
DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709260749

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   66 lines

NORFOLK USES TAKE-OFF OF MONOPOLY TO TEACH ABOUT ISSUES CITY FACES

On Saturday, the city's economy will be ruled by a roll of the dice. And the shots will be called by ordinary citizens, civic activists and business leaders.

It's all a game, actually, called Norfolk-opoly.

But city officials hope a morning workshop built around the board game Monopoly will provide a fun and educational way to drive home a serious message: Creating a sound economic climate is a balancing act of competing interests and requires tough choices.

Workshop participants, who will represent city government, business, institutions and citizens, will advance around a Norfolk-opoly board and confront economic situations that city officials grapple with daily: neighborhood demands vs. resistance to higher taxes, for instance, or school funding vs. investing in downtown development.

Officials hope the three-hour workshop will bring together citizens and business leaders to share priorities and concerns surrounding the city's economy and budget decisions faced by the City Council.

The workshop grew out of a 1996 ``Neighbors All'' gathering to discuss community concerns, will be held at Lafayette Winona Middle School from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Anyone may attend.

``People want more involvement, more information about the effect of economic development on the city,'' said City Councilman G. Conoly Phillips, who helped plan the workshop. ``We want to try to bring the business and the civic community together to work as partners. They'll be able to get in on the issues and help us come up with solutions.''

Ernie Franklin, marketing manager for the city's Department of Development, said officials hope to give residents a better sense of the city's overall economic climate ``and how the city is going about generating the revenue and jobs it needs.''

An example of one of the tough issues facing Norfolk involves salaries, Franklin said. Jobs in Norfolk generate the highest average pay in the region, yet city residents have the lowest per capita and median income. That's because more than half of the jobs, particularly executive level positions, are held by workers who live in other cities.

``That's a contradiction we need to work on,'' Franklin said. City officials now are focusing on ways to provide more upscale housing to attract higher-income residents.

Participants will receive Norfolk-opoly game cards that will draw connections between the demand for services and the sources of revenue the city taps to pay for them, such as personal and real property taxes and by pursuing economic development.

For example, one card shows that the Norfolk Industrial Park, a 375-acre manufacturing district established in 1957, generates about $3.6 million in annual revenue for the city and employs more than 7,000 workers. Another reveals that the Norfolk Waterside Marriott generates about $1.4 million in tax revenue for the city. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

City officials want to use Monopoly - dubbed Norfolk-opoly - to

teach citizens that a city faces tough choices in creating a sound

economic climate - and to bring business and civic communities

together as partners.

Graphic

DETAILS

Norfolk-opoly, a workshop for city residents and business

leaders, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at Lafayette

Winona Middle School, at 1701 Alsace Ave., off Tidewater Drive.