This evening there was a Transportation Town Hall meeting in the City Council Chambers, cosponsored by Delegate Terrie Suit and the City of Virginia Beach. In addition to Suit, Delegates Purkey, Tata, Bouchard, Mathieson, Howell, Iaquinto, as well as Senator Harry Blevins were there to hear from citizens. Joel Rubin was Moderator.
The format was similar to a City Council meeting, with speakers going to the podium to address the electeds for a maximum three minutes. About 25 people spoke, with most everyone staying positive and constructive. The General Assembly members sat on the dais listening. The one complaint I heard afterwards was that there were too many special interest speakers as a proportion.
My obvious personal highlight of the night: Delegate Mathieson declared me a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on mass transit. Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance (VBTA) Transportation Chairman Reid Greenmun and I joked about that.
Speaking of Reid, he provided the humor for the evening. To the podium he brought forward a large sign "FIRST ABOLISH THE HRTA"...which he held up upside down. You'll have to watch the video!
Speaking of video, not only will the program be rebroadcast on VBTV, but it will be available as streaming video on the City's website. It ran about 100 minutes.
6 comments:
Can't wait to see. Reid: oops?
The streaming video is now up on the City's website.
Yeah well, you can't see the front of the sign when you hold it up from the back .. -blush-!
I did get some good ink in the Pilot the next day.
I thought Tom Holden did a pretty good job decribing the meeting.
The one thing that was most interesting to me was the parade of first responders and law enforcement that decribed how bady congestion was preventing them form doing their jobs - yet - NOTHING in HB 3202 and the 6 (or 7)projects the General Assembly is looking to fund in the Special Session will do ANYTHING to relieve those traffic congestion problems.
-Reid
You got good ink, but I now know I can effectively lobby Mathieson on mass transit. :)
The Southeastern Parkway would help first responders, as it would take traffic off of other roads. As it falls largely in AICUZ zones, it would draw little new development.
FYI, when I did my VBFD ride-along in 2004 with Station 9, I was on E-9 and Harold Hill was on L-9. He's now a Captain, and spoke for the Firefighters. I wanted to speak to him, but he left early. BTW, he's a pretty good spaghetti cook.
although it is funny that the meeting was held after buses were done for the night
JUST WISH THEY WOULD HAVE SOME TRANSIT SERVICE UP OR DOWN SOUTH INDEPENDENCE BLVD. WITH ALL THE NEW CONDO'S APARTMENT COMPLEXES, AND HUNDREDS OF HOMES IT'S AMAZING THEY DON'T HAVE ANY REGULAR ALL DAY SERVICE.
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