Life under the Regency category archive

The local Babbitts are once again salivating over throwing public money into a sports palace

Del. Ron Villanueva, a Virginia Beach Republican, said it’s important to have an authority with the power to issue bonds so the region can act quickly if another opportunity to build an arena comes along.

Earlier this month, an attempt to build an arena in Virginia Beach with a National Basketball Association franchise as the anchor tenant was suspended when the company that would have operated the arena couldn’t agree to terms with the team that sources identified as the Sacramento Kings.

“Every time we’ve gone through this drill, we haven’t been as ready as we need to be,” Villanueva said. “Hopefully, this will make us ready when the future comes calling again. This would be a good opportunity for regional cooperation.”

More at the link.

One of the reasons that the last play failed to score a basket was public resentment of the secrecy attending the plotting planning to pull it off.

This would appear to be appear to be an attempt to allow more stuff to get done more quickly, perhaps before the resentment can take hold.

What is it about large men with small balls that makes Babbitts want to throw taxpayers’ money at them?

___________________

*With apologies to Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

From my local rag:

Voter registrar Donna Patterson blamed technical difficulties and an unprecedented number of curbside voters for long lines at (Virginia Beach–ed.) polling places and the delay in reporting election results on Nov. 6.

“Curbside voting” is a service in which, for old or disabled voters, voting officials bring a ballot to the voter and allow him or her to complete it without standing in line.

At the polling place where I spent most of election day, a site of some of the longest waits in my little corner of the world, there were a few curbside voters, but not enough to cause four-hour waits.

I’m casting my ballot for the Oscar in the “What can I say that sounds good?” category for this tale.

Via The Richmonder.

I must congratulate the local rag for uncovering Virginia Beach’s surreptitious effort to lobby the public, that is, the taxpayers of Virginia Beach, on behalf of building a sports palace for the rumored maybe sometime mystical build-it-and-they-will-come professional sports team.

Here’s the lead; sordid details at the link.

Part of the nearly $700,000 the city’s economic development authority has spent on plans to build an Oceanfront arena has gone toward Internet and social media campaigns that advocate the project.

“New Arena Means New Jobs, New Revenue and New Era for Virginia Beach,” said the headline Friday on BringItVA.com.

The related Bring It VA Facebook page includes testimonials about the economic impact of the arena – “Who can’t be in favor of a project like this?” one said – interspersed with “Did you know?” claims such as “The arena will create over 1,200 full-time jobs.” And @BringItVA carries the message on Twitter.

There’s a reason that developers are unwilling to build sports palaces on their own hook.

They know it’s a money-losing proposition.

I could go on, but I won’t. Just read the article.

Addendum, Later That Same Morning:

A columnist at the local rag has a novel analysis of the prospects for the sports palace.

Virginia Beach’s latest attempt to gin up an excuse to shovel money to developers involves vague rumors of an NBA team’s possibly maybe someday coming to town. The city has already spent the better part of $1,000,000.00 on this, mostly on the q. t.

It’s a bunch of sound and fury signifying that promoters want to raid the public treasury, despite the reality that the tales of an economic boom resulting from pouring public money into pro sports invariably turn out to be somewhere on the continuum between fantasy and hokum. Here’s a nugget from the Minneapolis Post (much longer analysis at the link):

Moreover, the building of stadiums merely transfers consumption from one area or one type of leisure activity to another, and overall, sports and stadiums contribute little to the local economy and instead represent an investment that costs the public a lot while failing to return the initial investment. Dollar for dollar, the opportunity costs of investing in sports stadiums is a terrible option if the goal is economic development, job development, or producing new economic development in a community. In short, the nearly $3 billion in sports subsidies it documented produced little, at the cost of over $120,000 per job.

Something about the sight of large men playing with small balls turns the minds of mayors and other local Babbitts to frat-boy-tailgate-party-anticipating mush.

The ACLU steps in to protect your “Likes” in Virginia, where some speech is too insignificant to be free:

The ACLU wants a federal judge to add “liking” something on Facebook to the list of inalienable constitutional rights.

The civil liberties group joined the social network this week in filing amicus briefs with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, arguing that a District Court judge was wrong in refusing to grant free-speech protection to “liking” something on Facebook.

District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson ruled this spring that employees of the Hampton Virginia Sheriff’s Office, who were allegedly fired because they “liked” the Facebook page of Sheriff B.J. Roberts’ opponent in the 2009 election, didn’t do enough to warrant constitutional protection.

Really, now, if folks could get fired for expressing their “Likes,” their “Likes” are hardly insignificant now, are they?

Or, alternatively, the firings could be ruled insignificant so the paychecks could keep coming.

Virginia is no stranger to the politics of bigotry, starting with the Red Letter Year (as it was called in my third grade history book) through the Civil War, Jim Crow, Massive Resistance, and beyond.

Now comes Eric Cantor in that grand tradition to support Michelle Bachmann’s mongering of religious hatred, ignorance, and fear.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Friday refused to condemn Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, had infiltrated the U.S. government on behalf of radical Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Details at C&L.

Addendum:

Be sure to read George Smith’s comment to this and follow his link to learn more about the merchants of hate.

Republicans want the evul fedrul guv’mint to go away, except when they don’t.

Virginia is seeking federal disaster assistance for the estimated $27.5 million spent by the state and local governments to respond to late June wind and thunderstorms that left 15 dead and 1.3 million utility customers without power.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said the June 29-July 1 storms, which included hail and fierce winds known in meteorological terms as a derecho, “required extraordinary response and recovery efforts at the local and state levels.” Forty-seven localities declared emergencies.

