I want to go into this article with full disclosure: I am not in favor of the current proposed Light Rail initiative, but let's move forward.
Last night at the Thalia Trinity Presbyterian Church the Thalia Civic League hosted a debate on this issue facing Virginia Beach voters coming up on the November ballot. John Atkinson and Bryan Plumlee were the lucky souls on stage last night arguing their cases. (For those who already know Mr. Atkinson's argument, I won't dive into it here, but if you have not heard Mr. Atkinson's argument against light rail please visit http://nolightrail.i264webdesign.net/)
It was a packed house last night and from what I observed the attendees were relatively spilt, but those against light rail were more vocal. I will admit that I was hoping to hear a better argument from Mr. Plumlee and am still baffled at what he said. He began by belittling the Pilot and their board for the articles against light rail, called the job the city council does "thankless" and had an introduction that was probably supposed to be funny but that was lost on the crowd. Plumlee argued that for Virginia Beach to NOT get light rail would in turn be profitable for a select few, that we've already paid for light rail and should be able to ride what we've paid for, how this would help the poor, and unite the two cities. A question was asked about Virginia Beach getting a bus that could take people riding the Tide the rest of the way, however, moving from the train to a bus would be too complicated in Plumlee's view.
Then began the "millennial" argument for light rail. ---This is where I about lost my mind. I dislike millennials being labeled and used as the primary reason to do any project. The argument here from Plumlee in regards to millennials came from an article stating that the millennial crowd was heading to Charlotte and loving the light rail there.... especially because they get to use their devices on the way to work. I found an interesting article on this topic which essentially says that while millennials cannot afford a house now, eventually they may turn to the ways of all of our parents and want a suburban lifestyle for their family. To which I will say, please do not base your city and its development on the scare tactic of wanting to attract millennials. Millenials will come whether or not you have light rail.
(Check out the article here relating to millenials going the way of their parents: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article17212757.html )
I believe this project is a huge waste of money and am not for the proposed light rail plan. I am left to wonder why we, the city of Virginia Beach, aren't learning from the mistakes of our neighboring city of Norfolk and seeing how much of a failure that project is. Would it be a great thing to have an option to not pay for gas, car insurance, taxes and car maintenance each year? Absolutely! That would be wonderful to have those savings, however, this 3 miles of track costing in the millions is not the answer. Eventually I know the plan is to have the track to go all the way down to the oceanfront, but do we really want to have HRT managing this system? A huge problem with their transportation now is that it is viewed as unreliable, so why would we want them juggling this as well? Should we come up to a better system of mass transit, I am sure the state will help fund us, so please don't be too considered over getting that money.
Mass transit will not work here if it is not reliable, and just as quick of an option to work as one's own vehicle.
Pam Witham
www.facebook.com/votewitham
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