Secondhand City

Lately driving around town we’ve found ourselves noticing places that could be something else. And we don’t mean that thing we all do—fantasize about cool things that could go into a vacant retail space in our neighborhood, like a combination KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut—but rather we’ve suddenly had an awareness of places that seem like they could help us meet some of our most pressing needs.

A great example of what we mean by this is the Braddock Road Metro kiss and ride. Over the years we’ve hardly been alone in looking at that space and thinking what a shame it is to not have housing and retail there instead of surface parking and a bus loop, but past efforts by Metro to kickstart development were unsuccessful (in part due to the way that the site likely needs to be rezoned, but that’s a different topic for another time). News broke last week that they’re once again actively looking for a developer for the site, which alongside new progress at the Braddock West project across the street has renewed our hope that the long-term vision for the area around the Metro stop is back on track.

And while it’s easy to look at prime vacant parcels and imagine dense transit-oriented development there, our city’s list of needs hardly stops at housing and neither should our creativity. There are two limiting forces in Alexandria that our long-term planning processes are constantly bumping up against: 1) we’re not adding more land to our 15 square miles and 2) many of the things we critically need (schools, rec centers, playing fields, entertainment venues) are quite big. It’s like a combination KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut—each one is equally important but if you make more room for delicious chalupas you have less space for cheesy stuffed crusts.

Schools feel like the most interesting place to focus this thought exercise because they are a dominant part of our long term capital budget and the price tag on a new school only has continued to climb. We also need more school capacity, uh, like right now? ACPS has already shown their willingness to explore adaptive reuse options when they acquired office buildings some years back and retrofitted them as schools, turning them into the Ferdinand T. Day elementary and a swing space/future school.

But office buildings shouldn’t be the only sites we consider for these kinds of conversion opportunities. When you drive around town you quickly notice how many of our faith communities have a school-sized building on a large parcel of land, much of which is used for surface parking. It’s possible that some of them could be interested in a partnership—particularly a congregation that might be contracting and no longer in need of the amount of space that served their needs in years past—that saw the building turned over and adapted to meet educational needs, while still providing a space for them to gather on Sundays (sort of the reverse of the partnership that saw a congregation using the MVCS auditorium for services last year). Not to mention we have recent evidence of faith communities being open to ambitious projects that extend the kind of impact they can have on the lives of residents—Alfred Street Baptist Church has been working on developing part of their land into 145 units of affordable housing.

The large footprints of these sites also makes them attractive for thinking about how we might meet some of our ongoing open space needs. If some of these institutions are finding that they rarely get full use out of their parking lots, they might be open to adding field or court space on some of them. The same could be said for indoor gym space, maybe one of these organizations has been interested in renovating or adding space but doesn’t have the resources to do it on their own; a partnership with the city to create the space in exchange for shared access could meet the needs of both entities. 

This push to think creatively about how we use existing spaces should even extend to projects that are entirely within the control of the city. Duncan Library in Del Ray, for example, has a leaky roof and is bursting at the seams for the capacity it’s serving with a small building footprint. Rather than thinking about improvements to Duncan Library in isolation, we should align them with whenever the renovation of Mount Vernon Community is scheduled to occur. The city has a library, a rec center, and a school all in the same compact footprint—is there a better public project to think about a future complex that incorporates all three services into one connected building, leveraging the resources and benefits that would come from merging them together. You know, like a combination KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut.

I guess what we’re trying to say is let’s not settle for thinking there’s only one playbook for meeting the city’s growing needs. Not everything needs to be a new build, not everything needs to be tackled by one organization working in isolation. Let’s enter our public infrastructure thrifting era, find some cool things to do with existing resources, build new community partnerships in the process, and get some of these much needed public amenities sooner than we would have otherwise.

Things You May Have Missed Because You Have a Life 

• “Arctic beavers, a suppressed book, and a missing soccer star” sounds like the setup for a joke that ends with a bartender yelling “I don’t know what kind of game you three are playing, but you’re not allowed to build dams out of banned literature in the penalty box!”, but those are just the subjects of the winning entries in the Little Theatre of Alexandria’s one-act play competition. 
• Yo dawg they heard we like murals so they put some muralists in our muralist roster.
• It may be 90 degrees today, but it’s time to register for the 2026/27 winter season of Alexandria’s Snow Buddy program. Please note that volunteers will be shoveling snow for their elderly and disabled neighbors, not befriending Canadian rapper and reggae musician Snow, who is not taking applications for new buddies at this time.
• We’ve been delighted by ALXWhere, the new daily Alexandria geography game that popped up a couple weeks ago. Each day you’re given three points of interest in Alexandria, and you put a pin on an unmarked city map where you think each one is. You get awarded points based on how close you are, and then you wait to see how much worse you did than Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley. It’s really fun! We’re desperately hoping it doesn’t actually turn out to be some kind of stealth data harvesting operation for, like, self-driving cars or something, but the fact that the mysterious creator added charity Wednesdays (highlight a local charity among the set of three locations) this week gives us hope this game is as pure and harmless as it seems (please lord be pure and harmless).
• Have you ever found yourself thinking “Alexandria is great, but what we really need is more Times Square energy”? Well boy do we have good news for you. Last night Tik Tok influencers hosted a Spider-Man cosplay walk through Del Ray, providing ample opportunities to take selfies with your friendly neighborhood (unlicensed) webslinger. Did you go? Share a pic with us if so, and maybe you can help answer the questions the Zebra was asking like “What Exactly Is Cosplay?” and “Why Do Grown-Ups Do It?” because we are not prepared to tackle those, especially the second one. 
• The city announced this week that we’re going to partner with Arlington on our intervention in the NextEra/Dominion merger and listen, while we enjoy an enemies to lovers romance novel trope as much as the next Sarah J. Maas fan [Editor’s note: Jesse… come on dude] this whole working with Arlington thing is going to take a little more getting used to for us to feel good about it.

Local Discourse Power Rankings

1. Is Our Children Learning (Last week: 4). We wish the most important ACPS story of the last two weeks was the debut of the girls flag football team or the student newspaper getting nominated for a bunch of statewide awards or even the announcement that they’re close to picking a new superintendent, but instead it’s this bombshell by James Libresco about chaos in the school system’s transportation department and its employees’ apparent “I can take this $4.2 million and just blow it all on hats” approach to taxi fares. There are a lot of jaw-dropping details in the piece that we won’t spoil here—you should absolutely read it yourself—but when you add them up it’s clear that the breakdowns in student transportation at the beginning of this school year were not only serious issues on their own merits but also symptomatic of more fundamental problems. Hopefully this story marks the beginning of a major administrative overhaul that results in improved safety and reliability for Alexandria’s school kids. The investigation has already resulted in the transportation director being put on leave, so it’s clearly having an impact—and by the way, if Libresco keeps taking people down like this, pretty soon seeing his byline in the paper is going to evoke the same pulse-quickening anticipation we get when the New Yorker releases a new Isaac Chotiner interview.
2. 101 Croatians (Previous rank: 1). There was speculation immediately following this summer’s incredibly successful stint playing host to our hunky Croatian soccer boyfriends that we should cement longer-lasting ties with King’s Landing Croatia by establishing a sister city arrangement with one of their fair hamlets. And while we’re disappointed this publication’s suggestion of Rijeka didn’t come to pass, we were still very excited to learn that the Embassy of Croatia approached the city about forming a friendship city relationship (it’s sort of like a sister city that you only see at major holidays) with Osijek (Ah-seej-ik?), the fourth-largest city in Croatia. This is really exciting! Osijek (Oh-see-jek?) is in the eastern part of the country and its name means “ebb tide” which, hey, that’s kind of Port City themed! Osijek (Uh-say-jeek?) is the home of the Croatian National Theater and according to Wikipedia its local dishes include “various other sausages.” While the friendship agreement is not yet passed, we hope it does so that we can get to know Osijek (Oss-eej-kuh?) better and welcome them into our extended ALX family.
3. This Skit Could Have Been an Email (Previous rank: NR). Over the past month City Council has been debating potential updates to the rules that govern how people are allowed to act at public hearings. Some frequent public hearing yellers speakers have chafed at this idea but it seems pretty sensible to us because some of y’all don’t know how to behave. If you think we might be talking about you right now, guess what! We probably are. If you keep acting up in the Del Pepp you’re going to scare away all the normal people from serving in local government!! The new proposed rules would prohibit personal attacks against Council members, off-topic comments, political campaigning, clapping, foot stomping (major blows to the Mumford & Sons), big signs, bullhorns, selfie sticks (who is bringing selfie sticks and why??), and commedia dell’arte-style improvisational theatrical performances. Okay that last one isn’t actually in the proposal, but it should be! This isn’t the fucking Edinburgh Fringe Festival!! Some of the terminology in the proposal needs more specific definitions, so it’s been sent back to city staff to elaborate further before a final vote. But one thing does seem to be settled—the proposed rules keep the extended 5-minute time limit for civic association representatives even though it was reportedly on the chopping block in early drafts. This news makes us wonder whether Council actually thinks these comments deserve extra weight, and guys… are you even reading this??? Local electeds, please double check to ensure that this newsletter is not going into your spam filter. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
4. Flock Around and Find Out (Last week: NR, but sort of also 1). Last issue’s essay about Flock came out the day before City Council’s Saturday morning public hearing, and while we expected it to be lively even we didn’t expect this topic to get more action than a Lauren Boebert senior staff retreat. The room was full of activists, many of whom delivered thoughtful testimony regarding their surveillance concerns. There was one particular stunt involving binoculars that went moderately viral, which relates back to the prior discourse item—maybe you’ve lost the plot a bit when your hearing testimony involves stage blocking, an act break, and also a literal plot. Listen if you’re going to do three minutes of community theater instead of sharing facts and evidence in support of your position, at least establish the characters a little faster? This was like the start of a prestige cable drama, we got dropped right into the action and we didn’t know who was who and suddenly we flashed back TWO MONTHS EARLIER and that’s where we spent the next three episodes. Thanks for nothing, Damon Lindelof. LEARN A NEW SCRIPTWRITING TECHNIQUE. Wait, where were we. Oh yeah, Flock. APD also finally published a map of where their cameras are, which is a good step, but at the same time we’re going to miss Libresco’s map with the three Flock genders of “Likely Public/Likely Private/Likely NOVA College.” 
5. You Idiots Are Doing This Road Wrong (Last week: 1). The Russell Road Safe Routes to School project continues to entertain and delight local bureaucratic process enthusiasts, with the Traffic and Parking Board voting this week to reject the new parking spaces that Transportation & Environmental Services suggested adding as part of the new proposal it developed after ignoring TPB’s vote on its first proposal. (If you understood that sentence, please report to the Inova imaging center for a diagnostic brain scan immediately.) This most recent vote seemed like less of a judgment on the need for the parking spaces and more of a comment on (a) the way TPB’s input has been received and handled by T&ES and (b) the fact that City Council is going to end up deciding how this project is designed anyway, thanks to the three already-filed appeal petitions. All of this has taught us that being on TPB is like participating on an interview panel even though you don’t have any actual hiring authority. You’re a professional and you’re committed to doing your job right, so you’re going to make a point of not recommending the candidate who went to college with your boss even though you know he’ll end up getting the offer. Your boss basically told you so during the meeting when you prepped for the interviews. But this candidate’s resume is short on relevant experience and there’s another applicant who really stands out to you, she worked her way up through the ranks in a field dominated by men, and you refuse to sit quietly by while your boss just… uhh, where were we going with this? In this metaphor is the boss T&ES or Council? And is the second applicant Option 1, Option 2, or Alternative C (we still hate this)? Sorry, we’ll workshop it again before we inevitably write more about this procedural clusterfuck in a future issue.

