Virginia Beach council delays vote on pedestrian bridge

I agree the project needs to be done correctly and a median fence needs to be in place as well. But YES, FUND THE BRIDGE BEFORE MORE PEOPLE DIE! Sorry but people's lives are more important than TIF tax disputes and silly arguements. Make the bridge enclosed and with multiple entrances on both sides and somewhat heated and possibly with a moving sidewalk and people will use it. This should be a no-brainer for the city. Provide elevators on both sides and a direct connection into the Armada Hofler tower. This should be a multi-purpose, multi-directional bridge, which will make it different from the Norfolk General bridge which is known for being underutilized. FUND THE BRIDGE = SAVE LIVES!

We did not elect Sessoms. His campaign and supporters Disenfranchised new, young and black voters with illegal flyers claiming he was an Obama supporter..there was a surge of new voters registered in Va Beach almost 20'000 60% under the age of 24...If you look at the poll results these concert looking flyers are why he won by a very small margin…

Not knowing who paid or printed these....Towne Bank and any of Sessoms Contributors should be banned from profiting or participating in any and all City sponsored deals or Private public ventures….

City Council this is the only fair thing to do if we are going to have a Mayor with contributors and a campaign with this level of integrity and disrespect for the men who fight and die so we have the right to vote…
If his friends will not benefit he will quickly give up the seat he’s stolen...

Here will be one of many Votes Will Sessoms must step away from. I do believe that Towne Bank at Town Center could directly benefit from this bridge.
Hmmm.... How many more of these votes will he step away from? Good Job voters of VA Beach... way to elect a mayor who can't represent us!

This is about diverting the control of tax funds away from the city’s General Fund and school board accounts and the balkanization of our city’s tax base to benefit special interests that intend to use the VBDA (Virginia beach Development Authority) and DED (Department of Economic Development) as a way for unaccountable spending outside of the City Council’s normal budgeting and spending controls. It’s an underhanded move to avoid transparency and the role of the citizens in the decision-making process for how our tax funds are being spent...

Why don't more people see this...Funny thing if you look at VBDA and PHR's website they are identical same pics and all...LOL

They can't possibly be that oblivious to what happens with their money?????? Don't elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility to citizens?? Just what's blatant is bad... Class Action LOL

You can always sue whomever and whenever you want Markk. The question is whether you win or not. Ques 1. Is there a crosswalk? 2. Is it accessable? 3. Is it plainly marked? 4. If appropriate, is a traffic signal adjacant to the crosswalk? 5. Is adequate time given to cross the walkway by the signal? 6. Are YOU responsible for YOUR own actions? Seems pretty clear to me. No fancy bridge needed to be paid for by taxpayers, let the businesses in the area fund its construction. We helped build the theatre, the garage, the hotel, think that was enough at least in my book.

but not for schools? VB needs to put this on the back burner and leave it there for a long wait. When city services are going to be cut, jobs lost, I think a $3.5M bridge for Town Center can wait.

Town Center should be foot traffic only. Reroute Virginia Beach Blvd. so it splits and goes around both sides of the planned blocks for the downtown area.

Oh yeah, and it's the "greedy developers" who bear the brunt of the increased tax rate, not Joe Citizen.

And for the person who commented about city council taking away ALL of VB's green space, when was the last time you visited one of our FOUR state parks or wildlife refuges??? Might want to take a trip to the southern part of the city, Chicken Little.

A TIF is a bit complicated and obviously, many of the you do not understand how it works. So, here goes. A TIF district is where the members of that district pay an increased tax on top of the regular tax that everyone else in the city pays. This increased tax is used to pay for special projects, i.e. a pedestrian bridge.

For simplicity sake, if the regular tax rate is 10 cents and the additional tax in a TIF is 5 cents, the 10 cents still goes into the general fund and the 5 cents goes towards the project. It absolutely does not take money away from schools, other city services, etc. That would be impossible - if the project does not get built, then there is no extra tax money.

Oh please! I have lived in Va Bch for twenty years and have seen so many things done that we the people of the beach voted against, this too will happen. They can pay for it with the fines they will receive from those children feeding the birds at Mt Trashmore!

Thanks, dckevin, well said. If they hadn't tried to turn VB into Gotham City, and all the boulevards weren't the size of freeways, we wouldn't have this problem. But, gee, I guess that would mean we don't want "progress", huh ?????

The city can also be sued. It has happened before and it most certainly will happen again. Cities cannot claim immunity for their bad planning. This issue has come up before in court cases. It is a lot cheaper to build pedestrian bridges than to deal with the lawsuits and the bad publicity that comes from such accidents.
And now I see our city council has delayed voting about this issue. Great: more delays which will mean more people endangered and the project will only cost even more. More brilliance on our city council's part.

...VaBch city council will never change unless we get rid of those that are coming up on election next time. The city council is like watching the three stooges, green acres and beverly Hillbillies all at the same time...it's sad but funny...

I thought that the bridge to nowhere issue was put to rest in the Presidential election.... I half expect sarah palin to show up at any minute....!

Without an expalination as to why, City Council pulled the new Town Center TIF off of the agenda. Hopefully they will reconsider the funding plan for any foot bridge, should they agree to constrct one. Those that benefit most should pay. I propose increasing the real estate tax rate in a special taxing district if the Town Center businesses that want this bridge agree to pay for it, so be it. Another TIF would simply divert tax funds away from the General Fund and the School Board.

There is not a reason to fear that sessoms will join hands with developers, he is the puppet of developers. $500 thousand dollars worth of developer money paid to buy the mayor's office of VB. Any sane citizen can see that developers now control city hall, and sessoms will be the mouth of developer rule. Anything they want, he will give.

Jones could give a hoot about the pembroke/bayside area, he is looking out for his business. He could care less about his district. Why doesn't he fight to keep a hospital in Bayside? He runs a funeral home. His business is in death. He could care less if we have adequate access to hospital services at Bayside. If a developer tell him to vote for a TIF, he will. Citizens lose.

Meyra and Reba saw the light and turned their backs to the Good ole boys and Developers honoring what the citizens want….

But look what it gets you in VB….If this recent election stands Lets just auction off council seats because we will be left with Fearful, self serving, leaders Bowing to the greedy power mongrels and their attorneys who think they will get away with this
Couldn’t buy Meyera,, tried to buy Sessoms the election…It didn’t work so they resorted to the illegal fliers,looking at polls they worked

I’m disgusted by the lack of action on this election travesty.. If you don’t care about taxes or the demise of your rights.
Show respect for the men and women who put their lives on the line so you enjoy freedom and an opportunity vote… We must speak out this is an insult to everything are Country stands for, Send an email to Governor Kaine, Harvey Bryant, about Sessoms fliers

It might be helpful to include the reason given for delaying the vote.

I'm glad city council was willing to delay this vote. It isn't the time to raise anyone's taxes.

If someone runs a light and hits someone they are at fault and NOT the city! I want noone getting hit there, but people need to follow the law and the speed limit there needs to be lowered and perhaps more time needs to be allowed to cross. By the way, try getting across Gen Booth by the Aquarium in the allotted time and watch all of the people with strollers. Supposed to have a walkway there too but nothing being done and there sure are a lot more kids making that crossing than at Towne Center.