THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503100187
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Dr. Jim Scutero is always doing something different.
While many doctors keep moving out, he has moved back into Midtown.
Scutero often operates ahead of the curve. That makes his enthusiasm for Midtown even more significant than it seems.
``It's so convenient,'' he said. ``There is no place more convenient.''
An internist who specializes in pulmonary disease, he ``more and more has moved into occupational medicine,'' he said. His practice includes a lot of people with asbestos-related illness.
The patients come from all over the region.
``It's easy for people to come to Midtown,'' he said. ``It's convenient to both tunnels, to North Carolina, to anywhere.''
The New York native who came here years ago via the U.S. Navy bought the building several years ago. It was built in 1951 by Dr. Lem Mayo, Dr. Bill Pope and the late Dr. Clarence Freeman.
``Dr. Mayo told me it was on the edge of town when it was built,'' Scutero said. ``There was nothing much out here then.''
A few years later, the strip of stores at Rodman's Corner and then the MidCity shopping center were built, turning the area into the busiest place in town.
Over the past two decades, the middle part of the city has deteriorated as businesses have moved even farther out - some of them out of town.
Still the traffic in the Midtown area is extremely heavy. There just aren't enough shops and offices left in the area to stop the folks who drive right on by.
The city's Vision 2005 includes a plan to turn around Midtown. Consultant Ray Gindroz has recommended straightening Frederick Boulevard and returning the area to a neighborhood configuration oriented toward High Street.
Property owners in the area generally support the plan.
Nick Arcese, the proprietor of Mario's on Airline Boulevard, thinks the plan is a good idea.
``We need to do something to get more businesses. We need more jobs,'' he said.
Scutero thinks the plan will work too and he thinks the resuscitation of Midtown is possible for the very same reasons he finds it a good place to have his own office.
For one thing, it's between the city's two hospitals.
Gindroz talked about that too. Many times he referred to the considerable size of the city's medical community, most of it located in the area encompassed by the Vision 2005 plan. From offices in Olde Towne to several large office buildings on London Boulevard and Portsmouth General Hospital, to Midtown and several medical buildings to many offices between Airline and Rodman Avenue to Maryview Medical Center, the city has an amazing concentration of medical services, Gindroz said.
Ironically, Scutero was one of the people involved in the development of a major medical complex on Taylor Road just across the city line in Chesapeake back in 1987. The Poplar Hill Diagnostic Center, now jointly owned by Maryview and Portsmouth General hospitals, was operated by the doctors and definitely was on the front side of the curve of a trend across the country.
``The physicians had to sell the laboratories because of federal regulations,'' Scutero said. ``We sold it to both hospitals in order to keep it operating.''
Scutero continues as the managing partner there and said he still keeps an office at the Poplar Hill center open two days a week for patients from that side of Hampton Roads.
``Most of my patients come from other cities because of my specialty,'' Scutero said. ``We try to make it easy for them.''
But his main office will continue to be at Midtown right in the curve of London Boulevard as it runs into High Street.
Within a few weeks he's going to put a sign across the front that will look familiar to longtime residents.
``It was built as Portsmouth Medical Building in 1951,'' Scutero said. ``It's going to be that again.'' MEMO: The Currents would like to hear from you. Send your thoughts to The
Currents, 307 County St., Suite 100, Portsmouth, Va. 23704-3702, or fax
us at 446-2607.
by CNB