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Downtown Newport News


juancapitalcitydc

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That is an awesome article. It basically sums up what Newport News has been doing right in the East End all this time - and the faster the better. Mixed income housing areas with option to purchase is definitely the superior model. Not only does it empower lower-income residents, but higher income families are statistically more engaged in their communities, things like the PTA etc., which would help bring more grassroots action. Not to mention that upscale residents tend to be more vocal about shopping options and services. It's no secret that stores and grocers are famous for price gouging in low-income communities because often the patrons are unable to shop anywhere else. Upscale residents eliminate that while also demanding better transit options to the area.

This could be fantastic and would be a perfect base for a rebuilt downtown area.

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With a number of NN topics here on the forum, I think they should be consolidated into a subforum so that they are organized and easily accesible, or at least into a Peninsula subforum

I agree with you! I think it's time for a Newport News, not Peninsula, subforum!

Vdogg, what do ya say?! :D

I have never been to Newport News, and I had never heard of the victory arch, but that thing is awesome!

Yeah, it's huge! It's about time for it to be respected and appreciated, as it should be.

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and Suffolk, and Chesapeake, and Portsmouth, and........now 7 different subforums for 7 different cities and regionalism is just as far out the window in this forum as it is in real life. :lol: I'll think about it but i'll tell you I would be far more likely to support a "Peninsula" subforum than just one for NN. Let me go over some issues first and then create the appropriate poll.

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and Suffolk, and Chesapeake, and Portsmouth, and........now 7 different subforums for 7 different cities and regionalism is just as far out the window in this forum as it is in real life. :lol: I'll think about it but i'll tell you I would be far more likely to support a "Peninsula" subforum than just one for NN. Let me go over some issues first and then create the appropriate poll.

We have all been brain washed! :wacko: Remember Town Center started from woods! :rofl: Norfolk is the best of the seven cities! :P

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I have always loved that area around the Warwick Hotel, always made me sad to think of what that area use to be like and what it will never be like again.

I seriously doubt we will ever see NNDT make any real revival besides the random new Shipbuilders building. Too bad because that area could of been such an amazing port town with a mix of tech companies and trendiness.

Anyway great pics. Anyone want to set out and find some historical pictures of NNDT to see what it use to look like?

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and Suffolk, and Chesapeake, and Portsmouth, and........now 7 different subforums for 7 different cities and regionalism is just as far out the window in this forum as it is in real life. :lol: I'll think about it but i'll tell you I would be far more likely to support a "Peninsula" subforum than just one for NN. Let me go over some issues first and then create the appropriate poll.

I think he was referring to the official name of the metropolitan area, meaning " Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News MSA".. yes we know that their are other cities in the area, but Newport News has comparable development to both Norfolk and VA Beach, and per capita-wise exceding the amount of development in VA Beach.. There are developments in Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Williamsburg, but I feel that they are not to warrant their own subforum..

Eventually, as this forum keeps growing and maturing, there wouldnt be anything wrong with different subforums for the Seven Cities. It helps keep everything organized and accesible, whereas the main forum page can be for topics in general for Hampton Roads, such as economy, TOLLS issue, transportation, etc

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11.jpg

The saddest sight in DT. This is the old Greek Orthodox Church. It's a gorgeous building and could be made into something awesome. I talked to a city planner one time who told me that a ton of people had come to see it but Abestos abatement made the costs simply prohibitive. No one knows what to do with it but nobody has the heart to tear it down either (thank god). If development does come soon, this is a prime place to begin. This is as good an argument for abestos law reevaluation as any.

This is my old church actually, and I was five years old when they had their last service there, August 1981. It was a beautiful church, built in a very traditional byzantine, orthodox style...It looks as if they took a village church in Greece and transplanted it in downton NN...The church was built in 1949 by Greek immigrants to the Peninsula...by the late sixties and seventies though, the Greek population grew and moved to suburban NN, York County and Williamsburg. The church became too small and had become inaccesable to the community that had moved. Thus the Church and existing Hellenic Center complex moved to J Clyde and I-64 area, a much more convinient and central location for the Greek community.

