WTF Alexandria?

[Anonymous]

Old Town Alexandria - This was on ND tonight.

Using their combined infinite wisdom, which apparently adds up to a negative number, the Mayor, City Council and City Staff approved a plan for homeowners in parts of Old Town on and around North Lee Street to be WITHOUT POWER from 7 pm until 4 am beginning on Wednesday night until Thursday morning. Notice was given to affected homeowners by phone only. One phone call per home, no follow-ups, no written notice, no door-to-door. The notice began today for something that will happen in two days.

People who are elderly and people with young families are negatively impacted by this buffoonery. People who require power for medical devices or who require heat (it will be cold Wednesday night) are given no alternatives.

We live in a city run by incompetent morons. I cannot wait until we vote these m-fers out of office and fire the city hall staff they hired. None of them are anything but crooks and snakes.

[Anonymous]

They had the option of conducting the outage during the day when no one is at home or at least fewer people are at home. Instead they chose to inconvenience the residents and voters who pay their salaries. I think they need to learn an important lesson about what NOT to do.

[Anonymous]

Huh? The forecast says a low of 61 Wednesday. That’s not cold…

[Anonymous]

Wait, this is a one-night only thing, not reoccurring?

How have you ever survived living through a spontaneous power outage before, OP?

It hasn't even been that cold. I live in an old Alexandria rowhouse, and our heat kicked on once. I... think you'll live. But I think you probably just like complaining.

[Anonymous]

I mean, you can't just wear a sweatshirt for 9 hours OP?

Dramatic, much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They had the option of conducting the outage during the day when no one is at home or at least fewer people are at home. Instead they chose to inconvenience the residents and voters who pay their salaries. I think they need to learn an important lesson about what NOT to do.

The DC area has the most people work from home in the country. It’s better to do this when people are sleeping than in the day when the power needs are greater.

[Anonymous]

Good to see the mayor is able to troll DCUM. That's about all he is good for.

Think about it this way. You're the parent of 2 or 3 little kids. You get home from work and picking up the kids at day care at 6. You have 1 hour while it is still light to make dinner, feed the kids, bathe the kids and then it is lights out. Not fun.

Or you're a little old lady or little old man who has trouble seeing so you rely on the lights in your house to get around.

Alexandria is being run into the ground.

[Anonymous]

They will never be voted out. Every election, no matter how bad things are in Alexandria, they get re-elected. Same with the school board.

Nothing changes. And it’s not the mayor who makes these decisions. It’s the city manager, and he’s not elected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had the option of conducting the outage during the day when no one is at home or at least fewer people are at home. Instead they chose to inconvenience the residents and voters who pay their salaries. I think they need to learn an important lesson about what NOT to do.

The DC area has the most people work from home in the country. It’s better to do this when people are sleeping than in the day when the power needs are greater.

Baloney. It would be easy enough for the city to set up a room in one of the hotels and the WFH people could go there and work for the day. Why risk some older person tripping and falling in the dark and breaking a hip or something worse??? The younger people can go to a work site for one day. This move smacks of the boneheadedness of the city leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will never be voted out. Every election, no matter how bad things are in Alexandria, they get re-elected. Same with the school board.

Nothing changes. And it’s not the mayor who makes these decisions. It’s the city manager, and he’s not elected.

He is approved by the mayor and CC.

I disagree. I think the one-party rule is about to be broken in Alexandria. There is a lot more unhappiness than I've ever seen of or heard of before in Alexandria. You see undercurrents of it on FB and ND. This whole thing with the CC member closing his street to thru traffic was an eyeopener for a lot of people. Lots of underhanded and unethical behavior. It is coming to light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good to see the mayor is able to troll DCUM. That's about all he is good for.

Think about it this way. You're the parent of 2 or 3 little kids. You get home from work and picking up the kids at day care at 6. You have 1 hour while it is still light to make dinner, feed the kids, bathe the kids and then it is lights out. Not fun.

Or you're a little old lady or little old man who has trouble seeing so you rely on the lights in your house to get around.

Alexandria is being run into the ground.

except you got notice. So you go out for dinner or order in. Skip shower or do it with flashlights. Bedtime by flashlight. It’s not the end of the world for one evening. I have kids and this would be preferable to a daytime outage.,

[Anonymous]

Let's put it this way...the people living in the affected area are the ones who count. Their vote counts more than anyone else's. They would prefer the outage during the day. And they are very unhappy with two days notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good to see the mayor is able to troll DCUM. That's about all he is good for.

Think about it this way. You're the parent of 2 or 3 little kids. You get home from work and picking up the kids at day care at 6. You have 1 hour while it is still light to make dinner, feed the kids, bathe the kids and then it is lights out. Not fun.

Or you're a little old lady or little old man who has trouble seeing so you rely on the lights in your house to get around.

Alexandria is being run into the ground.

except you got notice. So you go out for dinner or order in. Skip shower or do it with flashlights. Bedtime by flashlight. It’s not the end of the world for one evening. I have kids and this would be preferable to a daytime outage.,

I would much rather have power at night when I'm home with the kids. I don't want to play around with flashlights for something stupid like this. The kids are at school during the day and I can find something to do. At night I want them to have fun and have a relaxing evening not stumble around in the dark. I also think it is a bad idea to force my elderly neighbors to be in the dark when they need the light most in the evening. Plus we have one family on our block with a newborn who has some medical needs. They need electricity for the equipment. They are having to go to a hotel. Not right.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think your projecting a lot of anger from other parts of your life onto this inconvenience.

I’m not a fan of the current mayor and city council, but your reaction is extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They will never be voted out. Every election, no matter how bad things are in Alexandria, they get re-elected. Same with the school board.

Nothing changes. And it’s not the mayor who makes these decisions. It’s the city manager, and he’s not elected.

He is approved by the mayor and CC.

I disagree. I think the one-party rule is about to be broken in Alexandria. There is a lot more unhappiness than I've ever seen of or heard of before in Alexandria. You see undercurrents of it on FB and ND. This whole thing with the CC member closing his street to thru traffic was an eyeopener for a lot of people. Lots of underhanded and unethical behavior. It is coming to light.

The city manager is approved but once hired he does what he wants. He does NOT need any approval for his daily decisions. The CC and Mayor will rubber stamp anything they do have to approve from him.

The mayor has no real power, unless there is a tie in the city council like with the bike lanes. Otherwise his job is basically ceremonial. He's waiting for Beyer to retire, and then he's going to run for Congress.

I've lived in Alexandria for 20+ years, nothing changes. Nothing. No matter how good a non democratic candidate might be, the one party rule will stay. People get what they asked for, and for the life of me I cannot understand why people accept this mess, but they do.