Three Years and a Newsletter

Congratulations—you’re reading the third anniversary issue of ALXtra! 

If this opening line seems familiar (and why wouldn’t it, aren’t you all constantly reading our back catalogue so you can stay up to speed on our call-back jokes and deep cut references?) that’s because it’s how we greeted you upon our launch in 2023, very nearly to the day. We called you neighbor, and welcomed you to what we hoped would be a positively received project but honestly, we didn’t know!

We started this project three years ago with a clear thesis in mind: Alexandria lacked a source of commentary about local affairs that thought about and talked about our issues in the same way that we and many of our friends did. We wanted to capture how those conversations around playground picnic tables or perched at the end of local bars sounded: funny, incisive, passionate, and well-informed. We hoped to provide a space that created engagement opportunities for people that didn’t always show up in the more traditional media environment Alexandria had at the time, and to reflect voices and opinions that were often absent in other public forums.

And above all else we wanted it to be fun. It’s a credit to Alexandria that our city is filled with accomplished and serious people in all professional fields imaginable… but that can also mean we generally have a tectonic drift toward dire wonkishness when left alone unsupervised. Our hope was to point out the ways that things here can often be silly or inadvertently amusing, how even our best intentions might invoke a laugh or an occasional eye-roll.

So we wanted to mark this occasion by looking back over the last 36 months to see what has changed, what is still the same, and what we might do differently if we were doing it all over again. On this last point, can you believe we were publishing weekly for the first six months?? What can we say, cocaine was way cheaper back then. This economy could never.

Predictions about our publishing schedule aside (we did say weekly-ish and damned if we didn’t eventually get to the -ish) the single biggest thing we got right about this project was the audience. It turned out there absolutely was a pent up demand for writing about local land use projects through the lens of elaborately tortured metaphors about mid-aughts prestige cable dramas. That is to say, our city full of engaged progressive millennials was more than ready for a commentary source that looked more like the digital-first publications they’d been reading most of their adult lives. And the issues that we were tackling right from the jump—who has a voice in our city, who are we making space for, how do we embrace change—have continued to be the central story of local affairs throughout this entire time period. We swear to god we’re ready to write about something else! But, well, here we are.

Even despite this running-in-place feeling of wrestling with a lot of the same big topics, things have changed a lot in three years. There is substantially more quality in the local media ecosystem, from the daily thoroughness of the Alexandria Brief, to James Libresco writing for the Alexandria Times, and more. We are absolutely more informed than ever about our local government, from City Council, to School Board, to the Planning Commission, to the Traffic and Parking Board, to the [takes a deep breath] Park and Recreation Commission, to the Board of Architectural Review, to the—actually you know what, you guys get the point. We’re also more organized than ever! When we launched three years ago it felt like information about city projects wasn’t reaching every audience equally, but that’s far less of a problem these days and for reasons that have nothing to do with this newsletter. Residents passionate about specific issues—whether it’s housing affordability, bike and pedestrian safety, protecting our neighbors from ICE, or organizing in support of our schools—have formed incredibly effective advocacy groups doing real work to share information and mobilize support for and against different city proposals and initiatives. No matter the outcome of any particular vote, it no longer feels like critical perspectives are being overlooked or discounted—and this is a tremendously important bit of progress for Alexandria.

As for the last bit about having fun, well, you’ll have to tell us. Three years ago we appeared in your inbox with a promise that every edition of ALXtra would be 50% longer than then-Mayor Justin Wilson’s newsletter and 200% less informative. All we can say to that is: promises made, promises kept. Thanks for reading.

