THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410190126
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Looking back from the 21st century, those who come after us will have no trouble pinpointing what happened to Hampton Roads while other southern regions leapt far ahead.
Whether Portsmouth got the race track doesn't matter. We ran a good race.
Why Hampton Roads didn't get it is a horse of a different color.
It's the same reason Charlotte and Jacksonville got major league ball teams and we didn't, although people around here have been talking about getting a team franchise for years.
Former Albuquerque Mayor David Rusk used the football team as the perfect example of the high cost of competition among the cities in this region when he spoke last year at a Hampton Roads Forward luncheon.
The race track is an even better example of the failure of the individual cities in Hampton Roads to put the region ahead of personal desires.
Portsmouth's proposed site for a track on an interstate highway in the exact center of the region had excellent prospects. Then Virginia Beach jumped into the fray with a much less acceptable location. The other cities made no commitment - financial or otherwise - to either plan.
It became fairly obvious last year that no racing commission member with any judgment was going to vote for either site because chances of success for Virginia's first horse track were diminished greatly if the entire region was not placing bets on the same project.
We lose more than we'll ever know, more than a race track or a football team, because we're all so busy in-fighting that we don't hear what people such as Rusk are saying.
Rusk emphasized that no entity in Hampton Roads is better than the least of the whole in a situation where five cities run one into the other.
There is no doubt that a stronger case for putting the race track in Hampton Roads would have been made if every city in the region bought into one location.
Nor is there any doubt in my mind that we lost it because of regional in-fighting.
Virginia Beach seems to operate on the skewed premise that it is the center of the universe. Chesapeake would like to outdo them. Yet without the jobs and other attractions of the older cities, neither suburban city would have much to offer.
Sometimes Norfolk and Portsmouth don't seem much clearer in their perceptions.
Whether they like it or not, all of the cities - including Suffolk and ultimately the Peninsula - are part of the same place. But until they start acting like it, we will continue to lose out to other regions.
Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are even more diverse than Hampton Roads cities. Yet, they got their act together to create the Research Triangle, which probably is the economic development phenomenon of the century.
The last time I blamed Virginia Beach for obstructing the regional good, I got some nasty mail. But, once again, I have to say I think Virginia Beach was the spoiler for the race track. Norfolk is not without some liability because it failed to act when Portsmouth offered other cities an opportunity to buy into the plan. If Norfolk had moved, chances are that Suffolk would have bought in. And, who knows, even Chesapeake might have decided it was time to join the region if they thought they could make some money from the project.
The fact is, Virginia Beach frequently makes bad decisions because it can't see beyond its own borders to the neighbors who ultimately will make or break the state's most populous city.
Take for instance, the Virginia Beach obstinacy that killed a proposed light rail between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. That should go down as one of the big mistakes of the century for Hampton Roads.
What's the answer? Enlightened leadership is the obvious response. But that does not seem likely any time soon, especially in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Voters are too wrapped up in their personal interests to give thought and votes to those who would make the region better for the next century.
The next answer might lie in better understanding among Portsmouth, Suffolk and Norfolk, the three old communities with common problems and assets.
Strong, open cooperation among these cities could give them enough clout to overcome the myopia of Virginia Beach that prohibits it from seeing that David Rusk was right when he said a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. MEMO: Whether you agree or disagree, 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