scm

Well, the Governor running his mouth saying Republicans voted it down "because they

Important to note, that while the Rules Committee did reject Kaine's plan, they sent the Senate passed gas tax raise to the floor. I'm glad they killed the Kaine plan -- the rise in grantor's tax had no tie to transportation and would not have raised money from non-residents. The gas tax is the right way to go, and I was glad to hear that the Governor said he would sign it if it passed the house.

#1 -- it takes less than 45 minutes, at the height of rush hour, to drive from the oceanfront to the Naval Station. Did it yesterday, at 6:30 AM. It will take over 30 minutes longer to ride LR, if if goes up Hampton, than to drive a SOV. So your numbers are a little suspect. #2 -- those "navy guys trying to save a buck" tend to live in Ocean View and off LC Road. 21% of the NS commuters live there, 29% in VB -- most of those are civilians, or more senior folks with kids, attracted to VB schools -- point is that they aren't as cost sensitive as the more junior sailors in OV. Most in VB live w/ of Lynnhaven, N of Indian River, and S of 264 (see the graphic below). They would have a collector bus ride of at least 20 minutes, ten minutes connect time, and then at least 45 minutes once they got on the LR (minimum 15 stops, even from TC) -- total 75 minutes. Now, if we ever build a line up the HOV lanes on 64, then we might have an alternative route that is attractive to NS commuters. But that is WAYS down the road, and no reason to delay the building a VB line to the Oceanfront.

And could be as low as $0. VDOT has an RFP out right now for the Midtown-Downtown-MLK freeway, as a PPTA. Here is what they say about planned gov't funding: I doubt this can get built, just based on anticipated fare-box revenues. But there are plenty of other ways to get it done, and I would imagine Veolia would have some ideas.

Are you sure about that? I know the plan for the new tube on the Midtown called for tolls on the already paid for Downtown. VP, April 7, 1999 said: This is the part I really don't understand (and I mean that -- hold your breath, I will admit to not knowing something ) OK, there are 44 Democrats in the GA, 54 Republicans, and 2 independants. But of the 54 Republicans, 5 are from NoVa, and 10 are from HR. All the governor needs, assuming he has his 44 Democrats in the bag (and if you read the paper, it is those anti-tax neanderthal Republicans that are the problem) are seven of the fifteen from the impacted areas, to come over to his side. Is he really such an inept negotiator, that he can't find common ground with less than half? He might have to give a little, and I (dangerously) assume that is the problem. He appears to not want to give on anything. I negotiate enough deals to know, you have to give a little, to get a little. As far as VB staying ahead of development, have you been down Princess Anne, south of Sandbridge lately? McMansion hell. Just wait for the screaming to begin over "When are these outdated roads going to be rebuilt?" That feces no more needed to happen than the man in the moon -- more council in the hip pockets of developers, who are the only money people around here. Sprawl at its worst, and just wait for VB council to expect state road funds to bail them out.

Henry, the French firm, Veolia Transportation, just started as the operator of the N. San Diego County Sprinter rail line (second use in the US of non-FRA approved Diesel Multiple Units -- just what we need for a commuter rail system here!). They only operate the cars for this, but around the world, they have done Design-Build-Operate -- in Israel and India just the latest examples (see what they did in Rouen, France). I am sure they would JUMP at the opportunity to do a similar PPTA for the VB section -- maybe even operate the entire line after building the VB extension?

Our good councilman has no idea whether that is the truth or not. He is speculating, and unfortunately, he and the Vice Mayor are staking out voting positions based on that speculation. He is tied to the Delta airline model, when he really needs to view LR on the Southwest airline model. Any LR car, in any system in the world, has a constantly changing destinating population. They aren't headed from one start, to one stop. There will be passengers from the Oceanfront to TC, Downtown and EVMS. There will be some get on at TC for EVMS. Council needs to be more concerned about how to collect from the residential centers south of 264, especially in the Princess Anne corridor, than they are about long term plans for other destinations. There are plenty of potential riders in those areas for the current destinations. NOB Norfolk, over any Hampton extension, is at least 25 stops (11 in the starter segment, at least 8 in VB, and a minimum 6 from EVMS) from the Oceanfront. Standard is three minutes between stops, so an hour and 15 minutes for that trip. No one will do that. The NS ROW, with a loop (single track along Norfolk Ave, up Mediterranean to 19th, back to Birdneck, then south to the ROW) at the Oceanfront, will need feeder bus service, both from north and south. Once you have that, you will see TOD all along that route, that will eventually change development patterns. But until then, there is plenty of demand for the current destinations, just as long as you have collector bus systems supporting it.

Well, obviously Council thinks the same. They have been briefed in closed session, and appeared unanimously supportive. NO city cash in this deal. All the private funding is in place, and the preliminary site plan and elevations are done. But for now it is in the city's hands, so until they decide to go public, for whatever reason they are delaying, it will have to remain undisclosed. Sorry, but you can imagine the furor if the details leaked out before the city was ready.

