Glassoul

As someone who lives within 15 minutes (by car) to a farmer's market, it is a godsend. I would love to see Norfolk have a real farmers market. Here in Montreal we have two, Atwater and the famous March

He's been doing that for decades.

Portsmouth's The Beir Garden ranked 42nd best place in the U.S to have a Beer, 2006. Other Virginia locations are Richmond's Capitol Ale House (10) and Glen Allen's Capitol Ale House at Innsbrook (14). http://beeradvocate.com/acbw/2006/places

It's been discussed for awhile, but the city doesn't have the money to do it. You're talking a couple hundred million $$$ to relocate all those buildings (including the need to purchase a huge section of land in downtown) and tear down the existing ones. As an example, Norfolk is spending $75 million just on its new courts building. So while the city would likely increase its tax revenue by having something more appropriate for the waterfront site, its would never offset the cost of the premature moving of those institutions. Its likely they will remain there until the buildings need to be signficantly renovated or replaced.

Never could understand why the front entrance to the hotel was facing away from downtown and Brambleton Blvd. They should tear down everything except the main tower (convert the tower to appartments), use the newly created space/parking lot front brambleton for office/retail space, and the main entrance parking lot for a new building.

What are they going to do with the old circuit court building once the new one is complete? I always thought that building was such an eye sore, hopefully the new 11 storey court has a bit more style to it. They'll certain free up some much needed space along a busy road for whatever it turns out to be.

Woot, San Antonio Sam's... I love their Chili!!!

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Does anyone remember what the break-even number for ports of call/departing cruises was? I think they broke it down into passenger numbers as well. Seems to me that 175,000 was right around breakeven for the terminal, correct me if I'm wrong.

Do you have children that you will be bringing along?

Anyone remember what year automated garbage pickup (when we got rid of the old 2 man on the back of a truck routine) started in the region? I seem to remember sometime in the early 1990's, but can't remember exact years. Any help would be nice.

I don't want to p*ss on everyone's parade, but I remain extremely skeptical of the potential for development of light rail outside of DT, and I'm not entirely convinced it will succeed even there. As someone who relys entirely on mass transit (in a city that is supposed to have one of the best systems in North America), my unscientific observations are that a majority of people who use mass transit do so only out of necessity. As soon as they are financially capable, they substitute away for automobiles. Ultimately for mass transit to be succesful it must be near large neighborhoods, and the costs associated with using an automobile must be high (as evidenced by the FTA's attempt to get Norfolk to create artifical parking shortages). I contend that for most people, mass transit is an inferior good. The other part of the problem is the cultural element of getting people to accept the idea of having to walk more than 10 yards from their house to transport. Ask yourself this, how many times have you sat as a passenger in a car, while your friend/family/acqaintence, etc. spent 15 minutes try to find a place to park that was within 5-6 slots from the building entrance (when other spaces were available further out)? I hope I'm pleasantly surprised about this one, but I have doubts. Feel free to offer contradictory points on why this isn't a huge waste of federal money.

Well party politics rarely comes into play in city/county level administrations, so its not much of an issue. This is especially true since Fraim is more a business-oriented mayor rather than a bleeding heart subsidy lib. Also, I believe the only one other candidate running against him is also a Democrat, so you don't have much choice either way.

I completely agree. This building will probably look substantially different to the rendering. Don't be so quick to pass judgement. It's actually a pretty clever idea to shape the structure like a ship because of the shape of the property, and they have to have a large parking garage because the land where this is to be built is a already paved parking lot.

Its today, RTA. The announcement of this project is scheduled to be made during Mayor Fraim's state of the city address.

Well that is the view from the river, so perhaps the side fronting Brambleton will be skinned. Besides having the back side not skinned will provide residents and patients with nice views as they exit their automobiles.

HAHAHAHA.... I WIN THE NAME BATTLE!!! Ghent South it be!!! HAHAHAHA...

Actually, on the immigration issue, I didn't hear him propose anything definitive or any sort of specifics, it seemed pure rhetoric to me. Honestly, it felt like an infomercial in the tone and manner in which he spoke. The whole, "we can do better" tagline just didn't cut it for me, and I don't think people outside of Virginia are going to connect with his examples of bipartisanship within the commonwealth. It seemed a strange choice to pick someone who has little to no national experience nor any name recognition beyond the commonwealth to do the rebuttal. Whilst his social morals put him more in the center than many other Democrats, those are not issues which were going to be heavily addressed. However, I will say it was a vast improvement over the Nancy & Harry show last year, though that isn't saying much. I'm pretty sure my IQ dropped a few points after sitting through that. edit: spelling

I think there is a natural evolution to these types of things. Suffolk would have a hard time going upward rather than outward right now, but by comparison, VB has gone through its major growth phase and we are seeing upward movement now. Chesapeake is about where VB was 15 years ago in terms of land usage, and so in perhaps another 15 years we'll start to see Chesapeake move upward. Suffolk is still really only 5 years or so into its fast growth phase, and has extra hinderance due to the fact that it is less centrally located than the other Southside cities. Its not coincidence that the first place to see major new housing growth was the very northeastern tip of the city next to the interstate, but I do think eventually a mid-rise (5-10 stories) downtown sector is very doable, but I don't ever envision skyscrapers in DT Suffolk.

Something then to cheer you up. http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story...=111021&tref=po

Lol, I used to think the same thing! It was always a place to just drive past on the way to Williamsburg, D.C., and points beyond. It used to be a running joke between my boss and I about how many times a week we would hear the local news reporter say, "A Newport News man is dead tonight..." Anyway, I'm glad to see they are turning it around over the last few years. Our forum tends to be a bit Southside biased because, well, most of the people live on the Southside and the regional hubs are there. Its great to see NN moving forward with all this, and I hope people post more pictures because I really am lost when it comes to NN other than anything right off the interstate. Of course my favorite is still, "A beach man is dead tonight...", like this man lived on the beach his whole life calmy combing the beach eeking out his meager living, and then suddenly he was dead. edit: spelling

Yeah, I love the Wells as well (no pun intended). I've been to 3 or 4 shows there in the last couple of years before I left. Very very solid performances and they typically choose good acts, though they have to tend to more mainstream in order to attract a crowd, but that's not bad thing.Lion King did so well because it is such a well known story and a family friendly piece. Phantom did equally as well because it was also so well known, and because during its first run in Norfolk it really was the first major broadway show to hit the area in years. I predict Rent will do well, but not nearly as well as Lion King. If they could get Beauty and the Beast, then that would be a smash hit. I saw that on broadway about 3 months after it opened and really enjoyed it.

Actually, it IS part of the allure for some people, as they want to retain some of the characteristics of the original building. It exists for the same reason there are exposed bricks and ducts on the interior. It is part of an industrial look that people want, of having that exterior juxtaposed with a beautiful streamlined modern interior. Also to renovate the exterior would add a lot to the building costs, and would likely price the lofts out of the market.