Priorities

The second day of our Southeast Virginia swing started with a meeting with African American faith-based leaders. Senator Warner met with the leaders in Norfolk over coffee to talk about issues affecting the Hampton Roads and how to better serve the community. 

We traveled then to Portsmouth, for a ribbon-cutting at the Seaboard Square development in Portsmouth. Seaboard Square has replaced Jeffry Wilson, an aging public housing project, and consists of hundreds of townhouse-style homes. The opening of Seaboard Square will allow for access to safe, stable and affordable public housing, as well as revitalization in the midtown Portsmouth area, which has already seen a new Walmart and CVS Pharmacy pop up because of the development. Senator Warner, U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Representative Bobby Scott celebrated the opening of the first phase of the project with residents and folks from the Portsmouth Housing and Redevelopment Authority who worked on the project.

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Senator Warner greeted Seaboard Square residents. 

"There are some people I work with in Congress who believe that everything Congress does is bad," Senator Warner said. "Well, I wish those people could be here today to see what a little bit of federal investment and a lot of hard work can do."

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Senator Warner toured a Seaboard Square apartment with Secretary Shaun Donovan, right.  

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More photos from Seaboard Square are available on Flickr.

Norfolk's WAVY TV covered the event:

Our third stop of the day was the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News. Jefferson Lab researches the atom’s nucleus at the quark level through use of its accelerator, as well as discovering practical uses for their technology, which have included mammogram machines and PET scans. Senator Warner took a tour of the facility, which is currently expanding and adding jobs in Newport News, before speaking to employees. He took questions on issues like innovation, education, and deficit reduction. Cory Nealon from the Newport News Daily Press 
covered the event.

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Senator Warner toured Jefferson Lab.

Finally, we drove to Essex County to meet with community leaders in Tappahannock. Senator Warner was asked about Congress not working together to move our country forward.

"Sometimes I just don't understand why people can't come together and compromise," Senator Warner responded. "The Constitution that I took an oath to established a Senate, a House and a President to that we all would have to work together to get stuff done."

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Senator Warner meets with community leaders in Tappahannock.

A look ahead: Next week we will be traveling to central, southside and southwest Virginia. We'll be posting from the road, and make sure to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates as well.