THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: KEITH MONROE
LENGTH: 70 lines
One of the more curious facts of life in Hampton Roads is the apparent inferiority complex suffered by many who call Virginia Beach home. Not long into discussion with otherwise rational Beach-ites you suddenly discover they feel denigrated and dismissed, dissed and demeaned by Norfolk.
It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to guess at the roots of this attitude. Water has something to do with it, of course. And the rapid growth of the Beach. Just 30 years ago, Norfolk was the big city and the Beach was just that - beach. But times have changed. It would take a Sigmund Freud to figure out why Beach attitudes have lagged behind reality.
In part, it's a generational thing. Newcomers to the Beach don't know enough to feel bad about the place or angry at Norfolk or defensive. Oldtimers roundly deny they've got an inferiority complex. They claim Norfolk has a superiority complex, that it's always looking down its nose at the upstart Beach as a nouveau riche suburb with no history, no class, no water. And they get angry all over again.
While the paternalistic (and anachronistic) attitudes of Old Norfolk can be annoying, it is folly for Beach partisans to let it get under their skin. Yet some keep nursing grudges and worrying about not being taken seriously. You'd think they'd lost some psychic duel of the cities. It's hard not to be reminded of the attitude of those Southerners still passionate about the Civil War 131 years after it ended. For them The Late Unpleasantness remains a fresh wound, a living memory, a constant source of injured pride. Whereas for most Northerners it's a footnote in an antique text.
But this analogy makes no sense because, unlike the South, Virginia Beach did not wind up on the losing end of the contest. It won, but refuses to take yes for an answer. Though once in an inferior position, the Beach is now the big dog among Hampton Roads cities. Oddly, it often seems to still think of itself as the runt of the litter.
Why? The Beach covers five times the territory of Norfolk and has got double the population. It's got very nearly double the retail sales, about $4 billion to Norfolk's $2 billion. The Beach has a higher percentage of home ownership - 68 percent to Norfolk's 54 percent. And its median-household income is 27 percent higher than Norfolk's. Even after all the Beach schools have been through, their test scores are among the best in the region.
Oh sure, you say, but Norfolk has the opera house and the art museum and Nauticus. But the Beach has the amphitheater and its own art center and the Marine Science Museum. If the contest is between Tosca and James Taylor, between old masters and old mollusks, the beach is on the side of popular culture - never a bad place to be in the U.S. of A.
It's true that Norfolk has got a downtown with tall glass buildings and the Beach doesn't. But most of the world's great buildings are low to the ground, from the Parthenon to the Taj Mahal to the White House. It looks a lot like the Beach ought to declare victory and live happily ever after.
The wearying home-grown competition doesn't reflect the mental landscape of most who live and work here. Most residents pay little attention to borders and hardly ever make us-and-them distinctions. Most feel happy to live in a region with the Beach and the harbor, opera and amphitheater, surf on one end and the Tides on the other, a diversity of pleasures, amenities and opportunities.
In truth, the future of the region depends on all Hampton Roads cities getting beyond invidious comparisons within the region and intercity rivalries. These habits of mind get in the way of progress. The more the region worries about who's winning the local competition, the farther behind the region is likely to fall in the competition that really matters - the fight to attract new employers, sports franchises, investments and talented residents. Our real competitors are in Charlotte and Myrtle, Richmond and Raleigh. It's time to get over the rivalry with each other and start winning the contest with them. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB