NORFOLK
City officials have set a timeline for deciding what to do with Waterside, the aging waterfront marketplace that decades ago helped spark the revival of downtown.
In his State of the City address today at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Mayor Paul Fraim will announce plans for a 10-month-long effort to seek public input. The City Council will make a decision on Waterside's future early next year, he said.
The city has already begun mailing surveys to seek input on the ailing facility, he said. The surveys also will be on the city's Web site (www.norfolk.gov ) by Sunday, and they will be placed in libraries, mailed to civic leagues and sent to churches.
Fraim said two focus groups will be held this fall, followed by two public meetings that will also report the survey results. "People feel very strongly about Waterside," the mayor said. "They want a voice in deciding its future."
He said he has no preconceived notions of what Waterside should become, but he will insist that it continue to be controlled by the city and open to the public.
Fraim, a council member since 1986 and mayor since 1994, is being challenged in the May 4 election by three candidates - Councilwoman Daun S. Hester, council critic Daniel Montague, and Old Dominion University student Ryan Cooper.
Hester raised concerns about Waterside more than a year ago, saying it "is in need of a lot of help."
Constructed in 1983 on the site of a parking lot along the Elizabeth River, Waterside opened as a festival marketplace that attracted huge crowds and more investment downtown. MacArthur Center mall, the revival of Granby Street, and construction of the Dominion Enterprises and Wells Fargo Center office towers would not have happened were it not for Waterside, Fraim said.
Over the years, the facility has been transformed from a festival marketplace into a shopping mall and then an entertainment center featuring nightclubs. Granby Street is now downtown's entertainment center, and Waterside has not received a significant renovation in more than a decade.
Today much of Waterside, including most of its first-floor food court, is vacant. Two large vacancies occurred last year after the city closed Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe for what it said were repeated violations of city ordinances.
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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Waterside
Seems pretty simple to me. Waterside was developed in the late 70's early 80's by the Rouse Corp. Mr Rouse developed many such festival marketplaces. Most are still thriving today. Go to those cities where the marketplaces still thrive and see wht they have done to ensure their success. Don't bulldoze it like Richmond did their Sixth Street Marketplace. Some have suggested to expand TPP. Bad idea. Only small numbers of people show up at ANY city park. The downtown waterfromt needs a solid anchor with a solid draw appeal. Grass alone doesn't do that. Food, music and shops do that.
How About...
Turn it into a Courthouse. Two problems solved...
Waterside
It's not that complicated. As the saying goes..." You Dance With What Brung Ya"...The city should simply go back to what Waterside was when it was a success, a nice family place on the water where you could find decent food and other decent shops. It began its nosedive into the deplorable dump that it is today with Bar Norfolk & Jillian's taking over.
Gut it and go back to square one. Find a good anchor restaurant chain that could serve as an incentive for toher quality food vendors to want to come in, maybe add a couple of clothing stores or some such vendor. People would come back. I know my first visit to Waterside in about 15 years took place last fall and I was stunned at what a dump it had become. I recall when Phillips was there, and Reggie's upstairs, people used to populate the place. Music on Sunday afternoons on the stage downstairs...It is not that difficult to see what did work and what hasn't worked. It's not rocket science.
Hilarious
This is a bad joke: anyone who has lived in Hampton Roads for any length of time knows these shows of public imput are just that: shows put on to make it look like local government is allowing the citizens to decide issues. The Norfolk City Council will make a grand act of accepting public input - then go and do whatever THEY want to do regardless of what the people want.
Talk the talk - Walk the walk
Original headline was “Public to help decide fate of Norfolk Waterside.” Can’t use the words public and DECIDE in the same sentence, definitely a no no. Also had to make it perfectly clear their “need” for public input will be restricted to surveys only. Doesn’t really matter how its worded. Their hand picked “focus groups” will hold their non-public meetings before anything gets reported to the public. City Council’s decision on Waterside is already a done deal. Using surveys as a tool designed to appease the public is so lame.
To be clear
Original headline was “Public to help decide fate of Norfolk Waterside.”
So the public "helps" decide.
Not the "public" decides.
Is that a press release headline?
Cut, Paste, Delete
Press Release? You mean lots of words with no meaning? It's about as informative as their budgets and mangled city code. I don't know . . . that's a toughie. Hmmmm.
Ride the Tide to the Flow Ride
Create a Flowrider park that will attract both athletes and spectators to enjoy the ride and competitions. http://flowrider.com/
Different Headline today, what's up with that?
"Live coverage of Norfolk's State of the City speech"
Yesterday it was something different about the city wanting input into Waterside from the public.
Today, much broader headline.
What's the real scoop here for the abrupt editorial change?
Model Waterside after Little Rock River Market
Here's a simple suggestion. Model Waterside after the Little Rock River Market Center (Little Rock, AR). It achieves the goal of meeting everyone's discriminate taste.
http://www.rivermarket.info/
Waterside
Norfolk is becoming a "walking biking" community but only for those living close by. They certainly won't sepend enough time or especially money to sustain a place like waterside. This will take people from Va Beach, Chesaperake,Portsmouth and etc. visiting and spending money.
