A Toll New World

Writing this newsletter isn’t always easy. Well, sure, it’s easy in that it’s not breaking rocks out of a coalface or anything, but in truth a lot of effort gets put into the words we produce for your enjoyment and enlightenment. Do you think those horny Ben Franklin bits just write themselves?? They do not. Well ok, fine, maybe that one does because Ben Franklin was famously horny but please believe us that all our other jokes and riffs involve actual effort and intention. 

And it’s hard to write jokes when you’re checking your watch to see if you have enough time to get dinner on the table before World War III starts. It’s hard to focus on things close to home when your head is in the stars, following a group of astronauts on a journey of impossible distance and improbable hope that we can still do great and inspiring things. It’s hard to sometimes just share what’s on our mind, when what’s on our mind might be random and idiosyncratic and mostly about whether Harrison Ford’s character on Shrinking making sly references to Indiana Jones is cute and clever or if it violates all understanding of the in-universe world of Shrinking. Is there an Indiana Jones in Shrinking that wasn’t played by Harrison Ford? Was that Indiana Jones played by Sam Neill? If Sam Neill is Indiana Jones is he also still Dr. Alan Grant?? If he’s not Dr. Alan Grant who is? IS IT JOE PESCI???

Case in point—what’s on our mind right now? Congestion. We’ve got congestion on the mind. No, not congestion like the end result of hoovering up snooters of the green tree spunk currently coating every outdoor surface (although, honestly, yeah, that congestion is on our mind too) but congestion like traffic, backed up roads and long travel times and all that. Traffic congestion is a genuinely important issue for government and public policy to tackle—it’s not an accident that traffic jams (real and imagined) have been the central character of our local discourse for well over a decade at this point. 

Congestion has clear and obvious negative externalities that affect everything from physical and mental health, to local and regional employment patterns, to housing and our built environment, and more. It’s a serious issue, and it stands to reason that the city is constantly pursuing different initiatives to mitigate and reduce it. For the most part the solutions we’ve seen pursued locally involve road redesign (Duke Street in Motion being an obvious example) and investments in public transit (see also: fare-free DASH buses). But there’s another tool worth considering, one which also happens to be arguably the most prominent recent example of a runaway public policy success: congestion pricing.

For anyone not familiar, congestion pricing is a market-based system that charges a fee to drive on certain roads or into certain areas at particular times, with the aim of encouraging people to consider alternative modes or times of travel. Congestion pricing is NOT an explanation for why name brand allergy meds cost $30 a %&#$ing bottle these days. This system has been implemented in global cities like London, Stockholm, and Singapore, but if you’re familiar with it these days that’s most likely because of its recent success (after a lengthy headline-spawning high-profile fight) in New York City.

And it has been a huge success! Like, a staggering-by-any-measure success. Over the first year and change that the program has been in place, evidence has shown that road speeds are up, emissions are down, public transit use is up, there’s been a positive impact on things like retail sales and Broadway attendance, car crashes and traffic fatalities were measurably down, even complaints about honking car horns were down. All of that while also raising over $500 million in revenue in the first year.

We know that you’re thinking—that’s New York, and New York is special. New York is different. And that’s true, there are definitely reasons that this program has been uniquely successful to such a significant degree in Manhattan. But the reason this has been on our mind is not because of New York, it’s because just last month DC unexpectedly revealed that they had been quietly studying congestion pricing themselves. You can read that here, but the big takeaways from the study were projections that traffic would decrease up to 11%, transit use would grow by up to 25%, and the program could raise anywhere from $110-667 million in revenue, depending on implementation model.

Would Alexandria see a similar benefit from a congestion pricing model on some of our high volume traffic corridors? We don’t know. But we do think that we should at least ask the question. A smart and practical first step (given our super fun and not at all a buzzkill at parties status as a Dillon-rule state) would be confirming our authority to do something like this. City leaders could equip our representatives in Richmond with their interest and backing to ask the right questions, and pursue whatever studies might be a necessary precondition to this sort of policy. Locally we could start thinking about what corridors would be most feasible and would most benefit and begin to study those; the Route 1 corridor is an obvious first choice in our opinion, but if you punch in Alexandria in this traffic volume tool you can see there are other options to consider as well. Ideally we’d be aiming to quantify the amount of commuter and cut-through traffic on key routes, as those road users would be the primary targets of this policy initiative. And we’d want to start investigating the limits of current technology to differentiate among drivers, understand what tools might be available to charge those we’d want to charge and minimize or eliminate the cost to others (if you play that sentence backwards “Stairway to Heaven” style you’ll hear the hidden message “Maryland drivers”).

As for why we would do this? We think there’s a bunch of compelling answers. Chief among them, as we started all this off with, traffic is a problem worth solving and congestion pricing has a huge body of evidence in its favor. We’ve also not hidden our opinion that growing and diversifying city revenue sources is the most important challenge currently facing Alexandria, and this is certainly one of the most impactful ideas you could put on the table in that regard. Finally it’s going to take a really big swing like this (and let’s be clear that it’s a big swing, we’re not pretending this is an effort that would be simple or risk-free or not present trade-offs that may ultimately make it not worthwhile) to accelerate progress and actually achieve some of the city’s ambitious climate goals.

