Hampton Roads Off-Topic Talk

[rusthebuss]

I've got 2 more years of undergrad and then I figure I'll just go ahead and get grad school over with. What are goin for russ (like whats your major/degree)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dude I'm an electrical engineering student. I've been going for 5 years and haven't finished my first 2 years yet. It sucks! Verizon is now paying for my school now so thats cool. What is your degree coupe?

[wrldcoupe4]

I know some people that are electrical engineers..cool. I'm a Government and International Relations major. I'll probably minor in business or urban and suburban studies.

Reason I asked was because you're very interested in economic development in Norfolk and HR and didn't know if you were going to school to do something with that.

[rusthebuss]

I know some people that are electrical engineers..cool. I'm a Government and International Relations major. I'll probably minor in business or urban and suburban studies.

Reason I asked was because you're very interested in economic development in Norfolk and HR and didn't know if you were going to school to do something with that.

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I would but I like engineering and I plan on staying with Verizon. I think that I would enjoy that but I like electrical theory and technology. I took electronics in Norfolk's Votech and have been hooked on it ever since.

[urbanvb]

Looks like Norfolk can now vote for the office of mayor as per the Pilot.

[urbanlife]

while they are both nice cities I am going to have to go with a clear winner. Portland, Or every medium city needs to study us and see what we are doing right.

Edited August 10, 2005 by urbanlife

[urbanvb]

Would you happen to have any pics of Portland to show us?

[lammius]

while they are both nice cities I am going to have to go with a clear winner.  Portland, Or every medium city needs to study us and see what we are doing right.

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And what's NOT working in Portland.

[willy]

Would you happen to have any pics of Portland to show us?

Check this thread

[rusthebuss]

Hopefully in the next decade or so we will grow bigger than the present portland.

[Greekboy80]

Check this thread

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Man, i had never seen portland like that! that is one nice city. i love that there are no pictures of building that dont have shops of some kind underneath them. the street cars are great too! it also seems like there are just a lot of people out and around the city.

Rus - it would be awesome to see norfolk like that in 10 years. i have a huge, deep, want/urge to live in a city like that. i am so envyous(sp?) of cities like Portland. i want that to happen to norfolk. hurry please!

Hopefully, one day...one day.

i think our biggest problem is that we're(7 cities) so spread out across the region. and like i have said, if Norfolk and Va beach teamed up to have 1 downtown and had all of TC's stuff in DT norfolk, we would be a major player in 5 or so years. now, its like were battling each other.

This is depressing, im going back to work.

[rusthebuss]

Man, i had never seen portland like that! that is one nice city. i love that there are no pictures of building that dont have shops of some kind underneath them. the street cars are great too! it also seems like there are just a lot of people out and around the city.

Rus - it would be awesome to see norfolk like that in 10 years. i have a huge, deep, want/urge to live in a city like that. i am so envyous(sp?) of cities like Portland.  i want that to happen to norfolk. hurry please!

Hopefully, one day...one day. 

i think our biggest problem is that we're(7 cities) so spread out across the region. and like i have said, if Norfolk and Va beach teamed up to have 1 downtown and had all of TC's stuff in DT norfolk, we would be a major player in 5 or so years. now, its like were battling each other.

This is depressing, im going back to work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been telling people that for years is that the 7 cities is what kills us. DT Norfolk would probably be bigger than that of Portlands if we had a single DT. But at the same time the 7 cities make us unique and special and gives us different culturals in the same region that other metros don't have. Its a double edged sword situation. I think Norfolk's DT will grow. The triangle is having the same problems as us. Durham and such all have a DT and if they consolidated it would be a nice size too so we aren't the only one's in this situation.

[Greekboy80]

I've been telling people that for years is that the 7 cities is what kills us. DT Norfolk would probably be bigger than that of Portlands if we had a single DT. But at the same time the 7 cities make us unique and special and gives us different culturals in the same region that other metros don't have. Its a double edged sword situation. I think Norfolk's DT will grow. The triangle is having the same problems as us. Durham and such all have a DT and if they consolidated it would be a nice size too so we aren't the only one's in this situation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, i hear what your saying and i appreciate this area for that too, but, i would trade out "7 cities" for 1 Huge City!

But thats just my opinion.

