THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502150185
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
City Manager Wayne Orton is angry at me.
He has no recollection of ever discussing the possibility of a micro brewery in the old Woolworth building on High Street, according to Michael Stevens, the city public affairs director.
I am happy to hear that, and I am sorry if I maligned the manager.
But I still wonder why I've been hearing for several months that city officials thought that was a good idea? I don't know. Nobody can explain it. Nor can anyone tell me why Orton's name was associated with the street talk.
Both Orton and Mayor Gloria Webb deny even having heard the talk around town about a brewery for this spot on High Street.
The mayor, who does not send messages through aides, told me directly that the city is indeed talking to a prospect for the building. That is confirmed by Alex P. Grice, who owns the building.
Grice intimated that if a tenant is lost, it could be my fault. I doubt that a tenant would be lost and I sure hope not, especially if that tenant would bring visitors to Downtown.
I find it strange that nobody seems to have heard the talk about a brewery over the past several months. As I have said before, very little is written in this column that is not being talked about somewhere in Portsmouth. I'm not smart enough to make all this stuff up, so I depend on what others are talking about to supply me with ideas.
Most of the time, the ideas come from concerned and reliable people, the same sort of people talking about a micro brewery.
Sometimes I take an idea and expand on it.
For instance, the notion of a micro-brewery is not a bad idea. I guess that's why I had no trouble believing that the city was interested in pursuing an investor to set up one.
The city has several buildings that could be transformed into productive visitor attractions by a micro brewery and a German restaurant. Coming up with some suggested locations in the column a week ago was my way of expanding on a good concept I had heard bruited about for months.
Actually, a lot of people in this city have a lot of good ideas. And a lot of them are worried about the empty commercial and retail space all around town.
It could be that somebody mentioned micro brewery in a group of interested citizens and somebody else said, yeah. And suddenly the notion took on a life of its own.
It could be that employees of one city department thought another city department was working on the idea of getting a micro brewery, so they too began to believe this was the case and started nodding their heads when the project was mentioned.
Meanwhile, it could be that nobody mentioned the idea to either the city manager or the mayor and because no official proposal apparently has been made, they never heard the talk about a micro brewery.
Sometimes people are so battered with information and conversation that they don't assimilate much of what they hear. by CNB