Between the two of us, I don’t think Jesse and I are anywhere closer to deciding whether or not light rail is going to be successful in this area. (He doesn’t think so; I do.)

Photo ridethetide.com

On Wednesday we Walked The Tide, hoping to get more clarity as to how light rail may or may not fare. With construction 50 percent complete, the Downtown Norfolk Council, City of Norfolk, and Hampton Roads Transit celebrated by hosting this event; a walking tour following the future route of light rail through downtown Norfolk. Informed tour guides, including Councilman Randy Wright and Transportation Construction Project Manager Paul Filion (who happened to be our group’s guide), led more than a hundred walkers from Harbor Park to Voila (at the foot of the Brambleton Bridge), with stops at California Pizza Kitchen and the new Residence Inn along the way.

It was a humid Wednesday–so hot that DNC President Cathy Coleman intercepted the groups in her car to distribute ice-cold water bottles–and at points we were plagued with drizzles of rain. But the weather didn’t stop an impressive turnout. The press was all over the event, naturally. RE:VISION NORFOLK, an organization of creative professionals (which we are members of) also had a presence, sporting t-shirts declaring “I’m on board!”, designed and printed by Peter Johnston of 5forty design to help promote light rail. But surprisingly–and most importantly–there were also many interested citizens who came out solely to learn more about how The Tide would affect their home community.

Barry Davenport, enthused downtown citizen

Among them was Barry Davenport, a downtown Norfolk resident. He was dressed as a train conductor–hat, suspenders, pocketwatch and all. But when I asked if was working for HRT, he told me, no, he is an electrician who is simply invested in the success of The Tide. (I felt kind of sheepish then in my “I’m on board!” T, but, hey, we all show our enthusiasm in different ways.)

We were lucky to have fallen into Paul Filion’s tour group–being on the ground level himself every day, his knowledge was very nuts-and-bolts and no hype.

For most of the 7.4 miles of its length, he explained, The Tide will run in the center of regular streets, with trains traveling both east- and westbound. They will be powered by overhead electrical cables tethered to 20-foot poles. As you may have seen for instance at the corner of Granby and City Hall, enormous drills have been employed to set the foundations for the poles, hundreds of which will be planted in downtown alone. (The drills are so huge they look like mini-oil rigs. Filion joked, “We ran out of funding so we’ve been drilling for oil to help pay for the second half of constsruction.”)

From Harbor Park the train will cut through between the city and court buildings at what will be the Government Center Station. (“People are gonna have no excuse for missing court,” said Filion.) Sadly the fountain there was removed, but luckily in its place will be a large triangular park lined with trees.

From there it will continue on Plume Street, crossing over St. Paul, where a stoplight will have to be installed. There will be a dozen or so new stoplights, but these, along with all the other intersections where The Tide crosses, should not hinder vehicle traffic. At 90 feet long, Filion explained, the trains will only take between 15 and 30 seconds to cross, making it even shorter than some excruciating stoplights around Norfolk.

Up Plume The Tide will turn and bisect what Filion humorously referred to as “the downtown litterbox”–the lot on which Kirn Memorial Library once stood. I’ve written enough lamenting that demolition, so I bit my tongue when we came to the future MacArthur Center Station. Nothing exciting has developed in the plans for what will take its place, except that it will be “a central station with public art,” according to Filion. The sacrifice of the library is clearly in MacArthur Center’s favor, but it fortunately has also benefited the MacArthur Memorial, which will expand.

Demolition of Kirn Memorial Library earlier this summer. Photo | ridethetide.com

The tour followed the route on from MacArthur Center Station to Monticello and York Stations. The Tide will then go from there onto EVMC.

Filion described in detail the process of removing the power, cable and utility lines from under the future path of The Tide. “We don’t want to have a sewer main rupture during service,” he explained, “or have to disrupt service and traffic for any sort of repairs.”

Having lived in 500 Granby during the work on Granby and Charlotte streets, though, I have been among the many citizens whose lives have been disrupted to an extent by this particular phase of light rail’s construction. Before construction began the City and the DNC brought affected business-owners and residents in to a meeting, and there was much complaint and anxiety concerning the impact the road closure would have, particularly on the restaurants at that end of Granby.

“This is our employees’ livelihood that we’re potentially affecting,” one owner said. “In this economy especially, we cannot afford to lose customers.”

But as the Walk The Tide tour really highlighted for me, we’ve all got to think long-term. At that same meeting, Bobby Wright hit it on the head: “The benefits are going to be a hundredfold. We’re going to have all brand new systems running our grid.” Indeed, some of the lines that the construction teams are pulling out had been left over and built above for decades. Filion told us he had found one old railroad tie that dated back to 1899. Old coins, pieces of boats from where the city streets had once been waterway, cow bones and leather boots have all turned up. In return, downtown will have fresh drainage systems and just-paved sidewalks.

“It’s been a challenging and rewarding partnership,” said James Hughes, who operates the federal buildings downtown as well as in all of Southeastern Virginia. The elimination of street parking, Hughes said, actually helped in security. And subsidies are provided for agencies to offer free or discounted tickets to federal employees, a boon in helping attract new jobs downtown.

So like I said, with all that we learned we editors are no closer to agreeing upon whether or not light rail will actually be ridden. This second half of construction will hopefully make that more clear. But what I personally got out of the tour was really exciting–being there and imagining bustling crowds getting in and out of trains amidst beautiful park spaces and well-appointed stations, I felt the reality of it all. We can debate all we like, but at this point there’s no stopping The Tide from coming.

Our world will never be the same. (Thanks BC for the pic.)