THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080407
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TONY WHARTON AND MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
How should the city spend its limited money: On high-end downtown malls or in neighborhood streets? The debate went on Tuesday, in the polls and in the rain, as people talked about what drove them to vote.
Interviews with Norfolk voters showed that many, though not all, are deeply troubled about whether big-ticket redevelopment in downtown is the right policy for Norfolk.
Colonial Place resident Jacqueline Falkenhan said, ``I think it's important that the city spend its money wisely. Norfolk is landlocked and we need to develop our industrial base. It seems like too many of the new jobs are going to the Peninsula.''
She is not convinced that the MacArthur Center mall downtown will be a good source of jobs. She did praise Norfolk for getting a downtown branch of Tidewater Community College.
Kip Gardner, voting at Stuart Gifted Center, bluntly called MacArthur Center ``a boondoggle.''
``I'm concerned about that and other large projects the city is putting a lot of money into without citizen input,'' Gardner said.
Others were more ambivalent. Annabelle and Harvey Ellingson of West Belvedere, who voted at the Willard Model School, called Nauticus ``a big bomb.'' But they were voting for incumbent Mason C. Andrews, who has championed central-city projects.
``I think he does a grand job. We need his stability. You don't get that from everybody,'' Annabelle Ellingson said.
David Bowen, an attorney living in Lafayette Shores, said projects like MacArthur Center are vital to the local economy and improving Norfolk's long-suffering image.
``The city has a horrible reputation around the country. But when I moved here, I found that somebody did a wonderful job with downtown,'' said Bowen, who came from Richmond 12 years ago.
Linda Horsey, a licensed clinical social worker living in Norfolk's Olde Huntersville, said her motivation went beyond any particular candidate or current issue.
``It's my ethical, moral and spiritual obligation to vote.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL RACE ELECTION RESULTS by CNB