Development
My Trip to Portland
Oct 23rd
The city was laid out in a grid of standard-sized blocks of alternating one-way streets. As long as you knew in which direction the river was located, you could orient yourself and easily find your destination. They also had two light rail lines and a streetcar line running through Downtown. Best of all, they were free within the limits of Downtown. (Explanation: Both street car and light rail use the same trains. Light Rail uses two trains put together. Light Rail utilizes dedicated ROW and changes traffic signals so that it does not stop. Street car stops at signals and shares a lane with cars.) Due to high parking costs and the abundance of bicycles, the light rail systems were crowded for most of the day. The stations appeared to be designed with the rider in mind with seats, protection from the elements, and a system called TransitTracker, which allows you to accurately know when the next train will get to your stop.
The city seemed to be designed for pedestrians and bicyclists, which I am sure also contributed to the high transit ridership. There were abundant crosswalks and bike lanes. Traffic at non-signalized crosswalks knew that they had to stop for pedestrians. The business mix Downtown was good as well. There were grocery stores, an abundance and variety of restaurants for all budgets, and a mix of retail shops. Instead of tearing down the city to build a suburban mall, they used the existing buildings to utilize Downtown as a town-center-style shopping area. They had stores that the average Hampton Roads resident has only seen inside a shopping center in storefront locations. For example, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Banana Republic, Williams-Sonoma, Billabong, etc all had stores downtown.
Overall, the city gave the appearance that the residents were proud to be from Portland and that they city actually cared about what the residents thought. Everybody was nice and helpful. Random people would come up and ask if you needed help.
A couple of final notes: First, you could tell they put transit ahead of highways. The highway surfaces were great but the design had changed little in years. There were no acceleration/deceleration lanes. You just had to hit the gas and go. They did not waste money on things that we would consider necessary. For example, barricades to keep traffic from colliding with the wall were the exit splits off the highway. Second note: The transit facilities were surprisingly clean and un-vandalized. How could this be? I though that they sold bus/transit shelters pre-vandalized. Apparently, in Oregon, it is a felony to deface transit property in any form or fashion. Excellent idea.
Downtown Portland Transit
Yet Another Idea for Waterside
Oct 23rd
In brainstorming more ideas for Waterside, I like to try to find current example from other cities that we could adapt and make our own. I certainly don’t want to copy something; I want to make sure that whatever Waterside becomes, it is truly ours and not somebody else’s. With that in mind, let’s look at EpiCentre, a development in Charlotte, NC. The development consists of nightlife, restaurants, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a rooftop entertainment venue, and a direct connection to a hotel. So far, it has been fairly successful. Like many developments, it has gone through some rough legal patches with lawsuits and such but, overall, it is a great project. It include many aspects that I think would be a great fit for Waterside. In fact, if an EpiCentre-style development was planned well and financed, I might even consider supporting the demolition of Waterside.
Keep in mind that I want a visible plan, signed tenants, and secure financing before a bulldozer even gets near Waterside, but here is my idea:
The developer of EpiCentre, The Ghazi Company, apparently has a good relationship with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which is why they frequently use Aloft Hotels in their developments. Starwood conveniently owns Sheraton Hotels. In other words, if a company such as Ghazi were to redevelop Waterside, we could utilize the entire strip of land from Dominion Tower to the plaza by the Spirit of Norfolk. A new development could have street-front restaurants and shops on Waterside Drive and waterfront restaurants and hangouts on the Elizabeth River. The development could keep the marina and even include it into the development. The EpiCentre development has a 5-screen theater that closes to under-18s at night and allows adults to purchase beer, wine, and other adult beverages during their movie. That would be something Waterside could handle. The new Waterside could be family-oriented by day and a young adult hotspot at night. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It could include a new hotel to replace the aging Sheraton. It could also include moderately priced condos and apartments priced in the young adult price range.
Another positive feature of the EpiCentre development was that they partnered with a restaurant management company called Bar Management Group. While I could find very little on the company or its portfolio, I can tell by the diversity and quality of the establishments they secured for EpiCentre that they are a quality company worth using. They can bring in the precise type of eating and entertainment establishments that we want.
The endgame that we should try to produce is a mixed-use facility that showcases the waterfront and is not cut off from the rest of downtown. The ground floor of the Waterside garage could be renovated and remade to include at least a couple of ground floor establishments. The rest of the garage could be artfully decorated so as to make it less of a dead wall. It has to have establishments that cater to all price ranges, so that it keeps the original purpose for Waterside.
Economist Says LRT Cost Not Justifiable?
Oct 7th
- $257,700,000 – Debt Service
- +$405,100,000 – Support to other agencies and administration
- +$306,700,000 – ‘Special financing’ and earmarks
- =$969,500,000 - Does NOT include Road Construction OR Maintenance.
- $656,800,000 – Construction
- +$1,698,000,000 – Maintenance
- =$2,354,800,000 - Maintenance and Construction
So your $900 million in gas tax pays for administrative costs. That means that VDOT needs a 70% subsidy over what gas tax covers. Sure that sounds a little bit better than the 80% subsidy that HRT pulls in, but think about this: HRT’s 80% subsidy equals roughly $60 million while VDOT’s 70% subsidy equals $3.3 billion. Also, VDOT is not the only maintainer of roadways. Each city in Hampton Roads pays for some of their roads and the feds kick in the rest. I would venture to guess that the subsidies’ true cost are nearly equal. Let’s move on. Once you get past the negative aspects of the Pilot’s article, you get to this:
Two scenarios could change the cost/benefit ratio: if gas prices rise enough to move commuters from their cars to light rail; and if the rail is expanded to reach more people.
