More Storms and Rising Seas: Which U.S. Cities Should Be Saved First?

Flooding area in Norfolk, VA.

While the Trump/Pence regime continues to insist that climate change is not real and, worse yet, is undoing Obama era policies and regulations that sought to slow global warming, communities and those living on the coast can see first hand that the sea levels are rising. Here in Southeast Virginia, every community south/southeast of Williamsburg has areas threatened by rising sea levels and most have not seriously begun to face the financial burden that will be involved to build sea walls and other infrastructure modifications.  As the New York Times reports, the potential partial cost the Virginia Beach is $1.7 billion.  Meanwhile, the city of Norfolk (estimated to need 69 miles of sea walls) is devising a plan where neighborhoods could establish themselves as special tax districts to raise funds to make the needed improvements to face rising waters. The overall problem is staggering and Republicans sticking their heads in the sand is not a solution. Small communities could potentially cease to exist in the future.  For the city of Hampton, the price tag for 68 miles of sea walls is $642.9 million - the fourth most costly in Virginia (look up your city here).  Here are highlights from the Times article:

WASHINGTON — As disaster costs keep rising nationwide, a troubling new debate has become urgent: If there’s not enough money to protect every coastal community from the effects of human-caused global warming, how should we decide which ones to save first?

After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes in the United States, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades, but now and in the very near future. There is also a growing realization that some communities, even sizable ones, will be left behind.

By 2040, simply providing basic storm-surge protection in the form of sea walls for all coastal cities with more than 25,000 residents will require at least $42 billion, according to new estimates from the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy group. Expanding the list to include communities smaller than 25,000 people would increase that cost to more than $400 billion.

“Once you get into it, you realize we’re just not going to protect a lot of these places,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the group, which wants oil and gas companies to pay some of the cost of climate adaptation. “This is the next wave of climate denial — denying the costs that we’re all facing.”

The research is limited in that it considers only sea walls, and not other methods for minimizing flood risk that may be more practical in some places, such as moving homes and shops away from the most flood-prone areas. The figures also don’t include the additional and costlier steps that will be required even with sea walls, such as revamping sewers, storm water and drinking water infrastructure.

Still, the data provides a powerful financial measuring stick for the tough decisions that countless communities — large and small — are starting to confront.

The cities that are quick to adapt to climate risks “are going to attract the jobs and the factories of the future,” said Eric Smith, president and chief executive officer for the Americas at Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. “There’s going to be communities that I think will be left way, way behind.”
 The new research identifies 241 cities of 25,000 people or more that will require at least $10 million worth of sea walls by 2040 just to protect against a typical annual storm.

Total cost of adding sea walls1. Jacksonville, Fla. $3.5 billion2. New York City $2.0 billion3. Virginia Beach $1.7 billion4. Galveston, Tex. $1.1 billion5. Charleston, S.C. $1.0 billion6. Tampa, Fla. $938.4 million7. Barnstable Town, Mass. $889.2 million8. Corpus Christi, Tex. $861.1 million9. St. Petersburg, Fla. $751.4 million10. New Orleans $725.1 million

Many cities, especially small ones, will not be able to meet the costs facing them.  Those that can’t will depend on federal funding. . . . So experts have proposed ways of focusing federal money where it can do the most good — even if that means some places are left out.

One approach would be for the federal government to spend the money based simply on where it would most reduce the future cost of damages, according to Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA during the Obama administration.

He acknowledged that Congress would probably object to that approach, since it would likely mean FEMA would concentrate its resilient-infrastructure funds in just a handful of states.
 Another option would be for the federal government to distribute climate protection money based on a city’s property value, its historical and cultural importance, and how much it contributes to the national economy, said Harriet Tregoning, who was in charge of the housing department’s Office of Community Planning and Development during the Obama administration.

Cities could increase their chances of getting money by reducing their exposure to disasters, perhaps by retrofitting their buildings, implementing aggressive building codes and zoning restrictions, and helping residents leave the most vulnerable neighborhoods, Ms. Tregoning said. And there could be extra points for cities that take in people forced to flee other parts of the country.

Mr. Smith, of Swiss Re, said that cities should take responsibility for protecting themselves from the rising toll of disasters, rather than waiting for the federal government.

In his view, the chief obstacle is the refusal by some local officials to acknowledge what is happening. “The challenge is, we’re fighting about whether or not there’s climate change,” Mr. Smith said. “They don’t want to embrace what’s right in front of us.”

Virginia Republicans have been denying for years what is actually happening choosing to use the euphemism "repetitive flooding" rather than admit sea level rise.

