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Imagine the old downtown extending past present-day 264 to the site of Harbor Park. Geez, it's hard to believe we lost so much!

Thanks, Okinawa! I have finished organizing my flickr account for now, but I'll probably be adding some more old photos later. Feel free to check it out, though - there are larger versions of all the pictures I just posted, especially the skylines. This link may work... if not just browse for them. My profile name is christopher_j_goss.

My old house in Larchmont, 1313 Magnolia Ave: The ice skating rink outside MacArthur Center:

A few more miscellaneous shots... Harbor's Edge: That condo conversion on Brambleton Ave: If you need proof that not all of Virginia is the hateful, closed-minded place that some people perceive it to be (and that it sometimes seems like): Featuring the AT&T Building, which has quickly become one of my favorite buildings downtown: The best coffee shop ever: Just a few more to come...

A few progress pics:

One of my main goals when I visited Norfolk last week was to get some good skyline shots. Here are my best efforts. Larger sizes are available on my flickr account but I'm in the middle of reorganizing so maybe give it a few hours before you try to log on there. My profile name is christopher_j_goss. Also, while I was out there was an awful lot of traffic on the Elizabeth River, which I tried to document. More to come...

These are for whoever wanted pictures of this development:

The Nutcracker is not quite my cup of tea, although I usually like Tchaikovsky a lot. I have nothing but praise for the Richmond Ballet though - in my opinion, they are Richmond's highest-rate performing arts company. I'm really glad to see they are able to start touring.

Regarding Paul Riddick I totally agree. Unfortunately, he was voted into that position by the council itself, and that after years of speech and behavior inappropriate for anybody, much less an elected representative of the citizens of Norfolk. Also, I would really like to see most (if not all) of the land currently taken up by City Hall and the courts/jail freed up and the street grid restored to that area. What an ugly cap on the end of an otherwise quite nice Main Street. Is there any plan to drstically redesign that complex or is it just the courts they are moving?

Wouldn't 140-150 rooms be pretty small anyways? At 10 rooms per floor, that only puts it at 14-15 stories. Hopefully it will have a reeeeaaaalllly small footprint... 3 rooms per floor and we could have our very first 50-story tower!!!!

Getting this building condemned will get it torn down but it won't take the property away from the current owners, will it?

I've got my fingers crossed for a surface lot!!!

Historic building in Norfolk back up to code, owners say Looks like that builing on Granby and City Hall might last at least a little longer. I don't know about their eventual plans for redevelopment though.

Because it's awesome. The best distinctly American architectural style, in my opinion.

Honestly, I would rather see them do away with the asphault oceans they have in front of all the academic buildings west of Hampton Blvd first. I think it is great what ODU is doing with the University Village. In my opinion, the school will have much better success trying to raise the quality of the education they offer by first improving the campus to make it more appealing to a greater number of students. Then they could afford to be more selective. I have always thought the academic quality of a school has more to do with the students than with the professors.

What is the Ghent bypass?

There were a few really nice pictures on the Virginian-Pilot's website today:

A friend of mine told me yesterday that roads are close and work is underway for the new traffic circle in Old Town. Also, Farm Fresh evidently bought the old antique store at the corner of High St & Effingham and they plan to open a two-story store at that spot. It will be nice to have a full grocery within walking distance of all of Old Town.

We have not had any new pictures in a long time... somebody please keep those of us out of the area up to date!

Sounds good!

I would definitely support that idea, but I think it's a long shot. One possibility: doesn't at least one of the restaurants take up two floors AND have an extrance fronting the street? If so, that might be a good spot. On the whole, I think this will be a tremendous addition to downtown, but if it's just enclosed within the mall then it squanders its potential to really affect downtown. If MacArthur was doing poorly then I'd definitely support putting a big academic bookstore in there, but, as it stands, MacArthur is the most successful thing downtown and there are other places within a few blocks where something like this could be a huge draw on its own.

Or, more accurately, hit us in the wallet. These politicians, aside from the fact that they have to live here too, have no apparent real interest in seeing our state prosper. They're politicians for their own selfish reasons and, by and large, they're unworthy of pretending to serve a public. I can't believe enough of them are so unconcerned about passing a working transportation budget that they would rather allocate no money to transportation needs than even consider compromising. And this is with House and Senate both controlled by the same party! It's mind-blowing!

Ooooh... I had forgotten that approval for light rail meant the new main library plans would have to be ramped up. I'm excited about that! Also, this will likely be a real boon to the areas just north of Brambleton Ave, where there is A LOT of empty space in the form of surface parking and land will probably be significantly cheaper than south of Brambleton. That area being just a block from the light rail line ought to make it a lot more attractive.

Thanks, urbanlife, I don't know if I've ever heard it called that before.

They compete for a similar demographic but with completely different offerings.