Virginia Beach off-topic

[urbanlife]

On 5/9/2022 at 9:16 AM, mintscraft56 said:

Every VIrginia Beach resitent´s feverdream:

  

 

Everyone can agree on this one. That taco bell is nearly invincible.

Holy crap! are they actually tearing down the Taco Bell??? Is it to build a new Taco Bell?.....

[HRVA]

25 minutes ago, NFKjeff said:

Yes, and yes. I think this is a photo from the archives.

 

Yep. You can see the old Beacon building in the background. 12 years ago…

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_294733c0-dec7-5eb8-a5a7-26af37286237.html

[metalman]

Wait, I think there are two different things going on.  Were you just commenting on how much people want this to happen? Cause-
1-This is an old photo.

2-Are they really planning on razing the TB?  ‘Cause it’s still there.

Edited May 11, 2022 by metalman

[mintscraft56]

This went a little far......I just wanted to make a joke about the invincible taco bell that everyone hates, yet it continues to fight for taco bell's glory and honor.

Anyways I find it funny they tore down the tacobell just for tacobell to rebuild it a year later

[zeppelin14]

That Taco Bell will never die. Much like cockroaches during nuclear war or Keith Richards.

[urbanvb]

Years ago the owner of that parcel swore to never sell his property. 

[urbanlife]

4 hours ago, mintscraft56 said:

This went a little far......I just wanted to make a joke about the invincible taco bell that everyone hates, yet it continues to fight for taco bell's glory and honor.

Anyways I find it funny they tore down the tacobell just for tacobell to rebuild it a year later

It's like a Taco Bell Phoenix. 

[varider]

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/virginia-beach/650000-sq-ft-fulfillment-center-planned-for-south-of-nas-oceana-in-vb-sources-say-its-amazon/
 

A massive new ecommerce robotics fulfillment center, which multiple sources say will be home to Amazon, is being planned for land just south of Naval Air Station Oceana.

On Wednesday, the Virginia Beach Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the application for a five-story, 650,000-square-foot warehouse to be built on a more than 160-acre site along Dam Neck Road near where it meets with Harpers Road.

“This could be a game-changer for our community,” Dyer said. “Thousands of jobs that will keep our children here.”

[vdogg]

39 minutes ago, varider said:

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/virginia-beach/650000-sq-ft-fulfillment-center-planned-for-south-of-nas-oceana-in-vb-sources-say-its-amazon/
 

A massive new ecommerce robotics fulfillment center, which multiple sources say will be home to Amazon, is being planned for land just south of Naval Air Station Oceana.

On Wednesday, the Virginia Beach Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the application for a five-story, 650,000-square-foot warehouse to be built on a more than 160-acre site along Dam Neck Road near where it meets with Harpers Road.

“This could be a game-changer for our community,” Dyer said. “Thousands of jobs that will keep our children here.”

Amazon sure loves to build warehouses in our area. I just wish they had as much zeal to build offices in our area.

[mintscraft56]

38 minutes ago, vdogg said:

Amazon sure loves to build warehouses in our area. I just wish they had as much zeal to build offices in our area.

We are their storage city. Arlington is their office city.

Sadly to say...plus unless they have a care for boosting the area's popularity I doubt they will care about building office high rises around here.

4 hours ago, urbanlife said:

It's like a Taco Bell Phoenix. 

Its the gladiator of taco bells, it fights for taco bell honor and glory.

[mintscraft56]

4 hours ago, urbanvb said:

Years ago the owner of that parcel swore to never sell his property. 

Of course he did.....I expect it to look like this oneday, except of course with it being a taco bell instead of a house. 

[baobabs727]

I think it’s great, but according to the Internet, the average hourly wage at one of these centers is $16.20 an hour. So I’m not sure why Bobby Dyer thinks that this development is going to “keep our children here.“ Let’s aim a little higher, shall we?  

[HRVA]

12 minutes ago, baobabs727 said:

I think it’s great, but according to the Internet, the average hourly wage at one of these centers is $16.20 an hour. So I’m not sure why Bobby Dyer thinks that this development is going to “keep our children here.“ Let’s aim a little higher, shall we?  

Agree. This isn’t anything special. It’s big & will create lots of jobs/taxes but every region is getting one or two of these. Only place VB would have competed against for this is Chesapeake. 

6 hours ago, urbanvb said:

Years ago the owner of that parcel swore to never sell his property. 

As for Taco Bell - owner could sell it and it won’t change anything. Only thing owning it gets you is a check in the mail every month. Taco Bell probably controls that site for another 50 years by ground lease. 

[Lluck002]

11 hours ago, vdogg said:

Amazon sure loves to build warehouses in our area. I just wish they had as much zeal to build offices in our area.

