Grassroots Alexandria June update

[Jonathan Krall]

Hi All,

Below is our June update. Two items of note:

1. Please scroll down to the section on transportation (all the way to the bottom) and consider taking action. We are organizing to gather in City Hall on Monday June 24 to support transit.

2. Our July action meeting will be Monday July 8 instead of July 1.

Thanks!

Jonathan

Grassroots Alexandria June update

This is an update following our monthly action meeting on June 3.

1. Steering committee

- The GrA Reading Group is reading Just Action, by Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein. For the July meeting, we will read Chapter 1, You Should Just Do It.

- The report on our May 2 candidate forum (with Tenants and Workers United and the NoVA Branch of the DSA) was posted to our web site. 

- To avoid holiday conflicts, we’ll have our July action meeting on July 8 instead of July 1.

- We’ve been getting new volunteers, but more are needed.

2. Education 

- We are looking at data on student well-being, student incidents, and administrative responses. Virginia changed how it reports behavioral data in ways that are more specific, but they do not disclose administrative responses to each incident. Ideally, we would be able to identify helpful and non-helpful administrative responses and track these over time to see if things are improving. We would similarly want to follow changes in student well-being

3. Healthcare: Medicare For All Project

- The Medicare For All project was a success. The first part of a multi-chapter report on the process and methods used to obtain this positive result is on our web page.

4. Housing: Housing Equity Project

- On May 30, we met with members of the DMV chapter of African Communities Together. As a point of focus for change, ACT identified the voluntary landlord guidelines on page 16-17 of the Landlord-Tenant Guide and the 2019 voluntary rent guidelines resolution.

- These guidelines are deficient in that they cover rent increases but not housing dignity. There are good existing examples of a tenant bill of rights. We could ask the city to amend the voluntary guidelines to include requirements for safe, healthy, dignified housing.

- Next, we plan to seek out good examples of landlord guidelines or tenant bill of rights documents and consider creating our own draft of a tenant bill of rights or a proposed addition to the existing voluntary rent guidelines.

5. Alexandria Human Rights

- We remain committed to immigrant rights and opposed to ICE deportations. However, the effort to resist ICE depends on the capacity of groups that better represent these immigrant communities. We are not willing to act alone in ways that might negatively impact these communities.

- We continue to seek constructive ways to engage City Council on the issue of Palestine Human Rights and divestment from Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. Alexandria has a significant middle eastern population that does not always feel heard. At present we have been supporting this movement by sharing information on local direct actions (rallies and protests).

- We are now forming a team to work on Palestine and related issues, including Nakba recognition and divestment. Volunteers are needed.

6. Transportation Equity

- We are keeping a close eye on multiple projects schedule to come up in the Traffic and Parking Board:
Projects expected to be docketed for the 7pm June 24 TPB:

1. S. Pickett Street Safety improvements including bike lanes, pedestrian crossing safety improvements and a speed limit reduction to 25 mph.
1. A plan to extend existing bike lanes on South Pickett Street should be routine. It is part of the existing Transportation Master Plan and extends existing bike lanes. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting pushback from some residents. 
2. King Street service road near the Bradlee shopping center. Please support the dedicated bus lane option. Forcing buses to operate in mixed traffic on this service road significantly degrades on-time performance of three high-ridership DASH routes (31, 36A, and 36B). Staff is expected to propose a dedicated west-bound bus lane =.better (faster and more reliable) bus service = more bus riders = fewer people driving=safer streets!  The dedicated bus lane option also includes a two-way cycle track. 

Projects expected to be docketed for the 7 pm July 22 TPB:

1. Holland Lane bike lanes, connecting bike routes with destinations. Opposition expected from Carlyle Council based on a false premise that bike lanes will be bad for businesses 
2. Duke Street service road – Cambridge to W. Taylor Run. Conversion of the service road to one way for motor vehicles with a two-way cycle track will improve traffic movements and hence is supported by the nearest civic association. This project is described in this May presentation to City Council. 

Bottom Line: Speakers are needed for the June 24 TPB in particular. Please contact GrA member Jim Durham (JImDu...@outlook.com) if you might be interested and /or have questions.