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If all this is old news, why have we continued to hear that pending FTA approval, which we seem very close to obtaining, we would have an operational system by 2008? Since this project does not appear to be included on the federal budget for 2007, is there any real need for the city and the FTA to reach an agreement on the structure of the proposed plan? Maybe, if indeed we will have to wait at least a few years anyway, our planners might spend more time improving the project, which I am excited to see go forward but still have reservations about the usefullness of the proposed route.

AWESOME! This is a done deal then? We're definitely getting light rail?

Those first three are some of the most dense-looking photos of Norfolk I have ever seen. Well done.

Wasn't the Bowtie development downtown supposed to include a movie theater? Is that still happening? I suppose the two would still be pretty far apart, but it surprises me to see both built around the same time. In any event, more great news for Richmond.

Just something interesting: Hampton Roads/Tidewater Metro has the third highest number of replies out of all the regional subforums on this site (after Charlotte and Grand Rapids). ...After posting this, I accidentally got to the first page of this thread and when I started reading the first few posts I realised how impressive that statistic is... all hopeful talk about maybe making Hampton Roads its own subforum someday. Now the Hampton Roads subforum has three sub-subforums of its own!

Are you seriously suggesting that the solution to our transportation problem is cutting funding to schools?

And now the conclusion of this four-part series: I was best man at my friends' wedding in this little park last year. Look at all the cranes!

Part three of four: The sun came out just briefly enough for me to take this shot and it made a huge difference. I've always thought that Norfolk looks its best in direct sunlight. The rest of these pictures were taken in downtown Portsmouth. The old YMCA: My great-grandfather owned a drug store in this building on the corner of London and Dinwiddies Streets many years ago. And his brother ran a barber shop in the small part sticking out on the right side of this building.

Part two of four:

These are the pictures I took while I was home visiting family last Sunday. This is the first of four picture posts. This section of Trader Square is pretty much as it will look when the building is completed. Harbor Heights construction: 388 Boush St: The pagoda is one of my favorite strustures downtown but for some reason, despite how beautiful and unique it is, it's rarely shown in photographs of the city.

Just a quick heads up: I will be back in Norfolk briefly tomorrow and plan to take some pictures, so check in tomorrow night or Monday to see them posted.

It does look like a very nice project - and stacked townhomes will be a very good use for that location. The coliseum district will probably never completely rid itself of the "mall/shopping center district" feel, but it is sure coming a long way toward making that distinction not such a bad thing! edit: a little help with the image tags.

Idaho? North and South Dakota? Somehow I feel like the NBA chose these cities for their teams because they are in remote locations, far from any professional teams and not at all likely to see a pro team locate near them in the future. I don't feel we should be too hurt by not being on that list - the more we emphasize the fact that we are a large market without representation in the big leagues, the better our chances of landing something a lot more worthwhile than an NBADL team.

As far as accomodations while you're staying in Hampton Roads, there really is no better place than the Renaissance in downtown Portsmouth - it has the best views around and is walking distance to all of Old Town Portsmouth and a ferry ride away from downtown Norfolk. The ferry is something not to be missed. Here are pictures of the hotel and the view from the rooms:

I love the view from Crawford Parkway and Swimming Point! I really hope Portsmouth follows through with it's plans to close the two lanes on the side of the median closest to the river, convert the street into one lane each direction and turn the land by the river into a small park.

Abandon Ship on Kirn Memorial I'm glad to see the Virginian-Pilot seems to be really pushing for the replacement of the Kirn Library, but unfortunately they are less than optimistic about the prospects of getting a new central library anytime soon. Also, they are suggesting that a location outside of downtown be selected for the new central library (Ward's Corner?!) but I'm a little skeptical of the idea. My opinion is that the new library should stay downtown. I can't imagine TCC contributing to a library buit in Ward's Corner, and I think that TCC/Norfolk partnership on this will be it's greatest asset.

Awesome - How much money have they set aside for this?

Oooooh, how interesting!

I'm looking forward to both sets - I always enjoy seeing new pictures and there doesn't seem to have been many new ones posted here lately. The view from the Renaissance is amazing in every direction.. and Norfolk looks great from the East and West on the river too, so these should be good.

Hmm - no mention of connecting it with the Norfolk starter line. Would this be a short independent track (at least at first)? Also, is this the first mention of Beach light rail as a real option?

Would this be a direct line from Richmond to Norfolk with no stops between? In that case, I guess either route would be alright, but ideally I'd still like to see it travel down the Peninsula and make a stop in Newport News and one in Norfolk. Also, are they looking into extending the track south into NC from there, or would Norfolk be the terminal station?

I'll be very disappointed if a shared TCC/Norfolk Public Library doesn't happen - that cooperative effort would greatly strengthen the research capability of the Norfolk library system. As far as I'm concerned, a public library that is not adequately able to serve the research need of the citizens (i.e. one that houses an expansive fiction section and maybe two sets of encyclopedias and a couple of generic non-fiction titles) is a massive waste of public money and space. I honestly don't understand what is to be gained by spending public money to provide free access to the latest pop fiction unless you already have a top-notch research facility (and schools, infrastructure, etc. for that matter).

Granted the cost of crossing Hampton Roads might be fairly high, I would still think it would be MUCH cheaper than building and operating two separate lines. I think that solution would also go against the notion of a single Hampton Roads region encompassing the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads.

I would certainly hope it would take a route roughly paralelling I-64, which could potentially pass through many more highly-developed areas in Hampton Roads than a 460 parallel. The latter comes into Hampton Roads awkwardly through western Suffolk and Portsmouth, neither of which are really worthy of that kind of transportation development. If that sounds a little harsh, it's only motivated by a desire to see the more urban areas addressed with rail transportation before those suburban/rural areas that would probably never be able to take full advantage of such a great asset. I would love to see a stop near downtown Portsmouth, but there's no reason for a high-speed rail to come through Churchland.

Not against civil rights for all? There are some pretty scary quotes from Republicans about gays that are printed in newspapers every day almost (and not just about the right to marry, either - some really bigoted viewpoints in our government) - and gay rights is just the most recent front. Go back through history and it's always the conservative party that opposes equal rights because they are so able to capitalize on inequality. As a Republican, you may agree or disagree with their stances on these issues, but you can't deny that's what the party advocates. As a gay man, I'm pretty tuned in to this issue, and I have no problem saying that there are many Democrats whose positions on gay rights are far less than accepting - whether, like many, they actually speak out against them or, like Tim Kaine, they simply are unwilling to make a stand. Still, there's a pretty clear divide on the issue, as on just about all social issues, where the Republican party clearly takes the most closed-minded, exclusive stance.