Local Mayors, Transportation Planning Board Call for End to Elizabeth River Crossings Tolls

One of the worse fiascoes that former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his Republican cohorts in the Virginia General Assembly have inflicted on Hampton Roads is the "public-private partnership" that granted Elizabeth River Crossings ("ERC") the ability to fleece Hampton Roads commuters with ever increasing tolls in exchange for McDonnell and the Virginia GOP from avoiding tax increases - e.g. an increase in the gasoline tax - to pay for infrastructure that is a governmental responsibility. To call ERC greedy and rapacious is far too kind and their outrageous late fees ultimately forced the state of Virginia to demand reductions in tolls and late fees that quickly totaled in the thousands and thousands of dollars.  Compounding the distress to working class and poor commuters was the DMV's refusal to renew auto registrations until ERC receive its exorbitant demands which subjected commuters to traffic summonses as well. Now, a number of local mayors and members of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Board Commonwealth of Virginia are demanding that the economy crushing tolls be lifted.  Such a move will required action by the Virginia General Assembly.  A piece in Channel 13 News looks at this issue and the need to rescind these tolls that screw the public while enriching private interests.  Here are excerpts: 

Portsmouth Mayor John Rowe said local leaders must find a way to reverse an agreement between Elizabeth River Crossings and the Commonwealth of Virginia before rising toll prices cripple the region's economy.

Rowe, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander, Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck and five others have formed a committee to study how the state could possibly change or back out of the agreement with ERC.

The committee was formed at a Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization meeting, where the mayors and others voiced concerns about toll prices and other aspects of the agreement. HRTPO director Bob Crum Jr. said he supports the new committee's opinion that something needs to change.

"Those tolls will continue to increase over time, I think the concern is what impact that will have," Crum said. "We need to investigate what options are on the table and work with the state and general assembly to get those things addressed."

Rowe said he feels like local leaders are now recognizing the tolls as a regional issue, and not just a "Portsmouth issue." An Old Dominion University study found Portsmouth lost about $8.8 million each year after the implementation of the tolls in 2015. 

However, Crum and Rowe said any changes would likely need to be made in Richmond via the general assembly. The current agreement was made between the Commonwealth of Virginia and ERC. Crum said it was not signed by the local city governments. 

Elizabeth River Crossings responded to statements from public officials that the contract needs to end. The company said in a statement that it assumed more than $4 billion in costs when it agreed to expand, renovate and maintain the Midtown Tunnel, Downtown Tunnel and MLK Freeway facilities.
 Crum said another section of the agreement between the state and the ERC is worrying for local governments. Due to a non-compete clause, ERC could claim damages and lost revenue when other transportation projects are completed within the region, requiring the state to pay compensation to ERC.

With the High Rise Bridge expansion underway and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel expansion coming soon, Crum said the board is worried about additional costs or repercussions. He said this understanding provides the new committee additional motivation to find a way to end the current agreement between the state and the ERC.

Sea level Rise is Already Costing Coastal Property Owners

Coincidentally, as I happened upon this Washington Post article that focuses on Charleston, South Carolina, but which is all too applicable to coastal Virginia, we received the annual flood insurance premium invoice and it's almost as much as I paid for the first car I bought new after graduating from law school.  The premium is  up about 8% over last year's amount and like some of the property owners cited in the article, the value of our waterfront property has plateaued (but, thankfully has not fallen  since the 2008 housing market collapse) due to the increased concerns over rise sea levels and past flooding episodes.  Meanwhile, of course, Republicans at both the Virginia level and Congressional level are claiming that climate change is a hoax and sea levels are not rising.  And meanwhile, many coastal communities are seeing their tax base eroded as properties become more difficult to sell.  Parts of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Hampton and York County are approaching what is described in the article.  Here are article excerpts:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Elizabeth Boineau’s 1939 Colonial sits a block and a half from the Ashley River in a sought-after neighborhood of ancient live oaks, charming gardens and historic homes. A year ago, she thought she could sell it for nearly $1 million. But after dropping the price 11 times, Boineau has decided to tear it down.

In March, the city’s Board of Architectural Review approved the demolition — a decision not taken lightly in Charleston’s historic district.

“Each time that I was just finishing up paying off the bills, another flood would hit,” Boineau said.

Boineau is one of many homeowners on the front lines of society’s confrontation with climate change, living in houses where rising sea levels have worsened flooding not just in extreme events like hurricanes, but also heavy rains and even high tides. Now, three studies have found evidence that the threat of higher seas is also undermining coastal property values, as home buyers — particularly investors — begin the retreat to higher ground.

The sea has risen about eight inches since 1900, and the pace is accelerating, with three inches accumulating since 1993, according to a comprehensive federal climate report released last year. Scientists predict the oceans will rise another three to seven inches by 2030, and as much as 4.3 feet by 2100.

Meanwhile, mapping has become increasingly precise, providing near-exact elevations that let researchers predict when individual properties could be underwater.

[R]esearchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University found that vulnerable homes sold for 6.6 percent less than unexposed homes. The most vulnerable properties — those that stand to be flooded after seas rise by just one foot ­— were selling at a 14.7 percent discount, according to the study, which is set to be published in the Journal of Financial Economics.

The study found the drop in prices appears to be driven primarily by investors buying multiple properties or second homes. Such buyers tend to be wealthier and better educated than owners who occupy their coastal homes . . . . “Sophisticated buyers . . . demand a discount to bear the risk of future sea level rise,” Lewis said in an email.

