THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090254
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
December 1994 is a special time for Portsmouth.
It marks the beginning of the rest of the century for the city.
The opening of the new Children's Museum and the gift of the Lancaster Collection of trains and toys are wonderful holiday gifts.
In addition, fliers went out in the mail this week announcing the beginning of a full schedule of classes in Portsmouth at the Tidewater Community College Institute of Art in early January.
Some of the large pieces are falling into place to make Olde Towne a strong center of activity to bring Portsmouth into the cultural mainstream of Hampton Roads.
For more than a decade, this city has been struggling against a tide of deterioration that has threatened every old city in the nation. It has persisted, even as it sometimes fallen backward, in its aim toward a critical point.
A lot of work still lies ahead, but we may have reached that turning point. With aggressive leadership and the right public relations plans, the new Downtown projects could provide the catalyst for perpetual forward momentum.
Image counts as much as substance in the uphill struggle for the attention and financial support of the rest of this region - and the world.
All of us who choose to live and work in Portsmouth know that the city is not the place imagined by those who put it down. We must close the gap between the real Portsmouth and its image.
By combining history, art and education into a charming cultural entity, Portsmouth has the substance on which to build the image to convince others to come and find what we already have discovered.
That puts a heavy burden on the person who will be chosen to head the city's public information office, a person who is needed on the scene right now and who may be the most important key to the future of Portsmouth.
The money paid for that position will be wasted if we don't buy experience and know-how to reach beyond City Hall politics and the parameters of the bureaucracy. It will be wasted if we don't find a person strong enough to propel a change from what has not worked to a new strategy that will, in fact, change the image.
The excitement created by the Children's Museum and the Art Institute is a good starting point, but the city needs to have a plan in place to get quickly beyond square one.
If we don't build the momentum from this month's excitement, we will miss our best opportunity of the century to change our position in the eyes of those who have been unable to see the charm - or the substance - of Portsmouth. by CNB