THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603190069
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
It doesn't take long to understand why Fred G. Bashara is running for City Council. As passionately as he feels about Norfolk, it was only a matter of time.
``I think there is a vision of Hampton Roads, and I don't share it, that Norfolk will be the industrial and commercial center, without any people living here,'' Bashara, 58, said as snow drifted down on an inlet of the Lafayette River behind his home. A cat named Jerry Garcia tapped on the door to come in.
Bashara said, ``I think the city government, in its efforts to stimulate commerce, has disconnected from the people.''
Some of the evidence Bashara sees includes: allowing coal dust to drift over houses on the west side of Norfolk; excessive truck traffic that's allowed to move through residential neighborhoods; and the planning of a ``fortress-like'' mall, MacArthur Center, in downtown that won't benefit small businesses.
Of MacArthur Center, which is likely to be a hot topic of the council campaigns, Bashara said, ``I understand that if you have something that produces millions of dollars every year, you have a revenue stream you can do other things with. I understand that. But if you've built this fortress in the middle of downtown, and there's nothing around it, what have you really done?''
Bashara is likely to be a scrappy campaigner against incumbent Mason C. Andrews in Superward 6. The grandson of Lebanese immigrants, Bashara's family was known as the ``Fighting Basharas'' for many years. His father, Fred G. ``Tootsie'' Bashara, was an accomplished welterweight boxer in the 1930s.
In the process, his family instilled a deep love for Norfolk in this Bashara. He has lived in many parts of the city, from Ocean View to Ghent, and presently lives in Larchmont with his wife, Jane, and two cats. He has two grown daughters from a previous marriage.
An insurance agent with Metropolitan Life for 30 years, Bashara earned his business degree from Old Dominion University.
He has a ``Norfolk-first'' philosophy not unlike the views of Dan Ballard, a former advertising executive who spearheaded a campaign to advertise Norfolk and the entire region in Northeastern cities.
Like Ballard, Bashara thinks ``Hampton Roads'' is a poor name for the region. He has argued for several years that Norfolk should promote its name and let the suburbs be suburbs.
``We do ourselves a great disservice,'' Bashara said. ``We've got a 400-year-old name. We've got lots of history.''
For instance, Bashara has proposed that, instead of putting MacArthur Center on the 17 vacant acres downtown, Norfolk take more of a Colonial Williamsburg route by re-creating the heyday of 1800s Norfolk with mixed shops and homes.
He thinks that would more naturally integrate into downtown, produce more spin-off business and build on the area's 18th- and 19th-century historical resources - St. Paul's Church, Freemason Baptist Church, the Moses Myers and Willoughby Baylor houses, and the MacArthur Memorial, originally a public building erected in 1850.
``Malls are boring, actually, and of interest mainly to the bored,'' Bashara said in a letter outlining his idea published last fall in The Virginian-Pilot. He said that after the letter ran, he had an enthusiastic response from people he never had met.
He attributes the mall idea to a ``siege mentality'' in Norfolk city government.
``Somewhere along the line, the attention to the neighborhoods stopped,'' he said. ``What I see everywhere I turn is these attacks on established neighborhoods.''
For several years Bashara has been fighting the increase of truck traffic on Hampton Boulevard. He can track precisely the routes trucks take and says city traffic planners could set up different routes that would keep the trucks out of neighborhoods.
But he said the city doesn't do that because it is catering to the port businesses and other large companies that use trucks, at the expense of neighborhoods.
``I'm sure we get something from the port,'' Bashara said. ``It is economic activity. But it should be balanced with residents' needs.''
The effect of the city ignoring those needs, Bashara believes, has been to run people out of the city. He thinks city policies should concentrate more on bringing home-buyers back to Norfolk.
``I just don't want to be the last taxpayer in Norfolk,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
Photo
FRED G. BASHARA
Office sought: City Council seat, Superward 6.
Occupation: Insurance agent, Metropolitan Insurance.
Age: 58.
Education: Business degree, Old Dominion University.
Community service: Member, Larchmont Civic League. Member,
Norfolk Transportation Committee. Norfolk Ambassador. Served on
Norfolk Community Services Board. Past president, Willoughby Civic
League. Past member, Ocean View Kiwanis Club.
SUPERWARD 6
The candidates:
Mason C. Andrews
Fred G. Bashara
Charles D. Grant
E. Toles Summers
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCILMANIC RACE CANDIDATE
SUPERWARD 6 by CNB