Taking Hampton Roads to that Next Level

A number of ideas are typically passed around when it comes to discussion about how Hampton Roads can improve. Consolidate the seven cities into one town; after all, Hampton Roads should be the largest city in Virginia by default. Bring professional sporting events to the area and build arenas. Diversify the economy and bring different types of jobs to the area.

All of those ideas sound good on paper, but none of them truly address what ails Hampton Roads. Lets look at the first idea about consolidating the seven cities into one city. People love to talk about New York, well let us look at New York for a minute. Each of the five boroughs lies within its own county, which speaks to the massive size of New York City. Manhattan is what people think about when they think of New York, and rightfully so, because initially, New York was Manhattan. Manhattan is also the "downtown" of New York City, but it is neither in the middle of the city, nor the most populous borough.

Both Brooklyn and Queens have more people than Manhattan. Physically, Brooklyn is 3 and one half the times of Manhattan, and Queens is over five times the size of Manhattan. The way that this would play out in Hampton Roads, is that Norfolk would essentially become the Manhattan of this region, with Chesapeake and Virginia Beach becoming the Queens and Brooklyn of the region. That all sounds good on paper, but in reality, it does nothing to boost the reputation of either city, which may be better off on their own without consolidation.

The only thing this accomplished in New York City, is that the surrounding counties were no longer rural, and as individuals moved into the outer boroughs those areas were forced to become urban over the following few decades. Hampton Roads has already accomplished this to the extent in which it is sustainable; pundits that would love to see unsustainable high-rise development, without additional jobs, without work that sustain such high rents for that type of development, without the culture that comes along with high-rise development, are just preaching to the choir. When people move into this region the area will become more urban, and less suburban, but if no one is moving into the area, there is no reason for this to occur.

Brooklyn was an independent city until 1898, when it was absorbed into New York (which at the time was just Manhattan). It still maintains its own downtown. The other three boroughs were not cities. What could easily happen with consolidation, is that some of the cities consolidate and some do not. The other boroughs were just "suburban" areas, but they were not large enough to be their own city. Think of what would happen if incredibly small areas like Gloucester or Franklin, or Isle of Wight, existing within their own counties were suddenly shifted into a large city as their respective counties are absorbed into a city that spreads across five counties. That is the easiest way to explain what happened then. This grandiose idea that all seven cities would just merge together may never play out. Although it is interesting, and would certainly set a precedent (seven boroughs instead of five, if indeed the areas would become boroughs) there is no guarantee of success. What is more likely, and more feasible, is that cities that are already working together explore the idea of consolidation and work out those details. In other words, Hampton Roads may never become one single city, but fewer cities, say three, four, or even five, is more likely.

What about professional sports, in Hampton Roads? Each city needs to explore this option on its own. Norfolk and Virginia Beach seem to be the natural choice for a professional sports franchise, but one never knows, a city like Chesapeake, that still has the land, and fewer diversions for a sports franchise to compete with, could have one before Norfolk and Virginia Beach would. Norfolk would have to find the land, although personally I think that land still exists downtown. Virginia Beach citizens would get into a never ending argument over whether or not the arena exists at the Oceanfront, Pembroke, or some other, undiscovered neighborhood in the city. Cities like Portsmouth and Newport News could never present a compelling argument to bring a franchise here.

Professional sports is not an answer in and of itself though. There are plenty of cities that have professional sports franchises, that are dumps, that still remain undesirable to this day. Cleveland, St. Louis and Detroit come to mind. Professional sports has done little, if anything, for the reputations of those cities. In fact, there are a lot of things that these cities have going on for them; lots of museums and a vibrant arts scene, a serious underground music scene, high-rises, most of what you associate with a large city, that are easily ignored because these cities are just not great place to live. These cities are great for those with means to enjoy the best that their respective downtown have to offer, but traps for those without means struggling to live.

Other cities, like Washington D.C., have professional sports franchises that simply are not that good. Professional sports is not going to do anything for Hampton Roads but give us one more thing to talk about. The last solution that is often presented, is that of diversification. That is an answer to the reputation of Hampton Roads, that the free market has to take into its own hands. If you leave it up to the respective city governments of the seven cities, diversification will never take place. If you want to do something different, you have to do it on its own. The governments are good for getting involved in things like tourism, or persuading the military to stay here, but the only jobs they seem to be able to get here are those that involve working in a call center.

There are other things in Hampton Roads. We have the performing arts; we may not have 40 theatres on Broadway, a single street in a single neighborhood in a single borough, but there are a handful in each city. There are fashion designers in Hampton Roads, recording artists, recording studios. There is someone, somewhere, doing anything that you could possibly think of in this area. No one seems to be doing it in a major way, but are they to blame, or are the city governments to blame? The government should not be involved behind the scenes in directing the evolution of the culture of a metropolitan area. If you want something different, you have to work with other people to make that dream a reality. If enough people are doing it, the cities will inevitably have to recognize the changing social fabric of the community. There are just too many people doing too many different things, with different dreams, and with different ideas, and it is a lot easier to chase those dreams somewhere else; if indeed you can break yourself away from the seven cities.

No one solution is going to change Hampton Roads. The governments can create new authorities and work to address the transportation issues this region has, and they can work to bring more jobs to the area but they are helpless to bring about the type of change that people really want. The region will continue to be seven distinct cities; if you want consolidation, create an environment in which one city is light years away from the rest, as was the case in New York City, and then create a compelling argument. There is no reason to think that consolidation would exist here, as each city has its own problems, and no one wants to bring the demons of the next city onto their own land. Cities like Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have enough land to house millions of people, but to be honest, housing millions of people in high rises will not address the fundamental perception issues that people have of this region, and it will not solve any problems. Plus this can happen on its own over time, but only when the individual cities are attractive enough to outsiders to move in. Until then, change is just a nice dream I do not want to wake up from.