ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997               TAG: 9701280119
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: 3    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PERRY MORGAN

IN HAMPTON ROADS, A LACK OF CIVIC UNITY

HAMPTON Roads is a channel and harbor in Southeastern Virginia linking the James River estuary with the Chesapeake Bay. It also is an urban place-name that works better than others but not very well.

One reason is that some of its parts - Virginia Beach and Norfolk, for example - are better known than the whole. Another reason is that the regional name suggests a civic oneness that doesn't exist.

If it did exist, acquisition of a major sports franchise might be easier on the one hand and less important on the other.

Easier because with a shared sense of ownershipough these might be mitigated by a measure of cost-sharing among the several cities for constructing the arena. A regional team in a regional stadium? That would be something. Too bad there's not more precedent: Our cultural assets would be all the better for it.

Since facilities make such a difference in the quality of urban life, and in the appeal of places, it's worth asking why some existing, home-grown facilities haven't fared better.

The Norfolk Botanical Garden easily could be famous in far places. Its water-fringed setting is superb and much beauty is tucked around its 155 acres, but it hasn't enough vistas or flowering gardens to make the turnstiles click. The city supports the garden's continuing development, but not with boldness.

Norfolk also nourishes the Chrysler Museum from whose impressive collections other museums borrow to enhance crowd-pulling exhibitions. But the Chrysler, very fine inside and out, is not noted for mounting exhibitions of its own.

The Virginia Zoo also is still developing with sparkling improvements foreseen down the road. The zoo in its present state is said to attract 300,000 visitors a year with little advertising.

If the arena comes to pass and turns Hampton Roads into a hot spot for visitors, tourists and new businesses, all will be interested to know what else the region offers. The answer is several top-of-the-line facilities such as the Virginia Marine Science Museum - and others that could benefit mightily from a bit of the vision now focused on building something new.

Perry Morgan is a former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.

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