A prescription for fair housing in Alexandria is in reach

by Daniel Moshenberg

Like much of northern Virginia, Alexandria has been a kind of affordable housing desert for decades, actually decreasing the number of affordable units, especially deeply affordable units, as housing prices, both rental and mortgage, have risen steadily. With the arrival of Amazon and Virginia Tech, it was anticipated that housing costs would rise even more sharply. With the extraordinarily hot real estate market that has occurred during the pandemic, prices are rising more even more quickly and more steeply. But part of a solution is in sight … perhaps.

In December, Inova Health System announced its plan to build a billion-dollar medical campus on the currently vacant Landmark Mall lot, on Alexandria’s West End. This is welcome news, and the move is anticipated to occur in about seven years. That leaves open the question of the disposition of the land on which Inova Alexandria Hospital currently stand. There’s a great opportunity here, if the City of Alexandria and Inova Alexandria Hospital seize it, an opportunity for Inova to take an important step toward addressing inequities that impact the health of the communities it serves. Thus far, that’s not what the hospital seems to have in mind. Inova has applied to rezone its current property from the current designation as “Institutional” to “Residential Medium,” which would convert the land on which the hospital currently sits into single-family housing units. Alexandria doesn’t need more single-family houses, certainly not now. Alexandria needs affordable housing, which will mean higher density. Continue reading “A prescription for fair housing in Alexandria is in reach”

Grassroots Alexandria joins the Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness

Grassroots Alexandria has joined the Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness in the City of Alexandria (“the Partnership”) Governing Board in the Advocacy seat. The Partnership serves as the Continuum of Care for housing services in the City of Alexandria, responsible for the planning, coordination and implementation of an effective and system-wide response to homelessness within the city. Grassroots has a record of advocating for an “all of the above” method to increase affordable housing in Alexandria, partnering with different organizations to maintain current affordable housing options and push for increased opportunities. By joining the Partnership, Grassroots will expand its reach and the Partnership will have access to an organization of community members who support its vision. Grassroots is excited to grow its advocacy capacity with the Partnership, joining with the vision to ensure that every Alexandrian has access to affordable housing.

City Council Candidate Forum

by Shira E. and Louise K.

On May 13, 2021, Grassroots Alexandria partnered with Tenants and Workers United to host a City Council candidate forum. The COVID-safe event took place outdoors at the Tenants and Workers parking lot and was streamed online; the forum was simultaneously translated into Spanish. Thirteen out of fifteen candidates running for City Council attended: Canek Aguirre (D), Sarah Bagley (D), William E. Campbell (D), John Taylor Chapman (D), Alyia Gaskins (D), Kevin Harris (D), Florence King (I), James C. Lewis Jr. (D), Kirk McPike (D), Patrick Moran (D), Bill Rossello (D), Mark Shiffer (D), and Meronne Teklu (D). Early voting is currently underway for the June 8th primary. For a full rundown of the short answer and lightning round questions, please refer to this document.

Candidates Moran, Rosello, Lewis and Teklu respond to a question about keeping police out of schools (photo by Jim D.)

Candidates were given the opportunity to make opening statements and answer four open-ended questions on the topics of healthcare, affordable housing, dismantling white supremacy, and reimagining public safety. An eight question lightning round followed, in which candidates answered yes or no using hand-held signs; candidates were asked to answer “no” if they could not answer affirmatively without reservations. Lightning round topics included affordable housing, access to preschool, school resource officers, mass transit, and waterway health. Candidates also made closing statements in which they highlighted their top legislative agenda item should they be elected to Council.

Our thanks go out to all who help organize and run this event. Thanks also to members of NAACP Alexandria and Racial Justice Alexandria for assistance with the questions.

Everyone is (at least a little bit) Racist

by Jonathan Krall

This is an essay about hope. I am a student of the Grassroots Alexandria Anti-Racism Working Group. This area of study gives me hope that we can address racism more honestly and effectively than in the past. For example, I have learned that my previous understanding of racism was based on socially acceptable disinformation. White people, like myself, have been telling ourselves a story about racism that let’s us off the hook. When I abandon that story, I face conflicts between socially-acceptable misperceptions and difficult truths. Recently, a good friend gave me some pushback. I was told that my current view, that racism is utterly pervasive and (almost) everyone is complicit, cannot gain widespread acceptance. If, however, we embrace a paradigm of truth and forgiveness, ‘everyone is complicit’ becomes a bit easier to accept. It is certainly more honest and, I will argue, much more useful. But it will only work if we stop freaking out over the ‘racist’ label and get on with the hard work of truth and reconciliation.

