Mayor Sessoms, Conductor of the Runaway Train
Gotta love this invitation from Bob Dean and the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance!
Real estate and personal property tax increases, fee hikes, a new trash fee, another budget increase, hundreds and hundreds of millions for a trolley to nowhere, public employee salaries outpacing the private
sector, select special interest groups feeding at the public trough, the worst recession since the great depression, the convention center and Sandler Center both sucking away precious public safety funds, and 29
percent of our students on the free and reduced lunch program. What a way to run a railroad.
What’s a mayor to do? Let’s ask him about these and other issues on Saturday.
You are invited to join us this Saturday, April 24 at 8:30 a.m. at the Marion Manor Retirement Center located behind St. Gregory’s Church which is located across the street from Haynes Furniture. Breakfast begins at 8:30 followed by the meeting at 9. Students are encouraged to attend.
For additional information, please contact Robert Dean at 427-6606 or by e-mail: robertkdean@cox.net.
Hmmm… should I go? I’d love to see this man in the hot seat. But is it worth my precious Saturday morning and sleeping in…
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April 22nd, 2010 at 6:54 am
Did Sessoms actually accept the invitation? He shouldn’t have. First, you confer legitimacy on the VBTA that is totally undeserved. Second, the questions session will amount to him being bombarded with conspiracy theories and VBTA propaganda presented as “fact”.
Neither Sessoms nor any of us should go.
April 25th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I am torn about the light rail issue. I am in favor of light rail as long as it is affordable. However I have questions about how much effort is being made to keep it affordable. It is my opinion that the right of way for the proposed Virginia Beach extension was overpaid for. That right of way had almost zero value for anything but light rail. What else could it be used for? A bicycle path for tourists for which a toll could be charged to ride on it? Perhaps without any improvement they could have put up tollbooths and started charging the homeless for following the bee line to the beach when they decided to head that way.
However I know from personal observation that there is a demand for light rail. I have seen the over flowing parking lots where people drove short distances so that they could make the rest of the daily commute by rail and avoid all of the traffic the rest of the way. Just today I noticed that demand is so great in the Chicago area that they have roadside signs that inform motorists minute by minute how many parking spaces are available at the locations where they can catch the rail and the parking slots available numbers in the thousands. The only reason I know of the numbers available is because I passed the signs today on a Sunday evening which is probably the time of the week when the fewest spots are available and these were just for the slots on one highway corridor. Also from experience I know that on a weekday most of the available slots are filled up. I guess that is why they put up the signs, to let commuters know where they still stood a chance to find a place to park because, yeah, in reality, demand is that high.
But it needs to be kept affordable and there is no reason we need to accept when it almost seems like we are being expected to pay for gold plating on the rails.
April 25th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Darn it, and I thought I did a pretty good job of proof reading before I hit post this time. I meant Sunday evenings are probably when the most parking slots are available, not the fewest, when I mentioned my observations.
April 28th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Warning, warning, triple post. However I claim exception because a couple days have gone by and I had additional time for thought.
Our regions efforts at light rail are going to be a failure until destinations are provided. Now, I do not want to belittle downtown Norfolk as a destination because it certainly is. Workers downtown might take into consideration that a portion of the cost of the rail commute will be offset by the avoidance of parking fees. However just one such destination is not enough because while downtown Norfolk has many commuters, it can hardly compare with other more concentrated areas of commuter destination such as downtown Chicago. Heck, the number of office spaces in the Sears Tower alone would be enough to dwarf all the office spaces available in every building in downtown Norfolk.
Additional destinations are required. I think a key destination point would be the Norfolk Naval Base. Along with a rail line extending there, other concentrated destination points would be served such as ODU and the Norfolk Marine Terminal. But I imagine such an extension would be pretty costly since a made to order right of way is unavailable. Would Norfolk be able to take on such an expense alone and without assistance from other cities in the region? Could the Norfolk Mayor justify such an expense if those citizens who benefit most live outside the city?
My thoughts are that unless light rail expands, if that which is already constructed or under serious consideration is all that there is, it is going to end up being an Albatross. If we do not start thinking big, the money already spent will end up having been wasted. Perhaps the costs of such an extension will be so outrageous that even I will object. But unless such an expansion is in the plans and such a plan is really realistic I say NO to the Virginia Beach extension. I understand a complete system must start from somewhere, but if a portion of what is necessary for success has no chance of completion why bother?
April 29th, 2010 at 4:11 am
Even with all the publicized cost overruns, this is still among the lowest cost light rail projects in the country.
The Metro is almost the only way to get into DC. Another example of a recent successful light rail project is Charlotte.
You’re right about the need for more destinations. In addition to the Naval Base and the oceanfront, I suggest the airport as a key destination. Tourists or convention guests could get off a plane and take the light rail directly to either downtown Norfolk or the beach. There are also plans to link up to high speed rail to Richmond and then up and down the coast.
You do have to start somewhere and then build on it. If Norfolk hadn’t taken the leap, we wouldn’t even be talking about it. If Virginia Beach puts a halt to it, then any other extensions will be dead in their tracks.
April 29th, 2010 at 8:01 am
David,
I do not know where you get that this is still amongst the lowest cost light rail projects in the country! My memory is not what it used to be and I do not have time to search for the exact figures myself (I am in Georgia now and have to be in Mississippi tonight), but I do remember that the reported cost per mile for what Norfolk is building significantly exceeds the national average when looked at from a per mile expense basis… and that was with a made to order existing right of way.
With all the furor created by the cost overruns in Norfolk, I do not know if we can expect the citizens of Norfolk to agree to additional construction for light rail. If realistic estimates are provided for further growth they are going to be significantly higher then everything constructed or under consideration thus far. There will also be fears that these figures, too, were lowballed and there will be cost overruns again.
I think Norfolk is going to need some help paying for such extensions and if help is not offered we are apt to never see such growth. Why should Norfolk have to shoulder such a large portion of the expense alone if other localities are going to benefit so much from it? It is really a shame that the initial efforts turned out so badly. Citizens might have a bad impression of what light rail is all about due to what they have witnessed thus far.
April 29th, 2010 at 8:10 am
News reports of cost overruns make big headlines, while the comparatively low total cost is buried deep in the articles. For example:
Yes, that’s still a lot of money, but we do have help. Roughly 60% is funded by the federal government, 20% by the state, and 20% by Norfolk. Why should all our federal tax dollars be going to build light rail in cities like Charlotte, San Diego, and Minneapolis instead of here in Hampton Roads?
July 29th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
hey i found a site where you can download sandrail plans
July 31st, 2010 at 4:42 pm
David,
Just because everybody else spends money like money is no object does not mean we should not be concerned about the bottom line. If the costs are so high that the fare to pay for it is so high that even if a stop was on your front door you would still drive your Toyota because it was cheaper? We’ll subsidize the fares so it is cheap enough? The examples you gave of 60% federally funded money ultimately is coming from money the feds are borrowing. I am not against investing in potential revenue enhancers, and public transit can be this. But when gold plating is added at solid gold prices?
My concerns are that the costs of our areas light rail efforts thus far all involve made to order rail right of way. After we exhaust the made to order, just how much is it going to cost us for the rest?