When asked if there is something she wished she had known at the beginning of her tenure as a city council member, Alyia Gaskins said she wished she knew how excited she would get about things like sidewalk lights and trash cans.
She came in with big ideas for initiatives, but she has learned that it is often the small things that impact quality of life the most, she said.“I’m excited to really think about systems for being able to respond to the every-day quality of life issues that people face.”
Gaskins is coming to the end of her first three-year term as a city council member and is running for mayor. She holds master’s degrees in both public health and urban planning, and she is a senior pro-gram manager for a charitable trust. She has lived in Alexandria since 2016. She is married and has two young boys.
She said she wants to run for mayor because she sees large projects on the horizon for Alexandria, and wants to make sure that everyone thrives in the midst of those changes.
“I recognize the connections between education, housing, public safety and climate, and I think that we can plan in a way that really maximizes the benefits of the opportunities before us but also mitigates unintended consequences,” Gaskins said.
One of the important challenges facing Alexandria, according to Gaskins, is continuing budget concerns. She says the city needs to find ways to diversify revenue as the city and its needs continue to grow. One way to do this might have been the Potomac Yard Arena, a proposal that Gaskins thinks had some potential to boost jobs and tax revenue. However,Gaskins maintains that the proposal never addressed the need for union jobs, affordable housing, and funding for metro and other transit improvements. And while Gaskins hopes that Potomac Yard will be developed in line with the community’s vision for a “sustainable, mixed-use community,” it is only one piece of the puzzle.
“We need to develop this site, but we have limited control over how and when that happens, which is why we also need to create a city-wide economic develop ment plan that leverages all our community strengths from Potomac Yard to Landmark,”Gaskins wrote in an email following the news that the arena deal was over. “This will be one of my top priorities as mayor.”
Other priorities for Gaskins include addressing public safety, particularly focusing on crime prevention. And as a mother of two young children, she is attuned to other issues related to education and childcare. She sympathizes with the frustration of parents who struggle to find affordable childcare.
One initiative that Gaskins is excited to implement is the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, which would give the mayor the opportunity to meet monthly with young leaders in Alexandria. This is intended to be an expansion of the Alexandria Youth Ambassadors program, an effort that Gaskins led while on council.
“When I think about some of the most pressing issues we’re facing, from housing to public safety, to jobs to education, our young people need to be at the table helping us make those decisions. We need to be hearing from them directly,” Gaskins said. “Because this is not just the city they will inherit, it’s the city they should be shaping as well.”
Gaskins says she understands the importance of inviting the most vulnerable members of the community to be a part of the conversation shaping decisions. She wants to focus on conversations around topics like worker rights and housing, having been shaped by the experience of watching her own single mother work several jobs to keep the family afloat.
“It’s also why I’m probably the one who asks the most questions on council now, because my brain is constantly thinking about the intersections and the connections between these issues and how we evaluate the ripple effects of every decision,” Gaskins said.
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Each candidate for Mayor received the same 10 questions from Alexandria Living Magazine, with the same answer-length guidelines and deadline. Read the other Q&As here.
1. Have the current efforts to improve affordable housing been sufficient, and how do you measure whether they are working?
I am passionate about and committed to making Alexandria a better place for all and that means ensuring that all kinds of people can afford to live here, grow here, and age here—which is increasingly difficult given the current housing market and high cost of living. While current efforts have been effective, we still have much work to do.
On Council, I have focused consistently on the 3Ps of housing affordability, including:
Supporting the PRODUCTION of new committed affordable housing units and supporting the eight Zoning for Housing proposals;
Investing in the PRESERVATION of older units to help people stay in their homes and by working to expand our proactive rental inspection program and senior tax relief; and
Advancing legislation to expand eviction PROTECTIONS and anti-displacement strategies.
Looking ahead, we need to make sure our backlog of approved housing projects is funded, simplify our development process (see question 2 for specifics), continue to strengthen our tenant protection and anti-displacement policies, and create a dashboard that measures our progress towards affordability, availability, and accessibility as well as our impact on local infrastructure. Data driven policy is key to advancing a housing ecosystem that works for all.
