When the news broke in March that the iconic Greenies Beach Bar & Grill, a popular sailor hangout in the Ocean View section of Norfolk, Virginia, would be purchased by the city and closed soon thereafter, it hit the locals like a ton of bricks.
The famous watering hole, around since at least the 1930s, has been a popular spot for locals and sailors alike. The plan, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander put forth, is to raze the building to create additional beach parking.
For now, the bar remains open and no date has been announced for its closing. And locals are fighting to keep it around. A petition to save the establishment has collected over 2,000 signatures, and a letter to Alexander stated that “to demolish Greenies is to destroy the heart of [Ocean View].”
Michelle Willoughby has been coordinating these efforts. In the letter to Alexander, she puts forth alternatives for the property, but has yet to hear back from Norfolk’s city leadership, she told Navy Times.
“The citizens of Ocean View should have a say if you plan to purchase and demolish a cultural treasure of the community,” Willoughby wrote in her letter to Alexander.
“This community is a working class residential neighborhood where families live for generations. We don’t want to live in a community like Virginia Beach, or we would move there.”
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Navy Times queried Lori Couch, Norfolk’s corporate communications director, as to whether Alexander received and read the letter. Couch said in an email that no response was coming in time for this report.
“This will remove a historical and cultural restaurant and bar that has served many Ocean View residents, military families and their loved ones since 1930,” Willoughby wrote in her
The letter also refutes the mayor’s contention the bar should make way for more beach parking.
“Additional beach access is not required,” Willoughby wrote. “There is plenty of off-street parking in the area.”
Willoughby proposes the city should operate Greenies, citing a similar arrangement that exists for a downtown area restaurant called the Pagoda.
“The city leases the Pagoda property to a non-profit to operate and maintain the gardens,” Couch told Navy Times. “Essentially, the foundation is responsible for everything. I can tell you that the city does not have a plan to operate a bar after closing on the [Greenies] property.”
You can read the letter here and the online petition can be found here.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
