THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SERIES: Part Two
LENGTH: 86 lines
So many things are right in Hampton Roads that it seems amazing so many things are wrong.
Our harbor and ports are peerless. Our beaches draw tourists by the hundreds of thousands. The work ethic of the local work force is highly regarded elsewhere. Taxes are low and government is honest, while Gov. George F. Allen rightly proclaims, ``Virginia is open for business.''
Hampton Roads offers many amenities including parks, museums, a zoo and an opera company. Military people who have tasted many cities choose to retire here.
``We have more scientists and engineers than anyplace else in the United States except for the Silicon Valley,'' says James F. Babcock, chairman and CEO of First Virginia Bank of Tidewater and tireless cheerleader for regional development.
So if things are so good, why have our wages slipped from a low 95 percent of the national average a decade ago to an abysmal 88 percent today, with the slippage continuing? Why are economic regions with fewer natural advantages, like Nashville and snowy Buffalo, of all places, eating our lunch?
The short answer is that we haven't grown good jobs here. We are not used to having to. For decades the region complacently depended on federal jobs and tourist dollars.
The region hasn't attracted many good-paying jobs, either. With 25 percent of the state's population, Hampton Roads got only 10 percent of the new manufacturing jobs in the state last year. If Gateway 2000 had gone elsewhere, Hampton Roads would have gained a scant 3 percent of the manufacturing jobs last year.
``We got soft,'' said Art Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission and a regional planner here for 26 years.
Remember when everybody said Hampton Roads was recession proof, because federal money continued to pour in when the private-sector economy turned sour? Then, Hampton Roads was on easy street. Every military payday bathed the region in money and our big problem was coping with growth.
No great regional effort was required, which was good, because Hampton Roads cities competed against each other. Even at this late date, instead of cooperating to attract business to the region, the cities continue to attempt to steal employers from each other - a classic zero-sum game.
Until the second half of the '80s, Hampton Roads did not need to be entrepreneurial. And it wasn't. And it still isn't.
``We're not a risk-taking culture,'' Collins said.
Around the country, new Fortune 500 companies are created by entrepreneurs and investors taking risks - but so far, not here, despite many advantages. The wildly successful Family Channel is a local success story. More of that kind of initiative is required.
The Eastern Virginia Medical School is also homegrown. But in other cities, complexes like EVMS have spawned dozens of private biomedical start-ups. So far, not here.
Babcock, co-chairman of the visionary Plan 2007 steering committee, warns of a brain drain. Graduates whose educations we pay for are leaving in droves in search of work. And technological discoveries at area universities and federal facilities like NASA's Langley Research Center are being profitably put to use elsewhere. We're a way station for the best minds and the best new information.
All that has to stop. We cannot afford for home-grown smart people and good ideas to move on. Too much of our investment in education is lost.
If we were creating good jobs, so Hampton Roads wages matched the national average, total annual personal income, currently about $30 billion, would be $3 billion higher, Collins said. That amount would pay for a lot of new cars and refrigerators and nice homes and would lead to even greater growth. It would mean more support for amenities that matter, like the Chrysler Museum of Art and the zoo. ``Economic development,'' Babcock said, ``is very fundamental to quality of life.''
By nearly all accounts, the best hope for our future prosperity is the recently formed Hampton Roads Partnership, the only regional group whose membership encompasses the military, business, education, civic and political communities.
It is focused, as it must be, on job creation, as staff writer Mylene Mangalindan noted in an article Thursday.
Much already is being done to support entrepreneurs, but obviously not nearly enough. The region needs a whole new spirit - one both adventurous and cooperative. Collins says we need to ask ourselves more often what kind of community we are creating for our children and grandchildren.
``We are not some village out in the mountains,'' Babcock said. ``We are a sleeping giant.''
On the other hand, as Babcock well knows, if we continue to be a giant with many heads, we'll never find the focus required to achieve prosperity, even if we completely wake up. by CNB