable housing types in the former “single family” zones of Central Alexandria. 

Today’s Council should continue in this direction. They will have two big chances to do so via the citywide Housing Master Plan, and especially the recently-launched Duke Street Land Use Plan. The Master Plan aims to ensure affordable housing is more easily buildable everywhere, and the Duke Street Plan area runs right through the middle of central Alexandria. These are two important opportunities to add homes for more ACPS families in the middle of the city. 

Land use and housing plans aren’t silver bullets, but they are the key way we shape the demographic realities atop which future School Boards will draw district lines. These plans are chances to take big steps toward achieving equitable neighborhoods and schools, and it falls to each of us to ask staff and Council to take those steps by allowing more homes affordable to more ACPS families in all parts of the city. Kids are central to so many of our lives; we should let more of them live in Central Alexandria.

One Awesome Thing in ALX

Gentle reader, have you yet experienced the glory of seeing John Chapman’s Big Goofy Hat? You haven’t?? Oh man, you’ve got to get a load of this thing.

For much of the last year Councilman Chapman has donned this majestic monument to millinery for any city function that could fairly be described as fun. Sports events, parades, kid-centric gatherings—basically any official event that would be elevated by a Big Goofy Hat, John has busted it out. And the thing is… it totally works! It’s undeniable how much sheer joy the councilman creates from the novelty of seeing a local elected official in a Big Goofy Hat. 

It says a lot about who Chapman is that he understands how his job is connecting with people and putting them at ease. For a while now he’s embraced the moniker “The Night Mayor” which is to say the guy that cares about having fun eating and drinking and enjoying a night on the town. Are these things more important than big weighty budget decisions? Of course not. But he and his colleagues have serious jobs that frequently carry huge stakes for all of us—by showing that he can relax and find the small moments to take the job less seriously, it helps all of us keep the big things in perspective. It’s pretty great that we live in a city where a councilman can wear a Big Goofy Hat to promote the city, and in doing so acknowledge that sometimes all of this really is, pretty fun.

Housekeeping Note

As you can tell from our blotchy sunburns and margarita breath, our transition into Summer Mode is proceeding very nicely, and that means it’s time to half-ass all our responsibilities shift to a more relaxed publication schedule. You’ll find us in your inboxes every 3 weeks, more or less, through mid-August. This is because we’re going on vacation with our families, and also because we’re lazy, but more than anything else because we want to make sure you all have plenty of time to tell the city what you think about Ewald Park. Have a great summer!

You can follow Becky @beckyhammer.bsky.social and Jesse @oconnell.bsky.social on Bluesky, or you can e-mail us anytime at alxtranewsletter@gmail.com.

ALXtra is a free-to-read newsletter about current events in Alexandria, Virginia. Subscribe to get it delivered directly to your inbox. Paid subscriptions give you access to the comments. Revenue from subscriptions gets used in the following ways: 1) a third goes into a charity fund, and every time that fund hits $500 we’ll make a donation to a local charity in the name of ALXtra’s readers and we’ll feature and write about that organization, like we did here, here, here, and here; 2) another third of the money will go toward investments in the newsletter; and 3) the final third of the money goes toward self-care for your two intrepid authors.