By Allison Hageman | ahageman@alextimes.com
Canek Aguirre said he is running for a second term on Alexandria’s City Council to continue amplifying voices that aren’t always heard.
Aguirre said he is passionate about communication and language access for all of Alexandria’s communities. With another term, he said he could assist with the city’s COVID-19 recovery and continue to help marginalized communities, such as the city’s Hispanic community, access city resources.
“It’s not big and flashy, but I don’t think I’m here necessarily to do big and flashy,” Aguirre said. “What I really want to do is make government work better.”
Aguirre, who is originally from Los Angeles and the son of Mexican immigrants, was first elected in 2018 and is the first Latino to serve on Alexandria City Council.
Before serving on City Council, Aguirre worked for Alexandria City Public Schools as George Washington Middle School’s bilingual parent liaison and at ACPS’ Family and Community Engagement center. These roles led him to see “the different pockets” of Alexandria communities, local nonprofits and various city departments, Aguirre said.
Aguirre currently works for Medicaid with the Northern Virginia population. On council, Aguirre has taken an active role in guiding the city’s transportation initiatives, serving on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, WMATA Board of Directions and the Transportation Planning Board. He has also brought his inclusive policy approach to his work on Access for All, a subcommittee of the National Capitol Region Transportation Planning Board.
When he ran first for city council in 2018, Aguirre said he entered the race because he saw a disconnect between policymakers and what policies were enacted, according to Aguirre.
“I felt that I was a very natural bridge for that because a lot of the work that I do is on the ground, in the trenches if you will,” Aguirre said.
This time around he said he was “galvanized” to run because of the city’s COVID-19 response and the idea that if he wasn’t on City Council certain things would not be prioritized. Aguirre said during the pandemic he has become one of the more active council members when it comes to participating in events such as food distribution.
“Some of this is me just showing up at sites, helping out, taking a look at things because I want to make sure, okay, how is this operating? What do our community partners need? Do they have everything that they need?” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said the Latino community, not just in Alexandria but Northern Virginia, looks to him for leadership. He said City Council’s work can often “cascade to other jurisdictions.” Last summer, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) invited Aguirre to speak at a Latino leader roundtable event about issues affecting Hispanic and immigrant communities.
As a bilingual council member, Aguirre often focuses on the issue of language access. He said he has worked to bring a language stipend to Department of Community and Human Services staff who speak another language. He has helped expand the city’s Spanish text line, Spanish-language media outreach and overall outreach to city residents who face language or literacy barriers.
From his first term, Aguirre said he is proud of his work with access, the census and the city’s COVID-19 response.
“We did a really amazing job with the census – a 100% count – [and] secured funding for our community,” Aguirre said. “We secured federal funding, millions and millions of dollars for Alexandria for the next decade.”
In general, social equity is at the forefront of Aguirre’s platform. With another term on council, he said he hopes to continue working toward equity in language access, vaccine distribution, transportation and identification of women and minority-owned small businesses for COVID-19 funding.
“The thing with equity is that that it covers everything right?” Aguirre said. “That’s schools, that’s procurement,that’s small businesses.”
A long-term issue facing the city, according to Aguirre, is infrastructure. He said it was a hot topic in 2018 and unfortunately the “can has been kicked down the road.” He said if the city does not invest in infrastructure, the cost of those improvements is only going to increase over time.
“We have to invest in our school buildings. We have to invest in our city buildings. And that’s definitely something that we have to continue to do because it’s just going to get more expensive,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said he also believes City Council delivered on its affordable housing projects. He said, as a result, the city is getting “that deep affordability [that] we desperately need.”
Aguirre’s first term, he said has been a constant learning experience and a busy one. From 2019 to now, Aguirre said he is more prepared and confident to bring issues forward but also recognized there are going to be situations where he will need to listen and do his research.
Over the past year, the pace at which City Council makes decisions has quickened from 18 months to six weeks, Aguirre said. “Heavy issues,” including collective bargaining, police reform and a controversial stormwater utility fee to address increased flooding, have all been tackled by council in the last year.
To start his re-election campaign, Aguirre is hosting a virtual campaign kickoff on Sunday that will later be circulated on his campaign’s social media. He will be sending out campaign pamphlets in both English and Spanish.
“I got into this to help amplify voices that aren’t always heard,” Aguirre said. “I feel that we’ve been doing that and I want to continue to do that.”
