Arctic_Tern
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Posts posted by Arctic_Tern
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As an ODU fan I'm ecstatic for the Sun Belt move. C-USA sucked and I didn't care about any of the teams there. Playing JMU, App, and Georgia Southern every year is going to be awesome. Those are a lot better than UNCC, MTSU, FAU, or FIU. And at least I can go to a damn away game without having to take a plane
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Was riding the tide recently and the lofts at front street look nice. Gotta be nearing completion as a lot of the exterior was completed. Need to get some street retail there tho cause there's not a lot of things for the residents to do there right now.
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Norfolk also has direct flights to Newark, Philly, and Boston. I think we're pretty good when it comes to routes to the major northeast corridor markets.
I have some really good friends that live in LA and so this direct flight is going to be a dream for us. Makes it so much easier to actually get to see each other. I'm also interested in a flight to provo. Southern Utah is absolutely gorgeous, got to go on a road trip all around there some years ago. Would love the opportunity to head out that way on a discount ticket and a rental car to go exploring again.
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I would bet they should be able to snag a brewery and a good eatery to that site. Bold Mariner used to be just a few blocks down and they did well enough to be able to move to that nice place in Ocean View, so the area is a proven location for a brewery. With a site like this tho, I would imagine we see a satellite of an already establish brewing company.
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4 minutes ago, varider said:
I really like that area and agree this is very exciting and will be a huge improvement and increase the connectivity really between different parts of the city and hopefully will turn into a cool place for ODU students and people in the nearby neighborhoods. If only we could exchange LIDL for a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.
There's a fresh market within throwing distance of this property, and I think a LIDL would do better in that area, especially with ODU students. Would love to get a Trader Joes at some point but I think LIDL is a good move there.
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I understand the feeling tho, I love talking about planning and ideas for the City but we are the mercy of the City government and developers for new conversation fodder, and unfortunately those things move as slow as molasses.
When it comes to what I would like to see, I just want to see more density that is walkable and mixed use, as well as the reinstatement of the city grid, at the very least in walkable form if not a driveable one. Norfolk suffers from the flow of the downtown being constrained by large projects like MacArthur Mall and the interstate, and hopefully this can be partially remedied by whatever happens with the mall in the coming decade.
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Would always desire more first floor retail at such a high visibility area but I also thought the church there would put a stranglehold on that parking lot so this plan looks pretty freaking good in that context.
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3 hours ago, BFG said:
That would kinda bring things full circle. The original Charlotte Hornets looked at Hampton Roads but couldn't wait 2-3 years for construction. New Orleans had a new arena ready to go, and the rest is history.
That said...that was almost 20 years ago. Hampton Roads should've built an arena well before all that even happened.
MLS would be a nice option, although I think there's only a handful of potential chances left to round out to 32. Either fix up the Sportsplex or see if ODU is open to sharing with a team for a couple years.
The ODU soccer pitch is nowhere near enough for an MLS team, and I'm pretty sure the football field was made with only american football in mind, I don't think there's enough space to fit a soccer field.
Honestly, something that has been rumbling around in the back of my head for a while is that the City should work with Norfolk State to upgrade William Dick Price Stadium to make it suitable for a MLS/NWSL/USL/USFL team. The stadium is near downtown, is close to a Tide stop, there is plenty of space there to build a modern facility and you get to help upgrade the local HBCU in the City. You'd have to work with NSU to make sure that all their needs are filled but I think it would be a win/win/win for everyone involved. ODU might be a bit miffed tho that the City helped NSU build a new stadium right after they built one but w/e
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Looks like some new routes will be announced in the coming weeks. Maybe Tampa has more because their 220 flights will be running primarily on already established routes?
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Two directional forces cars to slow down more, which is exactly what you want in the downtown area with so many pedestrians around. New York has one way streets because their extremely high density grid pattern means that if every street was 2 way it would severely clog things up. Norfolk is nowhere near having this problem.
I do wish that Norfolk would think about making some of the streets between Killiam and Colley one way, I don't think 2 cars can fit next to each other on most of those streets.
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I'm interested to see how much the folks that pay that much for a townhome enjoy being right next to Hampton Blvd
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12 hours ago, EJ_LEWIS said:
Norfolk to build park on Sewell's Point Road in the 5 points neighborhood. I like this idea only if the park sparks redevelopment of this under utilized area. I can see apartments and condos surrounding the park.
They tore down Hershee's for this? What a bad look for the city, absolutely disappointing.
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6 hours ago, baobabs727 said:
For a multitude of reasons, ODU should’ve stayed in the FCS and the CAA. I’m sure that will be quite the popular opinion here lol.
Yeah, after JMU moves up we could've been kings! Winning every year over the likes of Monmouth and Towson to a crowd of 5,000 mild fans!
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1 hour ago, mintscraft56 said:
My goodness. Seems like Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Norfolk have fixed their bonds as Chesapeake is having talks with Portsmouth about letting emergency crews cross city lines to help each other in emergency situations, and Norfolk is looking into some type of light rail to greenbrier plan with Chesapeake. But VB and Norfolk....Two of our Major Cities in the area still compete for better and yet VB is seemingly losing its race here with Pharrell even calling it a "toxic energy" and sadly the loss of 3 festivals 1 of witch (The patriotic festival) are moving to Norfolk's Downtown. And if SITW moves there too it will be a massive blow to VB.