2. What can be done to make sure the increasing population density in Alexandria doesn’t hurt quality of life?
To maintain our quality of life as Alexandria grows, we do and we must continue to plan holistically so that we can prepare for ancillary needs and avoid unintended consequences by coordinating our development efforts with our public works, transportation, school, climate resilience, public health and other strategies.
As an urban planning, housing, and public health professional, I understand the complexities of these issues. This is why, for instance, I have focused on the 3Ps of housing affordability, not just housing production (see question 1 for specifics); on the ramifications of the Potomac Yard development for workers and the environment (see question 9 for specifics); and expanding out of school time opportunities for youth across Alexandria, not just in certain neighborhoods (see question 6 for specifics).
It’s also why I continue to advocate for the creation of a Unified Development Ordinance, a single document that includes all development-related regulations and supports a more predictable and efficient development process. Alexandria has the components of such an ordinance but not all of the coordination and connections that come with it. As a result, zoning and regulations can be challenging to navigate, permitting is inefficient, and developers and residents end up frustrated with the process.
As mayor, I will continue to push for comprehensive approaches to development and quality of life issues across the city.
3. How can the city make public transportation a more viable and attractive option for residents?
One of my biggest public transportation concerns is reliable, sustainable funding for Metro. According to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission’s 2023 report, every dollar that Virginia invests in transit in Northern Virginia generates an additional $1.60 in statewide revenue. Metro is vital to the success of Alexandria - it’s how our residents travel to work, school, and other key locations. Metro is also essential to future economic development. We need a plan from WMATA for working with front-line employees who operate the trains and buses to fix the tracks, repair the vehicles, and accelerate deferred maintenance, so that riding Metro is a more reliable and attractive experience. We also need a plan to control unsustainable cost growth and sustainability fund metro into the future.
My other priority is keeping DASH free and expanding its service and reliability. Through a combination of frequent service and zero fare, DASH both contributes to Alexandria’s economic health and reduces car trips and their associated environmental impacts. DASH does an excellent job leveraging grant money to support its operations, is a national
stand-out in post-pandemic ridership recovery, and continues to set ridership records. This is why I recently co-sponsored a budget amendment to restore DASH Line 104 so that we can continue to have a reliable and effective transit network. We also need to continue to invest in the rider experience by making sure buses and bus stops are accessible, clean, well lit, and safe.
Getting regular community feedback on frequency, reliability, and the rider experience will be crucial to continuing to improve public transportation and increase ridership.
4. What do you think is the most important factor in making the roads safer and more efficient for everyone?
As a City, we have much to celebrate, especially with regard to our investments in bike and pedestrian safety. In fact, as a result of our Vision Zero commitment, we just celebrated a year of zero traffic fatalities. However, we need to continue to focus on:
1. Engagement--listening to a diverse array of residents and businesses and working with community organizations to identify what additional safety measures they need. 2. Equity--ensuring that streets are safe everywhere in Alexandria, especially Black, brown, low-income, and immigrant neighborhoods, and safe for all residents, especially children, older adults, and people with disabilities.
3. Engineering--described beautifully by Safe Routes to School as “Creating physical improvements to streets and neighborhoods that make walking…bicycling [and driving] safer, more comfortable, and more convenient.” I’d like to see us get faster at deploying engineering solutions and leveraging pilot programs or temporary measures to respond more quickly to problem areas.
4. Enforcement--of traffic laws, bike safety, pedestrian right-of-ways, etc., to keep us all safe, whether we are walking, biking, or driving. Furthermore, enforcement is critical to successful engagement, equity, and engineering interventions; no measure will be successful if we don’t hold ourselves and others accountable for implementation.
5. What are the biggest challenges facing Alexandria’s small businesses and how can the city better support them?
We have some of the most creative business owners in the world. It is incumbent on city government to be more entrepreneurial, responsive, and nimble in helping them implement their ideas. This includes spending more time with business owners, especially our minority and women-owned businesses, at their place of business to see firsthand the challenges they are navigating and the opportunities they want to seize, as well as creating more user-friendly and efficient permitting processes that support creativity and innovation. We also need to promote and celebrate their out-of-the-box thinking and ensure they’re represented in the city’s tourism initiatives and in procurement of city goods and services.
Through my conversations with small business owners, I have learned that they are facing public safety challenges; the city can better support more targeted crime prevention strategies focused on curtailing retail theft, including expanding APD’s presence in hot spot areas. Business owners are also concerned about housing for their workforce. We must continue to invest in affordable and attainable housing so that all workers, whether they be teachers and first responders or line cooks and house cleaners, can afford to live near where they work.
6. What is something you don’t like about Alexandria that you want to change?
Through conversations with our young people, I have learned that many don’t just want a job but need a job and pathways to economic opportunity. The City has an amazing Summer Youth Employment Program. Unfortunately, the city has not been able to support every applicant. In 2020, 350 young persons applied for the program, but only 212 were accepted due to capacity limits. I believe that every young person who needs or wants a job should have a job. It’s why I have worked to expand funding for the program and am now working to create a public-private partnership so that our business community, unions, and higher education institutions can help expand these critical opportunities for young people so that they reach more youth and, ideally, can be available year round. These investments are also essential to supporting and sustaining the future workforce that our city needs to thrive.
7. Do you think the current city staff is able to effectively serve all the development that is happening or do you think we need to hire more people?
As development increases in Alexandria, our hardworking city staff have focused on being as efficient as possible and doing more with less. But our needs in some critical areas, like the Department of Community and Human Services, are growing to the point that our current approach needs to be revisited. That said, we need to make sure that when we hire, we hire for the right roles that not only meet current needs but will do so well into the future. This will entail assessing departmental staffing, workload, and workflow; and ensuring org charts fit departmental needs, positions have appropriate job descriptions, and staff have manageable workloads. We also need to invest in better internal systems and data sharing to reduce duplication of efforts across positions, offices, and departments.
8. What would you tell a resident who doesn’t feel safe living in Alexandria?
We all deserve to feel safe in Alexandria—whoever we are, wherever we live or work. The uptick in crime is real, and it has many on edge. That’s unacceptable. We need
comprehensive, evidence-based strategies that help us respond effectively and prevent crime from happening in the first place. As mayor, I will work to:
Partner with the Alexandria Police Department (APD) to find common sense efficiencies so officers spend more time engaged in community policing, with an effort to align APD resources across prevention, detection, and intervention to reduce crime, address hazardous traffic violators, and expand our community outreach efforts;
Engage other criminal justice partners as well as non-profit and community partners to develop programs to prevent recidivism, especially youth-focused programs;
Increase communication between the police and the community. We need a strategic plan that focuses on morale, crime reduction, building accountability, and clearly communicating our efforts to the public.
Expand investment in the safety and mental health of all our dedicated first responders, including APD, Alexandria Fire Department, and Alexandria Sheriff’s Office
9. Briefly, please describe your views on the Potomac Yard arena and what your concerns are.
The proposed Potomac Yard Sports and Entertainment District was not just an arena. It was a 70-acre district with 9 million square feet of entertainment, restaurants, retail and housing, plus parks for all to enjoy. It could have brought 30,000 jobs and significant new tax revenue
to our city. I still believe it could have been a good thing for Alexandria--if it included union jobs, affordable housing, funding for Metro and other district transit improvements, and more seats for Alexandria on the stadium authority board.
Unfortunately, we were never offered a complete deal that included any of these things, let alone all of them. This is why I never took a public position on the project: because I was never given the full information, including financial details, that I needed to do my due diligence and make a responsible decision.
Now that this project is off the table, it is time to move on from piecemeal decision-making and be comprehensive in our approach. We need a city-wide revenue generation plan that outlines how we can we take pressure off of residential taxes by:
Helping small businesses open, stay open, and thrive;
Working with the General Assembly to increase our authority to offer incentives for transformative developments;
Fostering more transit-oriented development at key sites including Potomac Yard, Braddock Road, Eisenhower East, and Van Dorn Metro stations;
Better leveraging existing tools like the Industrial Development Authority to foster creative deals.
10. If you had to convince someone to vote for you in one sentence, what would that sentence be?
As Alexandria experiences tremendous growth and prosperity, we deserve a mayor who will ensure that everyone thrives in our changing city; as an urban planning and public health professional, an experienced public servant, a leader with heart, and a leader who gets results, I will be that mayor.
