Andrew,
Then BUY IT! Its been on the market for TWO years! You & Boyd pool together some resources and purchase the property. otherwise you have nothing to complain about the loss of this 'national treasure'

Well said, Andrew! You're spot on.

Andrew, for someone so consumed with Alexandria's history, you have your facts wrong on the Carver School. It is not Bill Cromley or the city that is responsible for the building's decrepit condition. It is the former owner - an African American veterans post - that let the building decay. And this same group did not evidently think this building was historically important when they sold it to Cromley.

So I am "consumed" with Crystal city like development! I have said nothing that should lead you to this unsubstantiated charge. As for the Carver School, previously Cromley was proposing a very small condo similar to one he developed around the block.

On the other hand some folks are "consumed" here with preserving any building, no matter it's import.. They, for example, convinced the city to preserve the old Wayfarers restaurant on the river that originally was bought for open space. A cement block building that was a restaurant for three or four years and then was a gun store.
This is deemed historic since it was the first restaurant on the river!

I really think your making unsubstantiated charges about me personally are out of bounds for these conversations.

It is sad but true that many Alexandrians think a local building is important only if men in knee britches once visited that building. The Carver School is connected closely with a much later history. It is a visible symbol of a moment in time when the African-American population of this country took a big step toward equality. The labor shortage that accompanied the Second World War opened up better paid jobs, that had previously been reserved for whites only. As part of getting more African American women to be able to take jobs, the government built the school as a day care facility for mothers. There is a similar building which is city owned in Arlington. It is not surprising that this hisitory has been forgotten. Freedmen's Cemetary was forgotten for a long time too. If we really are One Alexandria, we need to be making a real effort to reclaim as much of the African American heritage that is part of the panoplay of our past, a period as diverse as our present, and certainly worth celebrating.

This ol' Democrat thinks that where we put our money reflects our values. I'm proud that Alexandria invests a fair amount of money in preserving and interpreting our history -- indeed, our eight City-run museums are run so well they were just recently accredited as a complete museum system, which is pretty rare for a city our size. We should be proud of that.

There is, however, a limit to what public funding can do in times of austere and stretched budgets. Andrew McD would love to spend more City money on this, just as he would have spent great sums on his waterfront vision. I think it's time for private money to get involved to pitch in on these projects. Why haven't Boyd and Andrew been raising money for this building for the two years it's been for sale? Perhaps now that the Waterfront fight is over, they view this as their next battle. Just my humble opinion. Regards, E. Warfield

Andrew, you say, "the City wants more tex revenue, period." As if that was a bad thing. Where does the money come from, Andrew? What gets cut? We may see tax increases, we may see services cut and positions unfilled or public employees laid off. Yet you want to throw money around like a Wall Street Banker in 2003.

Did you even think about the budget when proposing this idea? Did you think about emergency response times potentially going down because of budget cuts? Or the schools not getting the additional money they need? Or, really, anything?

If you'd like to put together a team to buy and renovate this property, by all means, step forward. However, until that time, stop wishing Alexandria City Council had billions of dollars sitting around in the "Andrew Macdonald Whim Fund"

And just four short months ago, Dr. Macdonald accused Council and the City admins of failing to capture revenue opportunities and overspending on meritless projects.

This discussion of spending money only on things we really need, brings up the program we had at last night's Old Town Civic meeting. Our city's chief engineer and Councilman Paul Smedberg presented our city's plan to control "nuisance" flooding on the waterfront. "Nuisance" flooding was defined in the presentation as those collections of water that appear at the foot of King Street and along the Strand in wet weather. There was no claim that the project, costing roughly $6 million of our tax dollars, for components such as low walls and berms, would protect against more serious flooding such as we might get after a hurricane or, God forbid, a storm such as Sandy which devastated whole towns farther north. To my mind, spending $6 million to eliminate a "nuisance" is just throwing away our money. It is definitely a "meritless" project. Council has not voted on this expenditure yet, but I don't hold out much hope that it will not be approved.

off topic comment
Not having been to OTCA's meeting, I wonder where the $6 million figure Katy cites is from.
In a presentation last November, the preliminary estimate for the more expensive nuisance flood mitigation option was under $1.2 million. Since OT's combined sewer system contributes to flooding, might not the $6 M figure include cost for separating the waste water from the storm water system?

After reading this I am kind of glad that Andrew wasn't voted in as mayor. Seems like he doesn't support a land owners right to do what he wants with his rightfully owned property (within legal reasoning). Also, way to spin the Carver school debate into reminding people about your opinion on the waterfront redevelopment. Once a politician, always a politician....

The combined sewer was not even mentioned. The $6 million is for flood mitigation of minor nuisance flooding on the water front. By the way, I attended a city sponsored meeting on the modernization of the sewer system in December. A T&ES employee gave us a rough estimate of $100 million for replacing the combined sewer. The city hasn't even started on that and probably will not do anything until the Federal EPA orders it.

One (of many) reasons why Mr. Macdonald has no credibility is his continual use of hyperbole....he again compares development in Alexandria to "development patterned on Crystal City and National Harbor" ......not true. We do not and will not look like Crystal City or National Harbor. Get over it, Andrew! As others have suggested, get a group together and buy/preserve this property. The City does not have bottomless pockets of cash....unless they raise taxes, which I am sure you are also against.

Perhaps if the City hadn't been forced to spend so much money fending off waterfront-related lawsuits that were, in this ol' Democrat's opinion, of little substantive merit, then we could have put some of that $$ into this building. Might be an interesting story for one of the local reporters to look into: how much has the City had to spend on defense fees for those suits, and would that sum have been enough to buy and preserve this building? Regards, E. Warfield

I think this conversation has gotten off subject. The Carver Nursery was once a school for young black children. This building can be restored and have the same occupancy, but not for just black children. With the new building for Jefferson-Houston, the development will close down and take away the current Head Start building on the corner of Cameron and West Streets. ACPS has not yet said where those children will go to, that is before they get to the new school. ACPS/Campagna Center need to rethink this, the Carver building can be restored and become a lively daycare/preschool for our City's young children. The new school building is, at this time, costing $44M, why can't one million of that go to the Carver building and renovation. I think at a cost of $625,000 for the structure and property is not to much to give back to our community and preserve a piece of the Alexandria City's history. A plaque is not enough to tell people the history our city came from. And, a new school building is not enough to give our children a good education, we need to keep a Head Start, we need to keep the Fayette Street building. Look around, Andrew is right, everywhere one turns, every piece of green space, its all becoming hi-rise somethings. At one point in time our City valued its look, valued its history, now height constraints have been thrown to the wind, soon all we will be is another cement jungle.

You want off topic? I'm also old and starting to sag and once had a kid in me. Can I have $625K of city funds to fix myself up? I already have plaque even though I brush regularly so I won't need another one.

What is particularly sad is how the wasteful development drum beats are so loud in these postings. Bea Porter is right. Reuse the Carver building, put money toward creating something that commemorates the past while also creating a future for Alexandria's children? The basic idea behind saving a building like Carver can be found in this piece, which is about preserving Rosenwald Schools throughout the country. Personal attacks aside, I think you can see why it is important to preserve history. http://blog.preservationnation.org/2013/02/13/voices-of-rosenwald-schools-mabel-dickey-tells-mt-zions-story/#.UR4-6FpAQZe

It's quite humorous how Andrew (and Boyd) regularly ask that the City spend vast sums of money to buy this or do that but can't abide the idea of increasing revenue. Where's the beef, guys?