Category Archives: Perspectives

When Inexperience Is a Positive Attribute

Posted on by
Reply

Reposting of a Facebook commentary by De’Andre Barnes used with permission of the author

When people talk about your inexperience, you talk about their experience.

I’m voting for Stephanie N. Morales because she hasn’t prosecuted a murder case and is young and inexperienced. I’m voting for Stephanie because I want her to create programs that prevent murders from happening; I don’t want her to gain experience in convicting murderers. If she does gain that experience, then that just means we have failed as a city. I’m voting for her because she’s young, and she understands that it’s difficult being young in a city with a lack of resources and opportunities. This will help her to create sound programs that will help our young men, women, girls and boys from getting in trouble and to stay out of it as well. Lastly, I’m voting for her because she’s inexperienced… not in the sense of knowing her job, but inexperienced in the old policies that have locked up more people in this country than any other country in this world. This is why I’m voting for Stephanie, and this is why my friend will be elected on Tuesday. If you want to vote for the candidates who have prosecuted a murder, who are older and more experienced, then you go right ahead, but I will take Stephanie as my Commonwealth Attorney and chief prosecutor for the kids I fight to have opportunities any day. Please remember to vote Tuesday so we can make history for the most qualified and the first elected black woman Commonwealth Attorney in the city of Portsmouth who just happens to be from Truxtun!

Publisher’s Notebook: Ali T. Sprinkle Endorsement

Posted on by
2

This has been hard to write for several reasons: the institutional mission of PortsmouthCityWatch.org; the absence of mainstream media coverage of this contest and the resulting dearth of objective information about the candidates’ qualifications; and the racially-charged climate in our community and our country as this campaign season has progressed. (The last item will be the topic of a subsequent article.) Of course, I could exercise the option of keeping my own counsel on this subject to avoid controversy and bruised feelings, but if our community is to achieve its full potential as a nurturing “village”, people of good will have to engage with each other candidly on tough issues. This is a time for such engagement. Continue reading →

Commonwealth’s Attorney Candidate Endorsement for Ali T. Sprinkle

Posted on by
Reply

Time is ticking its way to our special election on February 10 for Portsmouth’s Commonwealth’s Attorney for the next three years. (We’re replacing now-Judge Mobley, for those of you who’ve been living under a rock lately.) Anyway, after listening to all three candidates at a forum last month and interviewing the two who agreed to be interviewed (Ms. Sprinkle and Mr. Rosenberg), I am going to vote for Ms. Sprinkle, and here’s why: Ms. Morales presents very well, but she has been an attorney for only five years, all of them in our C.A. office. She seems very nice (though I’ve had no personal contact outside “hello” in City Hall) and later might be a dynamite choice given her aplomb in the forum, but five years isn’t a whole lot of experience, and none of it’s been on the defense side or in running an office. I like Mr. Rosenberg, but almost all of his pretty vast experience is on the defense side of the equation. Ms. Sprinkle has five years’ experience prosecuting (four and half of them working in Mobley’s office) and nearly a decade on the defense side. She also has been managing the office during her years in defense work. Tough choice, but I have to go with the extra time in the C.A.’s office–which is actually, day-to-day, more than either of her opponents can claim–as well as her experience in defense and office management.

(Originally posted by Terry Danaher on her Facebook timeline, we reproduce her essay here with the author’s permission.)

Prevention Is the Better Cure

Posted on by
Reply

It saddens me to read that our children in Portsmouth are being murdered and getting locked up. It saddens me even more to see people exploiting our children for self-gain. There are people who are literally only showing up when our children are being murdered, opposed to addressing the reasons that actually lead to the murders. You have to stop crime before it happens, not when it happens. If a person gets killed today, that problem did not start today. It started a long time ago. What did we do yesterday to prevent crime from happening today? What are we doing now that can give these children positive avenues to put them on a path to become a better adult and to even get a good job? Continue reading →

An Even Less Funny Forum

Posted on by
2

I could see this coming, but I had hoped it wouldn’t. Prepared to make yet another video recording of candidate speeches on the school board and city council campaign trails, PortsmouthCityWatch.org found a virtual “STOP” sign barring the door yesterday morning. The president of the Portsmouth Taxpayer Alliance asked me not to shoot a video of the event. I reminded her that she had advertised it as being open to the public (see the eMail announcement here). She stood her ground without providing either a reason for the request or the name of a requester. I argued that the nature of this event made it a matter of public interest, but she would not relent. That led to choice of either being an obnoxious guest or complying under protest. (The commitment of PortsmouthCityWatch.org to fair play and openness precluded my exercising the Moody Option – i. e., making a surreptitious recording as he did of the September 22 closed council meeting.) My mom would be happy to know that her many hours devoted to instruction in good manners did not go to waste, at least not completely. I decided I would head home. Continue reading →