Its weird how Norfolk has Better relationships with Newport News thats across the water than its own land neighbor.
I think them being across the water is the reason for better relations.
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Can't wait to have 7 years of meetings and consultations and reports to eventually decide that actually we can't do BRT.
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Yeah, Something in the Water occurred despite Virginia Beach not because of it. And it will not continue there because Virginia Beach just has to be Virginia Beach. Hopefully SITW can come back to another Hampton Roads city cause I can't see VB ever making the changes needed to keep it there long term.
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Also when I hear folks talking about how much they loved living in Ghent, rarely do I hear them talk about Ghent Village or Ghent on the Square. Those are a lot less appealing than actual Ghent is.
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On 9/15/2021 at 2:23 PM, vdogg said:
Richmond is probably the most urban place outside of NoVa and they have a ton of hidden surface lots. When I think urban, I think the streetscape and overall connectedness are far more important than anything hidden from view. And surface lots don't have to stay surface lots forever. We've seen plenty redeveloped in this area, so I don't think we're locking ourselves in by having lots hidden from view.
Y'all when I say density I don't mean "height", I mean density. Having a dense area of 4-5 story buildings is much better than having 8-9 story buildings with parking lots everywhere. But having 4-5 story buildings with parking lots everywhere is not dense and it is not urban.
And the examples that you have provided are much more compact than what is being presented. These lots are gigantic compared to what you pictured. And how do you develop these lots in the future when they're locked in the center of the block? I don't really see how it's possible. All we're doing if we move forward with this development is committing to having low density development/parking lots having a significant presence in our downtown for the next 50 years.
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4 hours ago, vdogg said:
It might not be ideal but let's not exaggerate here, there is nothing suburban about what is depicted. Chesapeake doesn't look like this, most of Va. Beach doesn't look like this, and the few surface lots you mentioned are all hidden from street level view. I too wish there were more to this development, but suburban it is not.
I am not exaggerating here. The only difference between this and what's in VB or Chesapeake is that the parking lot is in the middle not the front. With the parking lot in the middle we are locking ourselves into this low-density development for 50+ years. For anyone saying this is "Ghent 2" please point to me on a map where Ghent has superblocks with the majority of land being dedicated to parking. This is not good urban design and is just repeating the same mistakes we've been making for decades.
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This is not Ghent 2 and this is not an urban development. All of those parking lots kill the density of the area. Cut the blocks in half and get rid of all of that surface parking and then you might have something close to Ghent 2. Otherwise this is just more suburban development.
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I'm not certain but I believe that surface lot is a different lot and is not owned by the retirement community.
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30 minutes ago, vdogg said:The problem here is that you need buy in from the city and/or the state. I'm sure you'll agree that Va. Beach will not vote to uncreate itself, so that leaves the state. No state legislator, dem or rep, is going to tell Va. Beach "you don't have a right to exist". The response to that would be nuclear, absolute political suicide. It's a nonstarter. However similar the cities were when they first Incorporated, we have to realize that they are distinct cultural entities today. The only system that would truly work is a bourough system, and we're already sort of set up for it. The hrtpo has shown that such system could work in this area, and I think it allows cities to keep their individuality while at the same time pooling our resources for the common good.
It does not work though, if it's already set up and worked then why are we in this situation? Hampton Roads as it is set up is not in a bourough system, it is not the Bay area, what it is is a fractured region with each city trying to up their stature at the expense of the rest. In order to get what we have to work would require major systematic reform and for Virginia Beach to give up a lot of power.
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It's not even as dense as Ghent is though. It's more like an expanded version of that area of Granby with 201 Twenty One, The Element, and The Alexander, except now with more surface lots. I'm okay with a 4/5 story urban neighborhood, but make it urban gosh dangit!
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This is what that article is referencing: https://www.navalstationnorfolktransit.com/projectupdates/project-update-august-2021
To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with the decision. The BRT line would not connect ODU to Downtown, and if someone were to fly to the airport and want to take public transit to Downtown, they would need to take a shuttle from the airport to the BRT, the BRT to the Tide Station, and then take the Tide into downtown. Precisely zero people will make this or similar trips when taking an Uber is so much easier, faster, and probably cheaper. Going for BRT instead of Light Rail to finish up the eastern section just further exacerbates the biggest issue that The Tide has, that it does not take people from where they are to a place they want to be. And it makes taking public transit even harder by forcing people to make multiple mode changes in order to really get anywhere. This is really frustrating and honestly a gigantic step backwards, in my first-take opinion.-
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Houndstooth (Proposed)
in Norfolk
Posted · Edited by Arctic_Tern
I will say I'm a bit disappointed that it looks like it's just a suburban apartment complex with a better paint job. Basically seems like it'll function like the development on Charlotte/Boush St. Unless there's anything public facing on the first few floors putting that on the corner of Granby/Brambleton right next to downtown seems to be a waste of a great location.
EDIT: Suburban might not be the best term for it seeing how it has no stand-alone parking lot, but I just don't like it's for entirely residential purposes. Good to get more people in the area but I don't want Granby street to become riddled with places you can't actually do anything else with. If this goes through this would be the 4th apartment complex approved for the NEON district that has zero first floor businesses. I don't see that as sustainable.