Coffee With Justin Wilson

Alexandria's former Mayor talks about a career change and life in and out of office

Justin Wilson acquired some new perspectives in 2025.

Wilson was elected to the Alexandria City Council in 2007. He served on the Council until 2018 (with a break from 2009-2012) when he was elected Mayor. He was re-elected in 2021. Wilson announced in December 2023 that he would not run for re-election. He concluded his service as Mayor on December 31, 2024.

Wilson was an executive with Amtrak for 19 years. On August 15, 2025 the NOVA Parks Board of Directors announced that Wilson had been selected as the organization’s Executive Director. NOVA Parks is a multi-jurisdiction organization that owns and operates parkland and recreational facilities in Northern Virginia.

Wilson had thought about a career change for some time. “I always toyed with the idea of figuring out a way to combine what I did in my day career and learned in my night career,” Wilson said. “I never quite had it in my head what that would look like—I figured I would see it when it showed up.”

Wilson said that making the decision not to run two and a half years ago made his decision to change careers easier. “Making the decision not to run again was a really hard decision, and one I grappled with for quite a while,” he said. “Having made that hard decision and having it work out so well, for me, personally, actually made making a big career change decision so much easier.”

Wilson was on the NOVA Parks board for three years before he was elected to the City Council so he knew the organization.

When the job description for a new NOVA Parks Executive Director came out in the spring of 2025, Wilson said that the job seemed to, “…combine dealmaking and working with policy makers to craft solutions that I always enjoyed about my night gig, but it also included leading a large organization and administration role that I performed in my day gig, and it was definitely a huge change of pace.”

Wilson’s adjustments to his new position are not complete. “It is still not quite setting in that this is my real job now,” he said.

“It [NOVA Parks] is a fascinating organization, 37 regional parks, 12,000 acres,” Wilson said. “What makes it unique as a public agency is 89% of revenue [is generated] from operations,” through boat rentals, wave pools, light shows, wedding venues, etc.

The other 11% of NOVA Parks’ revenue comes from its six member jurisdictions. “lt’s a very entrepreneurial organization—you have to make money,” he said.

“I’m able to leverage the relationships that I had—it’s funny because now the relationships are different,” Wilson said. “I’m wearing a different hat…once you are out of office, those relationships go away quickly.”

“I’m seeing government from a different perspective now,” Wilson said. “When you are in elective office, you see, generally, see the best. You don’t see the warts as often—when you see them, they are jarring.”

“I’m trying hard to be the Executive Director, not the Executive Director who used to be the Mayor and whatever else, because that’s not going to help me,” Wilson said.

On the future of Cameron Run Regional Park, Wilson said that the criticism when the city’s lease to the authority was extended when he was Mayor was that the park was lucrative for NOVA Parks, but the city did not make that much money. That circumstance has changed.

“Now we don’t make that much off the site. We basically broke even last year. That’s a big change for us,” Wilson said. “Some of that is management, weather, things like that, but some of it is also that we have not invested in the site. We have not invested in the site because we do not have a long-term lease.”

Wilson said, “It is true that the city says, and they said it when I was there, ‘We want year-round uses on that site.’ It is true that [Cameron Run Regional Park] is intensively used for 10 weeks a year and then it is not intensively used, and that stinks.”

Wilson said that he speaks to Council members, and others, about city issues regularly, but that he is happy to let others bear the primary responsibility to resolve them.

Wilson was not surprised by the Virginia election results. “We have 50 to 60 years of tradition in Virginia,” of electing governors from the party opposite the party that holds the White House.

“Don Scott [expected to be the Speaker of the House of Delegates] will be the most powerful person in Virginia. He will single-handedly decide what goes on Abigail [Spanberger’s] desk,” he said.

“This is the biggest house Democratic majority since 1988,” Wilson said. “For the first time, there is not a single Republican in either house from Northern Virginia.”

“I do think you will probably see [Governor Spanberger] take on school construction early on, and if she does, that would be smart because school construction is primarily an issue for growing jurisdictions, Northern Virginia for the most part, and then for the Southwest or rural jurisdictions that have crumbling schools,” he said.

Wilson looks back on his time in elected office with satisfaction, “The infrastructure things, school buildings, Minnie [Howard] and MacArthur, the sewer work. Some of the economic development [projects]—Landmark was a big one.”

“There is still probably controversy about whether I should be proud of it or not, [but] think I helped, at least in part, to change the conversation on housing and housing affordability and how we actually make progress on that issue,” he said.

“The thing that I enjoyed the most, and gives me gratification, is that I tried to make government a little more accessible and understandable to people,” he said. “And that’s what people still stop me on the street on, as recently as a couple days ago, [to say] ‘Hey, I really miss your newsletter.’”

Wilson regrets the deferral of capital projects due to the Great Recession during his first term on Council.

“It’s easy to see that in the last 11 months there have been some things that have blown up that I probably bear some responsibility for. I think ARHA is a great example. I think I should probably have been more assertive in dealing with some of that,” he said.

As to the now defunct Wizards/Capitals arena project in Potomac Yard, “While I certainly do not regret what we did, there are definitely ways that we did things that I would have done differently,” he said. “I think everyone on the team agrees that the big mistake we made was getting the big tent, going to Potomac Yard, and announcing it as a done deal.”

“Part of the challenge was that everything was so confidential and we were competing against D.C., essentially. For example, we could not call up WMATA and say, ‘Hey, WMATA, let’s figure out a transportation plan.’” Wilson notes that WMATA has announced that the proposal for a new Commanders stadium will require a $75 million upgrade of the Stadium-Armory Metro station.

Wilson thinks that perceptions of the scale of Alexandria’s city government can be inaccurate for people who are used to working with the federal government. Wilson said that people ask to meet the city’s “stormwater team,” when it is actually “one guy who does 18 other things.”

“I think that one of the things that has changed during my time is the coarseness of local politics. In my very first race, against Bill Cleveland in 2007, he and I agreed that we would revive what had been a recently extinguished tradition. If I won, he would go to my party; if he won, I would go to his party,” said Wilson. “I was pulling a wagon with my kids [on Mt. Vernon Avenue] and we walked up to Los Tios and he’s standing there waiting. He gave me a handshake and said congratulations.”

As to seeking future elective office, Wilson said, “Probably not. Local government has always been where it’s at for me. I did my time…I don’t have that burning desire to do it again.”

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