It's always cheap fun to kick around our favorite bunch of kooks, the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance (VBTA). Transportation is one of the major issues in Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads as a whole. A number have verbally jousted with the VBTA and their Transportation Chairman, Reid Greenmun, on the subject. Under Reid's "leadership", the VBTA has opposed each and every plan to build roads while advocating that we dismantle mass transit. If you're actually trying to improve Transportation, such a line is utterly insane.
However, the "logic" of it finally came to me. To understand VBTA policy, obviously you must first suspend rational thought. It all goes back to their desire to reduce Virginia Beach to a retirement park for senior citizens. To achieve such a goal, it would be necessary to choke off the Transportation network, so tourists, commerce, etc. can't make it to Virginia Beach. Therefore, you attack the Transportation connections to other cities in the region and access in and out of the region. The previous Vice Chairman of the VBTA once told City Council, "Commerce is killing us." The statement is absolutely bizarre for anyone in the mainstream, but not through the VBTA's prism.
Remember that when John Moss ran for Mayor last year, his position was to cut the City Budget by $100 million, with half going to tax relief, and half going to local roads within Virginia Beach. While mobility within our City is appreciated by the VBTA, they don't see beyond the city line.
There, I said it publicly. Next time you're confounded by the VBTA opposing every initiative to improve Transportation, remember what I told you.
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