Things You May Have Missed Because You Have a Life 

• Important news for lovers of big tunnels and data visualization (in other words, everyone reading this): AlexRenew has set up a very cool online dashboard, updated monthly, showing how many million gallons of sewage and tons of trash and debris have been prevented from entering local waterways. 
• From Head to Tail Grooming Spa just opened a free pet pantry, which is kind of like a Little Free Library for pet food and accessories. This is definitely a better idea than the actual Little Free Library for pets that we tried to set up. When will those lazy animals learn how to read?? [Editor’s note: wait… we were supposed to put books in the Little Free Library for pets? I’ve been stocking it with gerbils and hermit crabs! Fuck!]
• Crooked Run Fermentation is officially open in Del Ray, and you can read more about their journey here. We’d make a joke about Mount Vernon Ave needing another place to drink like the Nationals need another bullpen arm that can’t throw strikes but well, Jesse’s already been to Crooked Run twice in their first week so we guess someone knows how to correctly read market research.
• For the first time ever, Lost Boy harvested the apples from the small orchard they have out front and plan to make a truly hyper-local cider from it. That’s cool and all, but wake us up when their neighbor AlexRenew starts bottling a product from their local harvest.
• Someone returned an Alexandria library book that had been checked out since 1983. Hey, listen, while we’re returning things from 1983 could we maybe also consider $1.24/gal gas and $2 movie tickets? Just spitballing here.
• Well folks, our local electeds are back at it, and by “it” we mean saying the phrase “topping off” (and occasionally its variant “topping out” which somehow sounds… even worse?). At least three councilmembers posted on social media this week about their attendance at the George Mason Elementary School “topping off/out” ceremony and we’re just not sure how much more of this we can handle. What weird construction activity is next? “Shaft drilling”? “Laying hardwood”? “Full penetration butt welding”? These are all real construction terms, we swear to god!! We don’t have the maturity level for this!!

Local Discourse Power Rankings

1. Is Our Children Learning (Previous rank: 1). We’re two weeks into the ACPS school year and the transportation situation has been somewhat of a goat rodeo. Things are always a little dicey at the start of a new school year—drivers are learning their routes and families their routines—but the chaos and confusion this year have gone far beyond the typical shakeout cruise hiccups. The primary culprit seems to be the expansion of walk zones and reduction in bus eligibility combined with redistricting changes, the sum total of which have left vastly more families with different school transportation situations from last year—details of which seem to have been inadequately and inconsistently communicated by ACPS. This a serious situation primarily because it has direct implications for the safety of students—evidenced particularly by the example of a harrowing crossing at Janneys and Quaker that one parent shared online—but also because organizing transportation is one of those bedrock examples of competency that either build or erode trust in other aspects of system administration. So while we have confidence that all parties are working hard and working in good faith… we hope this situation improves quickly in the days to come.
2. Merger Mania (Previous rank: NR). Last week the city took official steps to intervene in the proposed Dominion-NextEra merger that would smash the two companies together into the country’s largest regulated electric utility. One of the main concerns with this proposal is that the company would be so big it would easily be able to acquire even more companies, turning the old Zen question “Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the others?” into an actionable business strategy. By getting involved in the case Alexandria is joining a crowded party—at least 7 states have also intervened, including Virginia—but what’s most important is that we did it before Arlington. Intervening in the proceeding will allow the city to provide testimony about the impacts of the merger on Alexandrians (like not being sure about which corporate entity to complain about on Nextdoor) and ask questions of hearing witnesses (like whether Dominion is trying to hide within another company because of that time Justin Wilson yelled at them). Meanwhile our state lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, are pressing the governor to call a special legislative session to consider the proposal. Altogether it feels very zeitgeisty within the context of people getting fed up with big corporations, AI and tech raising energy prices, and this deal feeling of a piece with those larger debates. It’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out.
3. You Idiots Are Doing This Road Wrong (Last week: 1). The Russell Road Safe Routes to School parking reduction/pedestrian improvement saga continues with the recent filing of three separate appeals of the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services’ decision to move forward with a different design than either of the ones considered by the Traffic and Parking Board. Shockingly, none of these appeals ask Council to overturn the most offensive aspect of this decision, which was naming the new design “Alternative C” despite the fact that the original designs were “Option 1” and “Option 2.” What?? You can’t do that! Sound public policy depends on parallel grammatical and syntactical structures!! Absolutely outrageous. Anyway, the appeals do ask Council to give residents a chance to provide input on this new option alternative. They’re not super specific on what exactly they want Council to do after such input is provided, and it’s a little confusing that they’re objecting to the new plan in the first place because they actually come out ahead compared to the status quo due to an increase in unrestricted parking spaces, but… well, this entire process has been pretty bizarre and it must be officially registered that NOBODY IS HAPPY ABOUT IT. The appeals won’t be considered by Council until after the Traffic and Parking Board cast their votes on some new components of the design, which city staff may or may not overrule (again), so rest assured that there are still plenty of opportunities for this whole undertaking to go even more tits up (tits upper? titsier up? [Editor’s note: stop it]). 
4. ICE ICE Baby (Previous rank: 3). It’s hard to point to a bleaker waypoint on our descent into national incivility and governance by internet meme than an actual goddamn agency of the United goddamn States government trolling a local journalist about his coverage of ICE arrests, but whelp, here we are. Rather than respond to the Alexandria Brief’s questions about details of enforcement actions in Alexandria, DHS took the occasion to brag about their heavy-handed presence in our community with a shit-eating grin on their face. We’ve got to hand it to them, it’s no easy feat to disrespect local journalism and the professional standards we should reasonably expect from law enforcement in one fell swoop, but that’s the Stephen Miller Difference™.
5. Channeling Murderous Rage in Productive Ways (Previous rank: NR). There’s been some lively discussion on neighborhood listservs recently about the proper method for eradicating the dreaded spotted lantern fly and its host, the tree of heaven, from our yards. Everyone seems to have strong opinions on what must be done. Not all of these opinions are mutually consistent. You should cut the tree down, WAIT NO DON’T CUT IT DOWN because it will just grow back and spread, you have to pull it out by the roots, but not everyone is strong enough to pull it out by the roots so in that case you definitely should hire professional help, but also not everyone can afford professional help and it’s really insensitive of you to assume they do, and the tree care companies don’t always know what they’re doing anyway, so maybe you should just douse it with herbicides and/or light it on fire. It’s a lot to process but overall we’re happy that if our neighbors are resorting to violence at least it’s against a malevolent tree, based on some of the other shit they say on Al Gore’s internet it could be a lot worse!