Guess it is all in the eye of the beholder. There is an alternative view point, that says that the Governor, as the executive, is responsible for building consensus, and finding a middle ground. Nowhere near as "partisan" as saying "If you don't do it my way, I will work to defeat you in the next election," which has been the only words coming out of the governor's mouth. The House is just calling his bluff. If the governor doesn't at least have his party, which controls the senate, onboard, then what kind of leader is he?

Actually, there was a valid reason to pass those responsibilities to local governement, and it is at root of one of the two things wrong with the current funding furor. 1. There is no tie to land use issues, and the only entities that can control local land use are local governments. There is no body that will force HR city governments to look at their land use decisions with an eye to a single impact past their city boundary. VB can approve McMansions all the way to the NC border, then stand back and let the cries mount for a state funded SE Parkway. There has to be a way to tie development decisions to transportation needs, and ergo funding. Until there is, we are fated to chasing our tails in a never ending chain of crisises, and paid PR flacks manipulating public opinion on a regular basis. As much as it was wrong, at least the local transportation authority would have forced communities to be accountable for the impact their decisions had on transportation, at even an elementary level. The Governor's proposal lets them off the hook, with no solution in sight. 2. There is no tie to the concept of "user pays". There are plenty of government functions that can't be paid for by the user, and should be socialized -- education, police and fire, health services chief among them. Isn't quite so clear when it comes to transportation. The current furor, and funding proposals, all go to socializing the cost to the maximum, and minimizing the user payment. Look at the Third Crossing. I don't think there is any argument that the chief beneficiary will be the ports. Some commuter benefit, but not nearly as much-- despite how it is being sold. I also don't think there is much argument that the benefits are spread across the state. Then why should the socialized costs fall only on residents of HR, and the user costs fall on every driver in HR? If there are state benefits, then make the case to the state as a whole, and let everyone participate. If there are user costs, then let the users pay. One concept is to model the LA "container tax" -- $40 on every container that enters or leaves the port, refunded if it leaves by rail. We could add by ferry or barge -- because either way, we avoid highway construction. Pay the $40 right into the revenue stream for the Third Crossing, and possibly throw in the 460 expansion -- since they both are only being built for the port. You will hear a cacaphony of procrustean reasoning to deflect that port benefit reality. Doens't make it true. Same thing for the SE Parkway. Pure development enrichment scheme. So tell me once again why I have to pay a grantor tax to pay for projects with a limited scope of beneficiaries? The USERS need to pay, and there isn't a tie to that concept, to any meaningful extent. So what we have, is a demonization of one side as "anti-tax neanderthals". On the other side, we have a governor that inherited a $1B surplus, after running on a bunch of promises, and hasn't delivered much. Plenty of excuses, and an election that pretty much went his way last fall. Time to govern, Tim, and that requires leadership, which is usually more than finger pointing and posturing. I would imagine there are plenty around here that wouldn't pee on the President if he were on fire, but at least as Governor of Texas, he found a way to work with a democrat Senate and House and fix things. It would make sense, but I doubt Tim will be seeking his advice on how to do the same in Virginia.

I was by there today and noticed that the chain link mesh is off the construction fencing. Poles are still up. I don't think they are going to make the "early summer" construction start date.

The Winehouse, at Colley and Olney, across from CHKD, has acquired the Zio's space, and is moving.

I was at Hilltop yesterday, and took a look at Burton's Grill new spot. Demo dumpster was full out front, and a front elevation was in the window (looks great) with a note -- "Opening Fall 2008". Promising.

Not a low speed urban transit system, comparable to the Tide -- It has only 2 stops, 19 miles apart. More like the cancelled Munich line.

There is only one low speed urban transit Maglev (which is what you favor) in the world -- Nagoya, Japan. Originally built for (and justified by) the World Expo in 2005, there hasn't been a single other example even hit the final plan stages. Why? Cost. $160M/mile, or about $1.15B to build the starter segment of the Tide. Germany had proposed a Maglev line from the Munich Hauptbahnhof to the airport, but cancelled it last month when the cost ballooned from 1.8B Euros ($2.7B) to over 3B euros. A maglev Tide would have never been funded-- federal, state, or local. Dreaming is great -- sometimes, it is a flattering form of procrastination. *** in one hand, wish in the other, and see which one fills up first. $4/gallon gas demands solutions sooner rather than later.

I had to laugh at Reid Greenmun's comment: I doubt he was talking about buying designer purses on-line. I also doubt he has a clue as to what the Prada brand sells. I also don't think he made the stupidest comment of the bunch.

Basically, that is what Portsmouth did with the former residents of Jeffery Wilson Homes.

Spoke one of the principals last night -- on track to go before council the week of the 22nd. And while I too am excited about the prospects of APM moving here, that isn't what I was talking about.

Should be announced the week of the 22nd.

