Norfolk!
Norfolk is the southernmost city on Amtrak's
Northeast Regional, the southernmost to have a lot of rowhouses, and the southernmost with a pre-20th Century port & industry legacy, before the entirely different economy of the US south takes over. The next big city to the south--Raleigh--is an entirely different tyle of place, not remotely mid-Atlantic in any reasonable argument.
Norfolk is also a clear satellite of DC, well-connected especially to Northern Virginia. It's for that reason that I find myself there a couple of times per year. For meetings, or a stop on the way somewhere else, or to visit friends.
So. Norfolk. The last metropolis of the Mid-Atlantic. Don't argue with me, just roll with it.
And oh, it is a water city.
These Norfolk shots are from the ferry to Portsmouth, across the Elizabeth River. More on Portsmouth later.
Downtown Norfolk:
Granby Street is the main pedestrian street
That's Virtus, Roman goddess of virtue, symbol of Virginia, as always with her boob hanging out.
Norfolk is home to the world's largest navy base, and you cannot miss the navy connection anywhere in the city.
The other thing you can't miss in Norfolk--sadly--is shitty urban renewal. More than half the central city was wiped out. Basically the entire eastern half of downtown and all of the eastern neighborhoods. It is not a pretty sight.
But this brutalist downtown fountain is kind of cool.
Northwest of downtown lay West Freemason and Ghent, Norfolk's two great historic walkable neighborhoods.
If you squint, you might think some of it is DC, or maybe Richmond's Fan.
Urban renewal did attack Ghent, but with less terrible results. It left us still basically urban, walkable blocks, with narrow individual buildings.
It also left us with public spaces that are not too disruptive, including most prominently Botetourt Gardens, a long but narrow grassy lawn with a pleasant shady park in the center. It could be a lot better, but it could also be a lot worse.
In West Freemason on the fringe of downtown, the Pagoda Garden is my favorite park in Norfolk:
When Norfolk goes to war against Richmond they are really going to kick some ass.
Seriously though.
Maybe something less deadly? Maybe time for transit. Yeah. Let's talk transit.
Norfolk has a stub of a light rail line. It's actually quite well planned, going more or less exactly where you would want a starter line to go, with a nice European-style tramway through downtown. Sadly it has never been extended and is of limited usefulness.
Norfolk's buses... well... the less said about them the better. Bad frequency, low ridership. They can't even be bothered to put the
main bus transfer hub anywhere near a light rail station.
Anyway here's a bus. The system is called HRT so at least it's a good
transgender pun, I guess.
Here's that Amtrak station.
There's a nice little ferry connecting downtowns Norfolk and Portsmouth. It's only about 1,000 feet of estuary between them, but it's deep estuary that has to accommodate big ships coming & going to the shipyard that's right next to downtown.
Portsmouth. You can see how close it is to Norfolk. Legally these are different cities, but really they're mere neighborhoods of the same city.
Portsmouth is unquestionably the junior partner. Its downtown is a lot sparser than Norfolk's. Sorry for the blur; the ferry made a sudden turn to dock and I didn't get a better one :-D
[cringe]
High Street runs perpendicular to the waterfront and is a lot more intact than the waterfront itself.
The real show in Portsmouth though is its lovely residential neighhorhood surrounding High Street.
That's Venus hanging over Portsmouth, seen from Norfolk Waterside.
The sunsets are pretty nice.
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