THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290305
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
On first landing at Norfolk International Airport, I thought I had hit upon the Everglades.
As the plane descended, the greenery of the botanical gardens put me in mind of a lush, tropical paradise.
Then I saw Granby Street!
Fortunately, I soon realized that Hampton Roads was more than just Scope, the Norfolk federal courthouse and their tattered environs.
First impressions, however, are hard to shake.
Such was the case for Washington Post contributing writer Jeff Stein, who visited the area recently for an article on Norfolk published last week.
Nauticus was at the center of Stein's visit, but just under the surface he offered hundreds of thousands of Post readers the ``Granby Street'' view of Hampton Roads.
``On a gray and windy Saturday afternoon, many downtown blocks were bereft of little but condemned buildings, blowing newspapers, homeless men, clucking pigeons, and a few such bewildered tourists as ourselves. . . ''
For the uninitiated, the so-called ``Granby Mall'' area of Norfolk is a grimy doormat to the rambling residence that is Hampton Roads. Yet provincialism and tunnel vision (or lack of same) leave each city trying feebly to create its own image.
Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth slugged it out with one another to be chosen as the site for a horse racing track. New Kent County winds up the winner.
Norfolk tries to one-up Virginia Beach for its mall shoppers.
And everyone seems to steer clear of Suffolk.
But to outsiders, we're all in the same boat whether we like it or not. Especially visitors like Stein, on whom downtown Norfolk left a lasting impression.
``We got lost and kept driving and driving down Granby Street, and it got worse and worse,'' he said. ``Everybody told us not to stay downtown after dark. I didn't need much persuading, and I lived in the District of Columbia for 20 years.''
Stein's unofficial tour guide was H.L. Wilson, 52, a Norfolk native and proprietor of the Bibliopath, a downtown bookstore.
``Nothing's going on downtown on weekends,'' Wilson said. ``It's deserted. I think it's dismal.''
Wilson harkens back to the Norfolk of old.
``When I was a child, this was a real city,'' he said. ``It had a real waterfront - and not just for tourists. And it had the right kind of smells.
``They never should have torn down East Main Street,'' he said. ``It was famous: nice hotels, burlesque. I remember the little old ladies in their white gloves shopping on Granby Street.''
All that's gone now.
In its place are grandiose plans for mega-development.
But no matter how Norfolk spruces up, it's all only window dressing if the area isn't marketed as a region.
Of course, we're more than the transitional ``Granby Mall.''
We're Olde Towne Portsmouth and its Children's Museum. We're the Virginia Beach Oceanfront at sunrise. We're estate auctions in Suffolk and the Hampton Jazz Festival.
We're the Virginia Air and Space Museum and Colonial Williamsburg and a dozen other attractions, all within a 45-minute drive.
But if we're not careful, we will be Granby Mall. Or worse.
``It reminded me of the last scene from `Failsafe,' '' Stein said.
In that scene, a mushroom cloud rises over New York City after a fictional U.S. president decides to drop a nuclear bomb. by CNB