The most-studied market has been Miami-Dade County, parts of which have for years been experiencing regular sunny-day flooding. In a separate paper published in April, researchers at Harvard University found that properties at higher elevations were appreciating faster than properties at lower elevations, a phenomenon they dubbed “climate gentrification.”

Last month, the nonprofit First Street Foundation released the first analysis to single out Charleston, a gracious port city founded in 1670. The analysis suggests that exposed homes in Charleston have lost $266 million in value since 2005 due to coastal flooding and expectations of still higher seas. (Using the same method, the First Street researchers found a $465 million loss in Miami-Dade County.)

Home prices on the coast are “going up along with market trends. They’re just not going up as fast as other places,” said Jeremy Porter, a Columbia University researcher who conducted the First Street study with Steven McAlpine, the group’s head of data science.

Boineau put her house on the market last August priced just shy of $1 million, after repairs from two straight years of flooding that had come up under the house but left the interior largely unaffected. Then in September, the remnants of Hurricane Irma inundated the first floor of the house with eight inches of water. . . . .she dropped the price down to $599,900 and went through a lengthy process to get permission for demolition.  Now, Boineau says, a new buyer can build a new elevated property on the lot. When that’s done, her real estate agent, Robin Reeves, said the property should “go for 1.3 to 1.4 million dollars.”

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg (I) — himself a former real estate agent — said the city is looking for other ways to protect property values. Officials are considering a “comprehensive set of flooding and sea-level-rise strategies,” including improving pumping systems and raising Charleston’s Battery, a sea wall at the tip of the peninsula.

But those are expensive and complex solutions, Tecklenburg said; even if Charleston had the money, designs are not even in place yet for all of the potential engineering projects.

As city officials adjust, so do Charleston residents. Unable to find a buyer willing to purchase and then repair the home, Boineau decided to demolish it and sell the lot in Harleston Village. She is now renting a condo just across the river from the city’s central peninsula in West Ashley, where her new neighbors have assured her there has been no flooding. She hopes to buy there after the Harleston lot sells. “Charleston,” she said, “is still an incredible place to live.”

In our home we have installed three industrial sump pumps and a whole house generator (to the tune of $20,000) and after the 2009 Nor'Ida storm more or less waterproofed the first floor by installing marble floors and non water absorbent wainscoting.  The combined effect?  No standing water in the house and merely mopping out any water that may seep into the house in any future storm.  Numerous homes in our neighborhood are much more vulnerable than our home. Yes, sea level rise is costly. 

Hampton's Battle Against Sea-Level Rise - Lessons for Others

Map of Hampton - our home is at the bottom of the map near the designation :elevation in progress."

2009 Nor'Ida storm flooding.

As I have noted in numerous posts on this blog, climate change and rising sea levels are real for those living on the Virginia coast as my husband and I do even if Donald Trump and most Republicans (including those in the Virginia General Assembly) deny these objective realities.   The image above shows our home during the 2009 Nor'Ida storm - a northeaster which teamed up with the remnants of Hurricane Ida to wreak havoc on many coastal properties in Virginia.  Repairs to our home - which took 6 months to complete  - made our home flood resistant to minimize future flood damage.  Later additions included industrial sump pumps to fend off standing water in our home and a whole house generator to power the pumps.  As a piece in the Washington Post reports, across the City of Hampton, both city officials and private citizens are working to deal with the reality that Republicans and Trump deny is occurring. Here are article highlights (read the entire piece and keep in mind that our home is NOT as low lying as some addressed in the article):

HAMPTON, Va. — A pair of nor’easters in early 1998, and Hurricane Isabel in 2003, awoke this low-lying Chesapeake Bay city to the impact of rising waters caused by climate change. A few years later, as Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, and Hurricane Sandy raked the New Jersey-New York coastline, scientists warned that Hampton and its neighbors could be next.

So this small city, about the size of Alexandria, embarked on studies of what was happening and what it could do.

Six years later, the city has changed its building codes, razed some houses and elevated others, and is finalizing a plan to address the oft-flooded Newmarket Creek in its densely developed center. In neighborhoods that line the bay, homeowners are taking action, too.

How Hampton copes with rising sea levels could provide lessons for other localities at a critical time: A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists predicted that 300,000 existing homes and businesses in the United States will be at risk of chronic, disruptive flooding within the next 30 years.

“Nobody is underestimating what this is,” said Terry O’Neill, director of community development in Hampton and the lead person shaping the city’s response to sea-level rise. “If you make smart decisions and change the way you think about living with water, you can find solutions.”

In forming their plans, city leaders gleaned ideas from Dutch engineers who have protected their low-lying country from seawater inundation for centuries, as well as scientific gatherings and community meetings.

They now require first floors of new buildings to be three feet higher than the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requirement, and they are considering “no-runoff” pervious pavement for sidewalks and parking lots, which will allow standing water to drain into the soil slowly. The city is working on creating breakwaters in parts of the bay, dredging certain channels and replenishing beaches to make them more resilient to waves.

