The New Norfolk

Enter Norfolk's maze

Or is it?

Let's see.

No police dogs.

No cops wielding nighsticks

No acrid smell of tear gas bringing miscreants to their knees.

The New Norfolk is more insidious and subtle.

The New Norfolk is a blend of what is and what isn't, or what is promoted and spun, or what someone in the city's echelons consider the fad du jour.

Come to the New Norfolk.

Food carts

Light rail

An arts+design district

Downtown recycling

Bike share

Hatch Norfolk

But host an event, an art exhibit, and you're suddenly confronted with official rules and regulations

Too many people, the city says

Only 50 at a time

The New Norfolk

Norfolk's Rules and Regulations

Plant a tree in front of the junkyard or you won't get your zonig approved

The New Norfolk

Open a restaurant in the wrong place and in the wrong city ward and you will be buried under an avalanche of bureaucracy, officialdom and a labyrinth of ordinances

The New Norfolk

Try to open a used book store and you are confronted with PODs and SODs and TODs and SUCS

Zoning regulations, permits...and so forth, and you are lucky if you get approvals from the multitude of the powers to be wthin 6 months

Even if you do, you might have to put in a stoop because of fire regulations, even though your apartment and studio is on the second floor and there isn't a fire escape. So why a stoop? Because city regulations say so. That's why. So don't complain aout it. Or you won't get a certificate of occupancy.

Oddly enough, Team Better Block, the hip, urban consultants, brought us not only murals of pigs and chickens but also something else.

They showed that city officials can waive zoning regulations and code requirements, if city officials so desire.

And they did, when Better Block staged its hip, trendy and cool block parties.

The Texaco building where events were held has no running water, electricity and some very shaky floorboards.

It's a planner's nightmare and a walking zone-bie.

Team Better Block broke down the bureaucratic barriers so entrenched in Norfolk.

Team Better Block showed that the city Mamas and Papas (City Council) can, if willing, waive certain rules and regulations.

Team Better Block circumvented the red tape.
But Old habits never die, despite good intentions. 

So this is the New Norfolk.

Published by Indie News Network LLC