Hampton Roads Off-Topic Talk

[Willy18]

Inside Business has two articles about "The Richmond - Hampton Roads Megaregion"....which I find very laughable. We can't even work together as a metro...how the hell do we work with another metro and create a "Megametro"? