On Saturday, Sept. 27, Mayor of Alexandria Alyia Gaskins hosted the Mayoral Youth Forum for geographic disparities. The youth forums are events held for the youth of Alexandria, each dealing with a specific issue proposed by attendants. The forums give the youth an opportunity to learn about problems in their community, as well as raise their concerns directly to Mayor Gaskins and other city officials relating to each issue. Alongside Gaskins, the forum heard from Alexandria’s Director of Planning and Zoning Paul Stoddard, and urban planner Melissa Symmes.
“The forum is a great opportunity for any young person who cares about the city to come and share their ideas, their hopes, their questions, and their concerns,” said Gaskins.
This past Saturday, Alexandrians ranging from ages 12 to 17 came from all over the city to attend the forum at the Patrick Henry recreation center to discuss geographic disparities and how it affects them. The forum started with guest speakers Stoddard and Symmes explaining the history of geographic disparities and the impact the youth can have on the issue.
“The youth in the city makes up about 20% of the population, and I think it’s important that any time you’ve got a segment of the city that’s that big, it’s critical that you have their voice heard,” said Stoddard.
The biggest topic of discussion was the East and West End divide in the city, and the different ways it manifests itself. According to a presentation on census data given by Symmes, the West end has less public facilities and a lower income per-capita than the east end. The distribution of public facilities was attributed to poor infrastructure design in the 1950s, when Alexandria began developing the West End based on automobile transportation.
“A lot more people in the West End of the city are struggling to pay their rent,” said Symmes. “There are a lot more cost burdens, like how 60% of people pay over 35% of their income on rent.”
The West End of Alexandria currently has lower life expectancies, lower per capita income, and a lower proportion of homeowners, as well as a 20% higher foreign born population according to the US census bureau.
After the guest speakers, Mayor Gaskins called on each attendant to talk about where they live, what they like about it, and what they’d like to fix. People from the East End agreed that they liked the walkability and access to public transportation, while people from the West End valued the diversity in their communities. People from both sides of the city agreed that the dash system was useful, but confusing to the younger members present. Many attendants also spoke up about safety on the dash bus, with some members claiming they felt unsafe on the dash bus at times.
The discussion eventually shifted towards education and programs offered by the city, with some of the issues brought up by attendants being about transparency from the school board, accountability for special needs programs, funding for extracurriculars, and college and career preparation programs.
“Everything you share about things you like, or that you just like and want to change; we’re taking notes, so we’ll make sure that we’re also thinking about that and incorporating that moving forward,” said Gaskins as she closed the ceremony. The next youth forum will be held Saturday, Nov. 22 at City Hall, and will be open for all concerned youth to have their voices heard.