No matter how it’s done, addressing sea level rise is expensive. In November, the Army Corps of Engineers told the much-larger city of Norfolk, just across the James River, that it would cost $1.8 billion to build flood walls, storm-surge barriers and tidal gates around the city. Norfolk has secured a $120 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rockefeller Foundation to begin that work.

Both Hampton and Norfolk participate in the 17-city Hampton Roads Regional Planning Commission, which focuses on research and coordination rather than setting standards or requirements for addressing sea level rise.

City officials also are banking on the fact that if their flood-mitigation plans work, property values will rise, boosting tax revenue that could help pay for the effort.

Unlike some of the homes in the article, our home cannot be readily raised due to the nature of its construction.  Therefore, we had to improvise and find others methods for dealing with flood threats.  Thus, after the 2009 Nor'Ida storm, everything on the first floor from the chair rail level down is non-water absorbent - living areas, laundry room, pantry.  Everywhere. Similarly, all water absorbent flooring was removed and marble floors were added in their place. The marble floors throughout do not absorb water and require a simple sweep of a mop for clean up.  The generator powered sump pumps should prevent standing water in the house from ever occurring in future storms.  The overall effect is elegant but so very practical and purpose designed.

A large industrial sump pump sits under the multi-color vase.

The marble floors and composite/PVC wainscoting do not absorb water.

Norfolk Bans LGBT Hiring Discrimination

While Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly continue to push a Christofascist backed anti-LGBT agenda, Virginia's cities lead the way in creating a business friendly economy and society welcoming to all.  The latest example id Norfolk amendment of its City Code to ban hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  No doubt there is gnashing of teeth going on among the hate merchants at The Family Foundation and Regent and Liberty universities.  The Virginian Pilot looks at the development which will hopefully pressure other Hampton Roads cities to follow suit.  Here are story highlights:

Discrimination in city hiring or contracting based on sexual orientation or gender identity is now illegal.

In two 8-0 votes, the City Council voted Tuesday night to add protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people – among others – to the law. They took effect immediately.

Councilman Martin Thomas Jr. said he was “very proud” to vote for the new measures.
“It was something that needed to be done,” he said. “Norfolk is an inclusive and diverse city.”

Michael Berlucchi, president of the LGBT rights group Hampton Roads Pride, called the changes “a big deal.”

“It changes policy, but it also changes culture,” Berlucchi said. “It sends a message about the posture our government takes toward a minority community like LGBT, and that’s really significant.”

Virginia Beach also has a policy prohibiting discrimination in city hiring based on sexual orientation or gender identity, a city spokeswoman said. Chesapeake lists sexual orientation as a protected class, but not gender identity, according to a city regulation. The anti-discrimination laws in Suffolk and Portsmouth do not include either category.

In Norfolk, city contractors were already barred from discriminating on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, disability or national origin.

The law passed Tuesday requires any city contract above $1,000 to include protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, marital status, political affiliation, whistleblower activity, parental status and military service. Another new law provides all the same protections in city hiring.

Councilwoman Andria McClellan said Norfolk’s government has already been respectful of LGBT rights for years and has guidelines for how to treat an employee undergoing a gender identity transition.

But she and Thomas said they wanted to make sure the protections were codified in law.  “I prefer to be on the cutting edge of equality,” Thomas said.

Meanwhile, in rural Republican voting regions in Southwest Virginia most residents cling to their bibles and bigotry and wonder why few, if any, businesses want to relocate to their areas.  Bigotry carries an economic price - something lost on Christofascists and their self-prostituting Republican representatives.   Kudos to Norfolk. 

Changing America's Insane Marijuana Laws

While west coast states seem to finally recognize that the so-called "war on drugs" has been a farce and an utter failure, states like Virginia lag behind.  The result is a swelling prison population and the disproportionate criminalization of black males in particular and often strips them of their voting rights.  This later effect likely delights the Virginia Republican Party which, candidly, would disenfranchise all blacks and minorities if it could devise a way to do so. In the city of Norfolk a movement has sprung up to decriminalize the personal use of marijuana, motivated by (i) a recognition of the havoc the current draconian laws are having on minority populations, and (ii) the hypocrisy of demonizing marijuana when the death toll and societal damage from alcohol is much worse.  A column in the New York Times looks at the long over due move to change marijuana laws which should never have been enacted in the first place.  Here are highlights:

The budtenders of the Rose City are relentlessly helpful with tips pairing a marijuana strain that is “equal parts fruity and musky” with a stimulating Sichuan dish. As Oregon, the place where empires once clashed over the global trade of beaver furs, glides into a second year of legalized recreational pot, the state is determined to show the world that a certain kind of drug prohibition belongs in history’s Dumpster.

Soon, with the likely passage of legal pot in California next month, all of the West Coast — from the tundra of Alaska to the sun-washed suburbs of San Diego — will be a confederacy of state-regulated marijuana use.

Across the Pacific, a completely a different view of drug use is playing out in the horror of the Philippines. That country is ruled by Rodrigo Duterte, a crude and brutal strongman known as the Donald Trump of the Philippines. Under his watch, more than 3,500 suspected drug users and dealers have been killed. Many of those murders are “extrajudicial,” as the State Department calls them.

