Achilles

Perhaps it will. The article mentions something about Jillian's departure giving Norfolk quote "latitude in a new plan for Waterside." Although, Waterside has been many things before, so idk how well that's going to work out. I wonder if the city is intentionally driving these tenants out to start with a clean-slate for Waterside. Hopefully, they have some kind of plan for it that's not lame.

Beat me to it. I'm not sure if this is a good thing (if people never knew before, everyone will finally see how bad Waterside has become and actually do something to solve the problem, rather than escalate it) or a truly bad thing. I really don't think Waterside should be bulldozed for something else because that would be a serious waste of time and money, IMHO.

I think so. I'll admit, until this past year, I never really followed construction projects around here as closely as I do now. Speaking of 9/11, the One World Trade Center (formerly known as the Freedom Tower) is having its own problems lifting off. It was originally scheduled to be topped off sometime next year or in 2011, but now, it has been significantly pushed back to 2013. And there are even rumors that it may not be fully completed until 2018 (Source: the New York Daily News). This is New York we're talking about here; the skyscraper capital of the world, IMO. If they can't get something built on time, then I don't think we should be worrying too much about everything. But, yeah, I don't believe things are as bad as they seem.

Granby Tower failed cause the stupid court delayed it in 2004 (or 2005?) and, basically, killed it with the economy falling apart in 2008 and eminent domain. This is happening across the country, even in places a renowned as Las Vegas and San Diego. I'm no economist or urban planner, but I'm fairly certain that, if they don't have the financing, the developers will likely ride out the economic turmoil and then start building once things start looking better. Also, I think we should keep politics out of this thread. We don't need people clawing each others eyes out over something not directly related to urban planning (actually, politics are very much involved in urban planning, but Obama and Palin are not).

Varider, you have to understand this all has to do with the economy. Nobody's building anything right now, but they will later on when the economy picks up. Just because Town Center has stalled doesn't mean they're not going to finish it. In the next couple years, things ought to be looking up (I hope).

Jacksonville worked hard to get that team, and it would be a bit sad to see them lose it to another, bigger and more prominent metro. But, in response to your question, take a look at the Washington Nationals. They've been around since 2005 and are absolutely horrendous. If you ever watch any of their home games, you will notice that very, very few of their fans are present. If a team like the Phillies, the Reds, or the Mets come to play, Nats fans are almost always outnumbered by fans of the other team in their own home stadium. For their sake, though, they are lucky because they recently completed Nationals Park, which ought to give Washington a good grip on the team (regardless of how bad they are) for another 5-10 years. Personally, I think, if Hampton Roads ever got a team and it did poorly, support probably would drop. But any team that is an expansion or relocates somewhere else is usually guaranteed ten years in their designated metro before the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, etc. decides to move the team elsewhere. So we would have to spend those ten years building a good team and creating a strong, dedicated fan base. WHAT?! Are you serious? If I'm not mistaken, they just had the Beach Blitz again this year, and VA Beach turned down a chance for a training camp? What could possibly be the reasoning for that, other than an attempt to keep our market clear of other teams' presence in case we get chance to have a team of our own some day?

Yeah, I think carolinaboy is right. It's a possibility. But there are way too many die-hard Redskins, Steelers, Ravens, and Panthers fans around here. And without any large stadiums to accommodate an NFL team it will be a lot harder. It could happen, though. L.A. has proven time and time again it cannot support an NFL team. Honestly, I think L.A. needs the Rams back, but there are rumors that team will be relocated to London in the future, so idk about that. Who knows? Anything could happen.

Heck, I'm from Newport News, and even I support the Southside option. Norfolk is the urban core and desperately needs a passenger rail line of its own. It's only about a 45-55 minute drive to Richmond from the Peninsula, and if I-64 West is ever widened, that time will be cut even shorter. High-speed rail for Norfolk would be the best. In all my life on the Peninsula, I have not once used the Amtrak line, but I am glad they will most likely be upgrading it anyways. If I lived in the Southside, though, I'd probably think twice about battling the HRBT/MMMBT traffic (and the insane traffic in D.C.) and ride a high-speed train to D.C., instead. Besides, I can see the high-speed line to Norfolk as a benefit to all of Hampton Roads (the Peninsula included) in the future.

I really hope they can attain National Park status: Development Authority director looks to the private sector but rules out widespread building at Fort Monroe. I like how this is all coming together, especially since they want to keep Fort Monroe active/alive 24/7 with tourists and residents. I wouldn't consider this true urban development, but it certainly will boost tourism in our region with proper advertising and such. Heck, it may even help revitalize Buckroe, which would be awesome. Edit: Sorry! I just realized this is a locked topic. I don't want to cause any trouble.

Yeah, you're right; it opened November 21st. It's good to hear that's still receiving the support.

I don't think it's the economy as much as it is people just not caring enough about it. This easily could have happened in 2006 or 2007. Norfolk will already be having its own temporary ice-rink, anyways, with sponsorship from HRT and Nauticus, among others: MacArthur on Ice. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Edit: I'm still trying to figure out how to properly post links here.

Very true. I read an article in the Pilot that said over the past decade NoVA has received a little over 50% of VA's transportation funding!!! I mean, I can understand them having a significant piece of funding since they're in the metro of our nation's capital and really do need the funds to alleviate some of those D.C. bumper-to-bumper nightmares along I-95, but 50% is ridiculous since NoVA already has such services as the Washington Metro rapid transit and the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail, and the largest cities in VA are in Hampton Roads and are still working on building just a single light rail line, which, hopefully, will extend to the largest city in VA.

I'm gonna have to agree. It would be nice to have a Peninsula city in there as well, though. Like VA Beach-Norfolk-Newport News or Norfolk-VA Beach-Newport News. But I think that's asking for too much. If it benefits the region more, I'd be fine with VA Beach-Norfolk or Norfolk-VA Beach. Although, I must say, I don't mind the name Hampton Roads. I used to hate it and think it was ugly, but it's grown on me now. It has a lot of history to it, actually.

Yeah, I know that. This ABA is nowhere near the status of the old ABA. Plus, the NBA has been established in the public mind for so long that it is the only league people will support for pro basketball in the U.S. I read into this new ABA some more and came to realize that. The old ABA, at least, had a better chance back in the 70s like the 1959 AFL did in the 60s. As much as I want this franchise to be successful and getting the NBA to expand here, I cannot. All I can say is that something is better than nothing. I believe we discussed that the Scope needs to be used more in this thread, so I think this will help.

I was really excited about this at first...until I looked at the teams. The good news is, a majority of those teams are located in big cities that also have NBA teams, and thus, we will be able to see teams from those cities come to Norfolk and play. If we're lucky and give this team a lot of support and maybe someday a new, pro-sized arena, we might be able to convince the NBA to make our ABA team an NBA team like the Spurs and the Nets were in the late 70s. According to Wikipedia, the new ABA's been around since 2000, but I've noticed a lot of their teams are in big cities. If the ABA can convince the NBA that the ABA's enough of a threat, then we might be able to get Norfolk's team into the NBA. Considering the Pilot and the Daily Press didn't cover it yet, I don't think it is. I think this will be better than a D-League team, though. You never know; it might grow up someday.