THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
It is nigh on miraculous that a tourist destination with world-renowned ports, history seeping from its soil and the country's largest Navy base, northernmost great family beach and biggest shipyard could be virtually anonymous.
If Southeastern Virginia were a movie actress, her nose would be famous, her eyes would be famous, different parts would be famous - but few would know her name. She would be far and away the most beautiful actress whose name slipped everybody's mind. Although her name would be listed in the phonebook, few could call, because few would remember it. Her career would be stunted, to say the least, by her anonymity.
And so it goes in Hampton Roads. ``Business executives have said they're unwilling to locate their companies in this corner of southeastern Virginia because it lacks name recognition,'' wrote staff writer Mylene Mangalindan in Sunday's Business section. ``Entertainers sometimes skip this venue because they don't think it can draw big audiences.''
Presumably the biggest reason that people outside Hampton Roads fail to think of this as a single region with a single name is that people inside Hampton Roads hardly think of this as a single region with a single name.
What kind of region has two competing Chambers of Commerce? We have a Triple A baseball team and fast-improving zoo, neither with Hampton Roads as part of its name. We have a Virginia Symphony and a Virginia Beach Symphony but no Hampton Roads Symphony.
In case you were wondering, Hampton Roads traditionally has meant the anchorage formed by the channel connecting the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers with Chesapeake Bay. The roads in Hampton Roads, then, are water, to the confusion of landlubbers elsewhere, who ask, ``You mean you live on water?''
Hampton Roads, known by the U.S. Commerce Department as the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News Standard Metropolitan Area, comprises, besides those three cities, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton and Williamsburg; the Virginia counties of Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews and York; and the North Carolina county of Currituck.
We're a lofty 27th in population, but near Salina, Kan., in name recognition.
The Hampton Roads postmark helps attach a name to the region. But what the region sorely needs to achieve national name recognition is a big-league team with Hampton Roads in its name. Only then will the region's name flash on the TV screen and appear in sports sections nationwide day in, day out. People who have never been to Pittsburgh are familiar with the city's name because of its big-league baseball and football teams. Indianapolis, mainly known for one race, is much more in the public mind since it acquired a National Basketball Association team.
To be a big-league region, we'll need a big-league team called, say, the Hampton Roads Sailors or Frigates or Ports. Till then, tell friends and relatives elsewhere that you're from Hampton Roads, but be ready with an answer to the question, ``Where?'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
More than a distinctive postmark is needed to project Hampton Roads'
image
by CNB