Heroin is the drug of choice in small towns in New England and wide-open rural areas across the country. Blacks and Latinos use and sell drugs at roughly the same rate as whites, but 57 percent of the people locked up for a drug offense in 2014 were nonwhite.
Perhaps because so many addicts are white and suburban, or white and rural, there is now a rare bipartisan consensus emerging for wholesale reform of the drug laws.

We can start, nationwide, with marijuana. Though legalization is not without its problems — a spike in emergency room visits attributed to edible pot, persistent black market dealers — it’s mostly been no big deal. Across the legalized West, consumers frequent their corner pot shop to talk varietals and buzz strength. Homegrown gardeners pass on suggestions to avoid bud rot as harvest nears. Tax revenue from sales — though not a panacea — flows to schools and roads and treatment programs.

It all works, for the most part. And when California, now the world’s sixth largest economy, passes its legal pot measure in November as expected, it will truly be game over for this absurd form of prohibition.

So why are nearly 600,000 people arrested in the United States for simple possession of marijuana every year? And why is pot still illegal on the federal level? People in the loop of this policing circle know it is an absurd and Sisyphean use of law enforcement.

A clear majority of Americans now favor pot legalization. The problem is the federal government, which still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, alongside heroin and L.S.D. If pot was legalized nationwide, with a tax on every sale designated for treatment, it would free up the police to get at serious crimes, while ensuring that no addict would be denied treatment for lack of funds. As with most social reforms, it only seems impossible until it’s obvious.

Norfolk Was Part of 1970's Federal Discrimination Suit Against Trump

One thing that came up so far during the presidential debate is Donald Trump's racist track record which dates all the way back to the 1970's both in New York City and here in Norfolk, Virginia. Trump tried to blow the matter off, but the past behavior is in keeping with Trump's current raging racism and propensity to pander to white supremacists.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at Trump's discrimination against black Americans here in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Yes, the Trump companies settled the matter under a settlement that included regular monitoring of rental practices for a number of years.  Here are highlights:

Forty-five years ago this summer, a Mrs. Jones walked into the office of the Oakdale Apartment complex near Wards Corner. The morning newspaper had carried an ad for the rental units, which were owned by Trump Management. The company president was a New York businessman, Donald Trump, according to a federal court filing.

No vacancies, the apartment manager told Mrs. Jones. A unit might come available in a month. Jones and her husband could fill out an application, if they wished.

Shortly after Mrs. Jones left the office, Ellis and Klara James entered and similarly asked about renting an apartment. The manager offered them one immediately and said they could move in the following week.

The difference between the couples: The Joneses were black, and the Jameses were white.

The July 1971 incident, described in federal court papers, was one of numerous examples of “testing” by an organized group of open-housing activists. They had been battling for years against discriminatory practices in Hampton Roads that blocked blacks and Filipinos from renting or buying homes in what some viewed as whites-only neighborhoods.

The long-ago incident might have been forgotten except that it resurfaced in this year’s presidential campaign. The New York Times revisited the case in an Aug. 27 report that noted the Justice Department sued Trump Management in 1973, accusing the firm of discriminating against blacks. The now Republican presidential candidate was its president and his father, Fred Trump, its chairman.

The second Norfolk incident, according to a filing in the housing lawsuit, involved Richard Foard, a black man assigned to Norfolk Naval Station.

Foard told the FBI he had attempted in June 1973 to rent a two-bedroom unit at Ocean Air Apartments in Ocean View after learning about it from a white man, who had just rented an apartment.

Ocean Air’s rental office declined to show Foard a model apartment and told him to come back in a month or two if he wanted to fill out an application, the court document said.

The new reports about the past litigation come to light at the same time Trump has been attempting to persuade more blacks to vote for him, arguing he can do more to address issues affecting African Americans than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 

The Trumps signed a consent decree two years after the suit was filed that did not include any admission of guilt. It did include stipulations that the company file with the federal court regular reports for several properties, including the two apartment complexes in Norfolk, listing the number of people by race seeking housing.

The two Norfolk properties cited in the suit were among several in Hampton Roads owned by Fred Trump and the family firm. Trump’s real estate holdings in the region date to World War II.

Recap of 2016 Hampton Roads Pride

Having served on the Hampton Roads Pride Board in the past and watched the event transform from a small event hidden away in an obscure location to now the second largest festival in Norfolk, I am very proud of the work that has been done to build community support and convince the City of Norfolk in particular to get fully behind the event.  The video above is a brief look at the 2016 event.  I hope readers will plan to attend the 2017 event next year. 

