THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409090312
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
There it is again: that big old cement wall between the average American citizen trying to do right and our government, which thinks it has the right to operate without the consent of citizens. Maybe we should quiz all political candidates on Principles of Democracy 101 before we elect them.
The farmers got wise. Now there's a Virginia Beach Agriculture Advisory Committee. They'll be smart to work for being more than a toothless tiger like our Human Rights Commission.
Maybe the Oceanfront residents need a commission to protect us from our city councilman, Linwood Branch. He's the one who told the world we residents want restricted parking. Two hundred nine telephone responders to a city government poll said they did not want this and beat out the 203 who said they did. But we got stuck with restrictions anyway.
OK, so some of those polled didn't live in the restricted parking district. Neither does Linwood Branch. Neither does Henry Richardson, who spoke for restricted residential parking on behalf of the innkeepers' association; nor do the representatives from the restaurant association and the retail merchants. Why was their input to City Council considered at all? This is not a commercial parking issue. It's a residential parking issue.
The petition I presented to Council bearing the signatures of over 50 locals who did not want restricted parking was simply ignored, as were the handful of protesters who could afford to attend a Council meeting at 2:00 on a workday.
It's too late to sign petitions to get the issue on the November ballot. Even then, the vote doesn't have to count for anything, as it's a non-binding referendum. We're back to being ignored by City Council.
The other way to get this question on the ballot is for City Council to do it. And they voted unanimously for our parking restrictions even though none of them live here either.
Next? You can ask your local newspaper editor to publish a readers' poll to gauge what the citizens really think about what is obviously a very controversial issue. But he'll say no. Instead, the editorial-page editor endorses our parking restrictions. Only she doesn't have to live under these restrictions either; she lives in Norfolk.
What's a citizen to do? We could all move to Kempsville, where our voices would at least be heard at Councilwoman Strayhorn's ``town meetings.'' We could wait for the innkeepers, the restaurateurs, the retail merchants and the Virginia Beach tourist bureau to realize they have shot themselves in the foot in spite of millions of Oceanfront beautification dollars spent. Twelve ``no parking'' signs in one block are not only tacky-looking; they speak of anything but tourist-friendly. But it might take them a few years.
Are you for or against restricted residential parking at the Oceanfront? Send me a post card by Sept. 21 saying so. Include who you are, where you live and your phone number. If you want to expand your for or against vote with brilliant ideas, include them. Yes, Kempsville, I want to know what you think, too. Are you a tourist-zone business that just woke up? Let me hear from you, too.
I'll tabulate your input and present it to City Council and this newspaper. Write:
Brenda McCormick
417 16th Street
Virginia Beach 23451
Together, we can tear down the wall!
Brenda McCormick
Virginia Beach by CNB