Norfolk757Kid

The saga continues...what ya'll think is going on? Is the lawsuit gaining more traction in court than the city originally thought? https://www-pilotonline-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-norfolk-city-refuses-interviews-st-pauls-20210201-wy3tl3lmtbeuxjay42dgm7wljy-story.html?outputType=amp

Oh yeah I understand that it's more complicated than me not wanting a shopping mall downtown (plus all the people the mall employs), but I'm just saying that it's possible that downtown could have rebounded and had its renaissance without the mall as well, just would have happened differently. I think it's significant that most of those high end retailers are not local businesses.

Macarthur was misguided, as plenty of people said before it was built. The argument that the mall brought investment back to downtown is hollow too. Investment would have come with or without a mall, when regional and national trends came to Norfolk. Besides producing artificial scarcity in the real estate market, it makes no sense to have a suburban style shopping mall in the middle, the centerpiece even, of Hampton Road's most pedestrian area. Opening it up and connecting to St. Paul's would be great (option 2), but restoring the street grid would reorient the entire downtown. I can live without a multiplex.

Don't get me started about Kerry Doughtery haha

I'm sure the people who already live there would want to live there

Yeah I meant the annex. Without Town Point, there is almost literally zero green space downtown. I guess I mean just non regional players.

Even though I'm not a fan of Cordish, I am a fan of this development. Have you ever seen anyone actually use waterside as a real park? Building on part of it could redesign the grassy square and area around Waterside. It would also signal that DT is not just for BT and other local developers. I wonder if council or the Mayor could slip in some affordable housing requirements into this development. Seems like Richmond is trying to figure out how to do it in future developments.

If the office is the leasing office that does not count!

So, I just moved to Richmond. I want to compare Broad Street and Brambleton. I think activating Brambleton is key to the St. Paul's redevelopment. It basically functions now as a funnel to 264 and the tunnels and bridges, but like much of downtown has virtually no commercial/retail activity. Brambleton could be the spine of an enlarged downtown for sure, especially if BRT is built in to the St. Paul's redevelopment, and it is rezoned for dense mixed use mid rise development along the corridor. There's plenty of space for stations and plenty of job centers, entertainment venues, and institutions to string together. You can still have people use it to get to the highways but redesign it for people that actually live downtown or want to get downtown without a car as well.

If you look at old pictures of downtown, even some that have probably been posted here, City Hall Ave and Main St are lined with retail, shops, bars and probably tattoo parlors and brothels maybe lol. There's virtually no street level retail on both streets nowadays and hasn't been for decades. I don't think it's because of a lack of interested business owners. If there was available space, like in Selden Market, I think you would see people want to open a business on these streets in such a prime location downtown, but either the zoning or design of the area does not encourage it, actively discourages you could say. So what you get is a downtown that doesn't have much robust activity to it besides Granby Street. No other substantial continuous commercial arteries. Yes, there is activity, but not mixed use throughout.

Yeah the main thing taking away from Macarthur Square's activity is the massive parking garages on City Hall Avenue. If some of McCarthur's space on City Hall could be converted to street facing retail or whatever that would definitely help. Also, the Tide Station is just a glorified bus stop. Why not give it some more architectural presence in the center of the city?

Damn that's epic. The ball has officially started rolling. Here comes the gentrification.

Yeah with a little imagination the location seems perfect for a development looking for access to downtown Norfolk, close to interstate, train station, light rail, ball park, ERT, ferry to portsmouth too. I mean it's as multimodal as it gets in Hampton Roads. That's why I think the location is very underrated and could be developed into a number of things besides a casino. But there's plenty of land around the ball park and that side of the highway that's still undeveloped. It also all will be close to the St. Paul's redevelopment

Yeah I don't even know where to begin with the Beach. There's rampant Nimbyism all over the city except when it's in the form of massive subdivisions in flood plains. Some of the biggest anti-development noise comes out of the neighborhoods right around Town Center, because they can see it enveloping their neighborhoods and way of life. Denser development built around an interstate only feeds into induced demand as well.

John Moss defending his success in stopping light rail extension to Town Center, and his facebook followers heralding it as the greatest moment of their lives, is peak Virginia Beach political dysfunction. I tried to screen shot and share it but couldn't figure it out. It's telling though, maybe there is momentum building again for an extension behind the scenes. Norfolk's studies and HRT's willingness to improve service will hopefully ruffle some feathers at the beach IMO. With or without transit, Virginia Beach will continue to densify as population grows, as will Chesafreak. Question is will it be done haphazardly as it has done in the past, or better managed with a regional transit system?