and here’s the post HRTPO wrote: http://www.hrtpo.org/chronicle/post/Over-200-atten-Virginia-Department-of-Rail-and-Public-Transportation-(DRPT)-Southeast-High-Speed-Rail-Corridor-Public-Information-Meeting-in-Norfolk.aspx

This resulted in the MAX Blue Line. At first, just like with The Tide, “Light Rail will NEVER work in Portland”, “No one will ride it”, etc. You saw how packed your MAX trains were

Dr. Jim Koch, President Emeritus of Old Dominion University, delivered a much needed, yet unpleasant, dose of hard reality in his annual State of the Region address this week. As was well reported in this newspaper [The Virginian-Pilot, October 7, “ODU economist predicts dour decade for Hampton Roads”] [Daily Press, October 6, “Hampton Roads economy: Recovery is slow, and the signs are worrisome”], his economic forecast for the region is mediocre, at best.
Defense spending and employment are likely to decline – a serious blow given that defense spending makes up 45% of our regional economy. Recovery in commercial and residential real estate sales and prices are likely to be modest and painfully slow. And the port faces stiff competition from other East Coast ports and declining ability to move cargo efficiently due to the state’s inability to provide adequate funding for transportation.

Does all this mean we are condemned to mediocre economic growth? Absolutely not.
Do we have a way to overcome these challenges and ensure a prosperous future for our region? We do.

Hampton Roads already has the blueprint for economic success published in Vision Hampton Roads, the region’s comprehensive economic development strategy. Led by the Hampton Roads Partnership and the Planning District Commission, it is the first region-wide roadmap of strategies and actions – to position the region as a leader in the global economy. The Vision experience is about engaging citizens and embracing ongoing region-wide economic development practices with a 21st century perspective, that is, to think globally, strategize regionally and act locally.

While underscoring the importance of the existing three pillars of our regional economy – the military, the port and tourism – this bold strategy emphasizes the critical importance of diversifying our economy through technology-based economic development. Additionally, the strategy calls for constantly scanning the horizon for future opportunities to complement the region’s existing technology clusters of Bio-Science, Energy, Modeling & Simulation, Robotics and Sensors.
The Innovation sub-committee which helped develop Vision Hampton Roads has been established by the Partnership as a permanent Innovation Task Force to implement the plan’s objective of regional economic growth through promoting technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Hampton Roads has a quarter of a million K-12 students, and Vision is an opportunity to start them on the best path for a future rife with technology and innovation.
The Task Force has two immediate missions. First, to transform the decade old Hampton Roads Research Partnership into Innovate!HamptonRoads to unify the efforts of our region’s research institutions, economic and work force development agencies, technology clusters, technology incubators, and the technology council, Technology Hampton Roads (http://HRTC.org). Working together as a cohesive team, these organizations will provide the programs, expertise and resources needed to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship across our region.

The Task Force’s second mission is to establish IdeaWorksHamptonRoads to strengthen and support the region’s technology incubators – vital breeding grounds for entrepreneurs. IdeaWorks will support the incubators by providing critical support for individuals trying to bring new technology to market: protecting their intellectual property, commercializing their technology, establishing an effective management team, creating a sound business plan, identifying customers, and, most difficult of all, attracting investors.

As Dr. Koch pointed out, our region faces daunting challenges. And through a concerted, sustained effort with broad regional support focused on creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Hampton Roads, we will succeed and flourish. The future of our regional economy depends on the success of Vision Hampton Roads.
Innovate!HamptonRoads and IdeaWorksHamptonRoads are the teams that will make that vision a reality. The volunteers who make up these teams believe that contributing their time, efforts and expertise will transform Hampton Roads as the go-to place for people with great ideas.

Dr. Bouchard is the Chair of the Vision Hampton Roads Innovation Task Force.

Further, the 2005 VDOT red light camera report confirms that you can throw away your mail-order red light camera tickets and not face arrest or proceedings for contempt fo court unless you are PERSONALLY served:

See http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/05-vdot.pdf:

SNIP

In more detail, the 2005 RLC VDOT report on page 110 explains this as follows:

“The new statute referenced in section A., § 8.01-296, is the provision for service of
process in civil actions, which has been borrowed by the Virginia General Assembly for the
present purpose. It outlines several options for achieving satisfactory service, beginning with an
attempt at personal in-hand service, and moving on to a series of de-escalating forms of
substituted service: delivering to an adult at the defendant’s usual place of abode; posting on the
front door of such abode in conjunction with mailing; and finally, by order of publication in
appropriate cases under the provisions of the applicable code sections. It is the second of these
that gives Virginia its nickname as a “nail and mail” state, meaning that for most civil actions,
posting notice on the defendant’s front door in conjunction with mailing will constitute sufficient
notice. However, this is not so for red light camera citations under the code, for the second
statute referenced above is § 19.2-76 which, as we have already seen, requires personal in-hand
service if the “nail and mail” approach does not succeed in bringing the defendant into court.
Thus, under Virginia’s red light camera statute as it is now worded, the mere mailing of a
citation without personal service by a law enforcement officer does not constitute sufficient
notice under the statute’s own terms. While the statute permits the jurisdiction to make the
initial attempt to summon the accused to court via mail, if that person fails to respond, he or she
is not considered to have been satisfactorily served with notice. Default judgments entered under
such circumstances (when the defendant fails to appear in court on the appointed return date)
would thus not be binding, and the defendant could not be charged with contempt for failing to
comply with such a judgment. Hence, despite its ostensive distancing from the requirements of
Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-76, Virginia’s red light camera statute comes full circle and, in the end,
requires personal service before a default judgment may be entered against no-shows.”

This statutory scheme is a bit convoluted – but that was probably **done on purpose** by opponents of RLCs as a poison pill that many pro-RLC legislators were not aware of b/c it is a complicated do-loop.] or chose to just look the other way.

As the 2005 RLC VDOT report states in Appendix H: Virginia’s red light camera law “ultimately requires a personal notification, which may prove prohibitively expensive for some jurisdictions.”

the only way to slow down growth of RLC installations in Virginia is to scare localities with the potential for budget problems should they put these cameras up – if everyone knows they can blow off the mail order tickets as well as tickets tacked to their door or handed to their spouse at the house, then the profit potential for RLCs goes down.