Quick hits

OK, so this turned out to be a little longer than I thought 😉 A few thoughts on stuff that aren’t worth individual posts. Details are below the fold.

• Can you hear me now?
• Steriods in baseball? Say it ain’t so!
• Sunrise, sunset
• Legislative agenda
• Picking sides

Can you hear me now?

Norfolk held two public hearings on what to do with the open space formerly known as Bay Oaks. According to this morning’s editorial:

Of the 46 speakers at the two hearings, 35 favored using the entire 21 acres for a park, 10 wanted it divided between homes and a park, and one wanted a veterans’ memorial.

I have to say that I am a bit surprised. I fully expected that these public hearings would go the way of those held on the topic of elected mayor. (If you recall, Norfolk held a non-binding referendum on elected mayor in which some 82% of the voters wanted one. But some folks on council didn’t and council held public meetings which were choreographed to the hilt: speaker after speaker said they had voted for the referendum but that they now didn’t support having an elected mayor. It ended up being a long, drawn out process. Norfolk finally elected its first mayor in nearly a century in May 2006.) So my hat’s off to the Bay Oaks Park committee for turning out their supporters for these hearings. As the editorial says:

On the fate of Bay Oaks, the public will is as certain as it unwavering. The citizens have heard, digested and rejected the arguments for more home ownership in Ocean View and for putting the land to taxable use.

Once and for all, the council should show that it has gotten the message.

We’ll see.

Steroids in baseball? Say it ain’t so!

I’m no baseball fan but I did follow the home run duel between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire a few years ago. Former Senator George Mitchell released his report (pdf) on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs and the players is quite lengthy. It seems to me that the report just reaffirmed what even the casual fan already knew. Records that have stood for years and years suddenly have been broken ~ not just once, but several times. What else could account for that sudden surge?

Sunrise, sunset

Let me add my voice to those who believe that the $1 vehicle registration fee which was put in place to finance the Jamestown 2007 celebration be allowed to sunset. Lots of reasons for it but they really all boil down to one thing: it’s the right thing to do.

Legislative agenda

My email box is full of legislative agendas from groups across the Commonwealth. (Conspicuous by its absence is the agenda of the City of Norfolk. It’s not on the city’s website, either. Oh well.) Beginning Monday, I’m going to lay out my own legislative agenda. If nothing else, it will give you the heads up on what issues I’m planning to follow in the upcoming session.

Picking sides

With the announcement Thursday by Senator Creigh Deeds that he is a candidate for governor in 2009, blogs throughout Virginia are declaring their support of their favorite candidate or reiterating their support. Since I’ve already made up my mind who I’m supporting in 2009, I was tempted to do the same.

Then I thought the better of it.

The election is almost two years away. In between, we’ve got the presidential primary in February and the Presidential and Congressional races in November. Oh yeah – and two sessions of the General Assembly, where some serious legislation will be offered. Sorry, but I tend to take things in the order that they come. So while I know who I want to be governor in 2009, I don’t plan on announcing it until we get closer ~ say, December 2008.