THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602100011
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By JAMES V. KOCH
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Old Dominion University and Hampton Roads have grown up together. When Old Dominion was founded in 1930 with fewer than 100 students, most of Hampton Roads was farmland. Now, in l996, the university has a combined student, faculty and staff population of almost 20,000 and serves a metropolitan region of 1.5 million people comprising 16 urban and suburban cities and counties.
The university is vitally interested in the welfare of its primary service region, Hampton Roads. Regrettably, in the past decade the growth of Hampton Roads has lagged other metropolitan areas such as Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. These areas have experienced more rapid increases in household incomes and new jobs and have leapfrogged Hampton Roads in attracting major employers, professional athletic teams and cultural attractions. While a variety of factors can explain our less-than-sterling performance, there is widespread agreement that the absence of regional cooperation and cohesion constitutes one of the region's most important deficits.
To put it bluntly, all too often we don't behave like a region and, therefore, we are not treated like one. Consequently, other, more-unified metropolitan areas attract new production facilities, professional athletic teams and cultural amenities which bypass the discordant, competitive voices that frequently characterize the cities of Hampton Roads. Further, other metropolitan areas devise well-developed regional strategies in areas as diverse as law enforcement, garbage collection, medical facilities and military downsizing. Indianapolis, for example, has adopted regional governmental structures that have brought city and suburbs together. The benefits are readily apparent: cities such as Indianapolis grow more rapidly, deal with social and economic problems more effectively and enhance their regional identity and pride by means of cultural institutions and professional athletic teams such as the Colts and the Pacers.
Virginians now have the opportunity to do something about this unfortunate state of affairs. The commonwealth's General Assembly now is considering legislation sponsored by the Urban Partnership, an organization of 18 Virginia cities and counties, that would provide significant incentives for local governmental units to work together. The objective is to encourage Virginia's urban areas, including Hampton Roads, to cooperate so that they can become more competitive in national and international markets, solve problems that cross city lines and (ultimately) become more attractive places to live.
The centerpiece of this legislation is the Regional Competitiveness Act, which creates a regional economic-development incentive fund. Local governments would become eligible for the fund only by forming a regional partnership of government, business, education and community leaders. The regional partnerships will complete a regional strategic assessment of the key issues facing them, devise a strategy and then measure and track their progress by means of a regional ``report card.''
There is no persuasive reason why per-capita income in Hampton Roads should be only 86 percent of the national average, and falling. Nor is it necessary that much-smaller metropolitan areas such as Jacksonville, Fla., attract professional football franchises while Hampton Roads bemoans its fate. We can do better - if we choose to plan together and cooperate. We can create more jobs, expand higher-education funding and medical facilities, deal with pressing regional transportation problems and attract more federal support if we get our act together.
But first, the General Assembly must approve the Regional Competitiveness Act. It's a great idea whose time has come. Give it your support. MEMO: Dr. Koch is president of Old Dominion University.
by CNB