The problem of referrendum; its really a vote on short term vs long term. My short term vote would be NO, we don't need to spend money on anything. My long term vote would be YES, we need to INVEST in infrastructure that will one day be viable and work within the context of a much larger mass transit network that I can only barely imagine today. So the referrendum is asking the short-sighted citizens to be city planners for a day. "Do you (the citizens) see the entire process coming to fruition? Do you have that foresight, are you thinking what's best for future citizens?" The answer is absolutely No, people are not able to vote for anything other than their current situation. This is a vision plan. And No, I do not think it should go to referrendum, especially knowing the demographic of those who tend to vote for items on referrendum: Old and White!

Personnally I am all for light rail. However that is not the reason I am against a referendum. The main reason that I am almost always against referendums is that it relieves our elected officials of much of the responsibility for making the hard choices that they are elected for. If the city council really does believe that light rail is the best thing for the city in the long run then they should have the personnal conviction to go through with it. If it turns out to be the best decision, then the electorate will reward them at election time. If they are not sure that it is the right thing for the city then don't do it. However, normally when things like this are put up to a referendum the masses will usually only vote for the short term answer; especially when it tends to be cheapest course of action. In reality, we have a Respresentative Republic for a government not a full democracy ruled only at the daily whims of the masses.

Am I the only one who thinks traffic isn't bad in Virginia Beach.

No, you're not the only one. I think it's funny when people complain after the time I've spent driving on the Beltway, Atlanta, and Dallas.

But what is important isn't what is happening now. A rail system takes decades to develop, so we have to consider what transportation conditions will be like in 2040 and beyond. Do we want to just plan to lay concrete over every inch of land?

I agree it's a perfect location. The idea of leaving Norfolk on lunch zipping to Town Center and back sounds great. I am all for the stop but lets let a local developer buy the site and make it a stop. Let them take the risk. News stands, sandwich shops, coffee, Cyber meeting centers all sound like smart business for a local investor. Also look deep into this deal people. It's misleading. Will Sessoms voted against light rail as vice mayor. That move now has cost us tens of millions it would have saved us. Nice job slick Willie! THE CITY HAS NO MONEY!!!! WE ARE CLOSING DOWN SCHOOLS!!! WE ARE ON A HIRING FREEZE! WE ARE GOING TO be 6O MILLION IN DEBT SOON. You cant spend what you don't have. If I ran my household budget like we let council run the Cities I would be broke and homeless. I guess to Mr. Sessoms who spends 9000.00 of our tax money to have a speech wrote for him five million is a drop in the bucket. Yep, the only City to Pay for an outside speech writer. $9000.00.. the President of a Local bank and our Mayor could not write a speech. Pathetic!!! I hope the grand Jury slaps the Sessoms camp like a red headed stepchild !!!!

Am I the only one who thinks traffic isn't bad in Virginia Beach. I Guarentee all the posters on here that want the light rail to go to Virginia Beach are not from their. I work in downtown Norfolk and commute from Virginia Beach everday. Why would I get in my car and drive to Town Center to ride the light rail 15 mins. to Norfolk when I could drive by the train stop and be their much quicker? It makes no sense. This rail does nothing to help out the commute for citizens of Virginia Beach whatsoever. It will just provide an expensive way for all the lowlifes to loiter in city.

It's a start.We need a way to decrease traffic on the street.A full rail system can't be produced over night.We so need a starting point.And this is it.We are way behind this should not be a start up issue we should now be talking about expansion.Light rail is the future.

So tell me how a train system running from downtown Norfolk to the Beach is going to ease all the traffic coming to and from those areas.

That's where the expansion lines come into play. The initial line is targeted toward shopping, entertainment, and tourism. It wouldn't practical to try to build a full commuter rail system in one shot.

That is very true in most cases but in the case of Light-Rail that is not true being the heavy traffic in this area branches off towards Chesapeake, Portsmouth, NOB and the Peninsula. So tell me how a train system running from downtown Norfolk to the Beach is going to ease all the traffic coming to and from those areas. I might be dumb but I am not stupid and more traffice come from those areas than from dowtown Norfolk to the Beach.

No one wants to do anything about our traffic problems around here. People will complain about how bad traffic is and the conditions of the roads but they aren't willing to change their habits to make a difference about the problem. Let's face it: gasoline prices are going to go back up. Our traffic problems are only going to get worse by staying the course we are on now. Light rail is a solution. Expanding light rail to NOB and over to Portsmouth will make it even more viable. The people in this area have to dragged kicking and screaming to get any major problems solved and the mayor and city council of Virginia Beach have realized this.

We already had a referendum and voted it down. We said we did not want it. End of story, just like the 31st street park referendum. Oh wait...