THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502160123
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 236 lines
GROWTH HELPED Sadie Shaw get a paved road in front of her Seatack house. But it also turned a nearby field, once filled with blackberry bushes and neighborhood kids, into the oceanfront Radisson Hotel.
It increased the value of Jim Bright's farm in Creeds; but also led to regulations that limit his chance to build a house there for his daughter.
It brought Beth Meadows to Kempsville, but also gave her neighbors who move in and out so quickly it's hard to make friends.
It built a city where most people are happy to live, where the taxes are relatively low and the services basically good.
But what has been lost with all that growth, many residents say, is a sense of community.
In different ways over the last two weeks, more than two dozen residents, gathered by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, have commented on the lack of community in Virginia Beach.
They notice that the small-town feel that lured them here has disappeared, that neighbors no longer know neighbors, that fewer and fewer people seem to have a lifetime commitment to the Beach. Kids can't walk to schools any more, parents have to drive them to the nearest park.
The lack of neighborhood connection has left many in Virginia's largest city feeling isolated not only from their neighbors, but from the one institution that binds them - local government.
Several panel members from Kempsville needed directions to City Hall. Once there, even long-time residents don't know whom to ask to get things done.
While this disconnectedness is not driving people out of the Beach - everyone on the panels said they like it here - it does encourage them to pull tighter into themselves: to put their kids in private school, avoid civic activities, not bother to meet the family next door. Several said it makes them less inclined to stay long-term.
It also makes this a difficult city to govern. Panelists from Kempsville to Creeds agreed that the city government lacks a clear vision. But they were unable to pull together the competing interests of the oceanfront and agriculture, older communities and new suburbs, the military and the tourists.
The panels had many suggestions and complaints for the City Council to address, as it tries to bring that vision into focus during a retreat today and Saturday to try to bring a vision into focus.
Meadows, a six-year resident of Kempsville, has almost given up on making friends in her Alexandria neighborhood because just as soon as she makes them, they move away. She recently went back to work after her youngest son started school.
``We had a group of six gals that all stayed at home and had our kids, and that became our sense of community, because we were going to go crazy if we didn't all get together,'' Meadows said. ``But what happened is, they all moved. . . The communities start, and then they move and you have to start all over again.''
Because her neighborhood isn't a community, Meadows has sought out connections elsewhere. She put her sons in private school so they would be in smaller, more intimate surroundings. Many of her friends now are the parents of her sons' friends.
Wanda Turpin, who lives less than a mile away in Brigadoon but had never met Meadows before the panel, agreed that residents must bear some of the responsibility for recreating community.
She also befriends the parents of her children's friends, and helps her son and daughter make connections by driving them to after-school sports programs.
``I don't think you can blame it all on the city,'' Wanda Turpin said. ``You also have to get out, and you have to look, and you have to find things.''
But she and others do want help from city government.
The city could invigorate communities, several suggested, by building community swimming pools: Not giant recreation centers that attract people from miles around, but little neighborhood pools where parents and kids could hang out and bond on summer afternoons.
Keeping schools smaller would help, too, said Marty Asire, a Lagomar homemaker and substitute teacher.
``I'd like more, smaller schools rather than these massive ones,'' Asire said. ``That promotes a tremendous sense of community right there, because all the moms and dads go down to the school.''
Virginia Beach parents are willing to be active in the schools, added Mary E. Dotson, a Wyndamere resident and college student. But it's hard to make them feel like participating if the school population is bigger than some small towns.
Most participants said they liked the idea behind the City Council's Outdoors Plan, which would link parks with hiking, biking, canoeing and equestrian trails. Those physical linkages might help develop a few emotional ones, they said.
Connection won't be possible, though, several panelists said, unless city officials learn to communicate better with the public.
City officials ``are not listening and they're not knowing,'' said Shelby P. Balderson, a North End resident. There should be someone from the city who would help the public navigate the city's bureaucracy, she said.
``There has to be a way for the citizens to be heard by the city and the city to be heard by the citizens,'' said Cyndy Bourquard of Lynnhaven Acres. That's an ongoing problem in a lot of places. I think it's particularly a problem here.''
In one panel discussion, residents debated the relative merits of the ward system versus the at-large electoral system now in place. Ward elections might give people a greater sense of identification with an area, some argued.
Some structural changes in city government might help make citizens feel more connected to their hometown, many said.
Several minutes later, Bourquard said she wasn't eager to create another layer of government, but maybe it was necessary to establish ``advisory councils'' to help make Virginia Beach more like a collection of small towns.
``(They) would work together,'' she said, ``to look at specific areas and say: `What does this area need? What's good about it, what's strong about it, how can we build on that, what were the problems, maybe we have created a disaster by building this big road through here, what can we do about that?' ''
Asire, a former Long Island resident, agreed, saying that her experience with small towns there showed that people feel better about government they can understand.
``We were all very autonomous in our little villages but we were under the umbrella of the township, and the townships were not so big that they were top heavy,'' Asire said. ``There was always somebody you could go to who probably knew who you were and you could say: `I have a problem.' And if they couldn't solve it, then they went to the township or would tell you where to go. So we did have a real tight sense of community there which I don't find here because it's just so sprawling.''
The yearning for connections is not just a block, neighborhood or city thing. Panelists said they also want to become more a part of the Hampton Roads region.
