GGWash endorses Alyia Gaskins for Alexandria Mayor. Photo from the candidate.

Alexandria voters will head to the polls this spring to select their Democratic nominees for Mayor and City Council who, barring any Republican or independents jumping in, are the likely winners of the general election this November. For mayor, GGWash endorses Alyia Gaskins.

First, the questionnaires

Our endorsements are primarily based on the questionnaire that we send to candidates. Completing that questionnaire online is a prerequisite in order to be considered for our endorsement.

Two of the three candidates completed our questionnaire, and we published their responses (a blank version is visible here). It asks candidates 24 questions about housing, land use, transportation, and the role of community input in decision-making. Some of the questions are about issues in Alexandria while others are more broad, designed to reveal how applicants think and how they would approach the many tradeoffs and wicked problems that arise in urban planning.

For Alexandria Mayor, GGWash endorses Alyia Gaskins

While the mayor votes as part of the City Council, they serve as the public face of the city and play a larger role in shaping the city’s agenda during their three-year term–and in Alexandria, that agenda has shifted wildly in recent years. In 2015, development-friendly mayor Bill Euille was unseated by then-councilmember Allison Silberberg, a staunch opponent of, well, everything, who then lost to urbanist Justin Wilson in 2018 and again in 2021.

Wilson’s legacy might be Zoning for Housing, a multi-year effort to increase Alexandria’s housing production and reduce barriers to housing in a historically segregated city. In November, the council unanimously voted to pass the housing package which, among other things, allows up to four homes per lot in single-family zones that cover most of the city. Like neighboring Arlington, Alexandria residents sued to overturn it.

Of the three people running to succeed Wilson, we believe Alyia Gaskins is best suited to continue this difficult and important work.

Gaskins, a first-term councilmember, has spent her career in the public health and city planning fields and currently works for a philanthropic organization seeking to end homelessness. Naturally, she sees all of the ways access to stable housing can improve people’s lives. “More than 15,000 renter and homeowner households in Alexandria spend more than 30% of their income on housing leaving little left over for essentials like medication, childcare and transportation…This is why I supported Zoning for Housing and voted for all eight proposals in 2023,” she writes.

As a former member of the city’s transportation commission, Gaskins played a role in crafting the Alexandria Mobility Plan, which emphasizes providing more safe, reliable travel choices other than driving. She supports repurposing the city’s limited street space to create more bike and bus lanes. When asked if there’s a trip she could shift from driving to walking, Gaskins–a mother of two–noted she walks her son to preschool a few times a week, and could walk on the other days too.

We appreciate Gaskins’ sober, level-headed approach to the now-dead proposal for a sports arena in Potomac Yard. She repeatedly said that any development around the venue needed to include affordable housing and transportation improvements, and that residents–who would host the arena, but weren’t really consulted about it–needed to have a real say in the arena’s operations. When the deal collapsed in March amidst a lot of finger-pointing, Gaskins simply said that Alexandria’s needs hadn’t been met and it was time to “move on.” That is, frankly, how a mayor talks.

If you haven’t heard of developer Steven Peterson, you might know of his dad Milt Peterson, whose firm Peterson Companies built the Fair Lakes planned community in Fairfax County, Downtown Silver Spring, and National Harbor, for which he was the project manager. Peterson’s responses left us wanting. His affordable housing recommendation is simply for the government to partner with developers to build it, which is what the city already does and isn’t enough to meet the current need. While he told us he supports the Zoning for Housing reforms, he told ALXnow he would reverse them, claiming that it is unconstitutional. We can’t support Peterson, but we wish him a swift recovery from a freak accident while campaigning involving his Golden Retriever, a squirrel, and a trip to the hospital.

We didn’t receive a questionnaire from Councilmember Amy Jackson, who attempted to delay the vote on single-family zoning last fall, arguing that residents “didn’t have enough input.” That doesn’t feel like a fair description of an effort that took several years, involved dozens of community meetings, and collected hundreds of comments from residents. A survey of over 1,700 residents showed a majority of Alexandrians want more housing options, want more options for different budgets, and support putting those homes across the city.

This election is another chance for Alexandria voters to offer their input, and we urge them to choose Alyia Gaskins for mayor.

Now what?

Early voting in Alexandria runs through June 15. You can also vote on Election Day, June 18. Here’s a list of polling places and a sample ballot. You can register to vote in this year’s primary through Election Day, though you may need to use a provisional ballot.

For more information about how we’re making endorsements in Virginia in 2024, see our 2024 endorsements process post. Our 2024 Elections Hub is your one-stop shop for GGWash’s questionnaires, endorsements, process details, and more. Access the hub anytime from the “2024 Elections” link in the upper right corner of our homepage.

Note: Our Elections Committee wouldn’t have been able to do the research required to make these endorsements happen without the wealth of local news outlets in Alexandria: ALXnow, Alexandria Living, Alexandria Times, not to mention the Washington Post and DCist (RIP). We wanted to take a moment to recognize the importance of their work. Not only do our endorsees deserve our (and your) support, but so does the local journalism that creates an informed public.