The Ladies Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

CAPE CHARLES, Va. — Town officials are attempting to calm rising public concern following recent discussions surrounding the possible removal of the structure known locally as “The Hump” on Old Cape Charles Road (Route 642).

In aninformational release issued this week, the Town of Cape Charles attempted to propagandize the issue by noting that no decision has been made regarding the removal of the historic railroad overpass and that Town Council has not approved any such action. However, they left out the optimal word, “yet”. The Town Council has not approved any action on the “Hump”, yet. Of course Town Council has not approved removing the Hump. That was never mentioned by either the Shore Daily News or the Mirror, or on any social media platform. In reality, the Town Council will be the last to know about something like this. Outside of turning the town into an STR mecca and slipping their fingers into the greasy till of the Cape Charles merchant class, are they really staying in front of anything?

According to the statement, the conversation about The Hump has surfaced as part of the broader Railroad & Harbor Master Planning effort, a long-range planning initiative currently underway. The planning process is being facilitated by consulting firm The Berkley Group and is designed to guide how the town could evolve over the next two decades.

Officials attempted to stress that a master plan functions strictly as a visioning and policy document.

“Any future action would require additional studies, public input, coordination with external agencies, and formal Council approval,” the release noted. Blah, blah, blah.

The Berkley Group met with the town’s Project Management Team and conducted two Community Engagement sessions on Jan. 13, 2026. Those meetings were designed to gather public feedback on opportunities and constraints tied to the railyard and harbor areas.

Town officials said the subject of The Hump was introduced during those sessions by staff as part of the public engagement process. Discussion, they said, was exploratory only and intended to collect community perspectives rather than signal any predetermined outcome (oh, sure).

Unfortunately, during the conversations, loose-lipped come-here’s said the quiet part out loud.

These rich transplants are on a quest to permanently alter this iconic town, turning it into the segregated, suburban hellscape they destroyed and left behind. It’s not that they don’t understand the historical significance of the structure; it’s just that, like everything else in old Cape Charles, they want to erase it.

The Town can piss all the way off with this. Unless you are a complete moron, nobody is buying anything these people are selling. For real, the Town can barely put out a weekly report on a monthly basis because they are supposedly too “overwhelmed”, yet they have time to try and cover their asses with this drooling glop of gooey pap? If there are really no plans to get rid of the Hump, then why even address it? It’s as if they sent the fire department to put out a fire that doesn’t exist. One thing about Cape Charles–if they adamantly deny that’s what they intend to do, you can be pretty sure that’s exactly what they want to do.

The ladies doth protest too much, methinks.

Get real. There are forces at play here. Investment groups already control 2/3 of all town businesses, and a big chunk of the STR market. Investors/developers are on the precipice of dropping over a billion dollars on that toxic, contaminated brownfield, which is going to give everyone cancer. They will do what they want.

History Note: We have been here before.

Several years ago, the Town attempted to sell the old Cape Charles High School to a developer for pennies on the dollar. There was community outrage, and the Town backed down—in a brilliant move, the leased the old school to a group of citizens that vowed to renovate the structure and turn it into a community center for local, low-income kids (it was the local Boys and Girls Club before Town Officials bogusly shut it down over the phantasm of asbestos on the pipes). Aside from drinking beer, the citizens’ group did nothing to renovate the structure.

Here’s the brilliant part. As the Cape Charles Christian School needed a larger, more permanent home, the Town coaxed the citizens group to give the school over to CCCS. The Christian school, after investigating, realized the time and money involved were way too much, so they decided to pursue other alternatives.

The Town once again had complete control of the old school.

Later, the Town met in secret with a developer from Richmond and made a backroom deal to sell the old school for $10. At the time, the school was assessed to be worth over $1 million dollars.

There was public outrage, but this time, the Town was ready. With VML insurance money in their hands, they stood their ground, fighting off legal challenges from the group Old School Cape Charles, whose battle cry was, “Community Center Now”. With a team of lawyers from Norfolk and Richmond, the Town won the day, and the old school was transferred to an out-of-town developer and turned into apartments. Essentially, the town spent close to $200k to give the $1 million property away for $10.

The subtext of the fight had to do with doing away with the basketball court that was still active at the old school. Mainly Africa-American kids from Cheriton to Accomack would meet and have competitive basketball games on that court. Many residents were horrified by this, and even more horrified that they played Rap music (sometimes loudly) at times. The first order of business, after the court decision, was to take down the basketball goals and run our African-American youth out of town.

To be sure, history will repeat itself.

If, for any reason, these rich investors want the Hump gone, it will be gone. If they don’t care or even like it, it will stay. You, the taxpayer, will have little to say about it.

The next exercise in futility (a meeting of the Railroad & Harbor Master Plan Project Management Team) is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 10 a.m. The session will be held virtually, with citizens invited to attend and participate from the Cape Charles Civic Center.

Town leaders continue to pay lip service to the notion that public engagement remains central to the planning effort and are encouraging residents to stay involved, ask questions, and rely on so-called official communication channels for so-called updates. Good luck with that.

So it goes.

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Wayne Creed

Administrator

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