THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606010005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 35 lines
When it was discovered that Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim promised the city of Portsmouth $2.5 million of state funds allocated for the city of Norfolk, every taxpayer in Norfolk should have cried ``foul!''
Not only are we asked to fund megabuck projects such as Nauticus and MacArthur Center, but now we must hand over to another city funds that are earmarked by the state for Norfolk's road construction and maintenance.
To make matters worse, staff writer Toni Whitt's recent article defending this transfer of funds stated that the projected Pinners Point Connector, between the Western Freeway in Portsmouth and the Midtown Tunnel, would ``ease traffic congestion on Hampton Boulevard.''
While I am not a civil engineer, I do know that more vehicles on Hampton Boulevard will increase congestion, not ease it. Or is this part of a long-range plan by the city fathers to turn Hampton Boulevard into another six-lane freeway, thereby destroying some beautiful residential areas in our city and moving one step closer to turning Norfolk into a ``corridor city,'' a place where few people live but through which one must travel to get to work or play?
There is but one logical solution to the traffic problem at the Midtown Tunnel: a third crossing from Craney Island to the area around Norfolk International Terminal.
Before Mayor Fraim gives away any state funding to another city, he should consider that he and other civil servants hold office ``with the consent of the governed.'' Better that he should listen to the citizens of Norfolk than those of Portsmouth or Suffolk.
JOHN MAIORANA
Norfolk, May 15, 1996 by CNB