Alexandria Letter: Between All or None
Letter to the Editor
This is in reference to the Letter to the Editor (April 6, 2016) entitled "Unnecessary Expense." We seem to be at the crossroads of history between "all or none."
Alexandria Letter: Calling Their Bluff
Letter to the Editor
Many years ago, an extended family member was killed in the course of a hotel robbery while she was on vacation in Florida. So, I am in the universe of people who want to see fewer guns available for criminals to access. Unfortunately, the National Rifle Association (a.k.a. NRA) doesn’t agree.
Editorial: Award-Winning Connection Newspapers
Still striving to be the Connection to your community.
Connection Newspapers won dozens of awards from the Virginia Press Association for work done in 2015.
Letter: Help Prevent Child Abuse
If you see a blue pinwheel dotting the landscape in April, we hope you will pause and think about what it represents--National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Alexandria Letter: Selective Taxing
Letter to the Editor
This past Friday, the Governance Subcommittee of the Waterfront Commission met at the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership’s (AEDP) headquarters in a work session led by Charlotte Hall, who is the Waterfront Commission chairwoman.
Alexandria Letter: Constructing History
Letter to the Editor
History books – and instructors – are not infallible. For example, although our Massachusetts President John F. Kennedy’s Thanksgiving Proclamations issued more than 50 years ago acknowledged Virginia’s Berkeley Hundred Thanksgiving celebration on Dec. 4, 1619, American history texts and teachers still credit the Pilgrims’ 1621 event as the first on these shores by the English. Why do the texts mostly written and edited in Boston and N.Y. not credit Virginia’s preeminence? Why should we care?
Alexandria Letter: Funding Pre-K Centers
Letter to the Editor
Last year, a joint effort by the Alexandria City Public Schools and the City of Alexandria resulted in the creation of a Long Range Educational Facilities Plan (LREFP).
Alexandria Letter: Unnecessary Expense
Letter to the Editor
The City Council’s proposal to remove a statue memorializing our city’s common soldiers who died to protect their state, homes and loved ones from invaders should be unthinkable. And erase all Confederate street names? Must we be defined by such misguided and ignominious acts? George Washington’s, George Mason’s and Robert E. Lee’s hometown must set a better example — not destroy our American heritage.
Alexandria Letter: Volunteers are Champions
Letter to the Editor
April 10-16, 2016 is National Volunteer Week. It is a time to reflect on the civic traditions that make American communities great, and one of the best times to recognize and thank volunteers for their incredible efforts and inspiring actions.
Alexandria Column: Strut with Your Mutt for a Good Cause
Commentary–AWLA
Alexandria’s Walk for Animals on May 1 will be a first for a 6-year-old toy fox terrier called Gorgeous. A former show dog champion, Gorgeous has walked the 1.5-mile course around Old Town before, but this will be her first time attempting the Walk without vision. Gorgeous lost her eyesight in December to acute glaucoma.
Alexandria Column: A Proposal for Interim Fitzgerald Square Plan
Commentary
I propose an interim plan for Fitzgerald Square that differs significantly from the two “schemes” city staff has proposed. Specifically, this plan will (1) maximize the use of the existing facilities at the Fitzgerald Square location, (2) meet pressing parking needs in the immediate waterfront area, and (3) cost much less than the schemes staff has proposed.
Editorial: Move Forward with Independent Oversight
While FCPD has embraced many critical changes, supervisors need to move forward with oversight.
Last week, the Fairfax County Police Department posted a list and progress report of 202 recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, each currently labeled as one of: implemented, in progress or under review.
Alexandria Column: Public Policy and Locating Affordable Housing
Commentary
“Planning is both art — politics and leadership — and science — demographics and economics,” Bill Klein, director of Research for the American Planning Association explained in 2009. In Alexandria’s Braddock neighborhood many residents equate planning with a backward notion of racial politics.
Alexandria Letter: Problem? Just Raise Taxes
Letter to the Editor
During the most recent election process Bob Wood and I predicted there would be a large real estate tax increase this year if the incumbents were reelected.
Alexandria Letter: Revolutionary Thought
Letter to the Editor
After the Revolutionary War was over, was there discussion in Alexandria about changing the names of streets such as King, Prince, Duke, Queen, Princess, Fairfax, and Royal? Since the names were not changed, what was the reason?