There was talk several years ago that a local Greek lawyer wanted to buy the old Greek church and turn it into a restaraunt for the daytime workers, but that was not very popular by other members of the community. Another idea was for the city to turn the old church into a musuem that highlighted and commemerated all of the immigrants to the Peninsula over the years. I feel that this is a much better idea, because the old church itself is a beautiful inside and out and will still be honored if the museum idea takes hold.

The new church is nice but not as traditional as the old one...here is a link to the new building...

http://www.schgochurch.va.goarch.org/

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I think he was referring to the official name of the metropolitan area, meaning " Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News MSA".. yes we know that their are other cities in the area, but Newport News has comparable development to both Norfolk and VA Beach, and per capita-wise exceding the amount of development in VA Beach.. There are developments in Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Williamsburg, but I feel that they are not to warrant their own subforum..

Eventually, as this forum keeps growing and maturing, there wouldnt be anything wrong with different subforums for the Seven Cities. It helps keep everything organized and accesible, whereas the main forum page can be for topics in general for Hampton Roads, such as economy, TOLLS issue, transportation, etc

I agree with babiko. A "Peninsula" sub forum will overshadow the development taking place in Newport News. There just is not enough going on in Hampton to justify its own forum. It doesn't make sense to create a forum for each of the seven cities, right now, since most of them are stagnant in their development. Newport News' development is very comparable to that of Virginia Beach's. Why does the Peninsula have to be clumped together? lol-- I'd rather you put off the whole NN forum deal than clump the Peninsula in one forum. :stop:

11.jpg

The saddest sight in DT. This is the old Greek Orthodox Church. It's a gorgeous building and could be made into something awesome. I talked to a city planner one time who told me that a ton of people had come to see it but Abestos abatement made the costs simply prohibitive. No one knows what to do with it but nobody has the heart to tear it down either (thank god). If development does come soon, this is a prime place to begin. This is as good an argument for abestos law reevaluation as any.

This is my old church actually, and I was five years old when they had their last service there, August 1981. It was a beautiful church, built in a very traditional byzantine, orthodox style...It looks as if they took a village church in Greece and transplanted it in downton NN...The church was built in 1949 by Greek immigrants to the Peninsula...by the late sixties and seventies though, the Greek population grew and moved to suburban NN, York County and Williamsburg. The church became too small and had become inaccesable to the community that had moved. Thus the Church and existing Hellenic Center complex moved to J Clyde and I-64 area, a much more convinient and central location for the Greek community.

There was talk several years ago that a local Greek lawyer wanted to buy the old Greek church and turn it into a restaraunt for the daytime workers, but that was not very popular by other members of the community. Another idea was for the city to turn the old church into a musuem that highlighted and commemerated all of the immigrants to the Peninsula over the years. I feel that this is a much better idea, because the old church itself is a beautiful inside and out and will still be honored if the museum idea takes hold.

The new church is nice but not as traditional as the old one...here is a link to the new building...

http://www.schgochurch.va.goarch.org/

That is a gem. I've seen it in person.

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I agree with babiko. A "Peninsula" sub forum will overshadow the development taking place in Newport News.

The Penisula subforum would only have NN and Hampton in it. How does that overshadow NN?

There just is not enough going on in Hampton to justify its own forum.

I wasn't considering one for Hampton just by itself, I was just considering putting it in the Peninsula subforum.

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I think he was referring to the official name of the metropolitan area, meaning " Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News MSA".. yes we know that their are other cities in the area, but Newport News has comparable development to both Norfolk and VA Beach, and per capita-wise exceding the amount of development in VA Beach.. There are developments in Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Williamsburg, but I feel that they are not to warrant their own subforum..

Eventually, as this forum keeps growing and maturing, there wouldnt be anything wrong with different subforums for the Seven Cities. It helps keep everything organized and accesible, whereas the main forum page can be for topics in general for Hampton Roads, such as economy, TOLLS issue, transportation, etc

There is now a poll on this issue.

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The Penisula subforum would only have NN and Hampton in it. How does that overshadow NN?

I wasn't considering one for Hampton just by itself, I was just considering putting it in the Peninsula subforum.

I don't know of much development going on in the Peninsula other than in NN. But, you know better than I do. :thumbsup:

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  • 3 weeks later...

There's a neat article over at the Daily Press about the downtown Newport News bus station, and how it is busier than one would normally expect.

