DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: Patrick Lackey

                                            LENGTH:  114 lines

REGIONALISM HAMPTON ROADS NEEDS NAME; HAMPTON ROADS WILL DO

The debate over what to call this region, once thought settled, has resumed.

Three hard facts of life spring to mind.

1. This region needs a name if it is to be marketed to the rest of the nation and the world. We can hardly cooperate to lure tourists, industrialists and other moneyed people here if ``here'' has no name.

2. Virginia Beach, by virtue of its size and readiness to go it alone, has veto power in choosing a regional name.

3. The name Hampton Roads has been acceptable to Virginia Beach and other localities in the region for many years.

To say the least, the regional name Greater Norfolk is unacceptable to Virginia Beach. Its city leaders could not pronounce the words without coughing and spitting and feeling faint.

The regional names Greater Virginia Beach or Greatest Virginia Beach or Virginia Beach/Norfolk presumably would be acceptable to Virginia Beach. The name Norfolk/ Virginia Beach might be.

But those names leave out the Peninsula, whose cooperation also is required in any truly regional effort. So should we be Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News?

By that point, the situation is ridiculous. It would be as though Addams-Lazinski married Griffanni-Jockster and they both took the last name Addams-Lazinski-Griffanni-Jockster. By the time they were introduced to everybody at a party, it would be over.

How much punch would a TV commercial have if it said, ``You all come, now, to Virginia Beach slash Norfolk slash Newport News''?

The debate over what to call this region got kicked into gear last month by respected Norfolk marketer Dan Ballard, when his article, ``To Be Or Not To Be Hampton Roads,'' was published in the weekly entertainment publication Port Folio, which is seeking meatier subjects.

Arguing for dumping the name Hampton Roads, Ballard wrote, ``There are no official references to Hampton Roads in the world's data banks. Don't bother to look in the World Atlas or in the United States Census Bureau of Metropolitan Areas or in any official list of major American markets - we are not there. Don't even look for a naval base called Hampton Roads, because this is still Norfolk to the Navy.''

To sum up his message: Hampton Roads isn't even on the map.

The current issue of Port Folio contains James F. Babcock's counter-argument for retaining the name Hampton Roads.

Ironically, Babcock is chairman of the board and CEO of a bank with Tidewater in its name - First Virginia Bank of Tidewater. But he also is chairman of the Hampton Roads Partnership's Regional Identity Task Force, which is pushing wider acceptance of the name Hampton Roads.

Babcock doesn't want to start renaming the region just when the name Hampton Roads is making headway - and beginning to appear on maps.

The brand new AAA Tour Book for Mid-Atlantic States lists attractions and facilities for this region under the heading Hampton Roads. In all, 105 pages have that heading, with sub-listings for individual cities. The AAA road map for the Mid-Atlantic region also shows Hampton Roads. And why did AAA use the name Hampton Roads for the first time? Because Babcock called an AAA editor and asked. He has begun calling other map makers, as well. Only in recent years has the official Virginia map shown Hampton Roads.

The Navy recently created the Mid-Atlantic Command, Hampton Roads. A political push is on to name a ship the USS Hampton Roads.

Regional organizations here mainly are named Hampton Roads, as in the Hampton Roads Partnership, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance and the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

Greg Stillman, chairman of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, asked a pertinent question in a Port Folio round-table discussion. Noting the success of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, which has financial support from all five South Hampton Roads cities, he asked, ``Do you believe that we would have ever had that kind of agreement if we had called it the Greater Norfolk Economic Development Alliance? It wouldn't have happened.'' He's right.

More good news for supporters of the name Hampton Roads:

The interstate loop here has been named the Hampton Roads Beltway, thanks to the efforts of the Regional Identity Task Force, following the suggestion of state Sen. Frederick M. Quayle of Chesapeake. Individual city signs now contain the words ``A Hampton Roads Community.''

The name Hampton Roads is not more widely known, Babcock said in an interview, because it has never been marketed. Individual cities have marketed themselves individually. Norfolk launched a successful regional tourism campaign but referred to the region as The Virginia Waterfront, not as Hampton Roads.

The need for a regional name was not fully appreciated, Babcock said, before threatened base closings in 1993 terrorized local political and business leaders. They cooperated as though the region's economic life depended on it, which it did.

Now there is general agreement that the region must market itself and needs a name to do it.

Locally, Babcock said, there is widespread acceptance of the name Hampton Roads among business and political leaders. He mentioned three recent meetings of regionalism groups at which support for that name was nearly unanimous.

He regrets that the name debate was resumed because, by the nature of debates, the side favoring abandonment of decades of support for the name Hampton Roads gets as much attention as the side favoring retaining the name.

Some people have blamed this region's failure to land a National Hockey League team on the fact the term Hampton Roads had to be explained to NHL officials. But, as Babcock noted, the term Greater Norfolk also would have had to be explained.

Hampton Roads should not return to square one and begin anew searching for a name for itself. Hampton Roads needs to go forward. At a time when economic regions, not individual cities, compete for companies with the best-paying jobs, much is at stake. If an economic region can't agree on a name to call itself, it won't even be in the game.

Imagine if Babcock had to call the AAA editor and say, ``Never mind what I said about this region being Hampton Roads. Our new name is. . . .'' We'd look like fools.

Speaking of fools, one thing we might try as a publicity stunt: Rename the region after an unpronounceable mathematical symbol. Then we'd be the metropolitan region formerly known as Hampton Roads. MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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