Jesse O'Connell & Becky Hammer

Take Me to the River

The kids may still be in school for another week, and we haven’t yet reached the solstice, but we’ve already started measuring humidity in soup units so we’re officially calling it. This is our first issue of the summer!! And summer in Alexandria can only mean one

Young and Wildly Free

It must be an incredibly disorienting time to be young. We’re speculating of course, as you might be shocked to learn that neither of your intrepid newsletter authors could fairly be described as “young” anymore [Editor’s note: speak for yourself, old man] [Note to the editor’s note:

Undue Process

Many cities have slogans or catchphrases that come to define their identity. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” for example. “The city that never sleeps.” “Keep Austin weird.” While some of these are intentional branding choices, it also seems like phrases can attach to cities organically if the people

Running Free

There are few commodities more precious in northern Virginia than a genuine spring day. We get so few of them and and each one is so profoundly delightful and soul-renewing that it’s necessary to attune oneself to the signs that indicate Spring, Yes, Real Spring is soon upon

Sister Act

Our country has always loved stories about Americans going to France. These tales have a huge cultural imprint–from An American in Paris to Midnight in Paris, Before Sunset to A Year in Provence, and of course who could forget the seminal Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. People even watch

Patience and Other Virtues

If you haven’t yet had the chance, it’s worth your time to take a stroll through Oakville Triangle, the neighborhood (sub-neighborhood? development?) west of Rt. 1 between Glebe and Custis in Potomac Yard. Long a cluster of low-slung industrial buildings, storage units, an auto repair/scrapyard

Grant Expectations

Spring has arrived in Alexandria, and that can only mean one thing: the thermostat finally hit 60 degrees and we’re all going completely feral it’s budget season. The city’s proposed FY26 budget was just released and there’s so much to dig into, especially if you’re

Drawing Boards

Here at ALXtra there’s a few questions we get asked a lot. Questions like, does Becky really hate pizza [Editor’s note: she does not], is Jesse really that tall [Editor’s note: he is], which of you is funnier and why is it Jesse [Editor’s note: no

Laws and Effect

Many Alexandrians, us included, have spent the past couple of weeks feeling increasingly distressed about what’s happening in the federal government. It’s overwhelming, and we know it’s hard to think about anything else right now. But here’s a fun, distracting tidbit you might have forgotten: here

Out to Lunch

How’s everyone doing? Warm enough for ya?? At least it’s been a slow national news week [checks headlines] nevermind. Well ok, the weather is awful and the news is awful but at least it’s been a full week of schoo– [puts finger to earpiece] oh, we’re

Free Association

Happy new year, Alexandria! We’re only ten days into January, but 2025 is kicking off with a bang–we already have a new Bad Bunny album, a new name for the Gulf of Mexico America, and most importantly, a new mayor and city council. A change in leadership is

ALX Wrapped

For the 275th time, another year has come and gone here in our city on the banks of the Potomac. We confess that we’ve been struggling with how to look back and reflect on what amounted to a tumultuous and consequential year in Alexandria. We started off wanting to

Homes for the Holidays

As we approach the end of a calendar year, it’s customary to reflect on the passage of time and think about how we’ve grown over the last twelve months. We look back on what we were doing around this time last year so we can compare our present

If You Can Keep It

Greetings, gentle readers, from a place somewhere between depression and acceptance on our speedrun through the stages of grief for American moral leadership. We’ve read all the takes (it was the price of eggs, unless it was someone whispering the word “Latinx” loud enough for Bret Stephens to hear

An Arc Bent Slowly

There’s really no other way to say it: this blows. The last few days have been rough, and to be honest, we didn’t really feel like sitting down to write silly jokes for our funny moderately humorous occasionally amusing newsletter. We’re not in the mood for that

Hear Us Out

Longtime readers of ALXtra know that we strive to be practical here in our newsroom blogroom newsletter lair. We work hard to engage with the substantive issues that Alexandria is grappling with and discuss the sort of policy and politics outcomes that are actually reasonable and achievable. We’ve pointed

Living Dangerously

The world can feel like a scary place these days, and not in a fun “let’s watch a classic horror movie and then frolic through a haunted house while dressed in costume as a limited edition Stanley cup and Slutty Mr. Potato Head” kind of way. There are wars

AirBnBoo

With the passing of the September equinox, fall is officially upon us. The days are getting cooler (or at least rainier) and the nights are getting longer, heralding the advent of every Instagram addict’s favorite time of year: spooky season. There are many ways to observe this special time—

Factory Reset

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the humble factory has been an engine of capitalism, a hub of manufacturing, a driver of economic production… you know, a place where we make shit. From textile mills and automobile assembly lines the application of the factory model has grown and expanded to include

Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes ago (more or less) the first issue of ALXtra landed in your inbox. This seems impossibly long ago, but also as if it were yesterday. When we started we joked that it would last a few issues and then we’d run

Hot in Herre

American culture has a long musical tradition of romanticizing sweltering summer days. “Man it’s a hot one,” we say as we nibble on sponge cake watching the sun bake, feeling the pavement burning so we sit around trying to smile but the air is so heavy and dry, it’

Parks and Wrecked

When you look back over the nearly one year(!!) we’ve been throwing this newsletter on your digital doorstep, we’ve naturally spent a lot of time focused on the city departments that do big visible projects that directly impact our lives. Planning & Zoning (P&Z) and Transportation

Turnout For What

From the ancient astronomers who first charted the stars to modern physicists probing the depths of space, humanity has always been driven by an insatiable curiosity to unravel the universe’s most profound mysteries. Our sense of wonder compels us to comprehend the incomprehensible, to see the unseeable. We speculate

The Races We Run

Strictly speaking, I’ve spent most of my life losing races. This is admittedly a rather maudlin sentence to open with, but I promise you it’s not intended to be read that way. I simply wanted to start by establishing the basic and incontrovertible truth that losing races is

Primary Directive

The final days of election season come with their own soundtrack, a percussion signaling that the end of all this [*gesturing at 15 square miles of yard signs*] is drawing near. The accelerating thunks of campaign mailers hitting inboxes. The rat-a-ta door-knocking of canvassers at all manner