  We present a new, complete, sample of 95 radio sources selected from the B2
and 3CR catalogues, with z < 0.1. Since no selection effect on the core radio
power, jet velocity, or source orientation is present, this sample is well
suited for statistical studies. In this first paper we present the
observational status of all sources on the parsec (mas) and kiloparsec (arcsec)
scale; we give new parsec-scale data for 28 sources and discuss their
parsec-scale properties. Combining these data with those in the literature,
information on the parsec-scale morphology is available for a total of 53 radio
sources with different radio power and kpc-scale morphology. We investigate
their properties. We find a dramatically higher fraction of two-sided sources
in comparison to previous flux limited VLBI surveys.