Alexandria’s Hottest Club is… Early Voting

*Hank Williams Jr. voice* Are you ready for some VOTING??? We sure hope so, because the polls are officially open for the 2026 midterms with our House rep, one Senator, and three state constitutional amendments on the ballot. Early voting started two Fridays ago, and according to Indivisible, 682 Alexandrians voted that day—a big increase from the 2022 midterms. This makes sense because we know a lot of people who have been ready to *Samuel L. Jackson voice* cast a motherfucking ballot to send a message to our motherfucking president since January 21, 20-motherfucking-25. It also helps that the proposed amendments are generating additional energy around positive changes for Virginians, including reproductive, marriage, and voting rights. *Oprah voice* You get rights! You get rights! Everybody gets rights!!!! [Editor’s note: please stop doing the voices, we have talked about this.] Naturally, as soon as the polls opened, the sidewalk in front of the Office of Voter Registration and Elections was hopping with Alexandrians who were extremely hyped to exercise their franchise as per usual.

Let’s get out there and vote, Alexandria!! You have until Halloween to vote early in-person, and election day is November 3. Here’s the complete elections office schedule!

Overheard in ALX

From the ALXnow article about the attempted robbery at Omar’s:

“I know how to swing a cricket bat, and I hit him pretty hard.”

This is an inner-circle hall of fame humblebrag. The story itself was already crazy to begin with (trails of blood! a suspect hiding under a bed!) but to then explain to a reporter that you were able to stop the robbery and lump a dude up with a grill scraper because you know your way around an over in a test match over? This guy is an absolute legend. 

We Get Letters

Longtime reader and local know-it-all “Joe from Rosemont” writes in to say:

It was recently brought to my attention that one of the murals in your recent mural roundup was not a mural at all but was instead a sculpture. Confluent Threads, at the Burke Library, is painted aluminum affixed to the library walls and not painted directly on the walls. Please do better in the future.

Also, a new mural is opening up today at the William Ramsay Recreation Center today as part of the City's Where You Belong campaign to spruce up some of its aging rec centers.

Watch out everybody, the Public Art Knower has entered the chat! Thank you for this correction and the heads-up. We would love to commit to doing better in the future but we think we both know that committing a minor factual error about the medium of a sculptural installation is about as good as it gets around here. 

One Awesome Thing in ALX

Art on the Avenue is tomorrow!!! We’ve written before about how much we love this event and why it’s our favorite day of the year in Alexandria because we get to spontaneously run into all our friends and drink outside buy soaps. But it’s worth taking a step back and appreciating the accomplishment that this incredible community gathering represents and the work that it’s taken to make it what it is today. When Art on the Ave started in the mid-90s, it was an informal block party with only 75 artists that some local residents decided to organize as a way of helping revitalize Del Ray. The necessity of this goal is pretty much impossible to imagine today, when the only thing that needs revitalizing in Del Ray is our bank accounts after spending $20 on a dozen duck eggs from the Cheesetique cold case.

The event is now a huge cultural destination that attracts more than 300 artists and 50,000 visitors each year. And all of this has been accomplished by volunteers, as Art on the Ave has never had professional or corporate management. Everything from selecting participating artists to running the kids craft projects to directing guests to the nearest bathroom is coordinated by local residents who give their time to make sure we can all have an amazing experience drinking outside purchasing artistic maps and enjoying performances by the Alexandria Choral Society. So a big congratulations and THANK YOU to everyone involved in putting on this event, we can’t wait to see you all out there tomorrow!!!

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.

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