Alexandria’s Hottest Club Is… Not Letting Go of Summer

The calendar says September, we’re two weeks into the school year, and pumpkin spice oat matcha lattes with cinnamon foam are back on the menu, but none of that means we’re ready to say goodbye to summer just yet. How could we be? When stepping outside means feeling like a crispy little popcorn chicken nugget sizzling in Lucifer’s air fryer? The hot season obviously isn’t ready to let go of us yet, either—Capital Weather says that “summer may win the tug of war with fall” this month. So instead of skipping ahead to autumnal pursuits we’re taking the forecast as an excuse to stay in a dog day state of mind and squeeze every last drop of sweat juice sweat juice out of Summer 2026. Fortunately, our fair city offers many opportunities to keep the summery vibes alive as we linger on Hell’s Front Porch.

For example, we still have a few days left to go swimming! That’s right folks, we may have lost our chance to take a dip in “Lake Ontario” (RIP) but Warwick and Old Town Pools are still going strong with their original nomenclature intact. The former is open through Labor Day and the latter through the end of next week. That gives everyone ample opportunity to start one last cannonball contest with the local tweens and conduct a final count of pool-goers reading Yesteryear (while guessing based on their appearance, facial expressions, and other subtle signals whether they’re hate-reading or actually… enjoying it??). We all need to make sure to savor our time at the OTP extra hard because it’s going to be closed for at least a year getting major renovations! Please join us in praying to the god of project timetables that the city doesn’t pull a Del Ray Gateway Splash Park on this one.

Great Waves Waterpark is also open through Labor Day if you don’t think swimming in a regular pool is an exciting enough way to get wet. How could summer possibly be over if we’re still eating Dippin’ Dots next to the wave pool while listening to “Crush” by Jennifer Paige?? Another water-adjacent option if you just want to be near water but not submerge yourself in it is to hop into your kayak at the new Four Mile Run kayak launch oh wait never mind. Guess we’ll have to save that one for next summer!

While we’re on the subject of damp places, our local wetlands and their inhabitants (permanent and temporary) are certainly making the most of the extended summer season. A family of otters have been hanging out, playing, and posing for photos at Huntley Meadows down in Fake Alexandria for the past couple weeks and the frogs there are even turning blue, externally manifesting how we feel when we see stores packing away the picnic supplies and putting out the Halloween candy.

For those of us who need to marinate in the season’s enduring secretions in a more structured manner, there are still some fun summer events coming up in the coming weeks including the Alexandria Democratic Committee’s annual Labor Day picnic and the final installment in Port City’s summer concert series. You can also still host your own cookouts as long as it’s warm out. It’s allowed!!