Amazon said they passed on Hampton Roads for HQ2 because there was a lack of rapid transit, among other things. If only there were some sort of light rail… hmmmm

[mintscraft56]

1 hour ago, Lluck002 said:

Amazon said they passed on Hampton Roads for HQ2 because there was a lack of rapid transit, among other things. If only there were some sort of light rail… hmmmm

Well that got shot down with a stubborn HRT and a failed smear campaign. 

[baobabs727]

I know that some people will say a list is just a list, a ranking is subjective. But people do pay attention to these when they are choosing a place to relocate themselves, their families  and their businesses.  And cities who are in the top 10 or top 20 definitely use these rankings in promotional materials and take real pride in them. As they should.
 

#106, #51: Virginia Beach’s newest ranking on the best places to live and retire lists, respectively, from USNews. Absolutely crushing to see North Carolina rank so much higher… city after city after city after city. It’s like anywhere in North Carolina beats HR. And we are left in Richmond’s rear view mirror as well, and  by a considerable margin. It wasn’t too many years ago when we were near the top of such  lists. Not anymore. Make of this what you will., but there’s no positive way to spin this. 
 

https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live?src=usn_pr

Edited May 17, 2022 by baobabs727

[BFG]

Ten years ago, VB had more promise and potential. The potential arena, residents were open to expanding light rail, and so forth. All that falling through since, plus the loss of SITW are important. Doesn’t help that Norfolk seems to move at a snail’s pace to make anything happen, whereas the Carolina cities don’t hesitate. 

Not to mention officially getting to 2M people seems like an impossible effort. People notice these things. 

[baobabs727]

From reviewing their methodology it would appear that we are likely suffering mightily in the categories of avg household income and wage growth, overall economic growth and job opportunities. Plus, our housing is still more expensive than most of the state of North Carolina. 

[vdogg]

They also have us ranking higher than San Diego and Orlando which, I mean... Sometimes you have to take these lists with a grain of salt. I guarantee you in 2 months time another list will come out that ranks us in the top 10. We definitely have our problems, but objectively some of those cities that rank higher than us are questionable.

[mintscraft56]

15 hours ago, BFG said:

Ten years ago, VB had more promise and potential. The potential arena, residents were open to expanding light rail, and so forth. All that falling through since, plus the loss of SITW are important. Doesn’t help that Norfolk seems to move at a snail’s pace to make anything happen, whereas the Carolina cities don’t hesitate. 

Not to mention officially getting to 2M people seems like an impossible effort. People notice these things. 

Nothing new, is it? I jut dont understand what in the heck is wrong with our area. Its like the cities lose hope and then retire to being slow and effortless in doing anything better.

There are the moments they take a deep breath and dive for a project but desides that, we have nothing else.

[Mike A.]

On 5/17/2022 at 5:19 PM, BFG said:

Ten years ago, VB had more promise and potential. The potential arena, residents were open to expanding light rail, and so forth. All that falling through since, plus the loss of SITW are important. Doesn’t help that Norfolk seems to move at a snail’s pace to make anything happen, whereas the Carolina cities don’t hesitate. 

Not to mention officially getting to 2M people seems like an impossible effort. People notice these things. 

I have to agree with a lot of this sentiment. When we relocated to Raleigh 4 years ago it was eye opening to see how PRO growth they were versus the anti-growth sentiment I felt has hung over the Hampton Roads area like a dark cloud. Even in our short time here, Raleigh and it's surrounding cities have experienced explosive growth from both a job and population standpoint while it's just more of the same going on back home. I've since given up on the cities of the 757 working to be better together and am just glad to live in an area where the status quo is constantly being challenged and the quality of life continues to improve although the cost of living is rising rapidly with it

[BFG]

Pictures of the latest development at Town Center.

J/k this is from a WAVY-10 story from 1982 discussing how the city wants to expand VB Blvd to eight lanes from the then-current four. The building under construction in the first screenshot is One Columbus Center, which you can barely even see in the TC skyline nowadays.

 

[HRVA]

5 hours ago, BFG said:

Pictures of the latest development at Town Center.

J/k this is from a WAVY-10 story from 1982 discussing how the city wants to expand VB Blvd to eight lanes from the then-current four. The building under construction in the first screenshot is One Columbus Center, which you can barely even see in the TC skyline nowadays.

 

Love the WAVY archives! Thanks for sharing, I hadn’t seen this one. Also the first time I’ve seen that intersection without a Taco Bell!

[mintscraft56]

4 hours ago, HRVA said:

Love the WAVY archives! Thanks for sharing, I hadn’t seen this one. Also the first time I’ve seen that intersection without a Taco Bell!

Everyone loves that tacobell

[BFG]

I never knew there was a car dealership there, but I remember growing up in VB in the late-80s and it was a place called "Two Pesos".  Something about that corner seems to attract Mexican fast food spots.