Telmnstr

Not that I want to give council ways to waste taxpayer money, but do you think the Waterside is fitting (in looks) as a museum or aquarium? That's kind of how it fits. Remember, MacArthur took away it's original purpose. Granted, MacArthur has a horrible food court. Perhaps they should have put the light rail stop as part of Waterside. Since it should have been elevated maglev/monorail, they could have docked at waterside and MacArthur.

Hey look, they had light rail! Metro Machines building should be visible in that picture. Key off of that.

If you figure out the cap rate on my apartment downtown it comes out to be around $144K is what it should sell for. Meanwhile condoze nearby sold for $400K+, with way less amenities. Don't get me wrong, I think I pay too much. But right now most of my focus is on 757labs and growing that. The reason I continue to live there is because it was the most affordable that I found at the time, and there is a high cost of moving. Plus I'm kind of locked in a contract. A number of neighbors are moving out, but new ones move in. It's getting worse though, loud banging dance music at 2AM, and you really gotta turn it up loud to be heard through the floors. Sure the gov't can spend and drive all these things downtown, but private sector jobs are what Norfolk (and America) needs. One of the big computer programming challenges just recently finished up. Not a single American university placed in the top 10. All foreign universities. We used to do good in these things. Sign of the times. Gov't jobs are wealth redistribution. A friend said out of college he went to work for city of Norfolk and wrote software that would reduce the number of needed staff from 12 to 4 in a department, and they scrapped the software because they didn't want to let go of the jobs. That's our money they're spending. Also, the Savoy looked like the building I live in! Jack Quinns was somewhat busy last night. And when is the meetup.

I dunno if there is a magic recipe? If there was, everyone would use it? Just don't have the right wealth in the right hands? Not in a good location? Don't have the right "old money" families in town? Lack of certain types of organized crime? Wrong make-up of people? Who knows. Perhaps it's random. Perhaps it's evolutionary.

First, don't let other people fool you. I've heard many of these other area's business districts are largely dead at night. I've been in Manhattan at 10pm and everything is closed for blocks, shuttered, literally. The business centers generally do shut down at night. I think you find that the wealthy people that work in the downtown businesses often have nice sprawling homes in nice neighborhoods. Apartments are for the young, the SFH an on acre with a picket fence is the American Dream, not a poorly constructed apartment where you hear the neighbors all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if you found out that many of the people that bought condos in downtown Norfolk regret it. I have no basis for this, but when I hear what the mortgage costs (versus similar rent) I can only imagine. The housing here is now grossly overpriced when compared to the job opportunities. The jobs for the most part suck unless you're sloth who likes to just get by, or like low wages. We aren't in a great place transportation wise. If 64 continued to Raleigh or something, that might help. But as it is, you have to drive out to Emporia or up to Richmond to connect to the interstates that actually count. And of course social stuff. I assume the people at large companies in other areas like being around other large companies. Start a tech company or something new in Hampton Roads and you're peers can't comprehend it. The people here are back woods. Start one in Silicon Valley and y our peers are going to be VC firms and marketing firms, and people who get it. I worked for a small tech company that spawned in Hampton Roads after hiring a CEO (ex-Navy). Company was in NYC. First, everyone HATED the CEO. He ruined the company for all intents and purposes. Second, everyone who moved here from other areas (Microsoft, Intel, many other names) have MOSTLY left. There are a few left, but probably more because they are trapped by houses or family. One's wife did lots of research and moved here, then the school while it looked good on paper was full of thug wannabes and their kids were miserable. So had to move to get kids into a school where kids speak proper English and don't have horrible attitudes. But since then moved back to the west coast. So Hampton Roads can't rival those other cities, cause it's crap. Don't forget some cities die though. There has to be some reason for businesses to relocate here, or there has to be a good environment for businesses to grow here. There is neither, other than getting gubbmint money from the .mil.

That one is fun to bring up :-) In the end, private employment is good and gov't employment is bad. But if I gotta eat, I'll gladly take #2!

That's wild that the hotel at Military Circle mall is closed. Probably book more antennas on the roof than visitors. A park would be interesting, but doesn't really generate tax revenue.

Lindt Chocolate in MacArthur Center also closed. Did the Jack Quinn's for lunch. Witnessed people asking for menus at the door then turning away over the prices. They aren't doing lunch specials yet, I think it was a bad move to not do them. Food was good! Portion was perhaps too large, smaller and cheaper would have been good. Odd being in the place again. Regarding Military Circle Mall. If they put a park there, the park would carry the same reputation that the mall does. That is, it'd be "ghetto." Maybe they need to surround the mall with $1800/month apartments.