The problem is money. It made sense to build that complex where it is, in 1961 (I think that is when it was started). The city is stuck -- $50M to do it right, at the traffic circle. $27M in renovations that will not address the judges security issues and not be a permanent solution. Again, not enough capital funds money to do it now. You can point all you want to how stupid it is to have it where it is, in 2008. Ken Chandler, the new city manager, recognizes it, believe me. He wants to fix it more than anyone here -- just doesn't have the money to do it. And it won't be going to Midtown -- the biggest problem in Old Town is a lack of daytime workers to patronize High Street. It will be on the Columbus Circle --- just a matter of when. Then, standby for those surface lots, that are so easy to point to, being added to the tax rolls. Standby for a major development announcement in Portsmouth -- can't say anything now, but you will be amazed when it goes public.

Erdogs, as a former Austin landowner, and regular AAS online reader (mostly for Longhorn sports, though!), I would concur. But the opposition is for completely different reasons. There isn't the tree hugger community here that is so dominant, and so anti-developer in Austin. No SOS organization, that will fight at the drop of a hat. I am sure that some of the SOS crowd shares the same antipathy to change that characterizes some in the VP commenting community. They mark the closing of AWHQ as the end of time. But here, the "chain myself to every threatened cedar" crowd just doesn't exist. What we get instead, is "any penny of development is a penny of higher taxes". Both don't see, that just as you have pointed out, you are going forward, or you are going backwards. They just see it for different reasons.

I think you know I am intrigued by the writings of Dr. Richard Florida, the author of several books, including "The Rise of the Creative Class". His latest is "Who's Your City" -- bought it in March, mainly to see where in the country my wife and I might relocate to, if the right opportunity came along. Well, I guess I missed the part in the middle that Jim Bacon is talking about today: Could that conscientiousness thing be a factor?

Vdogg, a comparison to the receptivity to a traffic calamity is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The issue was the oceanfront (and in the broad context of HR, I will choose to include east of Great Neck as "the oceanfront") and the resistance to change in the population in that area -- their receptivity to change. From the 2005 Oceanfront Resort Area Plan -- much of which was the background for today's announcement: Those are germane observations -- apples to apples -- resort area to resort area, amenity to amenity. Since we have a ten week tourist season, it is the locals, mostly living east of Great Neck, that will make those "quality restaurants" successful. For some other reason, they haven't opened. I'd love to hear a better rationale.

Yep, use it all the time when I go to DC to make reservations -- you can see the inventory without spending an hour on the phone calling every place you want to go. The problem isn't knowing about the places to go, the problem is the places to go. I think it is all wrapped up in many issues here in VB. There is just an enormous resistance to change here, in so many areas. Just look at the comments already today in the VP on the proposed oceanfront master plan. Hoobo, Zinc isn't proposed -- it has come and gone. After Todd left, and Joe Hoggard (former Ship's Cabin) was the "creative" force, it just went run of the mill -- like you said, Outback with better decor. Actually, it became a bar, with a restaurant attached. Main hang out for the Beach over fifty single crowd -- more fake hair (and fake other body parts) than you have ever seen in one place.

Then I guess a Golden Corral should do just fine there, huh? Zinc failed for two reasons (and I ate there enough to know). It wasn't too expensive -- price point was right where most of the upper end Beach (and I am NOT including TC in there). It was actually below Zoe's, Terrapin, or Salacia, with the same sized servings. Those three do just fine. The first reason it failed is that it never really was what it was advertised to be. It was called "Zinc Brassierie" -- with a zinc bar from France, installed to great fanfare all pointing to the authenticity. Menu never matched, and the only guy committed to great food (Todd Jurich) split within three months. The menu never featured, daily, the brassierie standards -- choucroute, salade lyonaisse, steak frites, moules frites -- etc. Maybe a Tuesday special, but never every day. After Todd's departure, the menu strayed off to being indistinguishable from every other high end restaurant in HR. CanCan Brassieire in Richmond shows that concept can work in Virginia -- the question is, and the second reason for the failure, is: Can it work in VB? That is open for debate. Maybe I told this story before -- if so, indulge the old guy -- I know a guy who worked at Aldo's for years, was one of the owners of Blue Hippo, just sold a restaurant in N. Suffolk. So he knows the mid to high end market here well, and especially the VB market. His feeling is that VB, and the Great Neck crowd in particular, is populated with folks who mainly made their money in businesses that don't require much creativity. There aren't the ad agencies, architecture firms, , etc., that you find in Richmond, for example. Or all of those, plus software companies that you find in Austin. So as a consequence, our restaurant scene, even at the high end, is pretty pedestrian. The industries here don't reward creativity, they award methodology. So, people with money don't spend money on creativity in dining -- and there just isn't demand for a French brassierie. Or a true Northern Italian, or....... I read it some time ago, not long after I arrived - this is a hamburger town. Didn't want to believe it at the time, but sadly there is way too much truth in there. Don't tell me it is better than it used to be -- I remember when Monroe Duncan's "Suddenly Last Summer" was the rage of OV -- noticable for its uniqueness. Certainly there are more than there used to be -- it is just that the rest of the country has moved so far on and HR just hasn't stayed up. The "creativity gap" argument is as rational an approach as I have heard. Isn't complementary, but it may just be correct.