So that’s what’s been on our mind. It doesn’t always make for good newsletter material, it doesn’t always make sense, but it’s always always too long. We appreciate you reading all the same.

What’s on your mind these days?

Things You May Have Missed Because You Have a Life 

• Supporters of the Braddock Road redesign have set up a website to collect statements from people about why they think it’s an important project. The page is interesting to scroll through, take a look and consider adding your own comment!
• DASH has published a white paper summarizing the work done to examine a pupil transportation partnership with ACPS. While that pilot was ultimately not implemented, the paper is still an interesting read and hopefully provides a well-informed starting point if this idea is revisited in the future.
• After she passed away earlier this week, Alexandrians are celebrating the life of Marian Van Landingham, who had a huge impact on this city through her longtime service in the House of Delegates and her work to found both the Torpedo Factory and Volunteer Alexandria.
• Congrats to ACHS alum Kye Robinson on winning the Division III national basketball title with the University of Mary Washington! We look forward to watching him follow the proud Alexandria tradition of local athletic champions starting fights with NBA players for literally no reason.
• The Council Connection podcast is back, with a recap of their February dockets and actions. While the dulcet tones of former Councilman Kirk McPike are missed, we’re treated this episode to the also dulcet tones of guest host Councilman Canek Aguirre in conversation with the always dulcet tones [Editor’s note: HOLY SHIT, LEARN A NEW ADJECTIVE FOR WHAT A SPEAKING VOICE SOUNDS LIKE] of host Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley. 

Local Discourse Power Rankings

1. Barred and Feathered (Last week: NR). If this newsletter has a clear bias it’s pretty obviously our heavy tilt toward being pedantic acting as in your 40s as any two people can possibly act pointing out that Jesse is the most ridiculous person alive drinking establishments in Del Ray. We here in the ALXtra newsroom just love a tipple on Mount Vernon Ave [Editor’s note: I am begging you to stop saying tipple] and we’re not going to apologize for it. So imagine our delight that the last several weeks have yielded enough news items concerning places to bend an elbow near St. Elmo’s that we could get a whole round-up out of it. First off, there was Gustave losing its outdoor bar pavilion because they never [checks notes] bothered to get any of it permitted or approved. On one hand, we understand this damn-the-torpedos attitude about rushing an outdoor drinking establishment to market. On the other hand, if we were sitting on top of a money printing machine like an outdoor bar in Del Ray on the cusp of money printing season… we’d probably work a little harder to get those i’s dotted and t’s crossed? The most surprising part of the entire affair is that they got dimed out by someone on 311 for having a bar (cool, fun, serves you beer) and not for having a sandbox (gross, messy, like visiting a beach in captivity). Next up, no longer content to be defined by the circular bounds of a pizza crust, DRP (Del Ray Pizza) has rebranded as DRP (Del Ray Public House). The expanded menu still features pizza (and you’d best believe this would have been a whole item on its own if they HAD ditched pizza) but now also includes other classic pub fare favorites as well as something mysteriously described as “Santa Fe style” steak. Last but not least, the pop-up bar has reopened as Del Ray Dive—a theme most accurately described as “every poor choice you made in your 20s.” Jesse has already been there for both a Flaming Dr. Pepper and to try his hand at getting a winner from the Beer-o-Matic machine (he got a Hard Mountain Dew, which is definitely not a winner, which he drank anyway, because of course he did).
2. Matrimony at Sea (Last week: NR). Hey do you guys remember in 2021 when everyone got really into sea shanties for like two weeks? And did you read this news story? Okay cool then you’re ready to sing the following lyrics to the tune of that one sea shanty that got really popular. Don’t forget the hand claps and foot stomps!

One fine spring day Alexandria says,
 “On May fifteenth, vows will be read,
 At Waterfront Park lovers can get wed
 By Greg Parks on Providence.”

So Billy Bob and Nancy Jo
 Prepare their rings and fancy clothes,
 Board the tall ship, kiss and pose
 While fiddlers play a tune.

Ho, hey, it’s wedding day,
 Sure hope nothing goes astray,
 They paid their fee, ready to say “yay!”
 They’re trusting you Greg Parks!

But the captain rushes to the top,
 Crying, “Wait! This marriage is a flop!
 Virginia ends where the pilings stop;
 Beyond lies Washington.”

“The pierhead marks Virginia’s reach,
 The border’s the dock, not the beach;
 Providence floats beyond that breach,
 This wedding’s in DC.”

“The clerk can wed on land that’s dense,
 Or anywhere the piers commence.
 But standing there on Providence,
 He holds no lawful power.”

Billy and Nancy swear and curse,
 “The city tricked us, it’s the worst!
 They should have checked the borders first!
 Where’s the integrity!!”

Ho, hey, it’s wedding day,
 This was a bad idea they say,
 A DC officiant would’ve been okay
 But your marriage is null and void!

