Grassroots Alexandria December update
Grassroots Alexandria
catching up after the holidays... it's...
Grassroots Alexandria December update
This is an update following our monthly action meeting on December 4. We have several local actions where you can make a difference: please act today!
1. Take action now!
- Take action now! Please act today! ACT and GrA are working together, and with city staff, for stronger tenant protections. If you have not done so, please speak up for stronger tenant protections.
- Tell City Council that you support the Pump Station as originally planned by visiting https://bit.ly/3WNCLMg
- Please write to Sheriff Sean Casey to ask him to stop transferring people to ICE, unless forced to do so by a judge via a judicial warrant: https://bit.ly/3HdSjot
2. Alexandria Human Rights: ICE Out project
- The ICE Out team meets virtually on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. The next meeting is on January 21.
- Take action now! Please write to Sheriff Sean Casey to ask him to stop transferring people to ICE, unless forced to do so by a judge via a judicial warrant: https://bit.ly/3HdSjot
- Our local rapid response group has been developing materials to help new volunteers effectively patrol the specific neighborhoods where ICE might be expected to appear. To join this effort please visit https://bit.ly/NVMsolidarity.
- News from the ICE Out of Alexandria coalition (IOA):
The Mayor and City Council issued a statement on November 12 agreeing with us that the Alexandria Sheriff's Office can and should act to reduce their cooperation with ICE.
Sheriff Casey held a public meeting on November 23, digging in on the idea that he cannot legally ignore an ICE administrative warrant. Clips of this presentation can be seen on the IOA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRcRl3RgM1z/
We argue that this is moot because he can simply let people go (ignoring the spirit of the ICE detainer); if he doesn't have custody, he can’t transfer custody. In 2015, the Virginia AG issued an opinion covering detainers, not warrants.
IOA volunteers spoke to the city council at the 11/15 public hearing, which was picked up by local media.
3. Education: Restorative Practices Project
- Our Restorative Practices Project team leader is stepping down. We are seeking new leadership for this team.
- We remain concerned about school safety. As we recently wrote to one of our school board members, we are concerned about “school safety officer” (SRO) roles. In the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), SRO roles are 1) “The SRO supplements support of the school security staff” and 2) “unless there is a clear and imminent threat to safety, the SRO should act only upon request of school administrators and as a last resort to the actions of school administrators.”
The first role (1) is concerning. We believe that students respond best to safety and security procedures when these are routine and predictable. Ideally, these procedures will produce predictable responses to both helpful and unhelpful actions by a student. We believe that trained security personnel can provide that consistent environment. As described in the MOU, the police officer is a "supplement" to be used where needed. That suggests that the SRO can be inserted into any role that would normally be filled by a member of the unarmed school security staff. If the unarmed school security staff needs to be supplemented on any given day, it should be supplemented by an unarmed security professional so as to not change the security environment experienced by the students.
In a proposed update, produced earlier this year, add yet another SRO role. Here SROs "collaborate with school administrators and other school personnel to support positive school climates..." We believe that these roles (and this funding) is better directed to trained counselors, not police.
Police are not magical "good guys" who can fill any community-support role. They are trained to navigate police procedure, not the sticky ethical and emotional challenges of working with growing children. As they grow, children constantly test their boundaries. They need to be handled with care-first, not policing-first.
We will continue to speak up on this topic. We encourage you to do the same.
4. Housing: Housing Equity Project
- We are working with African Communities Together to develop our proposed update to the Alexandria Landlord-Tenant Guide. A PDF of the full document and a one-page executive summary are on our updated housing page. We are hopeful that many elements of our proposal will be adopted into the Housing 2040 plan
- We met with the Office of Housing on November 10. Our key ask is that Alexandria develop a public database of reported housing conditions, including positive reporting on landlords that comply with voluntary tenant protections. Alexandria currently has a multi-agency Housing Safety Task Force. We are hopeful that this task force can support this effort. Natlaie Talis of the Alexandria Health Department attended. The AHD is working on a web site where people can report mold problems.
- Support for rental assistance programs is included in the ACT action alert (please act today). We also support rental assistance.
5. Environment
Take action now! Tell City Council that you support the Pump Station as originally planned by going to https://bit.ly/3WNCLMg
- The Environment team is interested in resource and recovery, green building, climate adaptation, and resilience. We usually meet on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.
- The Grassroots Alexandria (GrA) Environment Team (GrAEn, pronounced “green”), identified three goals:
Goal 1: Increase green buildings and spaces in Alexandria
Goal 2: Promote renewable, affordable, and distributed energy in Alexandria
Goal 3: Expand sustainable waste management in Alexandria
Along these lines, the GrAEn team is looking into community choice aggregation.CCA “grants communities greater control and leverage when negotiating with suppliers,” possibly increasing the use of clean energy. The team is also following the Duke Street land use plan. When we increase housing density in transit corridors, we can use economies of scale to reduce use of fossil fuels.
- Pump station: Environment team continues to oppose flooding and support the pump station (see our letter in the Alexandria Times). If you have not done so already, please write to the city council.
6. Alexandria Human Rights: Community Voices project
- The Community Voices team meets virtually on the 1st Wednesday of the month. We gather and advertise events and actions (the Community Voices Update). As always, feedback is appreciated.
- Upcoming action! Tuesday January 20, 2-4pm local time, Free America Walkout
From: Women's March and Free DC
On January 20, feminists across the country will walk out on fascism and forge the path to a Free America. Women's Marchers believe in a feminist future and won't let fascists take it from us. This is a protest and a promise. Are you in?
https://act.womensmarch.com/survey/FreeAmericaWalkoutPledge/
https://freedcproject.org/event-list/walkout
- Getting people to events: During the upcoming Virginia General Assembly session, we plan to spread the word to help people find “lobby day” groups that leave from the DC area to Richmond. Please stay tuned.
- Skill building: CV Team members, some for the first time, spoke at the November City Council public hearing about ICE in Alexandria.
7. Transportation Equity
- The Transportation Equity team meets virtually on the 4th Wednesday of the month. The next meeting is scheduled for January 28.
- Braddock Road East: Improvements to Braddock Road, near the Metro station, are expected to come to the Traffic and Parking Board in January or February. This board usually meets on the 4th Monday.
- Transportation priorities in Richmond: Citing the VA Transit Association (vatransit.com), Jim Durham of Grassroots Alexandria reported that Virginia, like other states, is generally increasing its investment in transit and rail. VTA (and us) support the call for sustained annual transit funding. VTA reporting suggests that NoVA transit needs sustained funding of $460 million/year.
We support NoVA transit funding in the Virginia budget as Senator Ebbin’s Joint Subcommittee recommended. While most of the money would go to WMATA (Metrorail, Metrobus) and VRE (commuter rail), their recommendations included $35 millions for local bus systems like DASH.
8. GrA reading group
- The Grassroots Alexandria Reading Group now reading On Freedom by Timothy Snyder. For details, please see https://grassrootsalexandria.org/events/
People who wish to join a GrA project team should reach out to grassroots...@gmail.com.
This is public information. Please share or repost this update with friends and neighbors, as appropriate.