These are some of the ways that my thinking has changed.

Old: Racism = racial prejudice.
New: Racism = racial prejudice + power. Continue reading “Everyone is (at least a little bit) Racist”

Transit Equity in Action: the new DASH Bus Network

by Jim Durham

DASH Bus is proposing the most significant change in DASH Bus operations in 37 years. If approved by the Alexandria Transit Company (ATC) Board on May 12, 2021, the New DASH Network would dramatically increase the percentage of residents who are served by frequent, all-day service:
• from 27% to 66% for all residents (a 2.4x increase);
• from 29% to 73%, for low-income residents (a 2.5x increase);
• from 22% to 70% for residents of color (a 3.2x increase); and,
• from 23% to 62% for Seniors (a 2.7x increase).
We in Grassroots Alexandria strongly support these anti-poverty, pro-environment updates to the DASH network. We are asking for your support for this plan and for the next logical step: Reduced or no fares for low-income residents.

1. Please attend one of the four virtual community meetings to be held between March 23 and March 31 to learn more about the New DASH Network and provide your feedback.

2. Please reach out to the ATC Board via email to dashbus@alexandriava.gov and/or speak at the virtual ATC Board meeting April 14. Register here. Ask the Board to implement free and/or reduced fares for low-income residents. Continue reading “Transit Equity in Action: the new DASH Bus Network”

Police Have No Place in Public Schools

by Alli Holte

tl;dr:  Educate yourself about the racist beginnings of modern law enforcement.  Support students’ wishes to remove police from their schools by submitting a public comment on the city’s 2022 budget proposal, demanding we remove the school resource officer line item from the police department budget.  Learn who on the school board supported police in schools, and get ready to vote them out (or run against them!) in November.

Over the past few weeks, youth leaders supported by Tenants and Workers United have engaged city council members to advocate for removal of school resource officers (SROs) from the city’s public middle and high schools. Last fall, after discussing whether to renew the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) and the police department, the school board voted 6-3 to renew the MOU and keep police in schools.  This decision was a blow to student leaders and community advocates that have explained time and time again that, yes, even in Alexandria, systemic racism is inherently baked into police culture. Continuing to allow SROs inside our school buildings causes harm to our Black and Latinx students. Grassroots Alexandria wrote about this issue back in August and we continue to stand with students today.

Continue reading “Police Have No Place in Public Schools”

How Police Culture Affects Alexandrians

by Jonathan Krall

On Wednesday January 6, the Capitol Police allowed white nationalists to invade Congress and, perhaps worse, to leave without being arrested. The racism of policing was on full display. Compared to the common, almost daily scrutiny and arrest of social justice protesters, the deference showed by police to white nationalists was shocking. The problem, as a former FBI agent has documented, is that police culture is intertwined with white nationalist culture. Historically, they are one and the same. Police deference to white people over Black people isn’t just a problem in DC, it is a problem in Alexandria. Because police fealty to police culture is stronger than police fealty to the public, no one is safe.

During the November and December protests in DC, as reported to me, police were disinterested in arresting violent white nationalists, including one that knifed a Black Lives Matter protester. BLM protesters witnessed Metropolitan Police Department cops physically separating BLM protesters and white nationalists. Again and again, BLM protesters were arrested while white nationalists were not. As on Capitol Hill, white nationalists were allowed to go on their merry way.

Here in Alexandria, unlike in DC, police culture has not been lately put to the test. Police culture is evident but, for white residents of our city, it is largely hidden. Describing encounters between police officers and people of color, my friends of color tell me that they experience disrespect. They tell me of instances when officers seem to have decided in advance that they, the person of color, are breaking a rule, even while the police office cannot or will not articulate what it is they are doing wrong. In Alexandria Police Department data, racial disparities are certainly evident. Black people, 21% of the population, received 36% of traffic tickets in 2017 and 2018 and 37% of tickets in 2019. Because police officers are not required to record ethnicity, we cannot provide similar data for Latinx Alexandrians. Continue reading “How Police Culture Affects Alexandrians”

The fascists haven’t gone away; we cannot rest

a statement from Grassroots Alexandria

Democracy is fragile. To keep democracy we need to succeed at holding a free and fair election. And then do it again for the next election. And again. And again. And again. Sounds routine. So much so that some might become apathetic, which scares us. Here the thing, and we’re serious about this; for some, apathy could mean the difference between life and death.

