1641 replies to this topic

[Cotuit]

I've created this thread so that people from the Hampton Roads area who are members of UP, or Hampton Roaders (do you all call yourselves that?) who are lurking, can have a place to talk about things that may not fit into the urban theme of UP.

Feel free to discuss local sports, entertainment, favourite local hangouts, the weather.. whatever.

This is also a good place for newbies to drop in and introduce themselves without feeling the need to have something concrete to contribute to a specific thread.

I moderate this section, but as you can see, I'm not from the Hampton Roads area. If you need anything to help you settle in here at UP please feel free to leave a message in this thread or send me a PM.

[vdogg]

Its nice to see the Hampton Roads area gaining some traction on UP. When i first came here there was barely anyone to talk to from the region, now people are popping out of the woodwork. Thanks for adding this forum, It was starting to get a bit cumbersome weeding through all the off topic stuff to find all the new develpment news.

[Cotuit]

You can start your own threads too. If you have some projects that are actually happening and have a lot to discuss, feel free to make threads devoted to them.

[rusthebuss]

Does anyone actually think that we will ever have a professional sports team?NBA? We actually have the money and the population to support it what is really holding this area back?

[vdogg]

rusthebuss, on Feb 24 2005, 10:03 AM, said:

Does anyone actually think that we will ever have a professional sports team?NBA? We actually have the money and the population to support it what is really holding this area back?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There is actually a pretty ruthless debate going on over on SSC about this very same subject. My personal thoughts, no, with the added disclaimer that never is a long time so i cannot say that we will never have a team. What i will see is its not likely within the next 20 years given our current political and social climate. With new councils and new attitudes i could be made to look like a liar, but i doubt it.

[rusthebuss]

vdogg, on Feb 24 2005, 01:03 PM, said:

There is actually a pretty ruthless debate going on over on SSC about this very same subject. My personal thoughts, no, with the added disclaimer that never is a long time so i cannot say that we will never have a team. What i will see is its not likely within the next 20 years given our current political and social climate. With new councils and new attitudes i could be made to look like a liar, but i doubt it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SSC?

[vdogg]

rusthebuss, on Feb 24 2005, 12:19 PM, said:

SSC?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lol. Sorry Skyscrapercity. Its a website like this where there are a couple of Hampton Roads forums. Also Skyscraperpage has a lot of development news from Norfolk and Virginia Beach in their Southern States forum, more than SSC. From now on if you see me (or anyone for that matter) talk about SSC or SSP its normally referring to those sites. I get so used to primarily posting on those sites that i use terms that people who do not go to those sites may not understand. My apologies.

[Cotuit]

vdogg, on Feb 23 2005, 03:15 PM, said:

Its nice to see the Hampton Roads area gaining some traction on UP. When i first came here there was barely anyone to talk to from the region, now people are popping out of the woodwork.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

UP has been gaining a lot of traction in various subforums of late. If we see more people from Hampton Roads and steady discussion, we could break it out into it's own subforum eventually. It's not there yet, soon.  

[rusthebuss]

we could break it out into it's own subforum eventually

You really should dude this is a up and coming metro area and it should not be overlooked

[vdogg]

http://home.hamptonr...2909&ran=166066
Deadline for I-64 project on Peninsula pushed back again
By TOM HOLDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 2, 2005 | Last updated 11:41 AM Mar. 2

HAMPTON — Construction of the oft-delayed Coliseum Central project on Interstate 64 is now scheduled to be completed Aug. 1, 2006, a deadline that is seven months later than the previous one.

The Virginia Department of Transportation and its prime contractor, E.V. Williams Inc., announced the new completion date today and insisted that it is firm. VDOT and the contractor attributed the additional delay to various construction and weather-related problems.

VDOT also is working on a revised cost for the project. It was originally slated to cost $64.7 million, but that cost has risen to more than $115 million. New estimates are expected to push that number higher.

The project, which will widen the interstate and is designed to ease congestion along the region’s second most heavily traveled corridor, has become an almost-constant irritation for motorists and local businesses. The latest delay will put it two and a half years past its originally scheduled completion date.

Since work began in 2001, problems have included poorly made bridge beams, incorrectly poured concrete, soil problems, weather delays and contract disagreements between Williams and VDOT officials.



Reach Tom Holden at 446-2331 or tom.holden@pilotonline.com
Grrr....

[rusthebuss]

vdogg, on Mar 2 2005, 12:49 PM, said:

http://home.hamptonr...2909&ran=166066
Deadline for I-64 project on Peninsula pushed back again
By TOM HOLDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 2, 2005 | Last updated 11:41 AM Mar. 2

HAMPTON — Construction of the oft-delayed Coliseum Central project on Interstate 64 is now scheduled to be completed Aug. 1, 2006, a deadline that is seven months later than the previous one.

The Virginia Department of Transportation and its prime contractor, E.V. Williams Inc., announced the new completion date today and insisted that it is firm. VDOT and the contractor attributed the additional delay to various construction and weather-related problems.

VDOT also is working on a revised cost for the project. It was originally slated to cost $64.7 million, but that cost has risen to more than $115 million. New estimates are expected to push that number higher.

The project, which will widen the interstate and is designed to ease congestion along the region’s second most heavily traveled corridor, has become an almost-constant irritation for motorists and local businesses. The latest delay will put it two and a half years past its originally scheduled completion date.

Since work began in 2001, problems have included poorly made bridge beams, incorrectly poured concrete, soil problems, weather delays and contract disagreements between Williams and VDOT officials.
Reach Tom Holden at 446-2331 or tom.holden@pilotonline.com
Grrr....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah VDOT needs to stop screwing around with area and see it for the potential that it is and supply the roads that we need instead of blowing it all on Richmond

[vdogg]

http://home.hamptonr...3083&ran=119251
The Defense Effect: Will Hampton Roads be affected by base closings?

