I’ve been asked a number of times why I rarely write about local matters anymore. Particularly, why I don’t write much about Virginia Beach. After all, as a newspaper columnist I made my bones by skewering the corrupt and indescribably stupid “dancing bears” on the city council.

I’ve got to admit it was fun. They provided endless material.

Why stop now?

Here’s why: It’s fruitless. I’m tired of it. I’ve thrown in the proverbial towel.

The faces on the local government change, their party affiliations change,  but their feckless policies remain the same.

This council, like the ones that went before, is a rudderless ship of fools. It matters not the political make-up of the members, they follow the same tax-and-waste path of their predecessors. They shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthless “studies” that simply confirm that spending more money will have marvelous results. Frequently a developer waves a shiny object in front of them, the obedient city staff canoodles with the developer before informing the politicians that the project is magnificent and “pay for itself.” 

Next thing you know, the mindless members vote YES!

Taxes go up, the project flames out and they blame miserly taxpayers for forcing them to cut corners on the cockamamie scheme. If only they’d sent more money it would have been a smashing success.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

There was the era of golf courses at the Beach. Don’t get me started on that nutty boondoggle. 

The era of light rail. Yes, I’ll take a victory lap on that one, having helped lead the charge to sink the $100-million-a-mile train to nowhere.

Currently we’re in the era of the surf park. I can tell you how that will turn out.

And then there is the convention center. A perennial source of material.

Remember, the entire reason we have a theater in Town Center and not included in the hideous structure on 19th Street is because the $8 million additional charge to soundproof the structure was too big. Instead, the city okayed $30-plus million to build a theater in our phony town center to prop up the Town Center’s developers’ dream.

The city blew $207 million to build a convention center at the precise time that experts warned  that industries were abandoning the convention model. So we’re stuck with a huge edifice with tumbleweeds blowing through its empty spaces most of the year. It hosts when strip-mall ballet school recitals, high school graduations and barely interesting trade shows. 

Here’s a piece I wrote about the convention center debacle in 2011. Some things never change.

Now, when the Beach politicians know folks are preoccupied with the holidays and not paying attention, they’re moving forward on a “convention center hotel.” Those of us who were here at the time remember that the controversial 31st Hilton project was foisted on the public as a “five star convention-quality” hotel that the city desperately needed to complement the new convention center.

As if.

The plans this time are even more ambitious and foolish. 

According to The Virginian-Pilot: 

Six studies over the past 19 years all concluded the Virginia Beach Convention Center needs a headquarters hotel and a bigger, mixed-used project that can go along with it, according to the city.

The two concepts, dubbed “Central Green” and “North South Connections,” incorporate an area that extends from Birdneck Road to Mediterranean Avenue and from the Museum of Contemporary of Art building to Norfolk Avenue.

Central Green would include a hotel on the southeast corner of the convention center intersection, an indoor food market and a mixed-use convention center building with an ice rink on top. The concept includes relocating the Oceanfront Area Library to the Museum of Contemporary Art building and moving existing public safety buildings into one space. The concept also features 10,000 residential units, a multistory action sports building next to the sports center and a grocery store…

The North South Connections has a more grid-like design and most of the same elements as Central Green but with 8,000 residential units. The concepts are still being finalized according to the consultants, Renaissance Planning and Dills Architects.

Naturally, the mayor is on board. This is the same happy-go-lucky guy who came on our radio show a year ago and bragged about how the city was doing so many wonderful things, but hadn’t raised taxes!

Nonsense.

The city jacked up assessments and instead of lowering the real estate tax rate to keep taxes steady they kept it the same so that everyone in town got a big, fat tax hike, while the politicians lied about how they’re keeping taxes down.

Talk about gaslighting.

Here’s the same mayor on the convention center project, from The Pilot:

“This is a project of magnitude in one of the most important parts of the city,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer. “This is a grand, bold design that can be done in phases over time, kind of a revitalization of an underperforming area.”

Wait for it. The money shot:

Dyer added he will be most interested in pursuing a cost analysis for a headquarters hotel and parking. The council likely will vote on the next steps in early 2025. If a plan is approved, the city would still have to select a developer for the project.

Hilarious.

As if city brass doesn’t know exactly which of their pet developers will be raking in the dough on this boondoggle.

Same song, different singers.

Look, they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 

And that, my friends, is why I rarely write about the madness of Virginia Beach.