So here is this economist, the same one who just said that the cost was not justifiable, saying that if the system were expanded or if more people used it, the cost would be easier to swallow. OK. As an economist, I am sure that he would agree that the first part should include all commuter costs, not just fuel cost. Right? If the total cost of operating a motor vehicle increases, then people will start to move from cars to transit. As part of the State of the Region article, the Pilot wrote:
Long standing transportation problems also make the region less attractive to businesses and the military, Koch said. [...] Road improvements, he said, will demand higher gas tax and steep tolls.
As part of his predictions of the future, he acknowledges that the cost of commuting will be higher in the future if we want to fix our transportations shortcomings. Since our transportation problems are a direct result of our region’s lack of planning and cooperation, I would also assume that he would agree that we need to start today if we want to have any chance of improving our outlook. That would be where light rail comes in. We have to built a regional mass transit system because, in the long run, it will be more effective than building roads. If you had asked me 20 years ago (or asked someone else, since I was 3 year old twenty years ago) I would have agreed that roadways were more effective. Gas was cheap. Road construction was (relatively) cheap. Now, however, we can see that there is an end to that. There will be no more cheap gas. It is on an uphill trend. The second game-changing scenario was that the cost would be more acceptable if it were expanded to reach more people. Is that not in the works? We could never afford to build a multi-billion-dollar system all at once. It has to be built in stages. In the end, despite the Pilot’s attempt at more anti-light rail news, I think that, when read into, it is actually quite positive. The Pilot itself wrote that this economist said that if there were more people and higher commuter costs, than light rail would be more cost efficient. Since we should all be able to agree that those two scenarios are approaching, then we should also agree that, while expensive at first, light rial will be more cost-effective than roads as we enter the future.
ODU Predicts Poor Future for HR
Oct 7th
Regardless, it doesn’t have to be this way. Our various regional entities need to step up and create programs (and capital) that encourage new college graduates to start new businesses in the region. Another program could be created by the region’s universities that would give businesses a monetary incentive to hire new local graduates. That could be combined with a local/state government tax break for companies that hire local graduates for local jobs. These initiatives would solidify a young, educated base that would help our economy stay strong for years to come. Businesses would want to relocate here for the new ideas and opportunities that come with an intelligent, entrepreneurial workforce. It would also step up the appeal for local universities, making them more in-demand and, in turn, making them more likely to get grants/research projects from federal and private sources.
For the jobs themselves, we need to work harder to shift our focus from government-supported to private, developing industries. For example, the proposed project for the former Ford plant is a good step. A mixed-use development, it would be focused around a solar panel factory. There are a number of industries that would be great to focus on. A wind turbine plant would be a great addition to Hampton Roads. A high-tech battery factory would be another great addition that could also increase our appeal for a hybrid car plant of some sort. These jobs would be both industrial manufacturing jobs and jobs that would require high-tech research and development employees.
Once we started landing jobs for some of these new college graduates, more jobs would follow. Despite the widespread belief that my generation is one of moronic, half-educated slackers whose only aspirations are government welfare and tree-hugging, I strongly believe that we are more than that. Current college graduates want things to change for the better. I believe that you can have both environmental protection and free market business. Our biggest barrier to becoming our own economic force is that those currently in charge seem to have no regard for us. Once that changes, once our current leaders see that they should be focused on encouraging the younger generations to take part in the economy, the regional economy will be what we make of it.
Downtown Progress
Sep 27th
For example, think about how you would go to Harbor Park. Water St., Park Ave., and Union St./E. Main St. are the main entry points. Now think about the surrounding area. Both Tidewater Drive and E. City Hall Ave. both point directly at the Park but the no longer connect, thanks to the Interstate. Also, there is a rarely used exit ramp from I-264 that exits onto Claiborne Ave. that has the potential to assist in getting people to the Park without further clogging E. Brambleton Ave. Unfortunately, Claiborne Ave. has to go through residential-sized roads only to have to merge back into Park Ave. The MMTC plan would fix these issues. Tidewater Drive and E. City Hall Ave. would connect directly to Park Ave. There would also be a new road built to connect Claiborne to additional parking on that side of the railroad tracks.
On the SPQ side, there are also a number of new connections. The roadways that go through the public housing were designed to not connect. This may be good for keeping poor people from getting out (which doesn’t actually help anybody) but it is bad for a pedestrian-friendly, mixed use development. The SPQ plan would fix this. It would restore a grid system of roads and reconnect the SPQ area to Brambleton Ave. and to Tidewater Drive.
These projects are big news for Norfolk. Both will feed off of each other and off of Downtown. These two projects will nearly double the size of Downtown. Now we just need to get them built. The MMTC has a good chance of getting started if Norfolk gets award the federal grant they applied for. The SPQ, however, appears to still be in limbo. When the project was released, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority decided they wanted to slow things down. Despite their successes in Broad Creek, they seem to still think that they can better serve their clients by containing them in poverty rather than allowing them to mingle with the middle class.
Regardless, since most people don’t read the studies and plans that the city releases, I wanted to make it easy. I have created a map below that shows the major points of both the SPQ and the MMTC combined. Let me know what you think. Click on something and it should tell you what it is.
If you want to read the actual plans from the City, you can view the MMTC plan here and the SPQ plan here.
