THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603220194
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Remember how our doting parents used to brag that we children had growing pains?
Most often, it seemed, they linked the discomfort to a newfound challenge - perhaps a school topic that we didn't seem quite able to master. We'd get there, they knew; it just might take a little more struggling.
I hadn't thought a lot about the expression recently, so I was a little surprised to learn that there is indeed such a condition - defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as ``recurrent pains in the joints and muscles, especially of the legs, of growing children.''
What did not surprise me, though, was the second definition: ``Difficulties experienced in the early development of a person, project etc.'' Everyone of us, I'd bet, has known just difficulties firsthand.
Growing pains kept popping into my mind on two recent nights, when The Virginian-Pilot hosted community conversations to help identify issues most concerning residents as they prepare to vote in May's School Board and City Council elections.
There were two sessions, composed of diverse people from throughout Suffolk, yet it soon enough became clear that growing pains are afflicting us. Even clearer, unfortunately, is this: The pain is going to intensify.
There are some longstanding issues that just won't go away: homes that lack such basic city services as water and sewerage, roads that remain unpaved and poorly drained by ditches that harbor snakes and mosquitoes, inadequate recreational opportunities.
And perhaps most obvious, lingering alienation from City Hall - a feeling that the spotlight has been beamed too quickly on the northern end of the city, the area to which professional economists and amateur prognosticators turn as they envision the Suffolk of the future.
There are new issues as well: houses squeezed as closely together as the law allows - even in a city of Suffolk's immensity; shabby construction that makes residents wonder if we're just erecting the next slums; city services being provided to newly developed areas while people who've paid their taxes through the years just wait.
After a particularly provocative conference several years ago, a fellow participant came up to me and asked, in a hushed tone, ``What are you going to do?'' And as if he thought the question might not have had impact enough, he added, ``It's not going to be easy.''
He could as well have been talking to the community conversationalists. The question they and all of us who live in Suffolk must grapple with is, ``What are you going to do?''
As a starter, we must do as our visitors and get involved. They've not just sat around their homes and offices and bemoaned the state of things. They're active in their neighborhoods, their churches and in larger organizations.
Some of them go to City Council meetings, often publicly advancing the agendas of their neighborhoods, public schools or police protection. Yes, some admit, it gets tiresome - and some city officials probably find their routine appearances tiring. But they care about the way things are going, and they're going to have their say-so.
With Suffolk on the verge of growth unlike at any point in its history, it's particularly important that citizens get involved now and help define what form the growth will take.
As a beginning, register by April 8, and vote on May 7.
Do your homework. Listen to the candidates. Ask questions.
The people we elect will help shape the city's future. This new era of growth isn't going to be easy. But good leaders can make it tolerable, at least. MEMO: Comment? Write to the editor or call 934-7553. by CNB