Politics & Government

Jim Moran Leaving Shirlington, Returning to Del Ray

Longtime Virginia congressman moving back to the Alexandria neighborhood where he launched his political career more than 30 years ago.

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., is returning to live in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, the same community where he launched his political career more than 30 years ago.

“It’s about coming home,” said Moran, who announced he was moving at Monday’s Del Ray Business Association luncheon. “I’ve always appreciated the way the community embraced me as a single father and supported me when I first ran for council in 1979 coming out of the Del Ray Citizens Association.”

Moran, who served as mayor of Alexandria from 1985 to 1990, is currently living in Arlington’s Shirlington neighborhood. The 12-term congressman said his son, Patrick, recently moved out of the apartment, leaving Moran on his own.

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“I don’t need a two-bedroom apartment anymore and I’d rather be part of a community,” Moran said. “I also need space for all my books. I have about 10,000 of them. I’ve had to place a lot of them in storage. … I suppose there are worse compulsions.”

In the late 1970s, Moran bought a house in Del Ray in the 200 block of East Oxford Avenue for $32,000. The same home sold for $775,000 earlier this year, according to Alexandria real estate records.  

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Moran said 17 banks refused to grant him a loan to buy that home more than three decades ago. At the time, the neighborhood was redlined.

"Banks wouldn’t lend to a white person who wanted to live in Del Ray. I notified the Department of Justice, who contacted every bank and told them their lending practices were going to be monitored,” Moran said. “It has changed from a neighborhood that was shunned, very much considered to be on the other side of the tracks from the people in Old Town, to one that is ... very much a place to raise a family.”


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