virginia pe

Some random comments: CV 66 was the USS America, one of the last non-nuclear carriers and the last supercarrier not named for a person. After decommissioning, she was used for target practice and then scuttled off Cape Hatteras in 2005. For an idea on the date of the photo, note that the Norfolk Southern Tower is not yet shown. Groundbreaking for Norfolk Southern Tower was in 1986. The tower opened in 1988. Town Point Center at Bousch and Plume also is not shown. It is about two years older than Norfolk Southern. So the photo was taken before 1985. Notice that both Waterside and the World Trade Center Building expanded after this photo was taken. The surface parking lots in the middle of the photo are on the site that became MacArthur Mall. Some posters at Urban Planet have lamented the loss of the urban street grid because of the mall. Before the mall, we had a distinct urban grid, but it was merely streets separating parking lots. The city tried for years to find a developer to develop what was then known simply as "the 17 acres". They wanted a single developer to develop the entire site, instead of developing it piecemeal. They were not successful in finding a developer with the means to develop the entire site, so they turned to Tishman to develop an upscale mall. The federal building, at Granby Street and City Hall Avenue, was red brick. It was bright red, and ugly. It also leaked. So the feds replaced the brick with white precast concrete panels. The contractor had to do the work with the building still occupied. They paid millions for that project.

In my opinion, an extension to the Naval Station cannot enough ridership without Virginia Beach. There are not enough people in Norfolk who want to go to the naval station. Many Norfolk residents live close enough to the NS that they would never take light rail. You have to collect the people along the light rail line in VB, and then transport them to the naval station. For this same reason, the extension to the naval station has to go up Military Highway or I-64, not Hampton Boulevard. People from VB do not want to go all the way to downtown Norfolk in order to go to work at the naval station. My apologies to those who are looking for an extension to ODU, but I do not see it happening anytime soon.

It would be interesting to graph the population growth of the major cities and compare them with Norfolk's. The census bureau has the population for the largest 100 cities in the US for each census back to 1790. http://www.census.go...7/twps0027.html It would be quite easy with an Excel spreadsheet, but it would be tedious. I assume the growth track of the cities would be mostly parallel, but at some point Norfolk's would diverge from the other major cities. If the divergence is sudden, we could probably pin down the cause - the yellow fever epidemic, the Civil War, the industrial revolution, etc. Is anyone up for the challenge of gathering this data and entering it into a spreadsheet?

I agree with the sentiment that SPQ needs some major bulldozer-ing, but there are some buildings that just will not, and should not, be razed. I went back and reviewed the SPQ Vision Statement (http://www.norfolk.g.../SPQ_Vision.pdf). I do not see the city demolishing the two city-owned buildings - a fire station and the school board building. Then there are the four historic churches - Queen Street Baptist, First Baptist, St. John's AME, and St. Mary's. These churches are not merely old, like the buildings that were razed for the Westin. These buildings are truly historic. and should be preserved. It will also be politically impossible to bulldoze them. People are even more passionate about saving their churches than they are about saving their homes. The part of the vision statement that is most troubling is on page 24: Replacement of public housing units on one-for-one basis. It looks like a repeat of their bad judgment from 50 years ago that put public housing downtown in the first place.

If you can't recognize Norfolk, you need to look closer. There are some buildings in the 1920 photo still remaining. In the lower center portion of the building is a pier with a black roof and two ships moored to it. At the base of that pier is a warehouse. That warehouse was converted to condos back in the early 1980's. Just beyond that is the building we know as the Union Mission. The Freemason area is still recognizable on the left side of the picture, and adjacent to that is the Wainwright Building. To the right of that you can make out the Epley United Methodist Church. So they didn't tear down everything in the name of urban renewal.

Several people have made similar comments on UP over the past few months - that the members of this forum should lead the way to make Norfolk what is needs to be. But is anyone really doing anything about it? Having a UP member elected as mayor or to the city council would be great, but it isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Yet there are things you can do make a difference in 2010, but it involves getting off your duff and doing something instead of posting gripes from your computer. Here are some things you can do, starting today, to make Norfolk better: Norfolk is having elections for city council members and for mayor on May 4. Do some research, find out who is running, and what they stand for. Pick a candidate whose views align with yours, and call their campaign office. Volunteer to work on their campaign. Most of the work is walking in neighborhoods to stick campaign literature on doorknobs or knocking on doors to ask people to vote for your candidate. It may mean going to a phone bank and making phone calls. There are other jobs to be done, but these are the ones you will most likely be asked to do. What is the payoff? Aside from the indirect payoff of helping a candidate who agrees with your views to get elected, if you work enough, you may get to know the candidate personnally. In some cases, you could get to know the candidate well enough that you can reach him directly on the phone after he is eleected to voice your views on an issure. If you do not live in Norfolk, Virginia Beach is having city council elections in November. Also, Congressman Glenn Nye is up for reelection in the 3rd congressional district. Six republicans are vying for the nomination to run against him. Google them, go to their website, get to know what they stand for, and volunteer to help out. If you cannot volunteer to help out in a campaign, at least find out who the candidates are, what they believe, and get out and vote. Voter turnout is abysmally low for these elections, so it doesn't take a lot of people to change the tide in a local election. You can also volunteer to serve on one of the boards or commissions. Find out who your councilman is, ask to meet them, and let them know of your interest. You are not going to be appointed to a major, policy-setting commission, such as the planning commission, right away. You will probably be appointed to some minor board you never heard of. That's okay. The idea is to get started. Once you are one that board, work hard, get to know people, and let them get to know you. Eventually, you will have an opportunity to move up to more and more important boards. There are people serving on city councils and school boards in Hampton Roads who started by serving on a minor board that no one else wanted to serve on. Working on a campaign or serving on a commission will not turn Norfolk into a megopolis by this fall. But it is a start. There are a lot of good opinions and enthusiasm on this site. Now I challenge you to take it to the next level. BTW, I know of one member of UP who has done that. Last fall, he worked hard during the campaign, knocking on doors, making phone calls, etc. Now, Gov. Bob McDonnell knows him by name. He can't call the govenor directly to voice his opinion, but it's a start. He is getting to be known in political circles in Norfolk and Virginia. If a handful of UP members could do this, it could make a difference in Norfolk. Get out, get informed, get involved.

