Telmnstr

Hah, what is the business to the right of Alchemy that was complaining?

Maybe the operating costs are just too high there. I think there are special taxes because it's Town Center, and I'm pretty confident the rent is to the max there. I just recorded an event in Baltimore myself. Took 7 hours to drive a 3 hour 40 minute trip. Grrr.

Dave and Busters is coming to Lynnhaven Mall. A friend interviewed for the technician role for the arcade and said the offer was $11/hr no benefits. Sheesh. Also in the news, Red Star Tavern at Town Center closed. Can't pay their tax bill. Is Town Center traffic down? http://hamptonroads.com/2013/07/va-beachs-red-star-tavern-closes-owes-taxes

brikkman - was it impossible to get food because it was so busy with customers? That's not a bad place to be. If it was impossible to get food because the service was so bad -- yow.

Forget redirecting taxpayer money to build huge stadiums for egotistical overpaid sports stars. I didn't make it to Tool, but got text messages from friends the second the first laser fired off.

I have a theory about Urban Outfitters. The newspaper article said that Wright had been trying to get UO to come to Norfolk forever. They wouldn't. Then they agree to do it. Right as the president quits. I think the president pushed the Norfolk store as punishment to the company. Heh heh.

We rode it again tonight from near my workplace (Macarthur Station) back to York Street to bring a MS Visio CD over to the hackerspace. There was a lot of people boarding at the MacArthur station headed towards Newtown. The train was pretty loaded with people when it arrived at MacArthur station heading towards EVMS. Not sure how many riders would really need to get off at those two stops. Monticello let off very few, as did York Street. Maybe they were all going to EVMS, but I'm thinking joy riding.

I think it was the restaurant. Low cost Mexican = win. Not that I'm that cheap but it always seemed high priced, it was a question if the place was even open, and somewhat of a wild card. I look forward to it.

Yea, I'm thinking there are a bunch of people just riding the thing all day. I know people who are actually using it to commute to work. One person said they will stop when it's no longer free, they are doing it more for the novelty. It actually adds a good amount of time to their commute. Still it's pretty amusing. I rode it Thursday evening after a friend said it was open. Some friends and myself took it last night from the York Street station to MacArthur. Went to Hells Kitchen. Then rode it back to finish up working on projects @ the hackerspace on Bute.

How? What is the recipe for this? How do you lower rents, bring in young people, but not have the hood kids show up and wreck it?

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/state-police-said-man-shot-i264-was-altercation Shooting on 264 originated at The Palace on Plume. Note that other black clubs were shut down for similar reason (Posh Dolche.) Plume has ties to the city gov't that shut down all competition. Will anything happen to Plume? It's been a year and 8 months since the hackerspace opened. Maybe it's because of the times I'm there and my attention, but it seems like the foot traffic that we used to always see heading from the Freemason neighborhood to downtown Norfolk has really dropped off since earlier in the year. How is Granby Street doing?

zepp - yea, I think it's a home design firm or something. I noticed that the for rent sign came down in another place on Granby that I think was a tax place. It's a smaller older space, sort of near Bobbi's Deli or whatever that place is. I thought there was activity at the old La Galleria building, but it was just people moving stuff from TCC.

Wow! Very interesting points. It would be interesting if Portsmouth jumped on the light rail thing quickly. They are kind of an underdog in the area. It's been a few days with the train running. It was cute at first, but it's annoying now. DING DING DING DING DING DING DING. Ugh. I went into the office where I "work" which is right next to the station where the library used to be. You could clearly hear the thing in the middle of the building, as well as all of the offices. Maybe they will turn it down once it's been running for a few weeks.

I'm catching up, and I know I'm not well liked on forums because of my pessimistic views of some things. But so far I think I've been right. With regards to condos, whatever. I've heard there are still lots of empty ones for sale. I think that some of the higher end ones downtown are held by people that don't live here just as toys. So that doesn't really help the foot traffic. What's the market for condos anyways? I never got it. The big part of ownership is owning the LAND. Condos don't really have that. A friend just took a job in Atlanta. Bought an AWESOME house I think. Cost less than the crap housing around here. Job is better, pays better, and has more potential. Stock options, company sells, it pays for the house in full type of thing. You don't see a lot of that around 757. In terms of parking, yea. Virginia Beach is crazy busy at town center on the weekends. Norfolk ain't. The downside is people might not want to actually walk from a parking garage to the restaurants. Lazy people, you know. I think safety is a big one, when it comes to walking to the car. The light rail stops at 11pm, so that leaves the bars in the cold and parking in the cold (I think?) I totally agree about jobs. I've said it before, there just aren't a lot of good jobs here. The big companies we have don't compete at ALL with whats out there in other cities. I mean to be all up honest, Hampton Roads really is garbage. People are trying to change it, and that is so great. But in the end, is it worth spending your life trying to change an area when you can just relocate somewhere better? I've worked for a number of companies in the area, and a few startups. The startups were SO much better. It's hard to describe. With the gov't you get people looking to get by. It's mostly safe. Often overstaffed. Layers of BS bureaucracy. With startups you feel like you are making a change. The unknown. The risk. Etc. But there aren't really many successful ones that call Hampton Roads home. People are trying to change that, but I dunno. It's kind of odd since as a whole the US is failing. So in the larger scheme whats hip in 757 matters less. Where do you think Hampton Roads will be in 10 years? In the mean time, eff it. Do something cool. Maybe make people laugh. I think it's time for another good prank.

I saw them framing out walls in the basement. Our slumlord rented out space in the basement to some guy with a small IT firm here in Freemason. I remember seeing the guy pulling all his stuff out after it met a foot or so of water. I just couldn't feel safe with space sitting below ground. Although I think TCC has a downstairs, but I dunno. I noticed the Blockbuster for lease sign gone and the construction dumpster gone. This clothing store that was on Granby next to this spa place opened and closed already. Notice everything was missing. AJ Gators is back online. Pure seems to have lost it's Pure Energy. The old club 7's building is for sale.