It was a comment on the Pilot, so perhaps it was false or falsified, I forget which city it was. They just said that the street grade crossing create a ton of traffic themselves, and that crime in the neighborhoods had gone up near the stations, and that ridership wasn't as expected. Baltimorgue... you didn't really go there, did you? I dunno, there is nothing we can do to stop the city govt from spending our tax money to benefit their friends. This isn't a mass transit town, and I was perfectly happy with downtown Norfolk in 2006. I don't care about the cheap looking new buildings. New Belmont looks cheap. The Ramada Inn looks cheap. And screw these companies trying to market a prepackaged lifestyle. Oh yea, whens the next meet-up. I speak my mind, but am willing to hang. You all are anti-social or something. Which is proper for Hampton Roads people, but you can break the trend. I believe in you.

Sign is down on Jack Quinns. No hours posted on the door that I noticed.

Too funny. I contacted bank of the Commonwealth about opening a checking account for the hacker space. YAWWWWN. Why do these people exist, anyways. So my nice new account with ING Direct was setup in minutes... Friends don't let friends use banks, isn't that how the saying goes?

I thought those three properties started before LRT? I'm actually surprised that there are as many people in the New Belmont as there are. Maybe the Navy upped the housing allowance to $1600/month or something. I don't think light rail will be successful, but it will be cute I guess. I've been to other cities with it and the people there just shrug. People from other cities that got it have commented how crime jumped in their areas (near the trains) and how ridership of the intended middle class audience never really came. We're a nation of cars. If you want New York City, you'll have to go there. Turning Hampton Roads into New York City isn't going to work. And the idea that cars will somehow have to cease to exist because of oil shortage is silly, people will just switch power sources. The battery technology has gotten much better, it's just too expensive to use in electric cars right now. But Plasma televisions used to cost $9000 for the entry model.

I don't think it's a pile driver, it appears to spin and cut into the ground. They use it for the places where the power poles are likely to go. As of 1 second ago, it's still sitting out there (I work right next to it). Been afraid it will cut the Cox fiber lines again. Heh.

They are corporations all right, but none of them are really hip. Doesn't feel like the future, feels like the past. And NS doesn't have a huge presence here.

Generally anything THAT heavy isn't for decoration. I can't imagine water behind it really being held back that much though, you'd think lots of water would seep under it and what not. I've seen it closed with water up over the decking, though. I had to go all the way around to reach the last Virginia Wine Fest.

Norfolk 2030:

But what a ride!!!!

In the USA, no private citizen really owns property. If the gov't wanteth, they taketh. I don't know what other businesses were in the building. I can only assume it was kind of dumpy. It is an eyesore to the downtown area. It will be good if someone can rehab it. The other day the wind was blowing hard and there was this insane squeal, and we look up, and the sign on the building was parallel to the concrete. I moved fast! Now there is scaffolding up over the sidewalk. I go to Uncle Al's for lunch, perhaps too much. The burger is right though, I can't lie. I'm sure it's just a syscoburger or usfoodserviceburger, but I like.

No plans to undo that. We're not wealthy. Day job funds the space. If anything, friends weren't happy with there being windows in the front. (Someone could break in, yadda yadda.)

Solar panel factor? For real? A number of large existing ones said they are shutting down their US operations because of lack of demand / uncompetitive. Odd.

The story as I remember it was that people were all doing their thing, and out of nowhere the city dudes came in and told everyone the building was unsafe and everyone had to get out, right then. There was a deli on the 1st floor. By the night, everyone was out and building condemned. The building had been bought by The Wright Company before that. I don't know anything about local politics but one has to wonder if old money wants to run the new money out. I mean, wouldn't inspections have caught this before hand? Did the lean increase rapidly? Not sure of the full details on this. So after that point, the building went up for sale. The cost to redo the foundation (it supposedly can be fixed) will be a lot. There was an article in the paper not too long ago about how they had bought the building for X amount, and it was for sale for Y. Y was like 3 times as large as X, and X was before it was condemned. The building had the lean before it was condemned, but I guess they figured it was still safe. Virginia PE or someone else had some good info on what it takes to fix it. It was posted on here before. No idea if the deli moved or closed down. I had never been there.

I think population is likely to decrease in the area. It's expensive to live here given the job opportunities. The better paying jobs are mostly a result of the gov't spending tax dollars like crazy. Not always the case, but even the local reports show this. With regards to comments about light rail to Greenbriar and the like. If you had a train station in Greenbriar, it could take you like 40 minutes to walk from a single store in a strip mall over to the train station. You'd need another light rail system just to get around the place. Imagine going to music and arts, after seeing the poor selection of product there walking over to say Best Buy. Then the mall. It'd be tough. We'll see how many people ride it. I don't have high expectations, but can see where it's something that gets more popular over time.

Used to be Ridgeways Reprographics. It's on Bute Street, ground floor of the Wainwright Building.

Hmmm. Track is going right in front of the space we're renting. Wonder once it's down how it will affect our lease after it's up for renewal. Heh. It will be nice once the construction is done on Bute!! Starting to have our first meetings. Embedded systems, software development, maybe some robotics and such. Overall the space looks much much better. Almost done painting over the yellow. (www.757labs.com)

It'll get people downtown. Time to see all that stuff you gave away on FreeCycle show up for sale at Town Point Park.