THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180538
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TONY GERMANOTTA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Our climate stinks - both the atmosphere and the economy, according to the editors of Money magazine.
The New York City-based publication released its annual survey of the ``Best Places to Live in America'' on Wednesday and every rated region in Virginia took a terrible tumble.
The 1.5 million people who call Hampton Roads home experienced one of the worst falls. Last year, this area was considered the 63rd most livable location in the United States.
Now it's nearly off the chart - 224th of the nation's 300 largest metropolitan statistical areas.
Almost every category that Money studied has gotten worse here in the past 12 months, the magazine said.
The region lost ground in health care, crime, the arts, education and leisure activities. Even our weather deteriorated.
``How can any community have that big a change in the quality of its life?'' wondered a baffled Ann Baldwin, acting director of Forward Hampton Roads, the economic development arm of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
``We live here, we know the quality of our life in this region and what it has to offer. It really didn't get that bad in a year.''
Basically, every region in Virginia lost considerable ground in economic standings this year, said Jeanhee Kim, one of the staff writers at Money fielding a flood of media calls on the survey.
That would tend to push them down in the national rankings. But even Kim found the depth of the statewide drop ``pretty astonishing.''
She said the magazine polled its readers and asked them what categories were most important to them when choosing a place to live. Then the publication gave added weight when ranking scores in those categories.
This year's top concerns among the magazine's readership were low crime rates, little chance of tax increases and sunny weather, she said.
So why, with the election of an abolish-parole Republican governor who has promised not to raise taxes, and a tourism industry based on sun worshipers, did the state take such a hit?
Kim had no ready explanations.
She did have some detailed data on Hampton Roads - or ``Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport'' as she called it.
Yep, the folks at Money left the News out of the Peninsula city's name.
``That tells you how much they know about us, doesn't it?'' observed Forward Hampton Roads' Baldwin.
Hampton Roads has suffered some in outside evaluators' eyes, Baldwin suggested, because the region and the state are perceived as being dependent on defense spending.
Maybe, Baldwin guessed, that was what caused the economic drop-off across the Old Dominion.
But why did Money mark down our climate from 56 points of a perfect 100 to only 50, she wondered.
``We have great weather,'' Baldwin said. And Virginia didn't suffer through natural disasters like much of the nation endured last year, she noted.
Hampton Roads also lost points in the arts arena - getting just 14 of the possible 100 points. That's down from last year's 26, despite a new opera house in Norfolk.
Baldwin was particularly mystified by our low health care rating. Despite numerous hospitals and an internationally known reproduction research center, we were given a third-world-type ranking of just 6 out of a possible 100 points. That's down from last year's already anemic 10.
Even in leisure, the Money survey found this vacation hot spot below average, giving Hampton Roads just 30 points, a gain of a single digit.
``Do you know of a better place to live and have fun than here?'' Baldwin asked. ``There is so much to do we are exhausted by our leisure. And we don't have to travel for our leisure.''
In the Old Dominion, only Charlottesville finished in the top 100, slipping from 37th to 77th on the Money list.
Every other Virginia region was buried in the bottom third of the country.
Roanoke dropped despite losing ground only in its economic, education and weather rankings.
It even improved considerably in the crime rankings, jumping from 28 to 41 points in a category that was the top concern of those participating in the survey this year.
Roanoke showed improvements as well in the arts arena and transportation. In several other categories, such as health care, housing and leisure, Roanoke remained the same.
Still Roanoke fell from 81st to 201st on the Money list.
So where was the best place to live, according to the bean counters at Money mag?
How about Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., which rose from fifth to first this year? The region boasts a low, 3 percent unemployment rate, several prominent universities and large medical centers.
Baldwin said Forward Hampton Roads would look closely at the magazine's methodology and attempt to correct any bad assumptions or basic errors.
Mainly, she said, Money's report shows how important it is for the area to get out the word about its riches.
But in something as subjective as a poll of Money's affluent, investment-minded readers, she had another explanation.
``Maybe we don't have enough subscribers to Money magazine,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff graphic by Pai.
Money's best places to live
1994 figures, Previous year's in parenthesis
How Virginia ranked
How the cities were ranked.
Source: Money Magazine
For copy of graphic, please see microfilm.
by CNB