INTERVIEW – Councilman JOHN TAYLOR CHAPMAN of the Alexandria City Council.

• Councilors mull Jefferson Davis Highway change
• City Councilor John Chapman said it seems unreasonable to have a major thoroughfare in Alexandria named after Davis, given his apparent lack of a local connection. “Obviously outside of all the other issues with the Confederacy and the legacy of the Confederacy, for me that’s the [reason] that’s most appealing,” he said. “You have a major highway dedicated to somebody who really didn’t have a whole lot of local impact on Alexandria. If you want to go on the basis of that, you could look for a reason to rename it.”
• There is a council meeting discussing this THIS SATURDAY at 9:30 AM
• Councilors mull Jefferson Davis Highway change. (Alexandria Times) — City councilors showed a willingness to consider changing the name of Jefferson Da- vis Highway, but said they want to hear residents’ views before making a decision. And a letter from the Virginia Attorney General’s office earlier this year indicates the city could change the name of the street without approval from the Virginia General Assembly. The city’s ad hoc advisory group on Confederate memo- rials and street names recommended the change for Jefferson Davis Highway, which is the moniker for U.S. Route 1 in the city limits from Potomac Yard into Arlington County, where the name continues.