The Tide
Hampton Roads is the 37th largest metropolitan area in the country with almost 2 million residents plus hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of vacationers each year. Our infrastructure added light rail in 2011 but only in Norfolk. Every opportunity to expand the project has failed.
A growing and evolving metropolitan area needs an effective transit system. Unfortunately, Virginia Beach has a poor transit system that fails to provide schedules that allow hospitality and other works to travel during the late evening hours. For Oceanfront workers, the last bus south on General Booth Boulevard leaves at around 9 p.m. And if you work at Naval Station Norfolk or Norfolk International Terminals, a car is the only realistic way to travel.
The reasons for not extending The Tide are all political. In 2012, 62% of voters passed a light rail referendum. However, the city treasurer pushed for a second referendum, and in 2016, 57% of voters opposed the question to approve “local funds” for light rail expansion. They were not asked whether they approved of light rail. This effectively stopped The Tide in its tracks, so to speak.
The ask for the city was $90 million for the project while the state had agreed to provide $155 million. Meanwhile, City Council provided about $25 million in money and incentives to renovate The Cavalier Hotel and more than $140 million for Pharrell Williams’ Atlantic Park venture. If we had moved forward in 2012, we’d have light rail to Town Center today.
It’s time The Tide comes in.
Watson Scott Swail, president, Educational Policy Institute, Virginia Beach
Beta Convention
My wife and I attended the Virginia Beta Convention Feb. 7 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, as our grandson was a participant. Student participants from elementary and middle schools, their parents, chaperones and teachers from all over the state attended to celebrate the achievements of these wonderful students. They were there to compete and honor each other in science, math, engineering, music, dance, arts and more.
As we walked through the convention center, we observed students playing, laughing, talking and getting along with each other from all over the state. Thanks to the state and local education officials and teachers who spend their off time supporting these children. These children are the future leaders of this state and nation.
These are children whose parents ensure that their children are doing the correct things needed in order to have a successful life. These are children who work their way to the top and deserve all the recognition they receive. Congratulations to all Beta students in Virginia.
Philip Swain, Suffolk
Health insurance
Facing a cancer diagnosis is terrifying. When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1990, I was so scared that I wouldn’t be around for my family. Like many others, I am lucky that scientific innovation made my disease much more treatable. But the costs of these breakthroughs, even with health insurance, can put them out of reach for patients.
In many cases, when a patient needs medication, his or her insurance will require them to pay coinsurance, which represents a percentage of the total cost of their drug, as opposed to a flat dollar copay. Coinsurance can result in patients being forced to pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars each month for their lifesaving medication.
Most patients cannot afford such high costs for a single medication, so they are forced to choose: either they take on debt to pay the out-of-pocket expense and maintain a standard of care or they forgo treatment and jeopardize their health. No patient fighting for his or her life should have to make such a choice.
In Virginia, many residents maintain health coverage that does not offer an option for affordable, flat-dollar copays. Thankfully, some Virginia lawmakers are looking to ensure that individual and small-market insurers offer some plans capping out-of-pocket medication expenses.
I am urging my lawmakers, state Sen. Christie New Craig and Del. Jay Leftwich, to support SB376/HB946 and help ensure Virginians can access breakthrough medications without being locked into a lifetime of financial toxicity.
Mike McColgan, Chesapeake
Marijuana
I do not care one way or another about the legalization of marijuana. I think the income from taxing could help in many areas. But the smell is disgusting. I can drive by a car with my windows up and still smell the “skunk.” Or I can walk down a sidewalk and pass someone smoking marijuana and become nauseated from the smell. Where do my rights begin to not be subject to the “skunk” smell?
Sonja D. Wintermantel, Yorktown
Gun violence
Re “Virginia lawmakers consider bill to let cities and counties prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers” (Feb. 1): I read with great interest the article about the Virginia General Assembly considering banning gas-powered leaf blowers because of the noise they produce. In 2021, 48,830 people died in the USA due to gun-related injuries. I cannot find any statistics about people dying due to noise from gas-powered leaf blowers.
The General Assembly should get its priorities straight.
Richard Jeffers, Virginia Beach