States Are Losing Billions of Dollars by Keeping Marijuana Illegal

When it comes to marijuana laws, Virginia is among the more regressive states.  Locally, Norfolk leads Virginia in marijuana arrests, with blacks disproportionately subject to such arrests.  Since possessing small amounts of marijuana can lead to a felony conviction, one net effect is to disenfranchise more blacks - something that is a top priority for Virginia Republicans who increasingly try to use voter disenfranchisement to counter demographics that trend in favor of Democrats.  But there is another consequence of this draconian approach - which is popular, of course, with the white Christofascists that comprise the core of the Virginia GOP base: lost revenues and increased costs for prisons.   Virginia is not alone in this wrongheaded policy and a piece in the Washington Post looks at how states are throwing away billions of dollars in potential revenue.  Here are excerpts:

The federal government and most states are throwing away $28 billion in yearly tax revenue by not legalizing marijuana, according to a new analysis from the Tax Foundation, an independent think tank.

The bulk of that revenue -- $20.5 billion of it -- would accrue to states through the collection of excise taxes on marijuana sales, general sales taxes, and income and payroll taxes levied on workers and businesses in a mature legal marijuana industry.

The federal government would take in another $7.5 billion, primarily from income and payroll taxes, and $500 million in excise taxes if marijuana were to be taxed the same way tobacco is.

These are estimates relying on a certain number of assumptions about the size of the marijuana market ($45 billion in sales annually) and the ways that governments decide to tax the sale of the drug. For instance, if the federal government decided to slap a 10 percent surtax on marijuana sales rather than a tobacco-style per-pound tax, that $500 million excise tax figure would grow to $5.3 billion.

$28 billion is nothing to scoff at. The Tax Foundation analysis points out that marijuana tax revenues in Colorado and Washington are exceeding projections by a considerable margins. Colorado initially projected it would receive $70 million in annual taxes on marijuana sales and excise taxes, but it is on track to pull in $140 million this year. The money goes to fund things like school construction and drug abuse-prevention campaigns.

[A]s the Tax Foundation analysis points out, people are already using and abusing marijuana -- regardless of legality. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, over 13 percent of Americans age 12 and older, 0r 35 million people, used marijuana in 2014. And 4.2 million of them met criteria for substance abuse or dependence.

We're already paying the social cost of marijuana abuse, in other words. Increased tax revenues could help offset those costs.

And marijuana prohibition carries a whole host of costs of its own -- roughly a half- billion dollars a year to arrest people for simple marijuana possession. Billions more to arrest and prosecute people who sell and traffic the drug. And the difficult-to-quantify cost of restricting the ability of millions of people who would prefer to use a drug that, by any reasonable metric, is considerably less harmful than alcohol. 

Why Are More and More LGBTs Moving to Red States?

Image courtesy of Consumer Affair -click to enlarges

While the husband and I will likely never leave Virginia permanently due to (i) the husband's very successful salon and his desire to never fully retire, and (ii) grandchildren in Virginia - two more are due in June/July - one of my dreams has long been to move to a gay-friendly state where we won't be second class citizens.  Many other LGBT Americans likely feel the same way.  Yet, according to a recent Consumer Affairs report, more and more LGBT's are moving to new LGBT safe havens are popping up across the nation, many of which are located in red states.  Among the cities mentioned as a "LGBT safe haven" is Norfolk, Virginia where 4.4% of the population is estimated to be LGBT. A piece in The Advocate looks at the forces behind the trend.  Here are highlights:

Many LGBT youths believe they have to move to notoriously gay-friendly cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle in order to live full and happy lives. However, according to a recent Consumer Affairs report, new LGBT safe havens are popping up across the nation. But the most surprising thing? Many of these cities are in red states. 

Salt Lake City, Louisville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, and other middle-tier red state cities offer LGBT youths greater affordability and less competition for well-paying jobs. In 1990, one-percent of Salt Lake City identified as LGBT, Consumer Affairs reported. Today, five-percent do. 

“What you’re really seeing is reflective of other national trends,” Consumer Affairs content manager Ryan Daly told The Daily Beast. “Specifically, it lines up with people—especially young people—choosing less to live in huge, expensive cities, which were traditionally friendlier toward LGBTQ individuals, and choosing instead to make lives for themselves in small and mid-tier cities in the middle and southern states.”

Affordability is the biggest factor in this migration. Also, the LGBT anti-discrimination laws passed locally and nationally have helped to make red state cities more desirable. With same-sex marriage now legal nationwide, LGBT members are less bound to crowded and expensive gay-friendly cities. 

While there is still major work to be done on anti-discriminatory transgender laws in many of these new safe havens, it is inspiring to see shifting demographics in traditionally conservative locales. With uber conservative Republicans in the presidential race right now, it will be telling to see whether this sea-change continues regardless of who wins the election. 

I will concede that over the last 13+ years since I came out and moved to Norfolk, there has been a sea change.  Some has been powered by U.S. Supreme Court rulings such as those in Lawrence and Obergefell, But in this area, I see the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell as another significant factor.  With many out military personnel, a growing number of whom are in same sex marriages, many older conservatives are being forced to rethink prejudices.    Yet another factor for change has been the growing realization of local cities that gay friendliness is good for business.

