City Council candidates debate Zoning for Housing, diversity, schools

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City Council candidates debate Zoning for Housing, diversity, schools
The candidates for City Council participated in an Alexandria Democratic Committee-sponsored debate on May 30. (Photo/Arwen Clemans)
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By Audrey Keefe | akeefe@alextimes.com and James Matheson | jmatheson@alextimes.com

Eleven Alexandria City Council candidates gathered inside the Oswald Durant Center auditorium on May 30 for the final debate before the June 18 Democratic primary. In an effort to persuade constituents, the four incumbents, two School Board members and five newcomers running for Council echoed their campaign priorities.

The 11 candidates sitting on the debate stage took turns answering policy questions ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion to the city’s economy. To kick off the debate, in opening statements, moderator Clark Mercer, executive director of Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, asked candidates what they felt Alexandria needed most and what made each the best candidate to deliver.

The candidates drew from personal experiences in the city to reflect on what changes they wanted to carry out. Incumbent Sarah Bagley said the city needs constituent involvement to reach its full potential.

“We have an incredible city full of educators, full of people who work for our government, full of people that work for nonprofits, full of people who work in our businesses and adjacent industries,” Bagley said. “We need to tap deeper into our own resource, our greatest resource, which is us.”

School Board member Jacinta Greene took the at-capacity-auditorium back two decades when she first moved to the city. Upon her arrival, someone told Greene that Alexandria would be more affordable than anywhere else in Northern Virginia. Greene confirmed this was not the case at the time nor is it today.

Greene highlighted her priority of safe and affordable workforce housing for teachers, police officers and other public servants to combat retention issues within schools and vital city departments.

“Our public servants who work here deserve to live here as well,” Greene said.

Newcomer Jesse O’Connell, a self-described optimistic problem solver, said the struggles and debates taking place in the city are growing pains and reflect the results of the city’s success. O’Connell said he believes he is the right person to bring energy and excitement to the city right now.

The public policy and higher education expert said the housing crisis is because people want to live in Alexandria, which worsens school capacity challenges. He also said debates about development come from people wanting to build and grow their businesses in this city.

“These are symptoms of our success, not evidence of our decline,” O’Connell said. “We need people that are open-minded and optimistic and want to get to work solving those challenges because we have to solve conflicts [and] we shouldn’t tolerate [conflicts].”

During the second round of the debate, each candidate was randomly assigned one of two questions related to fiscal policy. The first question asked how candidates would diversify the city’s tax base moving forward, with Mercer noting that more than 80% of the taxes come from residents.

Mercer dismissed answers that called for additional funding from Richmond in an effort to force candidates to present proactive budget alternatives rather than a plea for additional funds. Newcomer and anti-arena candidate Jonathan Huskey disagreed with Mercer; he said the only real long-term solution to diversifying the tax base in Alexandria is to change things in the state capital.

Huskey said he aims to raise revenue without the interference of billionaires like Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, who attempted to move those teams to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood. Huskey said his short-term goals include bringing additional commercial and retail business to the area and ensuring these businesses form unions. Huskey drew attention to the importance of bringing wealth into housing strategies throughout the city.

“We want to make sure it’s not just wealthy people who can afford to make sure their homes are efficient and helpful,” Huskey said. “[Unions are] the number one way to raise wages in society.”

Meanwhile, newcomer James Lewis acknowledged the toll that a lack of diversity in the tax base is having in other areas of Alexandria’s economy. The high tax revenue coming from residents is part of the problem, Lewis, who is chair of Alexandria’s Traffic and Parking Board, said.

“We know there are lots of people in the city that are one tax increase away from being priced out of the home they’ve owned for 20 years,” Lewis said.

He went on to acknowledge the effects stemming from this revenue problem into local businesses, like on King Street and Mount Vernon Avenue. He said vacant storefronts produce a negative image for Alexandria as a city that relies on its tourism.

