THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290184
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
People are down on what they ain't up on.
- Will Rogers
Portsmouth often gets a bum rap from people who don't have any notion of what is going on around here.
Some of the worst critics are people who have lived right in town for many years or people who have lived here and who moved elsewhere in Hampton Roads. When they talk, it's obvious they haven't bothered to check out what they're saying.
A five-year communications plan presented last week by Ken Wheeler, the city's director of marketing and communications, would aim directly at these people. Wheeler wants to increase community pride and ``positive identification with their home city'' among the residents of Portsmouth.
He plans a number of activities including a citizen survey and the use of focus groups to get feedback from the people. In addition, he expects to begin publication in June of a newsletter that will be sent to a list of community leaders who may then pass on the information to their neighbors and to organizations.
The emphasis on communications with citizens is a healthy and much needed function of Wheeler's office. As he told city officials, citizens need to know exactly what is going on and they need to have two-way communication with the city.
A few people around city hall are very good with frustrated citizens, but those who don't happen to call the right number often do not get a very good impression of the city. And sometimes it's the little irritations that set good citizens on negative paths.
Wheeler suggested training city people to deal with the public and impressing upon them that citizens who ask questions deserve honest and informative answers.
In addition, many good things the city does never get reported in this newspaper or any place else and very often that is because the city in the recent past has been lax about getting out the word.
Wheeler's plan is ambitious but it falls within the existing budget of his department, an important factor right here at budget crunch time. He plans to get started immediately.
If Portsmouth people catch up with what's going on, maybe they'll begin to see the city's many positive attributes. by CNB