The 2016 HP Pride Launch Event - Changing Hearts and Minds

The husband and I attended the HR Pride 2016 launch event this afternoon which works to raises funds for the June 18, 2016, Pride fest Event in Town Point Park on the downtown Norfolk waterfront.  The event has transformed dramatically since I was first on the HR Pride board of directors some years ago. The launch party has been equally transformed and this year was a standing room only event at the East Beach Pool/Club House hosted  by Lt. Governor Ralph Northam and his wonderful wife Pam.  The number of politicos in attendance has likewise increased dramatically and GOP House of Delegates member Scott Taylor was in attendance, demonstrating that a least some Republicans are waking up to the reality that an all welcoming Virginia is good for business. 

Perhaps the most surprising sponsors who pledged financial support were (i) Newport News Shipbuilding and WHRO who joined Decorum Furniture at the presenting sponsor level, and (ii) the Central Intelligence Agency - that's right, the CIA - which was a well into the 4 digit sponsor.  Other surprising sponsors were the City of Norfolk and two competing mayoral candidates. I lost track in the amount pledged today, but suffice it to say it was far in excess of $125,000.00.  As we have done for the last number of years, the husband and I are again sponsors of this amazing event which has become the largest outdoor festival in Norfolk after Harborfest.

Thirteen year ago when I attended my first "out in the Park" event it consisted of a few hundred people tucked out of sight in the back of one of Norfolk's city parks.  Now the event involves close to 20,000 attendees and the politicians - at least on the Democrat side of the aisle - who acted as if the LGBT community was radioactive, cannot go far enough to demonstrate their support for the LGBT community and LGBT equality under the civil laws. It has been a phenomenal sea change.

Sadly, the Virginia GOP continues to prostitute itself to the Christofascists and hate merchants at The Family Foundations and strives to send a worldwide message that Virginia is welcoming to only right wing extremists and modern day Pharisees.  Today's event underscored that the Virginia GOP is going to find itself resoundingly on the wrong side of history and, if we are lucky, politically irrelevant.  

GOP Del. Scott Taylor and Democrat Sen. Lynnwood Lewis

Congressman Bobby Scott

Lt. Governor Ralph Northam

Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Richmond Have the Most Gay Marriages

This morning, we are at sea on the Carnival Splendor along with 16 friends, half of whom are married same sex couples.   Most, like the husband and I, got married outside  of Virginia prior to the 4th Circuit ruling on October 6, 2014, that made our marriages legal in Virginia.  Since that date, some 3500 other couples have married in Virginia.  As the Richmond Times Dispatch reports, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Richmond lead the way in the number of same sex couples tying the knot.  Fairfax and Arlington Counties are close behind.  Here are story highlights:

Out of roughly 3,600 gay marriages that have occurred from last October through August of this year, 320 certificates were filed in Norfolk, the most of any courthouse in the state.

Virginia Beach and Richmond followed with 298 and 229, respectively. Rounding out the top five were Fairfax County with 223 and Arlington County with 218.

"The numbers are great," said James Parrish, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Equality Virginia. "It definitely shows that there are people in the state that wanted to get married."

"We're a little bit baffled because we're about half the size of Virginia Beach," Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk George E. Schaefer said of his office topping the list. "But we are sort of the center."

Schaefer said much of the Virginia Beach population lives closer to the Norfolk courthouse than the courthouse in their own city. There are no residency requirements for marriages in Virginia, which means couples can go to any courthouse to fill out the required paperwork.

John Osterhout, president of Hampton Roads Pride, said his group has worked hard to help make the area an LGBT-friendly place to live.

"As people from all sectors of society have seen that we love our families as much as any straight person, it is harder to harbor negative images of those of us who are LGBT," Osterhout said.

Statewide, 5.27 percent of all marriage certificates in 2015 involve gay couples. The records are current through the end of August. State officials said local clerks were in the process of submitting certificates for September.

So far in 2015, the city of Staunton saw the highest percentage of its marriage licenses go to gay couples, with 11.97 percent. Staunton is followed by Bristol (11.22 percent), the city of Roanoke (11.10 percent), New Kent County (10.17 percent) and Rappahannock County (10 percent).

Somewhat ironically, the lawsuit that successfully overturned Virginia's ban on gay marriage began in the Norfolk courthouse that has now processed the most same-sex marriages.

Are New York, Miami, New Orleans and Norfolk Doomed?

Click image to enlarge - Norfolk area

I write about climate change and rising sea levels often - living on tidal waters and having experienced flooding first hand makes one sensitive to the reality that rising sea levels are here to stay.  The husband and I have spent over $100,000 making our home waterproof, if you will and outfitting it with pumps and a whole house generator to be prepared for future flooding events.  Republicans, on the other hand, deny that climate change and rising sea levels are happening and, worse yet, are doing nothing to prepare for the reality staring America in the  face.  Virginia Republicans will not even allow the terms "climate change" and "rising sea levels" to be used in official state language.  The best they can get to is "repetitive flooding" while ignoring the cause of the phenomenon.  A piece in Salon suggests that this head in the sand approach may be dooming many American cities.  Here are article highlights:

An alarming new study has found that, no matter what we do to fight climate change, it is already too late for more than 400 U.S. cities — including Miami and New Orleans — which will be overcome by rising sea levels caused by anthropogenic climate change. Under a worst-case scenario, New York could be unlivable by the year 2085. Most of the population in those cities live within five feet of the current high tide line.

