jbhay

I feel your pain, sir.

would regionalization make funding easier for hampton roads as a whole, so that visions like mass transit may be achieved quicker? this may need to be seriously looked at more and more. i know we've all talked it to death on here from time to time. i'm partly with ronsmythe on chesapeake having too much low density, yes Greenbrier is its stronghold, and yes it would be amazing to have a fixed mass transit line running all through the area, like its own unique system even, we all have great dreams of this sort of stuff from time to time. however, i'm also partly with varider in that i want to see mass transit everywhere. the city is so young and it can start the ball rolling now, or like virginia_pe said, wait like VA beach when it will be much more difficult (even tho va beach deserves more mass transit options than cpeake asap) i dont know where the landscape of chesapeake is headed, but every time i come home, there is another patch of forest being cut down to make way for some stupid suburban development that ultimately adds to the problem. greenbrier will not be so green in the years to come and the voting comment from city councilwoman debbie ritter make it that much more obvious

Quoted for truth. In related news, I get an ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) SmartBrief everyday in my e-mail about significant engineering projects in the country/world, policy updates, etc etc. Usually these articles are related to cities elsewhere, but today I got a surprise: "Norfolk, Va light-rail costs surge 46%". Dismal for sure, but at least Norfolk is getting recognition? Shucet clearly seems to have brought some worthy leadership experience to the project, let alone HRT. 38% remains for one year and two months. It seems he wants to take his time and make sure this project gets off on the right track, which I think is great news.

From the first paragraph of this, he sounds legit! Looking forward to his ideas. Inside Biz - Phil Shucet

Are you suggesting that the Scope be demolished in the future? I can understand the age and its modest capacity, but I always feel indifferent about cities that decide to remove such landmark structures. Norfolk has already erased much of its history during the urban renewal years and I would hate to have a Scope-less city on visits to the city later in life. There is so much more to be done in Downtown Norfolk and I agree with your opinion on a new mayor with better vision; Fraim is a great guy, but Norfolk needs a smart, young, and above all, an experienced mayor to lead the way towards future economic progress. Sadly, the leadership all around this country is rarely on track with investing in America's future and that's what Norfolk needs. Enough of that, here's the designer of the Scope for those who are interested: Pier Luigi Nervi - notice his much earlier sports hall design in Rome!

Cool, we need it. There is barely anything to do here.

I'm glad there are off-topic thread for questions like this: In Chesapeake last night, I was startled by an unusually loud droning noise coming from the Southeast general direction. It sounded like a jet engine of some kind, but much louder, and plus we don't really ever hear jet noise in Greenbrier, haha. Whatever it was, it sounded like it had more energy than anything I've ever heard in my life. Did any one else hear anything of this nature, and if so, any clues as to what in the world it was? I'm very curious.

Yeah I read that yesterday. Made me lol. I drive up to NoVA/DC nearly every weekend to chill and I can agree with your complaint. Even though that entire metro area is 5x more populated than HR, we still have the three most populous cities, so it sucks we don't get half as much attention as up there. Then again, the DC Metro area is more educated, and has more businesses than us. We just got ol' Uncle Sam to rely on. If anything is annoying, it's that we have TOO much military here and minimal business opporunities knockin'. Google should re-locate to Norfolk.

urbanlife: THANK YOU for that incredible picture of Norfolk circa '84. I've been aching to find a really good picture like that to see how the city looked before MacArthur. My childhood memory doesn't serve me very well in that area. I cannot believe how different it looks today!

^Good question, it sure does look it. mikeas: Ill have to check out some of those, but I have been to the Taphouse and I finally stopped in Bier Garden last weekend with some friends. Actually, I hadn't been to DT Portsmouth in over two years and was somewhat impressed with High Street, namely the amount of bars and the great vibes the street design was giving. When I want to go to a bar around here, which isn't so much, I usually go to The Boot, but that has a lot to do with how I know the owners very well, having owned Relative Theory Records on Granby all those years, so I like going there to hang. Sorry for

I fully support a micro-brewery or a Capital Ale House in this area. Only been to CAH once in DT Richmond, and it was an excellent experience. Been to Bull & Bones in Blacksburg, ronsmythe? Delicious beer!

Been waiting for the day someone announces plans for that abandoned warehouse in Fort Norfolk. My friends and I used to sneak in there and just explore that building about a year or so ago, we were up there on July 4, 2008 to watch the fireworks, but it started torrentially raining, I still remember all the boats fleeing down the harbor, lol. We were down there recently and the urge came to check it out once again, but someone finally put some wire mesh in the little openings where we used to have to crawl through to unlock the outer doors. That's the end of my little urban confession story. Anyways, it is definitely a great thing to hear all the little development news arising around DT Norfolk and its surroundings. Makes for an exciting time to be living in this area, especially for the ones who are really pushing for urban growth, which I assume is a high percentage of us here as we spend our time on an urban discussion forum. I also noticed that the area under the Campostella Bridge is looking to redevelop, which I saw either in this thread or another, but that is great news because I've always thought that little area has promising potential, but in its current state, it's horrendous, as many places in Norfolk are sadly. I don't know why, but I constantly daydream about areas around Norfolk that could be their own little urbanized districts (think Ghent/CBD), while simultaneously getting frustrated that it will take so long for visions to see the light of day. Places like Ward's Corner, Harbor Park, Granby Street north of the Zoo, Hampton Blvd. north of the tracks and south of ODU; these could all use better planning and more dense residential units accompanied by great commercial activity.

I may try to attend either of those, if only just to see if any progress has been made on the phase to NSN. Thanks for posting the info.

The public housing issue is one I've been meaning to really explore more for months, but haven't really the time, but I will say that I agree with you on VaRider about getting rid of Tidewater Gardens all together. It's a chokehold on the future urban development in Downtown Norfolk. I briefly just refreshed my memory on the SPQ Vision on Norfolk's web site and was quite impressed. The city website says that a scheduled meeting is supposed to take place on Dec. 3 (this Thursday) for SPQ. Anyone heard any updates on this?

"Ha but you can't use existing freight track for light rail transit" That's what I was looking for. Darn my plan. Screw it, make more lines next to these! I hate all the loopdy loops. They take up so much land!