Light-Rail to Virginia Beach: If You Nag Them, It Will Come
Words Jesse Scaccia
Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Editor’s note: Due to incorrect information given by city officials, the time of this meeting was incorrectly reported as 8:30 p.m. It actually occurred this morning, at 8:30 a.m. We are sorry for this error.
Raise your little cyber hand if you think light-rail should go all the way to Virginia Beach.
Now raise your other little cyber hand if you plan on attending the city’s development authority meeting on Tuesday.
If you’ve got both arms up, hug me, you delightful, democracy-loving bastard. You are actually helping to chart the course of the most progressive public transportation movement (possibly) ever in this area.
Those that aren’t planning on going, you should. The city’s development authority is voting on whether to buy the vacant Circuit City property next to Town Center for $5 million. Why is this important? Because that property would make the perfect place for a VA Beach light-rail station.
The development authority voting ‘yes’ on this is an important step in the process. While this meeting won’t feature a public comment section like city council meetings, if you show up early you should be able to get some words in to the board.
I say show up in mass. Make a night of it. Encourage these city officials to make the decision that the actual city folk want.
The meeting takes place at 222 Central Park Avenue, Suite 1000 on Tuesday at 8:30 pm. Get there early since it’s a bit of a mouse maze to find your way up there. I actually have detailed directions, if you want to email me: jesse@24sevencities.com.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
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unfortuenately, it will be impossible for me to make the meeting on tuesday. i think the light-rail should link all of hampton roads (including the peninsula). the morning commute would be so much easier, and you’d never have to worry about finding parking on granby street again.