DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997                TAG: 9704180016

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: BY ED SLOAN 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

HOW'S BACKWATER, VA., AS A NAME?

Before moving to Virginia Beach 20 years ago, I lived in Greensboro, N.C., and worked for a small branch of a very large manufacturing company. Because our operation was a gem of innovation and made a lot of money, we had frequent corporate visitors. Most of our other plants were around large metro areas, and some people were interested in bailing out of those high tax, high crime, poor-quality-of-life places.

When the inevitable query came, ``What's it like to live in Greensboro?'' we locals had a ready answer: ``It's a real backwater,'' we'd say while taking them to greasy- spoon barbeque joints and driving them through the trashy parts of town.

We considered our responses to be little white lies. Greensboro was a wonderful place to live and work. More white collar than blue collar, nicely cultural, a beautiful, laid-back, well-managed city. And we didn't want a big influx of new people to begin to convert it into another large metro area. And the barbeque was real good.

When I moved to Virginia Beach I learned what ``backwater'' really meant, though the area was called Tidewater. The whole metro area seemed behind most of the rest of the East Coast in business, educational institutions, cultural institutions and you-name-it. There were farmers on the Virginia Beach council, for goodness' sake.

An unspoiled paradise. An ocean, waterways, rivers running through the middle of nice little cities and green, green, green everywhere.

So you can see that I don't get it with this ``regionalism.'' And to judge by the intense lack of interest by most of the leaders of the various cities, I don't think they get it either.

Being part of the business community myself, I do understand the wingtip mentality that bigger is better. But being a backwater, as we still are here, some people haven't gotten the idea of ``Small is Beautiful.'' Behind the trend to downsizing is the increasing understanding that bigger is harder to manage and leads to loss of control and to associated higher costs and failures. Los Angeles was once a paradise, too.

Well, sure, some people know this and just don't care. They want bigger for the sake of ego and power and more money than they can spend. ``He who dies with the most toys, wins,'' is always going to be with us. But do we want outdated ideas and greed to lead? I think the lack of support for an umbrella agency by our legislators and the lack of enthusiasm for unity in the form of super-executives on the part of citizens in general answers that this sort of thinking isn't timely, isn't forward-thinking and isn't wanted.

Sometimes when people don't follow the drummer it's because they instinctively know that they don't want to go where the drummer is going. And some folks have reasons of their own for not wanting ``regionalism'' but don't want to say them for fear of ridicule. Who could blame a local politico or city officeholder for being less than straightforward, given the vilification sometimes directed at those who don't get on the ``team''?

It is reported that there is a subcommittee of Hampton Roads legislators to be appointed out of Richmond to study ways our cities can work together. Well and good. Perhaps this group could step beyond the single-minded approach of appointing umbrella agencies, super groups, super executives and all that and cast a wider net for ideas and approaches.

Here, for instance, is one idea. Go in exactly the opposite direction of the ``super.'' Encourage each city, large and small, to go its own way; work with its strengths; work to create the best schools, the best environment, the best city government and so forth; compete with each other in good-natured and honest ways, without resorting to low means; celebrate with each other when someone lands a desirable fish, be it a business or sports team or a couple planning to retire.

This line of thinking proposes that we cooperate with each other in the sense that unity means harmony as well as oneness; that as we build small, clean, well-managed units within greater Hampton Roads, we will attract the kinds of citizens that appreciate a high quality of life instead of those who intend to pollute our waters and our minds.

There are other ideas out there, surely. It seems an opportune time to explore them, to get off a single discordant idea that clearly isn't working. MEMO: Ed Sloan, of Virginia Beach, has business interests in Virginia

Beach and Newport News. KEYWORDS: ANOTHER VIEW

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