“Some of this could happen as early as next century,” said lead author Ben Strauss, vice president for sea level and climate impacts at Climate Central, a nonprofit climate news organization with offices in New York and Princeton, New Jersey. “But it might also take many centuries,” he added. “Just think of a pile of ice in a warm room. You know it is going to melt, but it is harder to say how quickly.”

The reason that current efforts to combat climate change won’t save many of these cities is because of what mankind has done in the past, as carbon pollution that humans have already emitted will continue to affect planetary surface temperature for centuries to come. “Historic carbon emissions have already locked in enough future sea level rise to submerge most of the homes in each of several hundred American towns and cities,” according to Climate Central.

The researchers warned that, under a “business-as-usual” scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked through the end of the century, then the total number of “locked-in” cities could grow to more than 1,500. However, if society somehow manages to achieve extreme carbon reductions, many cities could be saved, such as Jacksonville, Florida; Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach in Virginia; and Sacramento and Stockton in California.

“In our analysis, a lot of cities have futures that depend on our carbon choices but some appear to be already lost … and it is hard to imagine how we could defend Miami in the long run,” said Strauss, who noted that due to the city’s low elevation and porous limestone foundation, sea walls and levees will not be enough to stop a rising sea.

The study, which was edited by renowned NASA climate scientist and activist James Hansen, found that the worst hit state will be Florida, home to at least 40 percent of the American population living on land that may be affected by sea level rise. After the Sunshine State, the next three states that will most likely be overcome by the ocean are California, Louisiana and New York.

To see mapping out your area, go here.  This poses a huge threat to America, yet today's GOP wants to sit by and do nothing.  It is criminal. 

Waiting For High Tide

UPDATED: High tide has passed and we dodged a bullet today.  Minor flooding in the backyard and in the front yard.  The biggest issue? Cretins in their jacked up pickup trucks blasting through the water in the street - some going by 6 to 8 times.  Excuse, me, but if you drive a jacked up pickup, in my estimation, your are likely a red neck moron.  I think it is time to build a decorative wall along the sidewalk to act as a barrier from the waves these idiots send towards the house.  Today this was not an issue, but in higher flood tides it is a real problem.

click image to enlarge

Unlike areas to the west and south, most of Hampton Roads has not suffered from super heavy rains.  The main issue has been wind and high tides with this afternoon's high tide expected to nearly reach the level experienced with Hurricane Sandy.  The view above is of our house from across the creek with high tide still 2 and 1/2 hours away.   Normally, we have 5+ feet of rip rap seawall above the water level. 

If  we do not surpass Sandy's levels, we should only have a small amount of water in the garage where the industrial size sump pump will quickly deal with it.  Parts of Norfolk (thankfully, not where my house near ODU is located) have been flooded the last three days.  I will keep folks posted!

Research Warns of Fast-Rising Sae Levels

While Republicans - especially those in the Virginia General Assembly - refuse to admit the reality of climate change and associated sea level rise, science and research continues to provide more data to not only document that the phenomenon is real but to suggest sea level rise may occur even faster than previously thought.  The Virginia GOP has no solution to the problem since it has not even admitted the problem exists and only refers to "areas of repetitive flooding."  As the Virginian Pilot reports, new research findings are unsettling for those living in the real world.  Here are story highlights:

Scientists know a few things about sea levels: They're rising across the globe, though not uniformly. And they're rising faster than they had been.

In Hampton Roads, seas are rising even faster because the Gulf Stream has slowed down and because land here is sinking, a result of the region's geology and groundwater withdrawals.

Subsidence and rising waters were thought to be about equal contributors to the troubles in Hampton Roads, which has the highest rate of sea-level rise on America's Atlantic Coast.

But as sea-level rise accelerates and subsidence remains constant, that equation is tipping out of balance. Which means that the long-term risk to Hampton Roads from rising water is growing.

An intensive research effort now under way, aided by NASA observations and analysis, points to an unavoidable rise of several feet in the future."

The bottom line, NASA researchers have concluded, is that the world's average sea level will rise by three feet by the end of the century, and perhaps more. And because Hampton Roads has the additional problem of subsidence, waters here would rise significantly more.

In that study, prepared at the behest of the General Assembly, VIMS concluded that the worst-case scenario was 7.5 feet of sea level rise in Hampton Roads "based on estimated consequences from global warming combined with the maximum possible contribution from ice-sheet loss and glacial melting."

That amount of sea-level rise would put neighborhoods across the region in deep water, even without the flooding from a heavy storm. It would change how we live, and where.

NASA now says it knows that three feet of sea level rise is baked into the system, but that we should expect it to be higher than that, and to happen more quickly than scientists had predicted. That warning is clear enough. Hampton Roads leaders should now know enough to step up the planning to deal with it.

It is long past time for the Virginia GOP to come out of its fantasy world and start planning for ways to address this growing threat.