Before I get to the Pilot headline (online version),

there are three pre-7 a.m. “latest news” bulletins related to traffic, including the fact that there’s a backup in both directions at the nice bridge, the Monitor-Merrimac, which means a pleasant commute for us all this hump-day morning.

Which brings us to the big story.

HRT’s Lies and How it’s Not Light Rail’s Fault

I began reading the story (which is paragraph after paragraph of solid chunks of information and quotes) thinking it was going to be light rail specific, as the Pilot’s headline only mentions the Tide as an example of HRT’s wrongdoing. More detailed, but essentially the same story we’ve been hearing for months: HRT screwed up. It costs more than we originally thought and ex-CEO Michael Townes was irresponsible.

The Tide, turning in all the wrong ways.

And all that’s there, but in detail and with extra helpings of mismanagement, disorganization, and outright negligence; and it extends to HRT projects way beyond light rail: procurements, bus fare, documentation, bookkeeping, the list goes on. Townes’ replacement, Philip Shucet, requested this information via a VDOT Inspector General study. It revealed HRT’s problems run much deeper than lies about what a train might cost.

According to this, $232 million is what HRT told the government light rail would cost, while aware it would be more. It’s currently at $338 million. (To be fair, even the higher number is on par–and in many cases cheaper–than the cost of light rail installation in comparable American cities.)

New documents were unveiled showing how HRT officials kept separate accounting documenting the true cost of light rail, while the “public” accounting was given to various oversight groups at the federal, state, and local levels. Example after quote after example of misinformation is listed.

Wow. All that’s pretty terrible, HRT.

And if you’re the type of person who judges a story on its headline or reads “above the fold,” you may assume this is the whole story. It’s not.

Digging into all facets of HRT’s behaviors in recent years, the non-Tide problems surface. The report also found the group “disregarded procurement rules,” failing to act properly on 16 out of 24 bids. No estimated lost dollar value was listed. It was also found that mismanagement and disorganization led to a $189,000 bus fare embezzlement. Another fail: HRT rules dictate that the money collected from buses should be recorded twice weekly, a task undone in two years (read: embezzlement opportunity!).

Kudos to the Pilot for doing the research and referencing these other concerns surrounding HRT. I can’t leave it at the compliment level though. After listing all the failures and bad behaviors exhibited by HRT over the last few years, the article ends with informing us there’s a current study underway to determine whether light rail should extend to Virginia Beach.

Jeez. It really didn’t have to end like that, did it? You know there’s a turf war going on, don’t you Pilot? It generally gets played out just below the last sentence of your Light Rail articles in a little section you call “Comments” but I like to call “Digital Gettysburg.”

I get how messed up all this information is. It’s scandalous and deceitful and makes us look tooly. Regardless, the fact remains that we need transportation solutions that don’t involve adding more vehicles (resulting in more congestion) to the roadways. Remember that whole “three stories on congestion before 7 am” thing? Yeah. A second lane off the Lynnhaven exit won’t fix that. Don’t care how you try to word it. Won’t. Fix. It.

Mistakes made in transportation offices and public transportation needs are not synonymous. Can someone do an article on that? People are going to read this and associate light rail as the culprit, when, reality (and the “below the fold” facts in the article itself) shows us HRT was sinking into ruinous territory with or without light rail. People are going to read this and say “Not in Virginia Beach! Look how light rail screwed Norfolk!,” which is ridiculous and inflammatory and wrong. Light rail did nothing of the kind. Bad business leaders at HRT, on the other hand, maybe they did. Simple things like how a story is headlined (only mentioning light rail) or where the facts are positioned (non-Tide examples buried paragraphs down where people statistically do not read to) can cause real harm here.

Light rail needs to go to Virginia Beach. A ride around downtown is going to be a great thing and I can’t wait for the buzz the Tide will bring this spring. But reality is we need to unify a little more as partners with Virginia Beach to make our region successful. This is how more DC or Richmond tourists get to Hampton Roads. Why sit in I-95 traffic for Virginia Beach when Ocean City is easier? On the local level, even, I’d go pay money to Sandler Center or any number of other places down there if I didn’t have to drive back to Norfolk at the end of the night. I’m not into DUI’s. I’m not into driving sober on I-264 when everyone else is wasted either (which is pretty much any post-midnight drive on that road).

The money you’d get out of me mid-summer, riding a train to the Oceanfront and then being on foot all day, I’d get bored of sand quick enough and want an ice cream or drink. I’d forget sunscreen or something and spend money at a local business. If I had my car, I’d just leave.

HIV Patient Cured?

Exactly two weeks after World AIDS Day, and the excellent writing of John McManus and words of Rashidi Barrett, reports are coming out regarding a man who has been cured of HIV. Timothy Brown, also referred to as The Berlin Patient, was an HIV patient who contracted leukemia. His chemotherapy, combined with immunosuppressive drugs and a stem cell transplant, resulted in CD4 cells lacking in the CCR5 receptor (which is HIV’s “docking station”). The transplant was in 2007 and Brown exhibits no signs of HIV now.

Less than 1% of Caucasians in northern and western Europe are without the CCR5 receptor (the report did not mention other ethnicities–the patient in the case study is Caucasian). The stem cells used in his transplant were from a unique genetic profile in which the donor lacked CCR5.

While there will be much more research and study on Brown and others (and a whole other stem-cell debate, I’m sure), media outlets are indeed calling Brown “cured” and the medical community is not refuting the claim. Woo-weeee I hope this is true.