The fascists, unlike the small-d democrats, only have to succeed once. They push their violent propaganda. They say democracy is corrupt. They say we are in an emergency. They say a strong leader is needed. Then, one day, an elected leader declares martial law and suspends the Constitution. At this point, the public either defends democracy with their lives through massive civil disobedience, or… the fascists win, we live in a dictatorship, and the executions begin.

The fascists only have to win once. Restoring democracy without massive loss of life is, as far as we know, impossible. The fascists will only attempt a coup if they think the public is apathetic. The media will only accept the situation if they think the public is apathetic. The public will only accept the situation if they think the public is apathetic. See the pattern?

This why we must always support democracy, loudly, and never, ever project apathy in the face of fascism. This is why we protested Richard Spencer and never backed down. We don’t support violence, but we do support loud, disruptive, anti-fascist protest. Indeed, we are begging for it.

Those not able to march in the streets can write to local media and political leaders. People living in DC are being asked to speak up by posting signs. Political leaders must renounce fascism and focus arrests, if any, on the fascists that acted so violently during November and December.

If fascists win, and they only need to succeed once, our democracy dies and all of our lives are in danger.

No apathy, please.

Grassroots Alexandria 4 years old today

by Jonathan Krall, writing on behalf of the Grassroots Alexandria Steering Committee

If not for the pandemic, right about now we’d be hosting a holiday gathering at my house to celebrate both the season and the anniversary of our first meeting, on December 19, 2016.

Our mission in 2016 was both to respond to specific issues, such as the Women’s March and high-profile white nationalism in Alexandria, and to promote personal engagement in democracy and personal skill-building.

I am happy to see that, four years later, we are continuing this work.

It is the nature of activism to wax and wane. Major “people power” events, such as the protests of this summer, are difficult to sustain. Indeed, any decent activism handbook will explain that the power to force political leaders to act boldly (instead of timidly) for the common good is temporary. A coalition is assembled, outreach campaigns are launched to reach political leaders and the public, and coalition-building and outreach activities build up until political leaders act. Later, a renewed coalition will come together to launch the next campaign.

While coalition power is temporary, personal activity is not. In a free country, there is no requirement that we engage in politics. However, we see what happens when most people vote only in major elections; it isn’t good. In this time of change, we see the influence of city hall and Richmond over our quality of life and that of our neighbors. Elections have consequences; especially state and local elections.

It is the mission of Grassroots Alexandria to teach effective political engagement. We focus on local politics because that is where we can most readily have an effect and can see the results of our work.

Individuals may come and go, work harder or take a break. We all need to take time for self care. Because we work together and learn together, however, no one should fail to act because they do not know how to act.

We hope that, as we work together, we are sharing that knowledge. If not, you are invited to speak up, volunteer, and help us do better.

Best Wishes for 2021.

Escaping the toxic two-party trap

by Jonathan Krall

Last Saturday I walked and biked the streets of Washington DC with friends. I participated in the collective outpouring of joy and relief as the election was called for Joe Biden. It was beautiful. It was uplifting. But now we have work to do. Job #1, as my Extinction Rebellion friends say, is to tell the truth. The truth is that the conditions that produced Trump are still in place. Normalization of anti-science predates Trump. Voter manipulation predates Trump. As long as the Republican Party talks propaganda instead of policy, uses division, marginalization, disenfranchisement, intimidation, and mass incarceration to suppress voting, is dishonest about its privatize-everything agenda, another Trump isn’t just possible, it is inevitable. As long as the Democratic Party is complicit in a two-party system that marginalizes third parties, a return to Republican control is inevitable. There is a way forward. It won’t come from the toxic Republican leadership. I doubt it will come from the complicit Democratic leadership. I am hopeful that it will come from the people.

What is the way forward? The consensus view is that President-elect Biden will “reach across the aisle.” The consensus view is that Republicans will shut him down. The consensus view is that we are stuck with gridlock. The way forward is to break the pattern. To allow third parties to come to the table. To expand democracy. Anti-gerrymandering reforms and ranked-choice voting–to encourage candidates to appeal to those beyond their narrow constituencies–would be good first steps. Electoral college reform and bringing colonies to statehood (including DC) would be significant further steps, if attainable.

Virginia’s successful anti-gerrymandering reform is a ray of hope. It might not be perfect, but it is a break from business as usual that cannot be easily undone. Continue reading “Escaping the toxic two-party trap”