By TOM SHEAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2005

The hit list for Philadelphia included its naval shipyard, naval station and naval hospital......

The base-closing process, informally known as BRAC, is about to resume. The Defense Department is scheduled to publish a list on May 16 of the bases it considers surplus and would like to shut. A new base realignment and closure commission must act on that list and submit its own recommendations to the president by Sept. 8......

^^^^Click link for full article (can't post full article due to rules change)

[vdogg]

I've been thinking that now that Virginia has its own forum, we should consider breaking Virginia Beach and Norfolk out of the Hampton Roads major projects thread and creating a thread for each city (Norfolk development and Virginia Beach development respectively). The reasoning behind this is that the original thread is becoming quite large and unmanagable and people may be missing important parts because they don't wish to scroll through all 10 to 11 pages of info. I further propose reserving the Hampton Roads thread for projects that are in the Metro that don't necessarily have anything to do with Virginia Beach and Norfolk, thus increasing the profile of smaller regions in this area. Feedback anyone?

Edited by vdogg, 12 March 2005 - 09:41 PM.

[Downtowner]

I agree Vdogg

[Cotuit]

vdogg, on Mar 12 2005, 07:12 PM, said:

I've been thinking that now that Virginia has its own forum, we should considered breaking Virginia Beach and Norfolk out of the Hampton Roads major projects thread and creating a thread for each city (Norfolk development and Virginia Beach development respectively).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's a great idea. Have at it!

[JohnnyCockfight]

vdogg, on Mar 6 2005, 09:04 AM, said:

http://home.hamptonr...3083&ran=119251
The Defense Effect: Will Hampton Roads be affected by base closings?

By TOM SHEAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2005

The hit list for Philadelphia included its naval shipyard, naval station and naval hospital......

The base-closing process, informally known as BRAC, is about to resume. The Defense Department is scheduled to publish a list on May 16 of the bases it considers surplus and would like to shut. A new base realignment and closure commission must act on that list and submit its own recommendations to the president by Sept. 8......

^^^^Click link for full article (can't post full article due to rules change)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Civic and military leaders on the Peninsula have been in recent meetings to discuss the potential for base closings.  While Fort Eustis appears to be safe this time around, the same cannot be said for Fort Monroe in Hampton.  Compounding the problem is the Hampton city council's inability to do anything productive with all the recent in-fighting.

[vdogg]

Cities taken aback by proposed trash fee hike



By SCOTT HARPER, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 24, 2005

CHESAPEAKE — At a time when garbage fees were supposed to be going down across South Hampton Roads, they instead are proposed to go up – by as much as 28 percent, effective July 1.

The bad news, affecting tens of thousands of homeowners, was delivered Wednesday by the Southeastern Public Service Authority, or SPSA, a government cooperative started nearly three decades ago to handle most trash and recycling needs in the region.

The proposed disposal rates for local governments, which then are passed on to residents, still could change; they will not be set until May 25 , following a public hearing. And some local officials, already stinging from tight municipal budgets and taxpayer resentment over rising property assessments, vowed to find ways to trim the fees.

“Twenty-eight percent in one year is just too much,” said Wade Kyle , Virginia Beach’s solid waste director, who voted against the proposed increase at a SPSA board meeting Wednesday in Chesapeake.


Background:
SPSA enters new market for landfill; suit possible

By a 4-2 vote , with two members absent, the board agreed to seek approval for municipal trash-disposal rates, or tipping fees, of $59 per ton of garbage. Fees this year are $46 a ton .

If approved in May, most cities and counties served by SPSA will have to scramble to find funds to cover the trash hike. SPSA estimates the average homeowner would see an annual garbage bill rise 10 percent , from $180 to $198 .

Suffolk does not pay a municipal tipping fee, because it hosts the regional landfill. And Virginia Beach, which also operates a landfill, has its fees capped, at $44.90 a ton , through next year. The other SPSA communities – Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Franklin, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County – would face the higher rates.

Tipping fees were supposed to slide to $42 next year, under an agreement with private waste companies inked in 2001 . “We have peace in the valley,” SPSA’s executive director, John Hadfield, said at the time.

On Wednesday, Hadfield struggled to explain how his agency now could be seeking one of the largest single-year rate hikes since the agency was formed in 1977 . He said it was complicated and pivoted on several factors........ Full story



^^^^Wow! I guess the price of everything is going up in Hampton Roads. This is pretty ridiculous.

[rusthebuss]

Yes and they had it set up for it to decrease, this is ridiculous. People in this area will not be able to afford to live here.

[rusthebuss]

Beach doesn't look at the whole picture. I haven't figured out why they will not join in on the light rail project. I think they think that "Norfolk Trash" will come to VaBeach and cause problems. So you tell me Va Beach doesn't think there sh.t don't stink. Their city council is idiots

[vdogg]

rusthebuss, on Mar 28 2005, 05:33 PM, said:

Beach doesn't look at the whole picture. I haven't figured out why they will not join in on the light rail project. I think they think that "Norfolk Trash" will come to VaBeach and cause problems. So you tell me Va Beach doesn't think there sh.t don't stink. Their city council is idiots

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't necessarily think Va. Beach is worried about "Norfolk Trash" per se. I think the cities concern is more on the level of wanting to do things their way and not wanting to be subjugated to another municipality. There are actually parts in the Va. Beach master plan that call for preserving right of ways for transit in the future. Perhaps they decided that now is not the right time. While i agree that that was the wrong decision to make, i think the differences between Norfolk and Va. Beach go a bit deeper than the surface level. That being said, i think this new emphasis on urbanization will eventually tilt the area towards wanting a viable transit solution.