Henry_Ryto

There's a Federal investigation underway. I expect to see at least 3-4 people (including Michael Townes) indicted before this is over. Maglev? The only ones who build viable systems are the Germans, and they're absurdly expensive. You want the best case for LRT? Get the 2030 congestion map from the TPO. Within a generation our entire regional interstate network will be at Grades E or F congestion at rush hour. The only way to commute quickly will be to take the train. That's why we need to be building now, to have a regional system in place by then.

As an 18 year resident of Virginia Beach, I adamantly disagree. What would we go to on Military Highway besides ORF? Extending the Starter LIne north from downtown would give us downtown Norfolk, ODU, and the Navy base all on a single line. That would make Virginia Beach LRT much more viable.

If you don't think racism is part of the opposition, check again: 1. Virginia Beach eliminated the old railbus service to try to curb African-Americans from Norfolk from coming to our Beach. 2. The group that forms the organized opposition (i.e. the VBTA) is all-White. 3. Wally Erb led the drive to petition LRT onto this November's ballot and is now running for City Council. Go back and look at his openly racist comments in October, 1999 (they appeared in the paper) against LRT. Granted, cost is the primary factor. However, racism is very much a part of it. The racial component has made LRT a wedge issue, eliminating the possibility of opponents winning a significant share of the minority vote. That means we'll have pro-LRT City Councils this deacde, ensurng the project gets done.

Watching the Presentation on the purchase that was given to Council in Informal Session last week, it looked like we had 8-10 votes in favor. Easily enough for it to pass. Last night was a hoot. (I was the third speaker in favor.) With the exception of Dean, the only VBTAers who showed up were a bunch of third-stringers. The arguments in opposition were ridiculous. Banicar was so far out there that the Mayor was having to do his best to keep from openly laughing at her. We won 10-0. The TDCHR vote on the 23rd should largely be a formality, with the property going to closing the next day.

Nice. That will provide bus riders cover in the rain, shade in the heat, etc.

We'll probably get some interesting sound bites out of Council, but they have no realistic alternative but to approve the purchase with the LRT stipulation.

A domain has been registered, with a website in the works.

Meyera gave lip service to LRT and mass transit in general, but then never led on it. Her last 6 years as Mayor she couldn't muster 6 votes for anything. She was a cheerleader, not a leader. It's only thanks to Will Sessoms being elected Mayor that we've pushed as far forward on the project as we have. The pro referen-dumb sentiment of some Councilmen shows how afraid they are to do anything. As for the 1999 proposal, it died under it's own weight: over $69 million/mile, stamped "Not Recomended" by the FTA, the land hadn't been rezoned, etc. Also, we would have lost Oceana had we gone forward with TOD then. Now we're planning around it. However, past failures have eliminated the margin for error. Virginia Beach executes this time, or we hit a wall.

It's at least as easy to get to Suffolk via Portsmouth. What I've previously suggested is taking the planned LRT extension through the Midtown Tunnel and eventually pushing it westward to the previously proposed new airport out on the Suffolk/Isle Of Wight line. Thus, you'd have a direct LRT connection to the airport from downtown Norfolk. Your point on Chesapeake supposes that LRT would come due south from downtown Norfolk. Some advocate going south from VB's Witchduck Road station to Greenbrier, then on to Great Bridge.

Amtrak will go over the existing railroad bridge adjacent to Harbor Park.

Michael Jenkins has had enough capital lined up to build it under the old rules. With the credit markets tightened, the banks will now lend a smaller percentage of the money. Thus, the delay is about covering the difference. What has long been decided was that desire for an entertainment venue at the Dome site. That will bring off-season bus tours to Virginia Beach, and bring down residents during the Winter.

Uh...Council is in holiday recess until January 5.

I agree on the VBTA just having been handed The Mother Of All Christmas Presents. (Then, those idiots will probably fumble it....) The real problem here is the political impact on the Virginia Beach extension. Note that Wally Erb hasn't even posted on his blog since December 4; the opposition had been kicked to the wall. In order to save the Virginia Beach extension, the TDCHR Executive Committee now has to act decisively and forcefully at their emergency meeting on Wednesday.

I plan to go to the station workshop at the convention center on the 9th.

The irony of the whole thing is that Wally Erb is shooting his own cause in the feet with his blog posts: 1. Out of the gate - 1,200 signatures By his own admission, the "There has to be a referendum!" crowd totals no more than 1,200 people in a City of over 435,000. 2. Election Day - 168 signatures Wally says he "targeted" two precincts. Uh...one of the two was his home precinct (Arrowhead), with an adjacent precinct (Point O View) the other. He stated in his blog post that people had no trouble finding the petitions via signage. Not only does that mean he lacks volunteers, but unmanned ballot petitions are illegal in Virginia. 3. Since - 8 signatures This would be so comical if something so important (i.e. light rail) wasn't at stake. He's now dubbed Jim Totin's plastics shop HQ. For those unfamiliar with Totin, he lost the Republican Party of Virginia Beach (RPVB) Chairmanship race by 4 votes in 1999. He then ran for the Republican nomination for Clerk of the Circuit Court in 2003, only to lose horribly. His final downfall was trying to get his old friend Al Wallace back onto the Republican City Committee in the Fall of 2004. The October meeting should have been devoted to preparing for the Presidential election; instead, we had to smash the Wallace & Totin clown act. You do not tie up the preelection meeting with such b.s.! Wallace was voted down by a more than 2:1 margin, and the RPVB By-Laws were later amended to effectively keep Wallace off for life. (Hehe...the amendment was my idea.) The bottom line: if Erb doesn't double his signature count on 8th District primary day, you can stick a fork in his farce.

