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And, I belive that is the reason they built the excange, which is in the main. When you also add the convention center across the street, and the exibition hall in scope plaza, there is alot of convention floorspace downtown. If norfolk can colaberate there venue's, they can host very large events. Just imaging what could be hosted if norfolk colaberated with virginia beach.

One thing they should definitely do if, and when they decide to add a third terminal, is that they should find a way to conect the three terminals within the steral zone. That way the airport can add more shops, and restraunts, and diversify there offerings. Parhaps they can add a food coart like Baltimore, if they choose to become a hub. The easiest way, would be to lose a couple gates closest to the main terminal(they would add more than they would lose by building the third terminal), then they could just build a couple sky walks between the three terminals.

Agreed, and if we want to legitimately re-develop the military highway aria, than we need a legitimate anchor. An arina would be a good excuse to make the aria walkable. If we put it downtown, it can either fit near the new casino, or it can anchor the st pauls district. If it were on church street, it would create enough foot traffic to support many businesses. The best thing about putting anything in Norfolk is that it is an almost equal drive from all corners of the region. If it were at the beach, people in newport news, and Suffolk may find it inconvenient.

The one and only good thing that I can see in our lack of regionalism is that if somthing fails in one city, we can try it in the city next door. Could have been virginia beach but, If norfolk gets the arina, Hampton roads gets the arina. And if it fails in norfolk for whatever reason, we can try it somewhere else.

Just like the fact that motorists hate traffic getting onto 264, pedestrians hate crossing st pauls blvd, and when saint pauls district becomes a reality, it is going to be vital to be able to safely and easily cross st pauls blvd. One of the points of a road diet is to divert vehicle traffic onto other streets. Downtown norfolk is an urban aria, and relies on foot traffic, unlike the suburbs. If its difficult to walk around downtown than that serves as a deturrant to doing buisness, or living there. On a side note, if our cities weren't so sprawling, driving in downtown traffic wouldn't suck so bad. If downtown had parking garages with direct access to the interstate, it would also reduce traffic on st pauls. Downtown norfolk is very conpact, but the problem is that we, as Americans still want to park as close to where we are going as possible.

As long as he doesant say "nor"FOLK"", im alright with it. It still trips me up, when I hear people say norfick. I get that yall want to stay pc, but where does the "I" come from.

I like the idea of the rooftop Terrace. Any new building of considerable size should make some use of the rooftop. I personally believe that some of our parking garage top decks would make great public parks. Basicly any new buildings should be as innovative as possible.

I doupt we will ever see any city in hampton roads merge in our lifetime, and thats considering that some people using this forum are pretty young. It would be like asking people who dont see eye to eye, to undergo an opperation to become conjoined. The big barrier to regionalism in HR is the fact that cities came into existence in what can best be described as farmland simply to avoid becoming part of Norfolk. If you drive to sandbridge(VB), or hickory(Chesipeake); they dont even feel like part of there respective cities. With that being said, we should still do as much as we can to unify the seven cities, as there's great rewards to reap, that far outweigh any disadvantages. One weird thing about Virginia that sets it apart from other states is that many of the large cities opperate as there own counties. In other states, you have both a city goverment, and a county government. The best thing to do in the case of Hampton roads is to establish a large county that covers multiple cities. The county can take care of regional issues like police, emergency services, utilities, schools, public transit, and highways, etc. While city goverments can still operate, and may choose to eliminate redundant services to save money. This may never happen, but its the most relistic scenario I can think of. Maby some day generations in the future; politicians, and voters will have a differant mindset, and we may see some cities merge, but I just dont see it happening anytime soon.

I agree. I like harmony the best. The others either compleatly do away with the original archutecture, or in the case of rythem, simply change nothing and add a cancerous growth to the back of the building. It worked for the slover but, i dont think it would work with Chrysler Hall.

Considering, Virginia Beach ownes the right of way, they should make use of it, while we wait for the possibility of lightrail. Parhaps a linear park with a bike trail, or somthing. Right now, that property is just a monument to the lack of progress in transportation at the beach.

IMO, they should just tear down both pedestrian bridges, and elevate waterside drive between the ramps, and brambleton. They can run a small service road undernieth for local traffic, and find a use for the extra property that is freed up. Most of the traffic on waterside, and st Paul's blvd is just passing through and, when traffic is heavy, it cuts downtown into pieces.

I look forward to checking it out. If they are successful, hopfully they can expand, and occupy all the urban pockets around here. This should make downtown just a little more livable.

It would be nice if light rail ran to the ocean front, and it should have happened, but the city treasurer, and a few of his friends somhow convinced a slew of voters at the beach to vote against it. It seems efforts to run light rail to greenbriar are in the works, but I fear we are in for the same story. Our region has extreamly vocal naysayers, and a good chunk of those who would support thease projects are transiant citizens who only live in the region temporarily and therefore dont vote, because they simply dont care about this place. We need a good regional transportation network, if we want to convince people that this is a good place to move to permanently. The city's of hampton roads all rely on each other and need to work together if they want to amount to anything.

I like your thinking but, where would it run? The problem with gondolas downtown is that Norfolks downtown is extremely compact. I can walk across downtown E>W or N>S in less than 15 minutes. However, I do think this can be a great option to connect ODU to downtown (considering the city is no longer pursuing a western LRT alignment). Are there any other routes where this can potentially work? Maby the ocean front?

Looks good. The aria has great potential.

Thats kind of looks like what I think they should do. Maby they can even somhow run light rail through it, but I know thats a bit of a stretch.

I like it, but I think we shouldent stop there. This can be a good chance to boost the city's skyline. I hate to mention any drawbacks to MacArthur center, as I think it is a well thought out mall, and I am surprised that its loosing so much stores, but it does take up about a third of downtowns space, or more. A few apartment buildings, an office building, and maby a high rise hotel on top, can spruce up things even more.(not talking about the dinky stuff they are planning for the third anchor lot). It would also be nice if they can add some sort of major entertainment venue (The origional plans for the mall called for an indoor amusement park, but that was scrapped.)

I have some friends that live in that aria. They have plenty of restraunts nearby(ODU,NOCO), however, thay can definantly use more stores.

City council seems to prefer small business in the southwest corner of Norfolk, over superstores.

I can picture something like a more urban version of short pump working there (ie. Making it feel more like an extension of downtown), however it would have to be an inprovement on what already sits on that lot. MacArthur center is the grandest, most upscale mall we have, and if it truly goes downhill our entire region will suffer. Sadly, it seems that the age of the shopping mall as we know it is coming to an end and no one is immune. Malls need to adapt, or die.

Ok, cant argue with that.

An ugly tower is better than no tower, however the design looks very preliminary. Hopfully they can make it look better when things become more concrete. Lets hope that they dont shave off some floors and build the thing out of brick though.

As much as I would like to see this get built, I would be supprised to see this get any sort of green light. The problem is that every other city/county in Virginia either wants a piece of the pie, or is strongly against gambling. Portsmouth's proposal benifits only a few cities in Virginia. The only way I see this getting off the ground is if virginia legalized gambling statewide, and that may take a while, if it happens at all.

Just signed up, so I guess I should introduce myself. Im 27. I moved to Norfolk, from Florida against my will in 2010. I thought I would hate this place, because of some bad childhood memories I had in Virginia Beach, but I have grown to love this place over the years. It amazed me how much this place changed since I moved away around 2002, and it really amazes me how much this place has changed since I have moved back. I am exited to see what the future holds.