Archive for the ‘Redevelopment’ Category

Our Virginia Beach City Council should put the financial health of the citizens of Virginia Beach, finally, at the top of our priority list. Our financial health means having income sufficient to pay our bills (food, gas, heat and so on) without the extra burden of excessive taxes and fees.

During the coming discussions on the budget for the next fiscal year, council should consider the cost of new projects in terms of the increase in our cost of continuing to live in Virginia Beach.

Citizens do not want another real estate tax rate increase. Last year, our council increased our tax rate from $.87 to $.95 and added fees to our water bill. The additional fees, trash pickup fee and the storm water fee, equate to about an additional $.05 of the real estate tax rate. Our council, rather than raise our tax rate to $1.00, successfully hid that extra $.05 among the fees on our water bill.

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Is crony capitalism alive and thriving in Virginia Beach? Umm, what’s crony capitalism?

From Google: Crony capitalism: an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials; self-serving friendships and ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Virginia Beach City Council has, apparently, a very long term and very expensive plan for the oceanfront area in Virginia Beach. The process, meaning major projects, began many years ago, continues to today and will go on for many years to come.

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A review of our Virginia Beach City Council’s “accomplishments” of the last ten-twelve years clearly demonstrates the need for new city council members – new city council members who will put citizens first.

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Let’s review Will Sessoms REAL record.

As history shows, Will Sessoms voted to ignore citizens expressed wishes and developed projects rejected by citizens. And he has consistently voted to increase our real estate taxes.

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Perhaps many citizens of Virginia Beach are not aware that you, Rosemary Wilson and Vice Mayor Louis Jones, are both council liaisons to the Economic Development Authority. As liaison you attend all Authority meetings and, most importantly, attend all of the closed sessions of the Authority. Also, you have the responsibility to brief all members of council on the plans of the Authority. Read the rest of this entry »

You remember that old line, don’t you? “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Well, we have been “fooled” many times – shame on us. We were fooled by the effort to slide a vote through on the headquarters hotel with no notification to citizens that council was seriously discussing the issue. Now we have been fooled again by this absurd (and successful) scheme to fund a consultant to convince citizens that an arena would be good for us. Read the rest of this entry »

Who are the “uninformed?” Uninformed about what? They are the citizens of Virginia Beach, who for many reasons, do not have the time or interest to pay attention to city Council decisions and future plans. Read the rest of this entry »

Control Group? Who or what is a control group? And what do they do? The Control Group is our Virginia Beach City Council supported by the power centers of our city. In Virginia Beach, power centers are organized around developers, real estate companies and tourism related businesses. Power Centers are oriented to and driven to accomplish specific self-serving goals, to control the decision-making process and guide the process to the desired goal. Read the rest of this entry »

The citizens of Virginia Beach have become the New Bankers for many of the planned development and redevelopment projects. Because developers are having difficulty qualifying for loans for various projects, our Virginia Beach city Council has continued to use several financial techniques that rely on the taxpayers for that   additional financing. Read the rest of this entry »