A couple of days ago, I posted my friend Andrew’s letter to the Mayor and City Council regarding President Obama’s visit to Virginia Beach.

The Mayor graciously contacted Andrew. Here is Andrew’s follow-up, posted with permission:

Monday morning I received a call from Mayor Sessoms and also an email from Councilman Jim Wood expressing concern and providing an explanation in the matter of President Obama’s visit.
I sent a personal email to Councilman Wood who expressed his regret for missing the opportunity to meet the President, and thanked him for his response.

Mayor Sessoms and I had a very candid conversation in which he expressed his view that he had not been invited by the President’s campaign and was concerned about pushing himself in where he may not have been wanted. And, without an invitation, vetting and clearance by Secret Service, he would not have been permitted to greet the President. He further expressed his regret of not having the opportunity to personally meet the President which would have been an honor for him.

I expressed my thanks for his taking the time to reach out to me to advise that it was not any attempt to snub the President but a matter of feeling uninvited. His position was that he would have been honored to meet, speak to and shake hands with the President. He certainly had no intention to disrespect the President of the United States.

My response was, by example, to put myself in his place saying that I, knowing that the President was visiting, would have been proactive and reached out to secure an invitation as Mayor of the city to welcome the President. With the local office of both Senator Webb and Congressman Rigell, I think that would have been quickly handled.

The above said, I appreciate the Mayor taking the time to personally contact me to provide an explanation and we did have a candid and fruitful conversation. I do believe that if this situation occurs again the outcome will be much different. We’re (Virginia Beach) the biggest kid on the block and we ought to be able to meet both opportunities and challenges and be able to “stick our chest out” so to speak when it’s over.

Andrew Jackson

Oh noes! Hidden agendas?

My friend Andrew was most distressed to learn that, when President Obama visited Virginia Beach last week, not one city dignitary graced his visit with a greeting.

Here, posted with permission, is Andrew’s letter to the Mayor and City Council:

I believe a person’s actions confirm their proclamation of respect.

Mr. Mayor, I am appalled at the lack of respect from the leadership of Virginia Beach. Like him or his policies, his political ideology or group affiliation, Barrack Obama is the President of these United States and as such, if nothing else, his station as President of the United States should be respected. He is not my president, he is OUR president. That people think it is acceptable to disrespect the President of the United States is more than troubling to me.

I have seen many comments, political decisions, advertisements, all hailing the greatness of this city and reaching out to welcome visitors. Yet, when the VIP of VIPs comes to this city, who did you send to greet him? Not one city official was there to greet him. It is one thing, an embarrassing moment in itself, that a city of our size, the largest in the state, is void of diversity in its elected leadership. This is an astonishing fact indeed, considering the diversity of the population itself.

In a city that is geared to visitors, we have a Mayor, 10 Council persons, one highly paid City Manager, and a Convention and Visitors Bureau head who happens to be a retired Admiral who should know protocol and not a single one showed up to bring a hand of welcome to the highest office in the land. If you can’t respect the man, at least respect his station, the office of the Presidency.

For you Mayor Sessoms, I would think you would be glad to have a true photo standing with the President rather than the fake photo used to help get you elected.

I have heard your words in speeches and in conversations. Your claims of the zest Ato promote understanding,” and to reach out to the various elements of our city sound hollow. Wouldn’t have been great to see a show of welcome to show to the many that question your motives and intentions. Sir, if your true goal is to “advance understanding”……well? In the immortal words of semanticist, S.I. Hayakawa, “meanings are in people, not in words.” Words have no intrinsic meaning other than meanings that are internalized by each individual. Your lack of presence is an action that speaks volumes!

The citizens of this city, not only, but especially our African American population, should be outraged that the elected leadership of Virginia Beach failed to roll out the red carpet for the President of the United States.

Mr. Mayor, our City Manager, all the Council persons and the head of our Convention and Vistor’s Bureau, I end with this thought: Former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once said, “To every man [or woman] there comes a time when he [she] is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a great and mighty work; unique to him [her] and fitted to his [her] talents; what a tragedy if that moment finds him [her] unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be his [her] finest hour.”

To me, the arrogance is astonishing and very repulsive, that our city leadership was tapped on the shoulder and found to be woefully unprepared and unqualified for the moment that could be it’s finest hour!

Respectfully,

Andrew Jackson

Excerpt:

We are in the midst of a coin-operated government.

More Democrats need to be willing to stop waffling and take off the gloves.

Via The Richmonder.

Bob Molinaro, in the local rag:

Bottom line At a time when funds for the old and needy are being cut, is the $4 million Virginia is giving Dan Snyder to help the billionaire Redskins owner renovate the team’s training facilities really the best use of state money? To paraphrase what someone once said, it’s only the poor who are discouraged from begging.

’nuff said.

The Regent wants him some drones (in addition to his legislature, that is):

Part of the Republican canon is a belief that there is no such thing as the “public good.” If it does not pay a bonus to a bonus baby, it ought not to exist (Afterthought: Unless, of course, it can be used to blow someone up).

Think, for example, of Enron. Or Lehman Brothers. Or Countrywide–All of them exemplars of the inherent virtue of private industry.

APM Terminals Inc., which operates marine terminals all over the world, submitted an unsolicited proposal to state officials to run the Virginia Port Authority’s terminals, Sean T. Connaughton, Virginia’s transportation secretary, announced Wednesday.

The value of the deal to the state, in current dollars, is estimated to be between $3 billion and $4 billion over the 48 years it would be in effect, according to APM’s proposal.

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should read about Chicago’s private parking enforcers and their golden guarantee.

The Richmonder rounds up the dollar cost to taxpayers of treating peaceful protesters as if they were invading aliens.

Read it.