The Hampton Roads Transit Newport News Transportation Center, a 10,000-square-foot building at 35th Street and West Avenue - near the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and the downtown government buildings and courthouse - is one of the Peninsula's busiest bus stations.

Some 500 bus trips, working on about 20 repeating routes, flow in and out of the center on a typical day.

There's no crush of people, nothing remotely close to what you'd find at a major bus terminal in many larger cities. But there's a slow and steady stream of visitors, hundreds of people, into this station throughout the day.

Read it all. It's sort of interesting.

The question I have, however, is why the DP would do a feature on the DT bus station? It seems somewhat random to me unless they are quietly trying to showcase DT in a positive light. For new development? Light Rail?

BTW I'll have some pictures of DT I took the other day up soon.

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Downtown/ City Center tour. I wish I had taken more and better pictures ... but maybe in the future. For now, enjoy.

1.jpg

To prove downtown has residents, here are some pictures of clearly occupied apartment buildings.

2.jpg

Up close.

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Looking over the vacant superblock towards a Church and parking garage.

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I like this photo a lot. Admittedly, not very impressive if it were clearer, but out of focus like this makes it look like a "welcome to my city" photo for a smaller town ...

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River Park Tower to the left. The Greek Church to the right and the municipal cluster behind it.

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Closeup of the church, a bit of the post office behind it, and the city hall behind that.

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VASCIC in all its glory.

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The post officereally is a gorgeous building.

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An old medical arts building on West Ave. Really well preserved- I think it now serves as residences for older people. Very well maintained. It would be awesome if these were condos.

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Some more apartments.

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A look west down West Ave.

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Relics of a bygone era. Ripe for redevelopment if you ask me.

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These are the condos I spoke of earlier. I remember some time ago seeing this building, when it was dilapidated, and wishing someone would turn it into condos. Well its happened and apparently they're all sold out. As you can see, there's you're average person just walking about and wondering what the heck I'm doing.

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City Center retail corridor by night.

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City Center from across the lake.

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My little brother worked at Red Star Tavern for a total of 10 hours before he decided it was open too late and too many people came for his tastes (ie he had to actually work for his money, so he quit). A good sign for NN, not for my brother though.

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Park Place apartments on the right. These really are well-built units and will look really nicer once trees grow up alongside them.

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A peek into the heart of the soon-to-be open retail core of City Center.

8.jpg

Just a general shot. Nuts.. I forgot to get one of the Marriott.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think CC already has momentum at this point and the addition of a GSA building will do little to push it forward. Not that NN should redirect its attentions downtown, but CC is entering a point where its running on its own inertia and doesn't need the city to intervene. Downtown, however, is another story. I'm pretty optimistic about DT though. Between this, the Navy apartments that are supposed to come in, and the slow but real movement of people into its little residential quarter, someone is eventually going to see the need for more retail/commercial space.

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I see your point on keeping the courthouse in DT...I believe that there is great potential in DT NN. It is very close to DT Norfolk and once the Third Crossing is completed with the Craney island Connector, the two DTs will be 10 to 15 minutes apart. Huntington Heights is a solid, well-established neighborhood that can be used as a base to help DT NN grow.

I want to see the East End rebound, and I think it is important for DT NN to revitalize. Even though the two areas are separtated by 664, the East End will can become an attractive area to people to move to if they work in DT NN and DT Norfolk.

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East End is already getting a strong infusion of money and mixed-income housing. And that upscale community planned for the waterfront will completely change the way people look at the whole downtown area for sure. With wealth usually comes more clout and probably a greater migration of business and commerce to the whole southern region.

For the record, I agree with you about Huntington Heights; my parents live there! It's a great little neighborhood and completely safe, just nowhere to go. The land value there would skyrocket if more business came to the area.

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I have always liked Huntington Heights.. I remember as a child riding in the car heading to the old Greek church and marveling at the houses along the road. If only some retail could be infused in that area, at either end of the neighborhood;

As for the East End, there is still the perception, and maybe rightfully so, that it is still not safe. It will take time to overcome them.

Newport News also needs to start revitalizing Denbigh. The area started to go downhill in the late 80s and early 90s. Its proximity to the Patrick Henry and Oyster Point areas might help it

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