[rusthebuss]

Yeah, i hear what your saying and i appreciate this area for that too, but, i would trade out "7 cities" for 1 Huge City!

But thats just my opinion.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me too! but there is very little we can do. It would be nice to see Portsmouth and Norfolk become one city. I don't know if any of these consolidations of cities will come together. Hopefully it will

[mercuex]

Me too! but there is very little we can do. It would be nice to see Portsmouth and Norfolk become one city. I don't know if any of these consolidations of cities will come together. Hopefully it will

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Yikes ... am I the only one who thinks that one big HR city would be a disaster at our present time??

It makes more sense, instead, to consolidate the smaller cities like Portsmouth and Norfolk; Hampton, Newport News, and Poquoson. The new Norfolk and new Newport News would be both around 350-370,000 which provide impetus for much more consolidated development.

As far as smashing everything together though ... I don't think we're ready and I would oppose any sort of move for that to happen until we have a more unified transportation and public utilities rubric.

[rusthebuss]

well if we were unified the transportation issue would be resolved. The seven entities are the problem with the transportation. Some want it some don't and you can't get it with out total support from all. It will not help if only some want it. The purpose of mass transit is to be able to get all around and not just DT or from point a to b but where you can get from a to z if need be. Vabeach needs to jump in and so does Hampton and Chesapeake and may be Suffolk and portsmouth. It needs to be regional not just one city.

Edited August 10, 2005 by rusthebuss

[mercuex]

well if we were unified the transportation issue would be resolved. The seven entities are the problem with the transportation. Some want it some don't and you can't get it with out total support from all. It will not help if only some want it. The purpose of mass transit is to be able to get all around and not just DT or from point a to b but where you can get from a to z if need be. Vabeach needs to jump in and so does Hampton and Chesapeake and may be Suffolk and portsmouth. It needs to be regional not just one city.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats a simplistic way of looking at it. Besides, the city that's least likely to entertain consolidation is Va Beach because they're afraid it would be swallowed by Norfolk. I'm sure Suffolk doesn't like the idea of joining anyone else either simply because of the way Norfolk and Portsmouth officials looked at it lustfully a little while ago as a fat piece of land to develop. Suffolk has its own bright future.

Anyway, it's hard to say that the region will solve its transportation issue if they can't solve anything on their own. For some reason I don't feel that an unmitigated cecession of local powers to a regional govt will do anything to solve much. A unified HRT, if you recall, was supposed to perform magic tricks that have made things arguably worse.

Also, Chesapeake and Hampton have both indicated they want in on light rail projects in the past. Portsmouth too. I don't know about Suffolk but I'm sure they'd be amenable (even if it is a little premature). Va Beach is the only municipality that has come out overtly against it. Who knows though, their BRT thing might work out great.

[rusthebuss]

You know they should come up some regional transportation commitee that would work for the better of all of HR. It should be compromised of one rep from each of the seven cities and when projects are submitted it is submitted as a region and not as seperate cities. Maybe this would unify us a little more.

[mercuex]

That's not a bad idea. Though, I do wonder if there's already a regional committee who could take on this role rather than forking out more money for another bureaucracy that may or may not be accountable to anyone ...

[rusthebuss]

That's not a bad idea. Though, I do wonder if there's already a regional committee who could take on this role rather than forking out more money for another bureaucracy that may or may not be accountable to anyone ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only problem i would forsee is that people would gripe about their projects not getting worked on or put off for other cities projects. I don't know how you could really get around this type of situation unless we were one city and even then wards and stuff fight with each other so I don't really have a solid answer. I do think its a step closer to getting things resolved better than what we have now though.

[rusthebuss]

wow urbanlife you must have a long post you've been there about 10 min

[rusthebuss]

where did you go?????

[urbanlife]

Man, i had never seen portland like that! that is one nice city. i love that there are no pictures of building that dont have shops of some kind underneath them. the street cars are great too! it also seems like there are just a lot of people out and around the city.

Rus - it would be awesome to see norfolk like that in 10 years. i have a huge, deep, want/urge to live in a city like that. i am so envyous(sp?) of cities like Portland.  i want that to happen to norfolk. hurry please!

