Archive for 'Our View'

Editorial: Old Town must be protected from 
consequences of redevelopment

Editorial: Old Town must be protected from 
consequences of redevelopment

The city council meeting Saturday was, as expected, anti-climactic. Councilors reapproved the waterfront redevelopment plan and also moved to disallow future petitions against zoning text amendments by identical, supermajority 6-1 votes. In both instances, Vice Mayor [...]

Editorial: Saving the Carver Nursery School the right way

Editorial: Saving the Carver Nursery School the right way

Should the former Carver Nursery School be preserved for posterity? Residents with longstanding ties to the traditionally black Parker-Gray neighborhood certainly think so, and they have — finally — started taking steps in the right direction. [...]

Editorial: It’s time to massage the law

Editorial: It’s time to massage the law

Residents who stayed up long enough to catch the tail end of last week’s city council meeting got a refresher on Alexandria’s less-than-upstanding past. What sparked the history lesson? The answer is a decades-old law that [...]

Editorial: Post-election tax hike: predictable and lamentable

Editorial: Post-election tax hike: predictable and lamentable

It should come as no great surprise to anyone in Alexandria that the city manager and city council are proposing an enormous property tax hike this year. The reasons are straightforward. Council members don’t have to [...]

Editorial: Police must provide information on troubling deaths

Editorial: Police must provide information on troubling deaths

Tragedy struck Alexandria twice in the past week. Two local men died unexpectedly: one at the hands of a murderer and the other gunned down after an armed confrontation with police officers. Both incidents shook the [...]

Editorial: Right message, wrong venue

Editorial: Right message, wrong venue

Beauregard corridor residents, rightfully upset with plans to redevelop their neighborhood, converged on a town hall meeting — hosted by the city’s housing department — over the weekend to make their frustration known. It was the [...]

Editorial: The writing is on the wall 
for the Carver Nursery School

Editorial: The writing is on the wall 
for the Carver Nursery School

Passions about potential redevelopment of the waterfront, Beauregard corridor and Arlandria have been boiling over in Alexandria these past couple of years. Meanwhile, a smaller — but still significant — redevelopment battle has been simmering all [...]

Editorial: School board members must learn from past mistakes

Editorial: School board members must learn from past mistakes

A few weeks ago we congratulated the school board for prodding Superintendent Morton Sherman for details about the Alexandria City Public Schools Education Foundation — a nonprofit created in 2011. Now we’re worried they’re repeating the [...]

Editorial: New council faces smorgasbord of issues

Editorial: New council faces smorgasbord of issues

The new city council that was sworn in last week has many familiar names but only three incumbents — Del Pepper, Paul Smedberg and Mayor Bill Euille. The group, all Democrats, will face many contentious issues, [...]

Lessons from Jefferson-Houston

Lessons from Jefferson-Houston

We were pleased to see the city council approve plans for a new Jefferson-Houston School on Saturday. Yes, not everyone agrees with the specifics of the project. But school and city officials’ efforts to engage the [...]