On the subject of food, the sun may be setting earlier but in our view that’s all the better for enjoying some colorful skies at outdoor happy hour and twinkly string lights to set the mood for an alfresco dinner. What we’re saying is YOU CAN’T MAKE US EAT INSIDE, we get enough of that “roof and walls” shit during the rest of the year. And what are we eating? Eggplants!! Zucchini. TOMATOES. Apples? Pass. Sweet potatoes? We don’t know her. And under no circumstances will we be slowing down our ice cream consumption, especially not with the new Van Leeuwen shop on King Street offering coconut soft serve 13-14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Wash it down with a mai tai from the Vola’s tiki bar pop-up and it’s basically July up in this bitch.

And sartorially? We’re not ready to put away our crop tops and flip flops, sorry not sorry. Alexandria Commons (yes, the shopping center… apparently it has a blog) published an article about transitioning your wardrobe from summer to fall on August 11. Slow your fucking roll, Noodles & Company!!! We still haven’t gotten around to purchasing the “effortless and perfect” $280 matching terrycloth shorts and t-shirt set recommended in Alexandria Stylebook, and summer can’t end until we do. 

Don’t get us wrong, there are certain things about summer we’re eager to leave behind. Mosquitoes. Trash can smells. Losing 20% of our body weight in sweat each day. But those are minor inconveniences compared to the ineffable joys of an Alexandria summer. Let’s all take a beat to enjoy it while it lasts—the flannel and pumpkin patches will be here soon enough.

Overheard in ALX

Spotted in the comment section of our last issue:

Re: the Del Ray sprayground: I feel like you missed an opportunity to point out that there are former toddlers who were tantalized by the first glimmers of a Del Ray sprayground who are now old enough to be tantalized as parents of new toddlers waiting for the sprayground to open.

This is both a mathematically accurate observation and a poignant metaphor for the circle of life inexorably turning through decades of personal milestones and bureaucratic project delays. Well played. It also makes us wonder: what slow-burn Alexandria developments or initiatives are today’s toddlers going to be excited about as new parents 20 to 30 years from now? Tell us in the comments!

We Get Letters

After our roundup of Alexandria’s murals in the last issue, a couple readers reached out to highlight some of their favorites that we missed:

We love both of these murals and can’t believe we forgot to include them! The floral one is so bright and cheerful and the scuba diver is a great reminder that we all need to stock up on underwater gear now that the Waterfront Park pump station is cancelled. Let us know if there are any other local works of public art that deserve a shoutout!

One Awesome Thing in ALX

Longtime readers know that we take a third of the revenue from paid subscriptions and put it aside in its own fund. Each time that fund hits $500, we make a charitable donation to a local organization in the name of ALXtra readers, and we take the opportunity to feature and write about that organization—as we’ve done previously with Carpenter’s Shelter, Casa Chirilagua, NOVA Raft, Cornerstone Craftsman, Alexandria Tutoring Consortium, and ALIVE! That fund just hit $500 again so we’ve made our seventh such donation (bringing the total that our reader community has contributed to local non-profits up to $3,500!) to Wilderness Kids.

Wilderness Kids provides nature experiences to hundreds of Alexandria teenagers from under-resourced families and neighborhoods, with programming including after-school, weekend, and summer outings for middle school and high school students. Getting out into nature is so important for kids—it inspires curiosity, mindfulness, and a sense of adventure, while building confidence and improving mental and physical health. It also means they’re connecting with each other instead of staring at screens! To be sure, we could all stand to touch a little bit more grass but especially young people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to get out of the city without this kind of support. According to the org’s website, ALXtra readers’ donation will be enough to fund two after-school sessions for 12 students exploring local parks, or cover most of the cost of one weekend-long group adventure hiking, biking, climbing, or paddling. We just have one follow-up question and it is… can we come along??

We’ve been planning to feature this organization for a while, but we were nudged to do so by this recent article about their upcoming community music festival and fundraiser on September 27 in Del Ray. You can come out and listen to local bands while hearing about the great work Wilderness Kids does stopping daredevils from jumping out of the raft yelling “don’t touch that raccoon” getting teens outside. And if you’d like to make an additional contribution in support of Wilderness Kids’ mission, you can do so here.

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.