Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120174
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

`BIG' CLAIM TO FAME IN PERIL

``Welcome to Suffolk,'' proud signs greet travelers, ``Virginia's largest city.'' But there is no urban sprawl over the hill here. Just a lot of land - the largest city in land area in Virginia.

This boast may soon be bust. Bedford and Bedford County are considering a merger that could create the state's largest city - more than 750 square miles.

If this comes to pass, Suffolk's 429 square miles would rank a puny second and a point of pride would leave this peanut town of 50,000.

So much for bragging rights, especially in a town about the size of Los Angeles. Bedford still wouldn't compare with, say, Anchorage (1,732 square miles) - but we're still talking a whole heap of land here.

And just what would that mean for Suffolk? Trash, for starters: Suffolk's boast of being the state's largest city, carried on about every piece of literature the city mails, would be woefully obsolete. So would the city manager's ``fancy'' stationery.

``So many stores and merchants are saying they're the best,'' said Dana Brown, Suffolk's spokeswoman. ``But very few people can say they're the largest. We do use `the largest.' It's a fact. ... But I guess being second-largest wouldn't be too bad.''

``It's the quality,'' she said later, ever the spokeswoman, ``not the quantity.''

Suffolk became the state's largest city in land area in a 1974 merger. The city has held on to this brag ever since.

But the ``largest city'' tag never has been all that powerful a marketing tool.

Harold Blythe, president of the Bank of Suffolk, recently was trying to sell stock to potential buyers in New York when he mentioned it.

``No one got really excited,'' he said.

``I mentioned it simply because it is something that we have. Naturally, you want to use it, as long as we have it available. But the impact is not really meaningful. As a matter of fact, it's pretty useless.''