Fresh perspective sought on Waterside’s future

In a case of either looking outside for ideas or seeking a bit of a PC – political cover – solution, Norfolk officials are hosting five consultants who will tour the city for a couple of days then hand down tablets from on high with proposals for Waterside, the embattled “festival marketplace.”

According to the newspaper: “Among the panelists are a maritime development expert; the planning director for Charlotte, N.C.; a former director of Richmond’s department of community development; and a public-private development consultant.”

City officials might also want to look at other cities with similar venues that have fallen on hard times. In Baltimore, Harborplace, the older brother of Waterside, has an increasing number of vacancies leading city officials to look for answers. Redevelopment of New York’s South Street Seaport has been put on hold. A makeover there has been in the works for years. The Portland Public Market closed after less than a decade.

One market that seems to be going strong after more than a century is Seattle’s Pike Place Market, although there is a cautionary tale for those who want a farmer’s market at Waterside.

Members of religious group in Norfolk claim special rights

In a head-scratching decision, the paper fronts a story about members of the Moorish Temple of America declaring they’re not citizens and not subject to the laws of the land. Which, of course, raises the questions of what laws, if any, they abide.

The organization has a history of using religion to avoid the law. The story reports they’re followers of the Quran, which takes punishment and retribution seriously. Let’s see: American justice or Quran justice? I think they’ve been led astray.

Well down in the story we learn there are only about 45 local followers, and it’s apparently only these locals who don’t believe in following American law. The supreme grand leader, based in Atlanta, says they “do no adhere to the religion’s principles.” So, why give them so much prominent soy ink?

YMCA in Park Place

I couldn’t find the online link, but in the Compass, Harry Minium reports that the City Council will be briefed tomorrow on places for a $10.5 million YMCA in Park Place, which can only be a great thing for the families and children of the neighborhood. But The Y costs about $80 a month for a family memebership (at the Bute Street location). Let’s hope the council wrings a concession to make it more affordable for folks in the area.

The Big American Leak

Tom Friedman’s column in Sunday’s New York Times is a must-read. He says: “When we import $28 billion a month in oil, we can’t say to the Saudis: “We know the guys who would come after you would be much worse, but why do we have to choose between your misrule and corruption and their brutality and intolerance?” We’re just stuck supporting a regime that, sure, fights Al Qaeda at home, but uses our money to fund a religious ideology, schools, mosques and books that ensure that Al Qaeda will always have a rich pool of recruits in Saudi Arabia and abroad. We also lack leverage with the Chinese on North Korea, or with regard to the value of China’s currency, because we’re addicted to their credit.

Geopolitics is all about leverage. We cannot make ourselves safer abroad unless we change our behavior at home. But our politics never connects the two.”

Friedman will be participating with Education Secretary Arne Duncan in “Education for Innovation,” a digital town hall event beginning at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. You can submit questions in advance. While you’re at it, bookmark Andrew Revkin’s blog, Dot Earth, for your morning coffee. It’s worth 5 minutes daily if you give a damn.

When Joe Lieberman is finished crusading for those Wikileaks trators to be arrested, maybe he can turn his attention to those really undermining our security: drivers of gas guzzlers.

Here are the lists of the worst fuel efficiency cars and SUVs and vans. If you want to find the folks supporting the terrorists and the anti-intellectuals and the tyrants, just look behind the wheel of a Chevy Suburban, a Hummer, a Bentley or a Nissan Titan.

The New York Times stories about the diplomatic cables released by wikileaks are important, fascinating reading. The Pilot seems to mostly be ignoring them so go to State’s Secrets.

In Kentucky, Noah’s Ark Theme Park Is Planned

For some comic relief, check out the story of the Ark in today’s New York Times. Yes, that ark. The state of Kentucky, in an attempt to curry favor with deep thinkers across the globe, will credit the creators of The Ark Encounter with about $37.5 million to entice them to build a replica of Noah’s Ark.

Yes, that ark.

The theme park was conceived by the same Christian ministry that built the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., where dioramas designed to debunk evolution show humans and dinosaurs coexisting peacefully on an earth created by God in six days. The ministry, Answers in Genesis, believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old — a controversial assertion even among many Bible-believing Christians.

The park will include a 100-foot Tower of Babel, a first-century Middle Eastern village and a journey through the Old Testament, with special effects depicting Moses, the 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. For children, there will be a petting zoo, live bird and animal shows and a play area with ziplines and climbing nets — all Bible-themed. Even the trainer, Dan Breeding, will present animal acts with a Gospel message about creation.

But why stop there? To really do it right, shouldn’t adulterers and disobedient children be stoned every afternoon? “If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city.”Deuteronomy 22:23-24

“If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother … Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city … And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.” Deuteronomy 21:18-21

What about selling daughters into slavery monthly?

“If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do.” Exodus 21:7

Think of all the additional tax revenue Kentucky could collect regulating stoning and taking a kickback on slave selling. And the joint ventures with religions like the Moorish Temple of America to establish a trail of religious tourist attractions could be a cross-marketer’s wet dream.