THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602160190
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
How many times have we all felt helpless in the face of bureaucratic actions we believe will harm our city?
How many of us have said, ``You can't fight City Hall,'' and let it go at that?
How often have we been to City Council or some other official meeting and sounded off but doubted all the while that we were making a difference?
It has happened to all of us.
Sometimes, our demands are unreasonable. Or self-serving. Or out of sync with what is going on citywide.
Many demands should be ignored by those in official positions. Often they aren't and the very fact that loud noises can change city policy also is discouraging.
Often we fell as if nobody really cares about the big picture.
In fact, many people have become quite cynical about government for one reason or another.
But there's one group of Portsmouth citizens who have had their faith restored.
The residents of Cedar Lane from High Street to West Norfolk Road and the adjoining neighborhoods at last can rest easy that a superhighway is not going to be imposed on top of their quiet residential area.
Back in September of 1994, I attended a meeting of the residents with city and state officials.
That was after they heard that the plan to install a 70-foot-wide highway was not dead as they had believed.
The super road was conceived long before the new Western Freeway was constructed. Residents naturally assumed the project was dead when the interstate opened.
But, alas, somebody goofed. The project stayed alive, as government projects tend to do once they get on the books.
Residents were summoned to an ``information'' meeting by the state highway folks who told them about the proposed swath of tar and concrete that would reach almost to their front doors.
Their subsequent protests brought assurances from the city that the road would not be built.
However, the state apparently never got the message from the city.
Months later, John Curran looked out his window and saw a power company worker planting little red flags in his yard, a few feet from his house.
Again, residents were told by the state that the big road was coming. In addition, the city was going to put in underground utilities outside the right of way, which would destroy trees and forbid replanting in any of the yards along the tree-lined street.
By that time, the citizens were getting two stories: yes, it would be built, and no, it wouldn't.
In September 1994, they again were assured the road would be cut down to fit the existing right of way already owned by the state.
The residents agreed to forego sidewalks to make it possible to keep construction within the available space.
Over the past year, the residents have been somewhat skeptical that all was going as they had been told.
After all, the mayor and other city officials had told them a long time ago that the super road was canceled. Yet, the state kept on planning it.
However, last week I went out to a meeting of the residents with both city and state officials who promised that the street will stay within the existing boundaries - two lanes with a turn lane at major intersections.
The citizens have been working to get to this point for two years or so. They have met and met again - among themselves to reach consensus and then with officials to reach compromises.
It has been a long, uneasy time for the residents because of their experiences with city hall.
But they never gave up, and that is the important thing about their story.
They realized that to reach the compromises, they had to do more than complain. They had to do their homework and present viable alternatives to the city and state.
They were logical, and they made sense. They kept their cool and systematically won at each step of the way.
They proved that you can fight city hall - and do it constructively.
The moral of the Cedar Lane saga is simple: Know what you're talking about and say it as many times as need be to the right people. by CNB