The taller, white parking deck is one of the few parking garages in downtown that is not owned by the City of Norfolk. It is owned by Bank of America. The city will not have much say in what happens to that deck.

That wall is a flood wall. Without it, downtown could be flooded during a severe storm. Yes, it is unsightly, it blocks the view of the water, and isolates Nauticus from downtown, but it is necessary.

People love their cars because it is convenient. But it will not stay that way. Traffic on I-264 can only get worse. When it takes an hour to drive the 9 miles from Town Center to Downtown at rush hour, people will ride light rail. And there is no way to increase capacity on I-264. There is no room to add more lanes. And even if you could add lanes, there is no way to get off I-264 onto the arterial roads. Just look at the backup every day at Witchduck, at Independence, at Lynnhaven. That is the part of lightrail the opponents are overlooking. Automobile transportation may be more convenient today, but 5 or 10 years from now could be a totally different situation. And if VB waits 5 to 10 years to start lightrail, they will be behind the curve and will take a long time to catch up. I tell people that VB will get light rail, whether they know it or not. They question is will they be smart and get it by 2015, or will they wait until 2025 when the cost will be astronomical?

It's not likely. They've been closed up for a long time. Tel's space is on the other side of that wall.

I think Phil Shucet is the right man. I do not know him personnally, but he has an impressive resume. When he took over as Commissioner of VDOT under Gov. Warner, the I-64 / Mercury Blvd. project near the Coliseum in Hampton was under construction and was a mess. After he came on board, the remainder of the project stayed on budget and on schedule. The "mixing bowl" project at I-95, I-395, and I-495 i n Springfield was even worse, and he turned that project around, too. Most recently, he was the lead person for the private consortium that is going to build the replacement toll bridge for the Jordan Bridge between I-464 in Chesapeake and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. He resigned that position to take the HRT job. My only reservation about Mr. Shucet (pronounced "Shoe-KET") is that he is to run all of HRT. I think he is the man to get the light-rail construction right. But as I said in my earlier post, mananging a large-scale construction project is much different that managing an up-and-running bus company. Townes ran the bus company but was over-whelmed by the construction project. It may be the opposite for Mr. Shucet.

That's true. But if you cannot find someone with light rail experience, then at least hire someone with experience running a large civil construction project. Someone familiar with dealing with contractors, engineers, unforeseen conditions, change orders, schedules, delays, etc. Overseeing a large-scale construction project is very different from managing an up-and-running bus system. Someone at the city or at HRT should have realized that the current HRT staff was not up to the job and insisted that someone with the necessary experience be brought in.

It wasn't the Norfolk bankers who were asleep at the switch. There are a number of reasons the North Carolina banks have taken over the industry. Traditionally, many states restricted banks to operating in just their home county, or their home county and other contiguous counties. Banks could form state-wide associations, but they were still separate, local banks. This was an effort to protect "local banks" - people wanted to deal with the hometown bank, not some big corporation, and the states passed regulations to accommodate them. For years, banking regulations in North Carolina were less restrictive than in most other states. This allowed NC banks to be more innovative, offering services and products to their customers that were not permitted in other states. NC also permitted state-wide banks, so a customer could do business with his bank anywhere in the state. The NC banks grew bigger, stronger, and more versatile. Everything changed after Congress allowed interstate banking in 1994. NC passed laws permitting their banks to go into other states more quickly than the other states, giving the NC banks a head start on interstate banking. Since the NC banks were already operating state-wide, they were better able to put together the large organizations needed to operate multi-state banking operations. The home town banks were required by the state regulations to be small, so they did not have enough strength to fight the big boys when the federal laws were changed. Ironically, regulations that forced the small-town banks to stay small in order to protect them from the big banking giants contributed to the demise of the banks they were intended to protect. Because of the big corporations that were headquartered in the states near North Carolina (Virginia, Georgia, Florida), those markets were more attractive to the NC banks than NC was to banks in other states, so the NC banks acted more agressively to expand into the more lucrative areas. North Carolina was not a very attractive market to Sovran Bank, Bank of Virginia, First Virginia, etc., but Virginia very tempting to Wachovia and NationsBank. While the Norfolk bankers could have been more aggressive, it was more a combination of Congress and state legislators that got us where we are today than the bankers themselves.

