THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412220024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
At last week's Urban Summit in Richmond, the dominant voices for regionalism were not politicians, academics, consultants or beleaguered core-city officials but corporate leaders.
Richard G. Tilghman, Crestar Bank's chief executive officer, advocated that cities and suburban counties share revenue, saying a change in Virginia's local-government structure to reduce competition between them ``is a state-government issue of the highest order.''
James T. Rhodes, Virginia Power's CEO, warned that ``when the suburbs turn their backs on their core cities, or when cities fail to cooperate with their suburbs, they do great harm to their own prosperity.''
Warner Dalhouse, CEO of First Union National Bank, said: ``We cannot be competitive, we cannot even be healthy as a commonwealth, without very healthy urban centers.''
Private-sector support of such cooperation is not new. But the summit's sponsorship by The Urban Partnership Energizing Virginia, a business-government alliance, underscores the need for Virginia to act boldly on regionalism.
The state's structure is a problem - cities are not parts of counties.
An annexation ban has imprisoned the commonwealth's urban cores.
State policy doesn't adequately address core cities' needs. Richmond received $511 per capita in state aid in 1990 and spent $380 on public safety alone. Neighboring Chesterfield County received $494 per capita and spent only $185 on public safety.
None of these barriers is unsurmountable. Indeed, the 1995 General Assembly will consider several proposals designed to encourage regionalism.
More difficult may be overcoming local egos, long-held suspicions and inter-locality squabbling that still discourage cooperative action.
But the summit's message is that while rigid boundaries hem in cities, the problems that plague them respect no geographical limits. Inner-city woes invade the affluent suburbs as well.
Hampton Roads offers an example. Our economy grew at 3.2 percent annually in the 1980s even as inner cities grappled with decline. The rate today, amid military downsizing, is 1.1 percent; we are producing more young job seekers than we have jobs for; the sluggishness hurts growing Virginia Beach and Chesapeake as well as long-stressed Norfolk and Portsmouth and delay the growth surge expected in Suffolk.
These cities cannot compete successfully for economic development as separate entities. They must work jointly or continue to lose out to areas that do. Business leaders in South Hampton Roads recognize this and are working with municipal representatives to create a more receptive political climate.
The old argument for regionalism was that we'd be better off if we did things together instead of separately. The new argument is that we're all worse off because we didn't. It's time to end the arguing and do the cooperating. by CNB