I was at today's special TPO meeting: 1. There were a couple absent Peninsula reps, so that accounted for votes. 2. The Peninsula gets enhanced rail service in the Resolution, which should eventually become High Speed. The big technical issue with the Peninsula right now is that there are a number of curves in the CSX track that would need to be straightened for fast service. Arriving early for the meeting, the three possible draft Resolutions were already available...and all three were South Hampton Roads Resolutions. The deal was already done but for the details.

Actually the endorsement was last Thursday when Rear Admiral Mark Boensel gave a Presentation to the TDCHR. (Yes, it may have come up in Council Comments on Tuesday.) If you read my blog, you would have known that a week ago....

After a recent public meeting, I had a well-known local media personality come over to me and quietly ask if I thought Norfolk could meet the ridership projections. I said "Yes", based on having read the station-by-station breakdowns and being familiar with the associated bus routes. My point: even many supporters are quietly nervous about ridership.

I've been very busy recently, so let cover several posts here at once. Wally Erb is a failed politico who has lost at three runs for office: state Senate (1995), City Council (2000), and Clerk of the Circuit Court (2003). Insiders know the reason he "left" the Tidewater Libertarian Party (of which he served as Chairman) and the VBTA a couple years ago was that he wants to run for the 85th District House of Delegates seat (now held by Bob Tata). Therefore, his referendum farce serves two purposes: he does his master's Robert Dean's bidding, while getting his name regularly into the media for his House run. I wouldn't take Erb's group seriously. First, given the VBTA's tiny volunteer pool, it will be a stretch to get the valid number of signatures legally. Second, City Council (led by Glen Davis) has already indicated they will ignore any referendum prior to the SDEIS getting back. In the end, Erb's farce may be a blessing in disguise: he may discredit the very idea of putting it to referendum later. Yes, race is a factor in the VBTA campaign: no group that Robert Dean has served as Maximum Leader of (CACI, VBTA, and TLP) has ever had a minority member on it's Board of Directors. As for the age issue, Vice Chair/Transportation Chair Reid Greenmun is the youngest member of the VBTA Board...at age 59. On The Imam of Insanity (a.k.a. Greenmun), he's pushing multiple conspiracy theories here: 1. He claims that Karl Marx was The Father of Modern Urban Planning, thus "urban = Marxist". 2. He claims that light rail is about turning voting patterns in Virginia Beach from Republican to Democratic. 3. He claims the ultimate aim of TOD is to eliminate all private automobiles. 4. He claims that the expansion of mass transit is about making us more dependent on government, thus more likely to vote liberally. I could go on, but you see the guy is insane. Yet the VBTA breakfast cultists buy into his b.s., so they believe LRT is The Mother of All Horrors.

No, the General Assembly may enact a regional Gas Tax for Hampton Roads provided that all revenues go to Hampton Roads Transportation. What was found "unconstitutional" about HB 3202 was that the General Assembly had delegated it's authority to impose such taxes and fees to the HRTA.

Where did the Vision Plan get those numbers from? If you multiply Norfolk's per mile cost, Virginia Beach LRT could be built for $418 million plus feeder buses. Yes, we would qualify for New Starts. One of the hitches now is the City's failure to improve our bus service to FTA standards. Virginia Beach is about to hit a Federal brick wall unless they boost bus service. On the Gas Tax for roads, in 2005 I was working for a House of Delegates campaign and calculated that Virginia Beach alone had $1.3 billion in unfunded - but identified - roads needs. In four years since, the need should have increased....while new construction money has dwindled to a trickle. Don't try to tell me it can be done within existing revenues.

I e-mailed in a reply to Jerry Carter's POS. It was so easy to take apart his arguments against that it was laughable.

Uh...Virginia Beach doesn't vote in May anymore. The votes are there on City Council to block any attempt on Council to put it to referendum. In addition, the only realistic chance the VBTA has of petitioning a question onto the ballot is in 2012. That's the Obama relection ballot. Think the Obamaniacs would vote "No"? The VBTA is cornered, and intel says they're slowly catching on.

What I've personally suggested is a modification of MAX Route 960. Currently the 960 runs 19th/Pacific(Oceanfront)-Silverleaf P & R - downtown Norfolk. As LRT would probably mean terminating the 960 at the Newtown Road Station, realign the 960 19th/Pacific-Silverleaf-Newtown-Airport. That means not only airport access from the terminus of the rail line, but two-stop premium express bus service from the Oceanfront.

Diezel got elected because Joe Flores was in as a splitter. Diezel won on a plurality.