Mr. Townes was not fired because LR went $100M over budget. He was fired because he repeatedly gave updates to city leaders and did not tell them about the cost overruns. He let the city council be blindsided by the Virginian Pilot. Even when the Virginian-Pilot broke the story, he said we still don't have the final figures. But the city doesn't need the final numbers to know there is a problem. When the budget started getting $5M to $10M over budget, he should have been waving a red flag, but he didn't. If I were in management and a person reporting to me did not keep me apprised of a problem until it became catastrophic, he would be fired. And, after it reached the catastrophy level, I learned about it from an outside source before he told me, he can forget it. Townes was fired because he did not do his job - keeping city council apprised of the project. Did other people know about the problem? Undoubtedly. But it was Townes job to officially communicate it to city council, and he failed to do his job. Should other people have been fired? Absolutely. And hopefully, the investigation into the cost overruns will uncover other incompetants and they will be fired, too. Was politics involved? No question. But Townes deserved to be fired regardless of anyone's politics. Was race involved? Yes. Nothing happens in Norfolk that does not involve race. But race was not the primary factor in Townes' dismissal.

I doubt that they could prove to the feds that it could be economically viable. I can't see beach commuters driving to Newtown Road and then paying to park in a park-n-ride lot to ride to the Naval Station. Yes, I think they should look into it, but I doubt they will get the federal money to make it happen.

It was the First American Bank Building. It was demolished in 1988. I watched the demolition from the Norfolk Southern Tower, which was under construction at that time. I had a videotape of the implosion until my teenaged son taped over it to record some movie he saw on TV. First American Bank was taken over by First Union, which became Wachovia, and is now Wells Fargo. The buildling was demolished to make room for the One Bank Street Tower. About midway through construction, One Bank Street went bankrupt. It was finally taken over by another developer, and it is now 300 Main Street Tower, or USI Tower, the office building with the dark glass at the corner of Main and Atlantic, across from BofA. I don't know why that specific building was demolished. Many buildings of that vintage were functionally obsolete. They were not designed to be energy efficient, so they were very expensive to operate. There were more interior columns, so office layout was difficult and inefficent. The bathrooms were small and dingy. The elevators were also very small. Sometimes, they only had one stairway. These older buildings could not compete against the glitzy new office buildings being built, and correcting these deficiencies required major renovations. Often, they were down-graded to Class B space, and most banks feel that being in Class B space hurts their image. It was more cost effective to demo them and build a new, modern building, so down they came.

In daily usage, the "Park and Ride" will be dropped. But for signage along I-264, the "Park and Ride" after the station name will make it easier for people to know whether they can park their car and get a ride into town.

Originally, Norfolk planned to have the LR turn north at Newtown and follow Kempsville Road under I-264. From there, it could service Sentara Leigh Hospital, which is one of the largest employers in that part of the city, and the nearby office park. But the only suitable place for a station was in front of James Barry Robinson Center, which is a home for troubled youths (it may not be juvenile detention, but it is close to it). The JBR folks objected to having a lightrail station in their front yard - if any of the kids wandered off, they could be miles from the center in a matter of minutes. So Norfolk decided to put the Newtown station at the South Newtown Road location. I'm sure there will be a shuttle bus to move people from Sentara to the light-rail statoin.

Having a "world where no one made more or less than anyone else and we all had the same things available to us all" is not fair at all, because not everyone puts forth the same effort, yet they all make the same. That is the major drawback of socialism - it rewards laziness and penalizes initiative.

This is taken from a VP article that was linked in a post on this thread dated September 28, 2008, posted by Spiker3.

I drive past NSU on Brambleton every day. As far as I can tell, the LRT station will be on the bridge directly above Brambleton. I suspect the only change they made to accommodate NSU's concerns for "security" was to move the stairs from the north side of Brambleton (the NSU side) to the south side of Brambleton (the Shell station side). Then all the students get to play real-life Frogger crossing six lanes of traffic. All of this to keep NSU safe from the criminal element that light-rail will bring to their campus.

Don't give up on MacArthur Station yet. I don't want HRTA to build the building above the station. They are a transit authority, not a developer. I don't want the city to build the building, either. That's not what tax dollars are for. But if light rail is successful, the air rights over the station will be the hottest commercial property in town. A developer will build the building, with private sector financing. It may not happen until the economy is stronger, but it will happen. And when it does, it will have all the glamor you are looking for, and much more.

Time and reality will downplay it, if it needs to be downplayed. For now, why not just let them enjoy their moment?

I agree, but which city? Norfolk or Virginia Beach?