Virginia Beach weighs including pedestrian span in budget

To the person who posted before me about lowering the speed limit and adding time to the cross walk signals....If you run for City Council you get my vote!!!

the speed limit is going to be changed. VB traffic engineering doesn't want to do it because it will create an occasional back-up. Even if the bridge is built there's going to be people on the sidewalk within a few feet of vehicles going 45 mph. Where else in the city is that happening??...nowhere I can think of. Are we waiting for a car to jump the curb and mow a few people down first?? Change the speed limit, lengthen the walk cycles on the crosswalk FIRST! Use the 3 mil for more cops..we need em..

Before we spend over $3M on a bridge to a parking lot, how about we make the Town Center(located in the corner of town) and the parking lot safe to go to. People are getting assaulted and robbed left and right out there. How many more policemen could we get for $3M? Instead, we are going to spend $3M so that people can go into stairways or elevators where they are a captive audience for the thugs who plague the area. I tell ya what, how about you give me the $3M so me and a couple of friends can personally spend our time walking people across the street under armed guard.

I like the idea by mm12175. As for Pembroke Mall looking like Town Center, give me a break. The city spends money like kids in a candy store. A goos example that David brings up about the swimming pool. It was $28,000, but still a valid point. The city doesn't spend taxpayer money like it was "their own" money (even though there are some who think it is). I still think a reduced speed limit, a longer timer to allow pedestrians to cross the VA Beach Blvd, and have the traffic light there at that crosswalk operate exactly like a traffic light on the BLVD where as NO ONE moves until the light is GREEN.

First, for those who want to use the money to hire more police, that works for one year. Then what, fire them? Raise taxes? Cut services?

Second, many who post here don't seem to understand the TIF concept. The infrastructure (parking garages, street lights, sidewalks, etc.) are all paid for by taxes generated within Town Center.

Third, it must be built. But it must be paid for by TIF money only. Not out of our pockets unless we live, shop or dine at Town Center.

After paying $300,000.00 for a half inch in a swimming pool, 3 million for a bridge sounds like a good deal. Elected city officals don't care what us middle class tax paying citizens say, Town Center has lots of money. Their are gonna get what they want no matter what we think or want.

I have always thought it was nuts to have the speed limit 45mph through that area. You have people lingering on sidewalks in the town while cars whiz by at 50.
Lower the speed and then see if you still need the walkway.
Even so the speed limit should be lowered.

Dumb, if NYC had the same attitude, they would have multiple bridges just to get accross Times Square! This city is out of control. Maby if people slowed down and respected the pedestrians (as they do in REAL cities)we would not have to spend millions of dollars on stupid ideas like this. Have the Westin or The Cheese Cake Factory pay for it. I am sick of this city wasting MY money! Now go out and eat your $10.00 piece of cheese cake.....

We still have people getting injured or killed at 25 MPH, and with a busy street such as VB Boulevard, traffic would be backed up even worse during busy hours.

Even at 10 MPH, like around Norfolk General, people get hit crossing the street.

The only sure cure is to remove pedestrians completely from the picture and build a skywalk for them. But we sure as heck don't need one that costs any $3 million dollars. There's got to be contractors out there who can make a good, solid structure for much less than that.

Add a 5% sales tax to every purchase made at Town Center merchants to pay for the bridge. Should pay for itself in 6 months.

There were some comments in regards to timing. While there may not be a "town center" on the other side now and it seems kind of like it's emptying into a parking lot (which would be), that doesn't mean we shouldn't go ahead and build it. The project will only get more expensive and we all know that eventually the parking lot on the other side will end up looking like town center. So, why wait until it's too late (much like what we have done with the roads around there). A lot of people complain that the city didn't have the foresight to build better roads around town center before it blossomed. Well, here they are with foresight, and you are all complaining yet again. Admit it; you will complain now because of the money or in 10 years when it becomes impossible to cross the Blvd and there is actually stuff on you want to cross the street for. Now, does the cost seem a bit high? Yes. That needs to be looked at (should still not be ugly though), but we definitely need it there.

It looks like to me that it would be cheaper to extend the time at the cross walk to allow everyone ample time to cross as well as reduce the speed limit in the town center area. Good grief! $3,000,000?

Build a bridge over a moat going from Town Center to Pembroke.
Put Jet Skis in the moat for single pedestrians and guided boats like in San Antonio, TX.
Hey! Venice with gondolas!!!

Pembroke Mall is dying a slow and agonizing death. This bridge that allows a few more people a day to cross from town Center is not the answer and will turn out to be a waste of money.

Walk through that mall on any day that isn't Saturday or Sunday and you can go several minutes without seeing any other shoppers.

A 3.15 million dollar boondoggle brought to you by the spendthrifts on the VB City Council.

Put a toll on the pedestrian bridge. The businesses that want it can pay for it, and they can then put a toll on it, sort of like a charge for people who can't look both ways. Surely paying a $1 toll to cross the foot bridge is worth it when you believe you're risking your life otherwise... Those who can look both ways and cross a street without a *real* grownup holding their hand will save a dollar every time they walk across that intersection!