Waterside started out as anice family place but turned into a hangout for persons allowed to use non-family acceptable language, pushing past those there with families and taking over in general. I know of many who went to waterside but stopped when this was allowed to occur. Then the powers to be kicked the family oriented eateries and other establishments out for places like Jillians, Have a Nice Day Cafe and on and on. People frequenting these places will spend in them but not in other businesses in waterside. Ergo failing businesses.
Bring back the family locations without abusive language and actions being tolerated (i.e. SECURITY that has the power to act, not just call police. By the time they arrive, the guilty have departed)
Waterside use
Continue ferry service and the boat docking, etc. Have a couple of GOOD restaurants. Turn the main part into marketable art gallery. Model to follow is in Old Town Alexandria where The Torpedo Factory Art Gallery is such a success and there is boat docking with good restaurants nearby.
A few ideas.........
I have a few ideas:
1. Ignore the park suggestion, it is selfish and effects about 3 months of the year, terrible idea. It’s plenty of parks you can enjoy in the area.
2. If it is kept in government hands, let it NOT BE NHRA. Who in the world approved that idea in the first place? They can't run the projects and section 8 programs right, but you want them to control waterside? In fact, look at the projects then look at waterside, you notice some trends.
3. Give it to the private sectors with constraints (DO NOT DO what you did with the wellsfargo project or just hand that money or break over to me) . I personally say make it like the epicenter in charlotte. That way, EVERYONE can have what they want without excluding anyone’s likes.
4. M-T, it needs to be at LEAST 18 hour venue. Stop catering to one type needs.
5. With whatever is built, demand that the city provide local entertainment, for instance: Do a jumbotron of the football games in the winter on the lawn of TPP. Hire bands or entertainers to perform at least once a day at some time. Provide a few free cruises a year on the Spirit of Norfolk paid for by the city.
6. All in all, the city needs to sta
Selfish?
"Ignore the park suggestion, it is selfish and effects about 3 months of the year, terrible idea. It’s plenty of parks you can enjoy in the area."
The park idea is the most equitable of all outcomes. ANYONE in the world who comes to Norfolk can enjoy it for FREE. That is not selfish brikkman.
Bonus: parks cost much less to operate and maintain than buildings, or private businesses.
I say sell it to offset my coming TAX INCREASES.
Tear it down
Replace it with one large mixed-use building (say, 15 story, smaller than Dominion Tower, part commercial, part residential.) Fill the rest of the space a small pedestrian parcel for small, local restaurants. Really the only thing that's at Waterside these days are big chain restaurants. If I wanted that, I'd move to Indianapolis.
The dockable parcels might not be a bad idea, either.
A different downtown
Today Norfolk has a very different downtown then it did when Waterside first opened. A true market place would be welcomed by the thousands of residents that now live downtown.
There should be no establishments that are primarily bars. Restaurants that are primarily food providers are fine, but there must be more fresh food shops than restaurants in order to draw people from outside the immediate downtown area. Many local farmers could be part of this revival, they already supply small Farmer's Markets across the Tidewater area, and a venue like Waterside could help them retain their farms and diversify the crops they grow. Retailers should be carefully selected to provide options that are different from those found at MacMall, independent entrepreneurial boutiques should be considered first and then corporate chain entities.
If the taxpayer is already footing the bill for Waterside, then the lease rents should be kept affordable until these new business are fully stable, then they may be raised based on revenue generated. If this venue is to be a drawing card, then gouging rents to subsidize other C-of-N programs should not be allowed.
Turn it into....
well the city tore down the library. How about going in on a joint venture with TCC and turn it into an awesome library. still keeping some of the food places there making it a great place to study, do research, and eat. Just my two cents
Tear it down
Turn it over to Donald Trump and build a huge casino and yacht terminal complex. Let the NYC bigwigs stop here on their way to Florida and the Caribbean, dump a bunch of money into the city, and tax the heck out of them. Maybe that will pay for 10% of light rail.
Expand the boat docking
Expand the boat docking area, allow me to open a restaurant similar to restaurants on the Rudee Inlet were you can pull up and get out to have a nice meal. Grant free parking in the waterside, main street, town point and west plume garages. My last request is, bring back the Fudge shop, I loved watching them make it as a kid.
Soon
Whatever they do, I hope they do it soon. I'd like to see shopping with nice well-known brands not already found in MacArthur center. I think a movie theater would be great OR a small outside amphitheater for music, plays, or movies during the warmer months. The #1 thing that would help is FREE PARKING. It works for Town Center. Also, they should have a comprehensive plan in place with 90% of the space filled before opening ANYTHING. Good restaurants would help, too! Ones that can't be found in the area elsewhere, not Hooters and Outback.