EJ_LEWIS

Good News! Norfolk passes $1.9 billion budget that allocates $4.5 million this fiscal year to renovate Scope arena and $1.5 million to renovate Chrysler Hall.

Church St. and Main 1939

The Federal Building replaced the Monticello Hotel. The first facade of the Federal building was orange brick. Ugly!

Norfolk Community Hospital was closed on July 1, 1998. It was torn down in 2005.

Snapped a few Downtown Norfolk pictures after the annual Town Point Park Wine Festival.

We were down in Norfolk this weekend for the annual Townpoint Park Wine Festival. Afterwards while waiting for my partner I took these photos of Gravity 400. Like has been said before this project is taking a long time to complete!

NFK Jeff I guess we are the old timers. I remember a lot of the carnage of the late 60s, 70s and even the 80s. My dad and I saw the implosion of the Monticello Hotel early in the morning in 1976. I was born in 1961 at the now non-existent Norfolk Community Hospital that use to sit next to NSU.

Like most on here I wish Norfolk hadn't gone overboard in the 50's, 60's and 70's and torn down perfectly sound buildings simply because they were old. There was a reason why leaders at that time tore down so many homes wrongly or rightly. They were replaced by better newer homes. A lot of slipshod construction was done in Norfolk to accommodate the influx of military personnel during WWI and WWII. After WWII Norfolk had a lot of substandard housing that the city had to deal with. Its hard to judge their decisions through today's lens. I really do believe they thought they were doing the right thing. Many black leaders applauded the city for building public housing with electricity and indoor plumbing. Hindsight being 20/20 we now realize that warehousing people into a segregated area with few services was a mistake. I am sure that people living 50 years in the future will look back at this time of re-development and have many criticisms of the decisions of city leaders.

That's disappointing! We were going to walk over there from Downtown. I think we will use lyft now. Thanks for the input.

Going to Norfolk next weekend. I want to know if there are any sit down restaurants open in the Railyard at Lambert's Point? Can you walk to the breweries nearby?

I remember the demolition of East Ghent. It's still seared in the memory of many Norfolk residents to this day. The callous attitude of the city employee speaks volumes to why many Tidewater Gardens residents don't trust the motives of the city today.

Photo of Brewer St. and the Municipal Market 1956. McArthur Center now stands where the Market use to be.

I was in college back then and would travel home as much as possible. I would say that Norfolk hit its lowest point in 1980 when Granby Mall was starting to be all boarded up. Believe it or not people chose to shop at Military Circle Mall where there was a Thalheimers and JC Penney as well as many other stores. There was a dirty book store, a few bars, Altschul's and the Spot Apparel store , Fines Men's store and Rices Nachman's department store. That all changed in 1983 when the first iteration of Waterside opened up. It would take a couple of decades before the Granby St. of today took shape. All of the action was on the waterfront and very little action trickled over to Granby St. There was the annual Harborfest that did flood Downtown Streets with people and this certainly helped the few Granby St. eateries that were still open. All and all the Downtown Norfolk of today is far better then it was in the 1980s. Here is a WAVY TV News story from 1980. This story talks about the revenue increase on Granby Mall.

The article backs up what I said a year ago. I've given up on Norfolk ever having a casino. The bumbling of this from both the Pamunkey and the city is so predictable.

Found this sunrise picture of Downtown Norfolk on the internet.

Now that the deal to move the Capitals and Wizards from Capital One Arena in Gallery Place Downtown DC to Potomac Yard in Alexandria seems to be gaining steam I thought a separate topic should be created. Here is an article on the proposed arena to be built at Potomac Yards in Alexandria. https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/wizards-capitals-plan-alexandria-move-in-2b-deal/

I grew up in the Church right down the street from First Baptist St. John's AME church.

Here is a street photo taken on Granby St. sometime in the 1940s.

I am glad that the casino in Portsmouth is doing well. Portsmouth has been the butt of jokes in Tidewater since I grew up down there. Its great seeing them get this right. I've lost all hope that Norfolk will pull off a casino.

Well just have to be happy that there is one casino in Hampton Roads (Portsmouth).

Actually what is being proposed for Norfolk is mitigation strategies for dealing with rising seas whatever the cause and land subsistence. Great opportunity for Norfolk to be a laboratory for rising seas, increased flooding and erosion.

Nope we are already seeing the effects of sea level rise and land subsistence. The solutions tested are planned to be implemented within 10 years. This is a great opportunity for Norfolk.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2024/01/19/win-win-win-agreement-in-norfolk-aims-to-protect-healthy-wetlands-as-sea-levels-rise/ Great to see Norfolk is in the forefront in the fight against sea level rise. Whether you agree with climate change or not, I think we can agree that Norfolk as a laboratory for fighting rising seas and sinking land is a win for the city. The city is actually being innovative when it comes to the environment. This has to be a great magnet for attracting businesses to Norfolk designed to come up with innovative solutions in the fight against climate change and land subsidence.

It seems that this ship has sailed when it comes to Cordish building a casino. So far the Pumunkeys have been a big disappointment.

New HRT Express bus service between Downtown Norfolk and Virginia Beach Oceanfront begins. Would have been real cool if the LIght Rail system extended from Newtown Road to the Oceanfront. https://news.yahoo.com/express-bus-between-downtown-norfolk-163400883.html