No! and the Poverty Paradox

No!

Readers say no to the city subsidizing a hotel for Bruce Thompson, the Virginia Beach hotel magnate, in downtown Norfolk.

The poll is unscientific. But the results are unanimous.

Nine respondents opposed spending city money for a proposed hotel and conference center at the The Plot spot.

Should the city offer the same deal to Thompson as it offered to previous developers, the city would pay for the convention center, estimated at $50 million, and $16 million for a parking garage. (The costs might have gone up, based on inflation, but let’s assume they are somewhere in the ballpark.)

The city might even throw in $7.5 million in tax rebates to sweeten the pot, as it did in previous deals, and a $750,000 grant for an upscale restaurant.

Don’t forget, either, the $16 million Norfolk has spent buying and demolishing historic buildings, architectural, engineering and appraisal fees, to prepare the plot for a hotel, conference center and parking garage.

Consider also that Thompson won’t assume most of the risk. The city will. He can pull out at any time.

But can the city? How will the city recoup the $16 million it spent already based on promises from developers?

Poverty

As Mayor Paul Fraim said in his state of the city address last year was one of steady progress in the community, economic development, transportation and the city’s partnership with the military and with veterans.

But Fraim admits that the city’s poverty rate is too high.

“A large segment of our workforce lives outside of Norfolk,” Fraim said. “We must do more to connect Norfolk residents with Norfolk jobs.”

Fraim said that later this month, City Council will appoint a task force to examine the nature of poverty in the city and recommend actions that will result in increased educational attainment, job training and employment among individuals and families living in poverty.

The task force will spend a year examining poverty in the city.

The city released a report on poverty December 11 under Council Concenrs and Interests of last year. 

It was compiled by the Office of Budget and Grants Management based on statistics from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Simply put, Norfolk has a poverty problem.

Statistics show that 37,759 individuals, or 16.4 percent of Norfolk’s population, are classified as poverty stricken.

Norfolk’s family poverty rate increased from 11.8 percent of the population in 2010 to 14.6 percent of the city’s population in 2011, the report said.

Norfolk has the second highest poverty rate in the region, second only to Portsmouth, the report said.

Can a task force reduce the unemployment rate and bring jobs to the city?

Rich City, Poor Families

Following the mayor’s speech, the city issued a press release saying it will buy the Traveler’s Inn motel and property located at 800 East Ocean View Boulevard for $800,000. 

Appreciate the irony in that the city, rife with poverty, is spending $800,000 to “further improve the quality of life in the Ocean View community.”

This isn’t the only time the city has bought property (or given it away for less than its value) “to improve the “quality of life.”

In the industrial section of the Berkley neighborhood sits a vacant industrial property, which the city bought for $3.5 million.

It was intended, in the eyes of a former city council member, to be an aquatic center, condos and who knows what else.

City Council approved the purchase. Yet nothing has been done with it.