“Look, everyone in this whole city was excited when we saw that Port City [Brewing Co.] won the [World Beer Cup award for popular Belgian Wit beer]. How do we get other businesses and other sectors to win those types of awards that are also calling Alexandria home?” Lewis said.

Mercer presented the candidates with a hypothetical magic wand with the power to adjust the fiscal year 2025 budget, asking them to detail one addition and removal from the recently approved budget.

Incumbent Kirk McPike expressed the need to “trim the fat” from the budget and increase the focus on spending that better highlights the city’s priorities.

“I would like to see us use our collective bargaining agreements, our project labor
agreement rules to improve the buildings that we’re building in the city to make them better reflect our climate priorities,” McPike said.

School Board member Abdel Elnoubi echoed this belief that a budget should be viewed as a value statement. He said the budget should reflect Alexandria’s commitment to take care of the most vulnerable by funding social services, transportation and schools, which all improve the quality of life and increase opportunities for those in need.

The city’s controversial Zoning for Housing overhaul was a talking point for several candidates who both supported and opposed the reform package that was unanimously passed by City Council in November 2023. The overhaul eliminated single-family zoning and allowed developers to build homes with up to four units on any property.

Newcomer Kevin Harris supports Zoning for Housing and saw it as an opportunity to serve communities and allow minority voices to be heard. Harris also said he believes the new zoning codes will help with diversity, equity and inclusion and will help to eradicate the shadow of racism in the city’s past.

“The biggest thing for me with Zoning for Housing is, as a Black man, understanding the history of redlining,” Harris said. “I am about dismantling all forms of racism that were in place.”

Newcomer Charlotte Scherer described her approach to the issue of zoning as “clear-eyed.” She said while the purpose of Zoning for Housing is to increase diversity, equity and inclusion by building affordable housing in residential communities, those efforts are in vain if they don’t actually increase the number of affordable housing units.

“My point here is this: Developer-driven affordable housing is a contradiction in terms,” Scherer said. “It is not enough to say that, you must build the housing itself.”

Scherer referenced a study from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which found that of the 15,000 units of new housing built in Alexandria over the past five years, just 7% has been affordable. She said the city, rather than creating strategies that allow housing to be built, must pursue projects that build the housing.

Greene furthered the discussion about school funding and pushed to invest more in the city’s schools to combat overcrowding and prioritize students. Harris echoed this, stating the importance of fully funding Alexandria City Public Schools.

“A city is only as strong as its public education system,” Greene said. “I would without a doubt put more money into public education. We still have crumbling, aging buildings.”

The next questions related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Half of the candidates were randomly selected and asked how they would protect Alexandrians from race-based harm and the other half were asked to reflect on which disparity plagues Alexandrians the most and how they would address it.

Four-term incumbent John Taylor Chapman said the most impactful way to address racial disparities is through empathetic education, which helps people understand who someone else is and how policy will impact them.

“I’ve seen with my own eyes the spark that comes in somebody’s eyes when that light goes on to say: ‘Well, I didn’t think of something that way, and maybe I need to rethink how this goes,’” Chapman said.

Through this education, Chapman said, the city can challenge other communities and other policies to better align with the City of Alexandria’s goals.

Elnoubi said this push against inequalities through legislation is vital and is what led him to run for City Council. Elnoubi emphasized voter education and having honest conversations about historic racism to combat racial disparities.

Incumbent Canek Aguirre drew attention to the effort and energy that constituents are putting into the electoral process and thanked them. Aguirre recalled the reasoning behind his candidacy in 2018.

“One of the reasons that I ran is that I felt that there was this big disconnect between policymakers and what actually happens to families and people on the ground,” he said.

Aguirre made it his goal to increase the electorate over his past two terms. He said he has seen great progress throughout the city and it has become an inspiration to the entire commonwealth.

“One of the things that I’m really proud of in Alexandria is that we’ve been a leader when it comes to equity,” Aguirre said.

The Democratic primary election runs through June 18 and early voting has already begun. All information regarding the election, identification, registration and absentee voting can be found at alexandriava.gov/elections.

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