``Regional cooperation helps develop the area as a whole,'' said William C. Gill of the North End. ``It addresses issues such as transportation, which are germane not only to Virginia Beach but to the entire Tidewater area. I think if we have better regional cooperation between - especially the South Hampton Roads cities and the entire Hampton Roads area to solve some of these issues - then we stand a better chance of attracting industry and business development.''
``And major league teams (help) too, they tell me,'' added Bourquard, an assistant professor at Tidewater Community College.
Sports teams, some panelists said, help bind residents of an area together. Wanda Turpin said that when she lived in Buffalo, N.Y., the schools there had ``Buffalo Bills Day'' when all the kids wore Bills-related clothes and helped cheer for their team.
``It brings a lot to your city,'' Turpin said. ``Even if the team isn't great at the beginning, the fact that it's yours. . . . It's a lot of fun. It brings something else to a city.''
A better sense of community isn't just about feeling good, panelists said, it's also about attracting the kind of businesses to the area that keep growth coming. Businesses look for the same quality of life that existing residents do, Bourquard said, ``they look for good schools, culture, recreation, transit.''
Focusing on those quality-of-life issues is a good way to balance the demands of existing residents with the need for attracting new growth, she and others said.
The city's new recreation centers are nice, but there are still too many traffic jams and too few libraries, most agreed. No more growth should be permitted, they said, until the council provides quality services for the people who are already here.
``I think before they start building more houses, they need to get the roads done,'' said Mary Cooper Evans of Pinewood Gardens. ``Then you've got to take care of your water and your sewage. The basics first. And then build the houses.''
Despite their complaints, all but one of the panelists said they had made the right decision to move to or stay in Virginia Beach. Their concern about community doesn't contradict their happiness with living at the Beach.
A poll conducted by the city last summer showed that 93 percent of Beach residents believe this is a good place to live.
Some samplings from the panelists:
``I think the city has been a wonderful place to raise my children,'' said Shelby P. Balderson, president of a framing and art appraisal firm.
``I came here in '77-'78'' from New York, said Oceana Gardens resident William R. Gilliam, a Realtor and blues musician. ``And compared to the type of life with all the rushing and hustle and bustle of New York City, I can say one thing, that I am glad to be out of there and here.''
``It's home,'' said Mary Cooper Evans who lives near Lynnhaven Mall. ``I was born here. I went to school here. I got married here. I educated my kids here. . . As far as I'm concerned, I think it's a pretty doggone good place to live.''
What they like best about the Beach is its mix of things to do and natural places - the Virginia Marine Science Museum and Munden Point city park are only a half-hour apart - its affordability, its good schools and great weather.
Taxes, except for the property taxes on vehicles, didn't seem to upset people much.
``I came down from New York and I was paying $10,000 a year in property tax on a house maybe 300 square feet bigger than what I have here,'' Lagomar's Marty Asire said. ``When the real estate agent told me: `I think it's $1,200,' I said: `$1,200 a month?' She said: `$1,200 a year,' I said: `Oh.' So, when I complain about the lack of libraries, I have to do that while in the back of my mind I know (I'm not paying taxes for them).''
Not surprisingly, one of the most often-cited complaints about the city is its lack of water. Most people think city government needs to find water, and fast. They're tired of waiting for the magical flow from Lake Gaston.
``This place is just practically floating,'' said Bay Colony resident Merle M. Hershey. ``I know it's salt water and brackish water and so forth, and I know that there have been some smart people working on it, but I just can't believe that that's a problem that can't be solved other than with a 100-mile pipeline.''
Most panelists felt that the lack of water is stifling the city's growth. But those from Kempsville haven't really been affected by the loss - they all had wells or neighbors with wells to water their lawns and wash their cars and didn't worry much about conservation.
The city has to grow, most agreed, it's just a question of how.
If it keeps growing the way it did in the 1980s, with houses practically built on top of each other, citizen dissatisfaction will increase, the panelists said.
If the city focuses on making what we've got better, on building community and expanding basic services, then the growth will bring good things.
``For a city not to grow, it's going to stagnate. It's going to deteriorate,'' Gill said.
``Growth is a positive situation. . . . We've suffered through a lot of tasteless growth in this city, which has basically been urban sprawl through some gorgeous farmland,'' he continued. ``I think what this city needs to concentrate on from here on out is not so much urban growth. I would rather see more business development and less urban growth.'' ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER
WHERE DO WE GROW FROM HERE?
Top row (from left): Jim Bright, Nancy Herring and Ted Goranson;
middle row: Howard M. Williams, Downa Pezzella and Wanda Turpin;
bottom row: Mary Copper Evans, Jo Corso and Anne Henry.
Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Some Kempsville residents discuss their concerns at a meeting held
recently at The Beacon Building. Seated are, clockwise from bottom
left: Thomas Warhover, William Gilliam, Francie Latour, Marty Asire,
Sadie Shaw, Cylester Shaw, Claudette White, Merle Hershey, Mary
Dotson, Karen Weintraub, Shelby Balderson and Kay Reynolds.
Warhover, Latour, Weintraub and Reynolds are
Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star employees. The panelists said they feel
isolated from their neighbors and from local government.
William R. Gilliam, Oceana Gardens resident
Merle M. Hershey, Bay Colony resident
Cyndy Bourquard, Lynnhaven Acres resident
KEYWORDS: GROWTH COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS by CNB