Norfolkculture & etiquette

NOAA's Sewells Point gauge records relative sea-level rise of 4.84 mm a year over a 1927–2025 record — about 1.59 feet per century, against 2.95 mm at New York's Battery and 3.31 at Baltimore. Roughly a quarter of the sinking half of that is groundwater withdrawal from the Potomac Aquifer, on HRSD's own estimate. In practice this means two properties a few streets apart can differ by thousands of dollars a year in flood insurance. Ask for the FEMA flood zone, ask whether there is an elevation certificate, and ask whether the property is behind the accredited downtown floodwall.

Federal rule 32 CFR 117.10(k) requires contractors to make every effort to ensure non-US citizens are not employed in duties needing access to classified information. The narrow exception, a Limited Access Authorization, is for rare cases where a non-citizen has unique skills and no clearable US citizen is available, needs senior government approval, and is never valid for TOP SECRET, intelligence, COMSEC or NATO material. In a metro built around the Atlantic Fleet, that closes off a large share of the best-paid work. Confirm in writing before relocating.

You have 60 days to get a Virginia driver's licence but only 30 days to title and register a vehicle. Separately, Virginia requires an annual safety inspection on every vehicle, statewide, done at ordinary repair shops and enforced by ticket. Emissions testing is a Northern Virginia programme only — Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and a handful of cities — so Norfolk is outside it.

The Commissioner of the Revenue assesses vehicles annually using J.D. Power values, at $4.33 per $100 — higher than Richmond's rate and a genuine recurring cost on a newer car. Bills are due 5 June. There is a high-mileage adjustment if your car is above the published mileage band for its year, claimed by sending in the state inspection certificate. The city's boat rate, by contrast, is $0.000001 per $100 — effectively nothing, and entirely deliberate.

Virginia's individual income tax deadline is 1 May with an automatic six-month extension to file. If you are stationed outside the United States or Puerto Rico on 1 May you have until 1 July, and combat-zone service gets the federal extensions plus fifteen days. The state rate itself is effectively flat: 5.75% applies above $17,000 of taxable income, a threshold unchanged since 1990.

Hampton Roads Transit charges a single $2.00 adult trip across every mode including the 757 Express and the Elizabeth River ferry to Portsmouth, with a 30-day GoPass at $70. The ferry is a genuine commuting option rather than a tourist ride, and it avoids the tunnel tolls between Norfolk and Portsmouth entirely.