JOHN CHAPMAN
Democrat John Chapman is a fourth-term city councilman, a community-use program specialist for Fairfax County’s school system and a tour guide for the Manumission Tour Company, which he founded. A fourth-generation Alexandrian, Chapman attended St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School before heading up north to St. Olaf’s College, where he received an undergraduate degree in social studies education. He then moved back to Alexandria, where he worked in the Alexandria and Fairfax county school systems and eventually became an administrator. Outside of council, Chapman has held positions on several boards, including the Youth Policy Commission, the Redevelopment and Housing Authority task force and the HIV/AIDS Commission. By far the candidate with the most city government experience, Chapman has served on council for the last 12 years.
“There’s still work that needs to be done,” Chapman said. “Policy work continues, so there’s a need for good people to get involved and stay involved.”
Among the policy work Chapman says he is passionate about is affordable housing. He voted in favor of Zoning for Housing, and says he hopes it can “provide additional options for people in various, socioeconomic backgrounds to find housing.” To further address the housing crisis, Chapman said he would like to “advocate for additional support” at the state and federal levels on things like increasing the state housing trust fund instead of further raising city taxes. He says he wishes the Potomac Yards arena deal would have “panned out” because he says it could have provided revenue towards housing affordability and programs like rental assistance vouchers.
“Right now we commit a lot of our dollars to new housing opportunities, but people who are already in housing are also struggling to afford it,” Chapman said. “The rental voucher program would address some of those people’s needs, but we need additional resources to do it.”
As for transportation, Chapman says he supports keeping DASH buses free “as long as high ridership continues” and would like to expand bike lanes and sidewalks to ensure residents can “be safe moving around the city.” He says he supports the Duke Street in Motion project, as “something has to be done to get people to move around,” though acknowledged there is room for improvement before it is finalized. Chapman says he is “not super excited” about the idea of switching to ward-based city council elections, though he says he’s open to a hybrid model that includes at-large positions. Though Chapman did not directly respond to a question asking if he would support city cooperation with ICE in the event of a second Trump presidency, he says he would look to what the council has “historically done.” (Alexandria turns over some inmates to ICE voluntarily, though this process has decreased in recent years. In 2018, the sheriff’s department transferred 121 inmates to ICE, compared to 33 in 2023.)