Virginia Beach has a top 10 boardwalk, magazine says

We are among the families who moved to Virginia Beach after vacationing here many years with our children. We are at the beach front daily and enjoy tourist season when families from all over the world are having a wonderful time. It is a bustling happy place to be. Maybe we don't share the same snobbish attitude toward the tourists that some do because for many years we were the tourists. We do not understand the attitude that some of the long time locals have. We often wonder if they realize that the tourist industry has something to do with all the beautiful schools and parks that they are blessed to have. This is a beautiful place to live and some of us who have lived elsewhere appreciate that. Concerning the boardwalk, everyday hundreds of walkers, skaters, joggers and bikers take advantage of exercising with a breathtaking view and wonderful landscaping. Most bikers use the trail as they are supposed to do and so I agree that there is room for everyone. I guess some people are never happy and are not capable of appreciating what they are blessed to have.

Virginia Beach should change the name to The Virginia Beach Broadwalk because of the width that it is now and like the article stated its not made of boards. Also we would probably have the only one with such name in the country and would always be rated #1.

I am with marym 100% on this issue. We have a great oceanfront that I enjoy mostly before Memorial Day and after Labor Day (unless I have guests in town who want to visit there). I have a feeling it is not the magazine ratings folks with the blinders, but more the people who fail to see what a jewel we have. Our City has made the "top" lists of many different categories: boardwalk, place to raise a family, healthy living, financially sound, to name but a few. Surely no one is trying to say the city's leadership is in cahoots and paying off all sorts of people from all over the country in these varied sources. Only in the beach do we berate and bemoan leadership (which I do not always agree with) for actually producing good results. Kind of mindboggling.

So, we actually *do* have a beautiful Boardwalk (I have confirmed that, too, but just not at the height of summer) but our complaints all concern the people who treat it like their own private backyard and won't give one inch to help other people enjoy it free of walking through dog poop, getting hit by bikes or rollerblades, using profanity, etc.
Are we just in a day when everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes and . . . too bad for the rest of you!? I think we are. The sharing message that the kindergarten teachers try to convey might not be reinforced at home, church, etc. We need to work harder on this. Our East Coast is getting more crowded and we are getting ruder to each other when we *feel* crowded. Cheers, MGM

Man, that Haterade all of those Virginia Beach anti-government commentors are serving up sure is good...NOT.

So we Americans ARE free to make whatever comments we want to make and live where we choose. I think the boardwalk here is wonderful - other than the rollerskaters, skateboarders and bicyclists that don't stick to the bike path and try to run you down. Add to that all the obnoxious people who have to shout out all sorts of garbage, try to play games on the boardwalk and run into people in the process AND the problem of parking to go and enjoy the boardwalk. Taking all that into consideration, it is easy to understand why so many people do find it hard to believe that our boardwalk is in the top 10.

Virginia Beach needs fewer of these RENO 911! cops with their cutesy little shorts and mirrored sunglasses.

I walk on the boardwalk several times a week. I see thousands of people--tourists and locals alike--using the beach, visiting restaurants, shops and attractions and generally enjoying themselves. Our boardwalk is wide, clean, beautifully landscaped and well-maintained. The beach is clean and wide. There’s plenty of room for everyone. You'll see people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities getting along well and having fun with their families, friends and each other. If you're not comfortable with this kind of diversity, then you’re just out of step with the face of our nation. There's certainly nothing to be scared of and no reason to feel unwelcome. Yes, you may have to pay to park. But the meters and municipal lots are far cheaper than other public beaches along the East Coast.

You keep mentioning Myrtle Beach, does Myrtle Beach even have a boardwalk?

Drinking the only thing they ever do....Hater-ade.

Lived in VB for much of my life (even graduated from Green Run before it became Gang Run), got smart and moved to Chesapeake. We have our own problems to be sure, but not the mess you have there, but I digress.

The top ten is either a dart throw or they visited the boardwalk during a snowstorm. Try visiting it during the summer, you need full body armor against skaters and bicyclists...

The people with the negative comments either do not live here or need to move. I am seriously concerned by the negativity you display. We live in a free country. Live where it suits you. If you don't agree with how our city is run, then you can either hit the polls (vote), run for office yourself, or go away. It sounds like you need to vent so go and get yourself a punching bag. We have great schools, fun surf and sand, free acitivty all over the place, and a city that is showing to be resiliant to our country's horrible economy. I will tell ya, you people are the worst of what Va Beach really is!

Jason, I agree with you, fully. Thank you for the positive comment. Now, here's my theory for why Myrtle Beach wasn't in the top 10: maybe the magazine saw their disparaging remarks posted on Myrtle Beach's website, and decided not to vote for them. Either that, or their boardwalk didn't measure up. I have a feeling the magazine and those that voted did not have their head in the sand as proposed in another poster, but indeed went to boardwalks all over the country and narrowed it down to 10, plain and simple. And no, I don't believe in the conspiracy theory that the City of Virginia Beach paid money to have our boardwalk listed either. I think it's great that we're in the top 10.

It sure is nice at the boardwalk - when all the tourists are gone.

I figured the usual boring negative spew would come out of that article. I've traveled around the country quite a bit and the boardwalk here is in fact very nice in comparison. Most of what you find is more like what the Va Beach oceanfront looked like back in 70s and 80s. It's also in a prime travel location right off the Bay Bridge.

At least VABEACH has tourist $$'s. Norfolk has nothing to offer.

Va Beach is a top 10 Boardwalk huh?... So what were the other runner ups for this travesty? Chernobyl? Three Mile Island? Wonder how much the Va Beach city council paid for that mention, bet is was way more that it would have been to fill in some of those pot holes in 264. And seriously, where was Miami, Myrtle Beach, Key West, or even Pensacola? Those guys must have had signs hung around their necks so the cops would leave them to their own devices while they paraded around the "utopia" that is the va beach boardwalk...

It's made of concrete instead of boards? And it's "traditional"? Huhh?

That magazine must have been desperate to fill in the last couple spots of the "Top Ten."

I didn't see Mytrle Beach in there. What do they say NOW!

The people who work for that magazine and voted must have their head in the sand.