Hampton Roads
Apologies and Ramblings
Feb 25th
We have a lot of potential here, but for some reason, our leaders won’t make the best of it. Portland looked just like Norfolk in the 70s. They had blocks of vacant parking lots. New construction was taking place in the Portland suburbs and the central city was decaying. This is where our regions split. Hampton Roads kept spending money on new highways and infrastructure designed to facilitate new suburban construction. Portland, however, fought the idea that unrestrained growth was good for the region. Their biggest concern? That this new growth was destroying vital farmland, forestland, and other open space. They took their concerns to their legislatures and, after much debate, enacted some of the most comprehensive growth control regulations in the country. This accomplished their goal: protecting open spaces. It also had an unintended consequence. It forced growth back into the city. All of the money that would have been spent on suburbs was then available for the city. They opposed new highways and even fought to get some torn down. They used the savings from that to build a first class public transit system. One of the most important aspects of the new Portland was that they came up with a real comprehensive plan and stuck to it. For this reason, Portland is a well run, well designed city.
Back to Hampton Roads. While Portland was engineering a new city, Norfolk decided the best course of action was to tear ours down. Hampton Roads as a whole, spent a fortune building new highways to allow for quick driving to and from the suburbs. While Portland worked and grew as a region, Hampton Roads cities decided to compete against one another. Each city had to fight for its share of new development, for is share of tourists, even for its share of defense dollars. For this reason, we live in a region with a half-dozen “downtowns,” each of them only a fraction of what they could be if they were built as one. We now live in a region with no pattern of employment or housing centers but rather a sprawling mass of congestion. While cities like Portland are the places-to-be amongst todays young people, Hampton Roads is not. Without finding some way to attract new younger residents, our problems will only get worse.
We need to get more forward thinking people in our elected offices from local to state levels. We need to learn from places like Portland and act accordingly. They aren’t perfect, but they still have alot to teach us. Projects like the Southeastern Parkway are a waste of money. New highways only serve to promote new suburbs at the expense of the rest of the region. Positive investments would include a true all-encompassing master plan for the region. This plan would include a well thought out fixed guideway mass transit system like light rail. It would also work to rezone the areas around transit stops to encourage high-density developments. An emphasis should also be put on expanding freight rail to take more trucks off the roads. Above all, Hampton Roads needs to formulate a plan to share revenue between cities, preferably by merging into one jurisdiction. People should not be afraid of a merger. They will still live in the same place. Taxes can even stay the same for each segment of the new city. The goal, however, is to create a region where growth in one part is good for the whole region. It won’t matter if a new tower is but in Downtown Norfolk or at Town Center. The increased tax base will pay for both areas. Once we have a region that can function as a region, we should split our collective economic development money between attracting the relocation of large companies and creating new businesses, preferably start-ups owned by recent graduates of local colleges and universities. The opportunity presented to graduates will encourage them to stay in the area. If they stay, their friends are more likely to stay and/or move to the area.
Hampton Roads can do this. We have to make our leaders know we will accept no less.
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ODU Predicts Poor Future for HR
Oct 7th
Regardless, it doesn’t have to be this way. Our various regional entities need to step up and create programs (and capital) that encourage new college graduates to start new businesses in the region. Another program could be created by the region’s universities that would give businesses a monetary incentive to hire new local graduates. That could be combined with a local/state government tax break for companies that hire local graduates for local jobs. These initiatives would solidify a young, educated base that would help our economy stay strong for years to come. Businesses would want to relocate here for the new ideas and opportunities that come with an intelligent, entrepreneurial workforce. It would also step up the appeal for local universities, making them more in-demand and, in turn, making them more likely to get grants/research projects from federal and private sources.
For the jobs themselves, we need to work harder to shift our focus from government-supported to private, developing industries. For example, the proposed project for the former Ford plant is a good step. A mixed-use development, it would be focused around a solar panel factory. There are a number of industries that would be great to focus on. A wind turbine plant would be a great addition to Hampton Roads. A high-tech battery factory would be another great addition that could also increase our appeal for a hybrid car plant of some sort. These jobs would be both industrial manufacturing jobs and jobs that would require high-tech research and development employees.
Once we started landing jobs for some of these new college graduates, more jobs would follow. Despite the widespread belief that my generation is one of moronic, half-educated slackers whose only aspirations are government welfare and tree-hugging, I strongly believe that we are more than that. Current college graduates want things to change for the better. I believe that you can have both environmental protection and free market business. Our biggest barrier to becoming our own economic force is that those currently in charge seem to have no regard for us. Once that changes, once our current leaders see that they should be focused on encouraging the younger generations to take part in the economy, the regional economy will be what we make of it.
Fix Hampton Roads
Feb 14th
New Governor McDonnell’s First Speech
Jan 19th
He seems to be full of ideas. Some of them I agree with (Privatizing ABC) and some of them I think are terrible ideas (off-shore drilling). I only hope that he can muster the political will to fix our transportation system. We need more money to be devoted to transit construction and operation and we need to focus highway money on the construction of rebuilt choke points.
Good Luck Governor. Good Luck GA. Good Luck Virginia. There is definitely a lot to be done.
Virginia Beach: A Form-Based Oceanfront
Jan 18th
Build something then make it impossible for locals to use it because they can’t drive down there and park. WAKE UP TAXPAYERS!!
This comment in and of itself demonstrates perfectly the failure of the current system. This is an admission that without a car, the Oceanfront is currently inaccessible, which is of course, all the more reason that it should be changed. I love the last part though. “Wake up taxpayers!” Really? The city is not spending tax dollars to build their own buildings or tear up parking lots. The city is simply making it easier for developers to build more urban-oriented, pedestrian-friendly projects. In the long run, even if you can’t get to it without a car, the property values will increase and revenue from sales will increase. Both of these increase the city’s tax-base. This said, I agree: Wake up taxpayers! To finish that statement, I would also add: Virginia Beach is going to make more money without raising taxes! Isn’t that what the residents want to happen? Ok, next comment.
At the oceanfront parking is always in short supply. Now it seems we want to create or allow less right from the begining (sic). It is not the city’s responciblity (sic) to dumb down the reguklations (sic) to put more money in the builder’s pocket. Stop the catering to these folks and hold them to the same standards that have made this city a wonderful place to live.
Frankly it seems that the city council comes closer and closer everyday to looking like they have been hired as employees of the developers in the city. The Planning Commission members are already builders so where is the checks & balance on city council?
This one is good too. Once again, typical suburbanite. Lets clarify: ”At the oceanfront [next-to-the-door] parking is always in short supply.” I bet if these people had their way, every store would be a drive-through. The next part is good too: “Stop the catering to these folks and hold them to the same standards that have made this city a wonderful place to live.” I think Mr. Bailey needs to be reminded that ‘these folks’ are the same ones that built Virginia Beach. Unless, of course, he and his neighbors built their own houses with their bare hands…. Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Furthermore, the ‘same standards’ that built Virginia Beach have let it to be the most traffic-filled, congested city in South Hampton Roads. Every time someone complains about the VB traffic, they should be reminded that the traffic is entirely attributable to the segregated zoning codes of the past. If you lived within walking distance to the stores that you need to visit on a daily basis, there would be no traffic.
These people that complain about these new codes are ignorant of the nature of the way zoning works. The purpose of this code is to bring mixed-use development to the Oceanfront. The people living there would not need to drive around down there. They could walk. Good job Virginia Beach for moving out of the realm of 1950s-style zoning code. I cannot wait to see the rest of these comments as the day progresses.
