Norfolk Off-Topic

[Arctic_Tern]

On 6/21/2023 at 1:56 PM, baobabs727 said:

I was just down there DRIVING the other day for the first time in 2 years. Well, they've done away with that insipid snake lane on  Waterside starting at Martin's Ln;  however, they've reduced the lanes along the entire length of Waterside from that point onward and onto Boush all the way to Brambleton to..... ONE, SINGLE LANE.  Now that sounds great, right? In theory, perhaps. But in practice at 2pm on a weekday it took me 3 light cycles to get past Nauticus.  Then I was stopped at the next two lights behind 15-20 cars.  And the kicker was that not a single pedestrian was seen crossing anywhere... and not a single bicycle or scooter was in plain sight. 

Planner fools!

   

 

Why didn't you just take a bike?

[baobabs727]

1 hour ago, Arctic_Tern said:

Why didn't you just take a bike?

LOL...b/c it was a spontaneous trip...I was coming from work in VB. Maybe I'll try that next time, but my last bike disappeared...so...let me borrow yours?

[BFG]

Chip Filer announces his resignation. I hope his replacement offers a more progressive vision that can get Norfolk out of this rut that's been going on since the start of the pandemic. Not saying it's his fault but the city had such grand ideas in 2019 that just fell off by the wayside.

https://www.wtkr.com/news/norfolk-city-manager-chip-filer-announces-resignation

Edited June 27, 2023 by BFG

[EJ_LEWIS]

Chip Filer's reign as city manager for Norfolk was underwhelming.  There is no good reason why the Military Circle re-development did not proceed at a normal pace.  The city had three strong proposals from three solid developers. How did Norfolk blow this?  I think the dysfunction lies between Filer and Alexander.   Now that Mr. Roberts is taking over he has the ability to reverse course.  They need to stop the zero tolerance policies for Downtown bars and restaurants.  There is violence and city violations that happen at bars and restaurants in DC, but rarely are the establishments shut down, but usually their liquor license is suspended until they make changes to operations.  This seems like a reasonable course and sends the message that the city does not want to merely punish business establishments but want to improve  them.  Only time will tell.  

[mintscraft56]

On 6/28/2023 at 9:51 AM, EJ_LEWIS said:

Chip Filer's reign as city manager for Norfolk was underwhelming.  There is no good reason why the Military Circle re-development did not proceed at a normal pace.  The city had three strong proposals from three solid developers. How did Norfolk blow this?  I think the dysfunction lies between Filer and Alexander.   Now that Mr. Roberts is taking over he has the ability to reverse course.  They need to stop the zero tolerance policies for Downtown bars and restaurants.  There is violence and city violations that happen at bars and restaurants in DC, but rarely are the establishments shut down, but usually their liquor license is suspended until they make changes to operations.  This seems like a reasonable course and sends the message that the city does not want to merely punish business establishments but want to improve  them.  Only time will tell.  

People always say "time will tell" but when will they say "time has told"? Norfolk did this in the 50s. We saw what it did to downtown for half a lifetime. We cannot do this again, yet we get off and do it anyways. They are killing our downtowns night life and businesses. 

[BFG]

O’Connor Brewing sells its Norfolk location to Armed Forces Brewing out of Maryland. The last day is July 23. 

https://www.wtkr.com/news/in-the-community/norfolk/oconnor-brewing-company-sells-norfolk-location-to-armed-forces-brewing-company-governor

[BFG]

I just went in Waterside hoping to get lunch. It’s dead and most of the places are closed, even at 3:00. Think it’s time to chalk this up to an underwhelming failure. I’m very disappointed. 

[varider]

It can be crowded on weekends and when a cruise ship is in… it does well at organized events and such. maybe we will see some more regular activity when the apartments open up? All of these issues are IMO the result of ZERO growth rate in the city and in the region. For example, the railyard district is awesome and I’m excited for it, but if we were a growing city, that would have at least had a residential element and a more interesting tenant mix? and we likely could have lost the surface parking. If more people were moving here and just a generally more favorable view / more buzz , I don’t think we’d have these problems such as waterside being dead or every project failing or falling short of expectations. It’s an economic issue IMO why everything here tends to be dead 

[BeagleAccountant]

9 hours ago, varider said:

It can be crowded on weekends and when a cruise ship is in… it does well at organized events and such. maybe we will see some more regular activity when the apartments open up? All of these issues are IMO the result of ZERO growth rate in the city and in the region. For example, the railyard district is awesome and I’m excited for it, but if we were a growing city, that would have at least had a residential element and a more interesting tenant mix? and we likely could have lost the surface parking. If more people were moving here and just a generally more favorable view / more buzz , I don’t think we’d have these problems such as waterside being dead or every project failing or falling short of expectations. It’s an economic issue IMO why everything here tends to be dead 

Im confused by your comment on the railyard district. The majority of development in that area has been turning old warehouses into apartments where there were none before. There are at least 6 apartment complexes that are a reuse that I can think of built over the last few years. Are you talking about the Railyard, a development in Lamberts Point?

[varider]

21 minutes ago, BeagleAccountant said:

Im confused by your comment on the railyard district. The majority of development in that area has been turning old warehouses into apartments where there were none before. There are at least 6 apartment complexes that are a reuse that I can think of built over the last few years. Are you talking about the Railyard, a development in Lamberts Point?

sorry, yes I was referring to the Railyard development, not the Railroad District itself ( I agree w you the residential there is starting to take off)

my point was that a project like the Railyard would be more dynamic if the city itself was in a better position for growth 

[urbanvb]

District Apizza, a Connecticut style pizza shop will open sometime this month at 2411 Granby Street.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2023/08/01/restaurants-retailers-breweries-and-more-the-latest-business-openings-and-closings-in-hampton-roads/

Google maps just updated this street view. Good to see a reuse of this little building.