Hopefully, one day...one day. 

i think our biggest problem is that we're(7 cities) so spread out across the region. and like i have said, if Norfolk and Va beach teamed up to have 1 downtown and had all of TC's stuff in DT norfolk, we would be a major player in 5 or so years. now, its like were battling each other.

This is depressing, im going back to work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually I am a regular on Skyscraperpage and post pictures of Portland with some funny commentary on both the Northwest section and the City Photos section. Plus all of my pictures are at flickr.com, user name is urbanlife78.

I use to say the same thing Greekboy, if HR had one downtown we would be an amazing downtown. After living in Portland and visiting cities in the Northwest, I now believe that answer to be complete crap. (I will keep this on a simple level).

The word downtown is where the financing is and where the big bucks are (minus today's edge cities, that's a class in itself). But that is not the case with Portland. We are a city of districts and small towns, it only seems that we have a downtown.

We have the Old Town where the US Bank sits (not in old town, but just outside of it). That area has problems that I wont go into explaining, but thing will be changing soon. Then there is The retail district where our city has a 4 seperate block mall and all the department stores. (All that means is we took the mall and opened it too the streets). Then there is the lower part of downtown, the real downtown where all our office biuldings are, but just west of there is our growing Cultural district. To the north end of downtown sits the Pearl district, much of that is wealthy residential. To the West of the Pearl is "Nob Hill" (for the people who want to pretend they are in SanFran), but others call it the Northwest district (think Ghent with alot more retail aimed at younger wealthy people on one side and poorer young people on the other). Cross the river and you will find the Lloyd district, with a huge collection of 70's architecture and 70's planning (think Pembroke if they built it in the 70's "car friendly". Soon we will have the Burnside Bridge redevelopment just south of Lloyd district which will be another city in itself. South of downtown they are building the South Waterfront district "Portland's future most dense area" Also will act as a downtown for itself. Now away from downtown, every neighborhood has a small commercial and retail area that acts like a downtown, we have downtown Beaverton 20 minutes from downtown Portland, dowtown Gresham (on wow, laughed to hard on that one) about 20-30 minutes away. downtown Vancouver anywhere from 15 with no traffic to who knows when with traffic away, downtown Hillsboro (think Montana anything) 30-40 minutes away, downtown Oregon City, Milwaukie, and Salem all under an hour away.

Which all this leaves me with my point, Norfolk has no excuse for not being bigger and better, none of Hampton Roads does, except maybe Suffolk (comeone they are still in farm town). The Problem with every city in the US is the fact that they don't start from home. Make it easy for local restuarants to start up (Portland has become a culinary mecca of local foods). Help small businesses get started and grow, help building owners afford to lower their rents so local can go in. Make your artist feel like they are important. Give them grocery stores where ever they need them. (If VaBeach works it will be because they have a grocery store downtown, they do still have that right?). Create districts for everything and give those areas the power over their land and what happens in their own city (also a bad thing if you piss them off, constant headache for anyone in Portland trying to build). Create a group that helps redevelop areas that are rundown. Create a metro to be in charge of regional things like transportation.

Portland is not perfect, we still have a long way to go to get to that, but at least we are trying for it. It is the people who live in the cities that make it what they are. We have Nike, Adidas, Columbia, and Intel here, but they don't make Portland Portland, the people do.

[urbanlife]

wow urbanlife you must have a long post you've been there about 10 min

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I should teach a class on this crap, maybe I should someday after I graduate. things to think about

[urbanvb]

I am speaking only of my thoughts and of VA Beach specifically but the city is just now understanding they need to cater to different types of people that are outside of the 'bubble' if you will. But the small town atmosphere is very big in this .. big town. It almost has a backward feel yet it is very diverse with people from everywhere. Kind of like no real direction. And it seems to me the city has no cohesion and maybe it is b/c of the military moving in and out. As much as I want this city to be more cosmopolitan I just don't know how far it will become. Norfolk is heading in the right direction it seems even more so than VB but it has taken a good while for both cities to get where they are today.

[rusthebuss]

Those businesses attract people to Portland so they do help make Portland Portland. The life and culture can't be there if the money isn't there too. We have lacked the companies and such that Portland has so it does have an effect on things like this. Also, Norfolk does have an excuse and its the military doesn't exactly bring in the most upscale people to the area and also look how close it is to a bunch of major metros. The effects are city and such as well.