THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 8, 1996 TAG: 9604050008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Virginia Beach City Council member Louisa Strayhorn holds monthly town meetings in Kempsville, the 140,000-person borough she represents. She seeks to learn what's on her constituents' minds and to hear their solutions to city problems.
At a meeting late last year, residents said they'd like to discuss regionalism at a future meeting and to invite folks from neighboring Norfolk and Chesapeake to join in.
So one night last week, 65 area residents, including one from Norfolk and half a dozen from Chesapeake, gathered to discuss how their cities affect each other. Many ways are obvious.
A Virginia Beach resident employed in Norfolk may pass through Portsmouth and Chesapeake going to and from work. Every workday, that person's life is affected by traffic in four cities, though the person votes and pays taxes in only one.
Criminals from any of the cities might prey on that person, since criminals seldom honor city lines in seeking victims.
The person likely works with others who attended schools in different cities. The quality of those schools may well affect the quality of co-employees' work. That could affect the survival of the company.
The likelihood of a new company moving here and offering the person a better-paying job may hinge on that company officials' perception of the whole region, not just one city. The company presumably will hire from the whole region and may do business in all the cities. If it trucks products out or materials in, the trucks must pass through other cities.
Regional cooperation is needed, Strayhorn said, to meet the region's needs for water, transportation, jobs and sports. All those topics came up at her meeting, she said, except sports.
In other states, Strayhorn said, people ask her in astonishment, ``What do you mean, you don't have regional water?'' When she describes Hampton Roads elsewhere, she said, people almost think she's describing wars between cow and sheep farmers.
Still, more than ever before, many Hampton Roads leaders - private and elected - are plugging away to transform Hampton Roads into a powerful economic engine competitive with anyone. The leaders are dedicated to improving the region's quality of life - the level of workers' pay; the ease of getting from here to there; the quality of entertainment, including sports; and much more.
For example, the entire region will benefit from Virginia Beach's new amphitheater, because it will draw acts that haven't appeared in the area before. Who knows? That amphitheater might be the amenity that tilts a music-loving company owner toward moving his or her company to Hampton Roads - not necessarily Virginia Beach.
Strayhorn is holding another town meeting for Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk residents in May, though the date has not yet been set.
The Hampton Roads Coalition of Civic Organizations is holding its next regional forum at 10 a.m. April 20 at the John Yeates Middle School in Suffolk. The topic will be welfare reform.
Hampton Roads leaders have begun to lead in the direction of regionalism; now if the followers will push, real economic gains could be realized. There's something in it for everybody. by CNB