2. Stanton Partners and Robinson Development for the chance from the city to plop a grocery store, the upscale Fresh Market, and offices on the wasteland of 21st street between Colley Avenue and Hampton Boulevard.
3. Property owners who are protected by a constitutional amendment restricting the taking of their property and for reimbursing them not only for relocation expenses but also for lost business and cities who don’t have to condemn land and waste their talents and tax payer dollars in the process.
4. Norfolk city officials and rail advocates who will see their dream materialize Dec. 12 when the first passenger train in decades will leave Norfolk for Richmond and Washington DC.
5. For light rail advocates in Virginia Beach who envision an extension of Norfolk’s light rail system, The Tide, to the Virginia Beach Town Center and maybe Hilltop – and maybe, if the rumors are true, down Independence Boulevard to Norfolk Naval Station.
6. For those in Norfolk who wanted a change in the direction and president and CEO of the Downtown Norfolk Council.
7. Virginia’s residents and businesses who despise the Affordable Care Act and Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has delayed implementation of a state exchange because, as he says, the federal government isn’t providing him with timely and accurate information.
8. The investors behind the Mid-Town Tunnel, as well as Macquarie and Skanska, which will make it happen because Gov. Bob McDonnell was able to get timely and accurate information and financing from the federal government.
9. The travelers between Norfolk and Portsmouth, or Portsmouth and Norfolk, whose trip will be shorter because of another tunnel, even though they will have to pay a toll of nearly $2.00 and which will rise over the decades.
10. The consultants and economists who have compiled dueling studies about the port – Old Dominion University economist James Koch, William & Mary and John Vickerman – and pocketed Christmas money.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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