Dear Shore Drive Area Residents,

As you are all aware, there has been a growing number of safety issues (pedestrian and vehicular) along Shore Drive over the past year.  Current plans to redevelop residential property into multifamily dwellings and possible plans to construct 700+ residents on Pleasure House Point have the potential to make matters worse. 

The Shore Drive Community Coalition and the Shore Drive Advisory Committee have requested City Council to expedite safety related improvements and to initiate temporary improvements wherever possible (see SDCC & SDAC letters at http://www.sdcc.info).  A very important step in making things happen at an accelerated rate is the creation of a Shore Drive Safety Task Force.

For years, there have been committees and reports to look at how to make Shore Drive safer. But now, many people say there has been enough talk, and they are ready to see improvements, before someone else is hurt.

Click to read entire article and view video aired on WVEC TV.

N O T I C E

TO: Citizens Living Along Shore Drive, VB, VA

RE: Sign-up Sheets to Support Improved Pedestrian Safety

Clay Culbreth and many helpers are meeting at Taste Unlimited on Shore Drive at 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM Saturday December 17th 2005.

They have 250 sign up sheets to be carried to homes and businesses and filled with signatures supporting efforts to improve pedestrian safety along Shore Drive.

The objective is to obtain 5000 or more signatures to show support of the City Councilmen James Wood and Louis Jones and other members appointed to the Shore Drive Safety Advisory Committee.

This ?5000? support is to be presented by our collective Shore Drive Communities of ?live bodies? present at the City Council Meeting Tuesday, December 20th 2005 at 6:30 PM.

Please help us achieve our objective by picking up a sheet or two, fill them with supporter signatures and return the completed sheets to Clay and crew at Taste Unlimited before 5:00 PM Saturday. 

Your efforts will help give impetus to improve the safety for our/your children and loved ones in the future and allow those who have predeceased us on Shore Drive to be motivators for our common good!

Please join us at Taste Unlimited on Shore Drive at 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM Saturday December 17th , 2005 and Tuesday evening at the City Council Meeting at 6:30 PM.

Prepared: 12/16/2005

Here are photos, from today, showing grading that was recently done on the shop where Lazy Daisy was located. The lots are across the street from Croakers restaurant.

We learned at yesterdays SDAC meeting that the new owner of the lots were given a one year deferral on creating a BMP, and on upgrading the parking lot and vegetation buffer. On a personal note, I was surprised to hear that.

Does anybody know who makes those kinds of decision and are they made in public?

This photo shows existing sidewalk on Shore Drive destroyed and covered over with trenching left uncovered.

Recently we FOIA-ed the city for more information related to safety issues on Shore Drive.
Check the Read More link below to read the most recent FOIA requests.
How to FOIA.

…Vice Mayor Louis Jones and I are co-sponsoring a resolution creating a Shore Drive Safety Task Force.

Announced this afternoon at the SDAC meeting.

Mr Kassir, President of the SDAC, asked if there was any media in the room after WAVY TV filmed the room and did some interviews on a short break.

No other media attended.

As a result, police have preliminarily concluded that the victims? drunkenness was the sole cause of the fatal accident, according to testimony.
Read the article at Pilotonline.com.

Taste Unlimited, who chose to distribute the “This Holiday 35” flyer to their customers, and Virginia Beach Veterinary Hospital are also supporting the safety campaign.

Jimmy’s Pizza, Waffletown USA, Wawa, Subway[PH Rd], Crown[Greenwell Rd], The Leaping Lizard, Coastal Waterworks and Carwash, C.P.Shuckers and The Box Office have also decided to spread the word about the safety campaign.

Please click for more photos.

Thank you!

Gov. Mark R. Warner announced Tuesday that he will seek more than $200 million over the next two years to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, a proposal he called the single largest investment in Virginia?s history toward restoring the famed Chesapeake.
Read the entire article.

The Shore Drive Advisory Committee[SDAC] has formally requested City Council put together a team of City staff to formally consider safety changes.

Excerpts:

”…citizens have continuously been commenting on this item for the entire seven years plus…”

“with this in mind, the Committee has prepared a generalized list of suggestions that it would like to see formally considered by a team of City staff…”

A couple photos at Pilotonline.com.

Bayside Auto Center, Jenna’s Deli, Shell Bayside, Bayside Vet Clinic, Foreign Car Experts, Virginia Beach Auto Exchange, Chicks Beach Cafe are all also promoting the safety campaign.

[Photo in Chicks Beach Cafe]

Concerned about the influx of chain restaurants into the region, six independent Virginia Beach restaurants put aside their rivalry to focus on competing with the chains.

?We just want people to know, ‘Hey, don?t forget us,?? said Christopher Kyrus , co-owner of Lynnhaven Fish House.

Read the entire article.

Thanks for spearheading the safety campaign on Shore Drive. I am a neighbor and close friend of the Day family. You should know how much he meant to everyone and what kind of person he was. Over 400 people attended his funeral service here in Virginia Beach on December 3, and 600 + in Charlotte, where the family lived until 3 1/2 years ago. I am attaching the remarks I made at the Virginia Beach service. ~Michele Z.

Where Shore Drive is concerned, it?s time to focus on pedestrian safety, not just traffic safety.

June Barrett-McDaniels, active volunteer member of SDAC and Lynnhaven River 2007 met John Warren, the Pilot Warrior, on Shore Drive where Mr. Ball was killed on the first.

Read entire article. You’ll be dumbfounded at how graphic the photo is too.

Drive Safe Hampton Roads is a coalition whose goal is to increase the community?s involvement and awareness of traffic safety issues.

Thanks to Todd for the tip and link.

The next SDAC meeting is scheduled for 2:00pm this coming Thursday at the Bayside Rec Center.