A Not-so-Funny Thing at the Forum

Posted on by
1

As regular PortsmouthCityWatch.org followers are aware, PCW has been diligently following city council and school board candidates from one public forum to another with a video camera. Thanks to YouTube, we have been providing information from such gatherings to the public in C-SPAN style — i. e., just as it happened. At the most recent forum, though, I received an unexpected request. Shortly, before the meeting began, the moderator asked me, on behalf of an unnamed individual or individuals, not to record it. I inquired as to who the person submitting the request might be, but the moderator declined to provide a name. As the forum was a public proceeding, I rejected his request. Continue reading →

The Moody File: Money Matters

Posted on by
5

In the best of all possible worlds, this year’s city council election would have been a functional replay of 2004. A decade ago, popular Council Member Bernard Griffin chose not to seek reelection, leaving fellow incumbents Thomas Benn and Cameron Pitts with no African-American teammate to help them win that important constituency. Portsmouth began the new fiscal year with three fresh faces on council. This year, the retirement of Council Member Marlene Randall, the league leader in 2006 and the second-place finisher for council in 2010, could have been the catalyst for a wholesale housecleaning. The current field of challengers, however, is nowhere nearly strong or wide as it was ten years ago. Our best hope for improvement on city council, then, is replacing one of the two remaining incumbents seeking reelection.

Continue reading →

It’s about the Money

Posted on by
1

Having been born in Southern California does not, in and of itself, make me a southerner, but it may have inclined me to embracing some of the wit and wisdom that emanates from my adopted region. Sayings like “what goes around, comes around”, which holds true even in in reverse, and contractions like “y’all”, efficiently clarifying the singular or plural nature of the second person pronoun, I assimilated long ago. Another very serviceable southern-ism that won me over is the axiom that when someone asserts “it’s not about the money, it’s the principle”, you can expect the issue indeed to be about the money.

Continue reading →

The City Council Woodshed

Posted on by
Reply

[An Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council]

Since the purpose and some of the discussion relating to the closed meeting of council scheduled for [Monday, October 28, 2013] has already aired in the media, I propose that you proceed in open session. The public to whom the Mayor and all of the rest of you are accountable deserves to know the untold part of this particular story. As former City Manager Chandler used to say, “Even a sheet of paper has two sides to it.” I know that if I were Mayor, I would not be willing to let the disgruntled members of council quoted in the Saturday issue of the Virginian-Pilot take me into the back room, verbally abuse me, and then let them leave to spread lies about what took place behind closed doors. No, I would insist that they say whatever they have on their minds in view of the public and before the unblinking lens of the camera; otherwise, I would not participate.

Additionally, offended members of council, since your city manager was also party to the conversation with VDOT and ERC that is causing your current state of indigestion, I am wondering why you aren’t calling him on the carpet along with the Mayor. Mr. Rowe could just as easily and knowledgeably have brought you up to speed on the meeting in question. Unlike Mayor Wright, who serves at the pleasure of my fellow citizens and me, the City Manager is accountable to council.

Please let me know if you need additional information.

Yours truly,
Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky

The Good Toll Bridge

Posted on by
1

Over the past few months, a number of stories in the local media have shone a spotlight on the Elizabeth River Crossings project and the contract with the commonwealth that many of us consider an outrage. Along with a growing number of other concerned citizens, I have contributed both effort and money to seeing that deal undone. I want to be clear, though, that tolls in and of themselves are not the issue for me. Rather, it is a matter of the opaque process that brought the ERC deal into being without giving the citizenry an opportunity to approve or reject the final provisions.

Unlike the convoluted public-private partnership legal agreement underpinning the Midtown-Downtown-Martin Luther King Freeway Extension project, the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge endeavor was a rather straightforward private undertaking. The FIGG company, using private money, demolished the derelict Jordan Bridge that had become inoperable and built a new structure across the Elizabeth River between Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Accommodating not only motor vehicles but also bicycle and pedestrian traffic, the dazzlingly beautiful South Norfolk Jordan Bridge reconnected the community of South Norfolk to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and the Cradock community in a minimal amount of time and without the massive cost overruns that are the bane of many transportation projects.

For motorists, crossing the SNJB comes at a price. After all, the people financing the bridge construction are not doing so as a philanthropic gesture nor receiving large government subsidies for their efforts. Even so, the $2-$3-$4 initial rate for passenger vehicles, depending on mode of payment, was not unreasonable based on current prices for labor, materials, and associated costs. Yet, when the Gilmerton Bridge closed for a time last winter to accommodate its renovation, in the spirit of neighborliness, the SNJB operators reduced their charges temporarily instead of exploiting those displaced from their normal route by increasing the toll rate.

From April 1 until June 18, I made the SNJB a regular part of my commute. Traveling from the Churchland section of Portsmouth to the Lynnhaven area of Virginia Beach and back each workday, I crossed that bridge 84 times. I typically used it during prime morning and evening drive times but encountered a back up only on one midweek afternoon and only for about ten minutes. As an E-ZPass holder, I paid the lowest rate of $1 (now risen to a $1.50). In terms of time and wear-and-tear on my nerves saved, I think I got a great deal. I detest sitting in traffic as much as anyone, and I resent the people who think they are too important to take their turn waiting in line. All in all, I think the SNJB is a great asset to the region, and I plan to continue to use it regularly.