I recently had two interviews at the Office Max in the old HQ shopping center (they're hiring for the Red Mill location). The fastest way from TCC would be to catch the 36 straight up Holland Rd and get off in front of Dick's, then cross Columbus St & Independence Blvd.

Instead, for safety, I took the 25 up Princess Anne Rd to Military Circle and transferred to the 20 heading toward the Beach and got off on the side of the old Gateway Country. To get back, another 20 brought me up to Corporation Lane to transfer to the 36 heading back to TCC. Took longer? Yes. Had to cross VB and Independence Speedways? No.

Well then Tina and Jeff Fulton can pay to build the bridge!! If the time to cross all those lanes of traffic is too short (and it is)then just increase the time!!! Simple fix, and on top of that make the speed limit 15MPH in that area!! If the city builds that silly bride they are more stupid then we all thought! The picture looks nice, but I am not willing to pay 3 million for it. The city always wants to spend money, and build something instead of just updating what they have. Then you have people like the Fultons, that just complain with out thinking!

We can name it “Consumer Affairs” Bridge since that program will be sacrificed for the bridge or put a list of all the names of other employees that got axed because of “budget cuts”. How about we get some priorities on City Counsel by electing new members that know how to put people first and not their BIG projects?

I can live with it provided that it's paid for out of Town Center's TIF.

No way should this come out of the General Fund!

Imagine if you will, the holiday season. Town Center employees, shoppers its busy bustling with people. A driver sitting at the intersection of Independence and Virginia Beach Blvd heading east, finally gets his chance to proceed after an opposing driver(s) have robbed him of precious green light time because of running a red light. The driver roars through the intersection consumed with road rage...Need I say more.

Like the Bull, I too have been to many downtown areas coast to coast. .the speed limit is rarely over 25 mph, and the pedestrians crossing lights longer. In the cases where you cant make the cross in one go, there is often a large medium...or zone of safety in the middle of the street until the next light cycle. Of course I am not sure if the traffic studies & associated modifications would exceed or be less than the cost of the bridge.

It seems way too dangerous not to have it.

I am sick to death of how the business community seems to think that these "public/private partnerships" are always what's needed-they want something and then expect the taxpayers to be good little sheeple and pay for it. If it's so important to their business, then LET THE BUSINESS LEADERS THAT WANT IT PAY FOR IT! I do not live near town center, I do not go to town center nor am I STUPID enough to attempt to cross Virginia Beach Blvd on foot. Why not the first ever foot bridge with a toll booth? Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part nor does it give you the right to hand me the bill for it. Sell naming rights for the bridge if you want to, but I am sick to death of Jim Spore treating Virginia Beach as his personal theifdom and forwarding the bill for everything his town center pimps want. Note to Jim Spore: The equity in my house is NOT YOURS TO SPEND.

For those who claim it's a "safety issue", might I point to something called "natural selection" commonly known as "survival of the fittest".

If the Central Business District is so crazy about the bridge, let them pay for it. Seriously, I say BUILD IT. The city council has wasted millions on other stupid projects, this one may save a life....

$3,000,000 will pay the salaries and benefits of more than 75 new police officer. Hire them to guard the Town Center crosswalk and to give out tickets to motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians at the Town Center and other crosswalks around town. Use the fines to pay the salaries of the police officers and to pay for the bridge. Everybody wins and nobody loses... except the rude drivers.

The real answer to this is very simple. I've noticed that it's always left out as an "option" to the issue. THE SPPED LIMIT FROM CONSTITUTION DRIVE TO INDEPENDENCE BLVD NEEDS TO BE 25 MPH!! As many people have mentioned who's ever seen traffic moving "briskly" through a downtown environment?? Slow the cars down, lengthen the "walk" light cycles. Do you know why this is being ignored? I've been in almost EVERY major downtown in the United States and the traffic moves slowly in ALL of them, why do we think our area is different?? We are truly becoming a nation of dummies.

is that our esteemed planners and Council members watched all of this unfold behind the scenes for years and NO ONE ever realized this was going to be an issue.
The road widening has been on the books for a long time.
While I may not agree with the bridge, I could better accept it if it were indeed funded through a TIF.

First...We need this bridge. Not necessarily to connect the mall but to stop kids from crossing the blvd. There are plenty of teens that want to go from one to the other and there are plenty of adults too with teen minds who can't cross a road properly. With that said, two: I hear no one complaining about the bridge on the other side (columbus st) that goes from parking garage to parking garage. I don't think anyone uses that bridge and that street is easier to cross. Also I think, that bridge only cost a couple of 100,000 maybe a litte more. So why can't we put one in just like that one?? Not a huge deal. You can also sell bricks in honor of people to raise money. Like they did in Albany NY for a bridge. IT's simpley answered, but the council has no imagination on they would rather stroke a check! IT's easier.

Millions of people cross times square in NYC and they don't seem to need a bridge. What's really shady here is that TIFF money isn't being used, it's my tax dollars. Money that could be put to better use!