The mapped version didn’t work when posting here. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by urbanvb

[lammius]

Love a good New Haven style "abeetz"

[BFG]

1 hour ago, urbanvb said:

District Apizza, a Connecticut style pizza shop will open sometime this month at 2411 Granby Street.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2023/08/01/restaurants-retailers-breweries-and-more-the-latest-business-openings-and-closings-in-hampton-roads/

For reference it’s the old Good Mojo thrift store, but far from the Army and Navy shop on Granby. Hopefully it leads to more development over that way. 

[zeppelin14]

This is Raleigh over a 23 year span. Look at the growth. Where did Norfolk go wrong? We got the Hilton and Wells Fargo but not much else.

[varider]

Sad. We don’t even have to look that far to find an example of a city that’s blowing us out of the water (urban development wise). Look how far Richmond has come. They have more under construction, tons more proposed— just feels like an impressive amount of momentum up there. I wish some of that could trickle on down to good ol Tidewater 

[varider]

As part of the company’s Delivery Hub, the Business Services team provides a variety of specialized support for Booz Allen employees in areas including customer service, help desk, and HR operations. Establishing a Business Services operations center in Norfolk is aligned with a multi-year, multi-location transformation strategy designed to efficiently scale shared services support for Booz Allen’s rapidly growing business.

The company has relocated senior leaders to Norfolk and already filled more than 60 Business Services positions locally. These roles joined several hundred Norfolk-aligned Booz Allen staff providing a variety of innovative technical support to defense, federal civilian, and national security clients in areas such as specialized intelligence and space system capabilities, warfighting capability development, and mission readiness analytics solutions across the digital battlespace.

The company expects to double its Business Services team in the next year and to continue to add new regional jobs and infrastructure investments over the next five years.

https://hamptonroadsalliance.com/news/booz-allen-expands-norfolk-footprint-with-new-shared-services-delivery-hub/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

 

[mintscraft56]

I wish Norfolk could annex a little more. A city our size should not be this small. The county sized cities surrounding us dont help. 

[Urbanlooker]

So according to a study conducted by the Parking Reform Network. Downtown Norfolk is made up of 23% parking. Here is a link to the study and I have also attached a screenshot of a map showing all the of the parking, which includes both structured and service level. 

https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/

This is way better than VB which according to that study consists of 35% parking. That being said the area they used as VB's central district is the beach. So there will always been a ton of parking needed there unless there was WAY better public transportation connecting the region. 

Edit: saw this first on the Richmond thread. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Urbanlooker

[BFG]

Coming to 439 Granby St...

https://www.facebook.com/VIAdesignNorfolkVirginia/posts/pfbid026tpLPmJQb7gGARv1oVCZTmQVLJQyJYsCJHg4LHa1GoGgpQiwjwpYcvYcen1d8d8xl

The design is a bit odd for that space, but you wouldn't be able to put much there anyway.

[BFG]

Some people on IG complained about the height relative to the rest of the block, but it’s not that far fetched. The gray building in the foreground is next to Granby Theater. The proposed condos would go in the space I circled so I don’t think it would stand out too much. 

[BeagleAccountant]

8 hours ago, BFG said:

Coming to 439 Granby St...

https://www.facebook.com/VIAdesignNorfolkVirginia/posts/pfbid026tpLPmJQb7gGARv1oVCZTmQVLJQyJYsCJHg4LHa1GoGgpQiwjwpYcvYcen1d8d8xl

The design is a bit odd for that space, but you wouldn't be able to put much there anyway.

Hopefully this inspires others to do the same. Build up! 

[Urbanlooker]

The type of design the city needs more of ... not every mid-high rise needs to take up an entire block. Hopefully this actually gets built. 

[mintscraft56]

20 hours ago, BFG said:

Coming to 439 Granby St...

https://www.facebook.com/VIAdesignNorfolkVirginia/posts/pfbid026tpLPmJQb7gGARv1oVCZTmQVLJQyJYsCJHg4LHa1GoGgpQiwjwpYcvYcen1d8d8xl

The design is a bit odd for that space, but you wouldn't be able to put much there anyway.

FINALLY somthing good! I love the look already.

[metalman]

There was a similar concept planned then denied about 10 years ago on a similar plot across the street on Granby a block or so up.  Can anyone who remembers dig that rendering up?

[baobabs727]

On 8/24/2023 at 2:49 AM, Urbanlooker said:

So according to a study conducted by the Parking Reform Network. Downtown Norfolk is made up of 23% parking. Here is a link to the study and I have also attached a screenshot of a map showing all the of the parking, which includes both structured and service level. 

https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/

This is way better than VB which according to that study consists of 35% parking. That being said the area they used as VB's central district is the beach. So there will always been a ton of parking needed there unless there was WAY better public transportation connecting the region. 

Edit: saw this first on the Richmond thread. 

OK, I've not been introduced to PRN, so pardon my ignorance.  So what is their ideal?  Their goal? 10% parking?  5? Is it their stated objective to discourage folks from driving into an area by way of limiting their parking options? Is it even within their scope of analysis/concern to examine the risk (risk-reward calculus) associated with such a strategy in terms of the real potential for a reduction in parking spaces leading to a reduction in visitation/consumer spending?  OR are they counting on changing the behavior of the visitor?

Some on City Council in Virginia Beach believe that the Rudee Loop Park must include a parking garage, for they say there is an extreme shortage of parking spaces in the Resort area.  Would you recommend building a parking garage at Rudee...or anywhere else along the Resort strip for that matter? 
 

Edited August 25, 2023 by baobabs727