3. Is Our Children Learning (Last week: 1). Could the last senior Central Office employee at ACPS get the lights on their way out? With the district already working to fill vacancies in a number of key roles, including the executive principal of the high school, last week the huge news dropped that ACPS superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt will leave her position this fall. While you could theoretically look at this ACPS staffing situation and see upside in bringing in an entirely new senior leadership team with a shared vision all at once… that’s definitely the string quartet on the Titanic version of our current state of affairs. It’s just simply not possible to spin this amount of leadership churn as beneficial to students or employees in our school system. It’s a desperate situation with no easy solution. Ideally you’d fill the superintendent role before the others, and let the new leader inform those other senior hirings—but a lot of these other vacancies simply can’t be left open for six to nine months! So we’re again faced with a series of likely stop-gap or temporary solutions, making the best of a bad set of circumstances. All of this comes against a backdrop of a new collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union that may or may not get funded, and may or may not get formally ratified by the union, and the TBDs at ACPS are really starting to feel like WTFs. Yesterday a group of parents began circulating a petition expressing their frustration with this entire situation, and suggesting that they see reform of the School Board structure as a necessary part of any solution. The positive (ok it’s more of a “positive”) in all this is the persistent commitment our community has toward our schools. Alexandria wants to get this right, people in our city really do care—about our students, our teachers, our families, and all of the employees at ACPS. The one thing we don’t doubt in any of this is the dedication and the good faith efforts of everyone trying to get the district back on a solid footing. But in the meantime, boy, what a mess.
4. Sunday Smackdown (Last week: NR). Sticking with our opening theme of creative ways to raise revenue, new attention was given this week to a proposal in the City Manager’s budget to both increase the cost of metered parking as well as start charging on Sundays. While we didn’t necessarily have “Jim Parajon turns out to be a disciple of Donald Shoup” on our Alexandria budget season bingo card, count us as pleasantly surprised that we seem to have a fan of The High Cost of Free Parking down at Market Square Tavern Square. Personally, we think he could go even farther, the city is leaving all kinds of money on the table by not charging a dollar every time someone in Old Town says “I remember when ALL the parking used to be free here before JUSTIN WILSON went and STOLE IT FROM US.” First they came for the parking on the 100 block of King Street and we said nothing. Then they came for the parking on the 200 block of King Street and we said Hell Yeah Brother in a Hulk Hogan voice. Then they came for the free parking on Sundays and we said OOOOH YEAH!!! like Macho Man Randy Savage. Jim Parajon, we smell what you’re cooking, and we can’t see you.

Overheard in ALX

From a letter in the March 25 issue of the Alexandria Times:

“For instance, at a holiday party I bumped into a local politician on the stairs, so I said hello and reached out to shake his hand. He refused. When I asked why, he said it was because I was a ________. … Do I ‘owe’ him an apology? Maybe.”

First and foremost this is a great letter because everyone loves a blind item. Who was the politician? What was the term used to describe the letter writer? So mysterious! We assume the answers are “Jim Moran” and “whippersnapper” but honestly it could be anything. It’s also a great letter because it implies the Alexandria Times is getting into the advice column business! If they’re going to continue to get their Dear Prudence on we’ve got plenty of stuff we need to write in and ask about. For example Dear Alex, my co-author keeps writing about himself in the third person. Is this textbook narcissism or is he just annoying the crap out of me because he knows he can. We’re so here for this.

One Awesome Thing in ALX

It’s a well-known fact that we are huge library lovers here at ALXtra, as evidenced by our previous paeans to Friends of the Library groups and library book sales [Editor’s note: and also by our use of words like “paeans”]. Clearly we never need an excuse to hit up our local branch any day of the dang week, but in case you do, there’s a very cool art show going on across the entire library system this month that’s worth checking out! It’s called “Take a Seat for Alexandria” and it’s a display of chairs that were rescued from being tossed in the trash and given to local artists for an America 250-themed makeover. It speaks volumes to the maturity of these artists that no one interpreted this theme by turning the chair into a gold-plated toilet or recreating the DNC’s Stephen Miller cuck chair tweet from last summer. At the end of the exhibition in May, there will be panel discussions about the art and tours led by teen docents, as well as the opportunity to buy the chairs in an online auction.

You can find these pieces at all the library branches, but as an added bonus if you go to see them at Beatley you also get to enjoy some TINY ART! Library patrons have created their own tiny chair art as well as diminutive chair-related paintings, and they are adorable. 

Also, while we haven’t seen it yet, there’s an exhibit currently happening at Barrett Branch of art made from upcycled plastic pollution. We love an Earth Month tie-in!! These events are just the latest examples of our library system’s extensive non-book-related programming. Libraries are places of learning and community that offer us so much more than just the written words on the page. Through art shows, computer classes, knitting groups, board game meetups, baby playtimes, film screenings, and countless other programs that are free and open to all, they bring people together and help our community thrive. We never stop feeling grateful that our city offers us these amazing resources that nourish not only our minds, but also our hearts.

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 nonprofit in the name of ALXtra’s readers and we’ll feature and write about that organization, like we did here, here, 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.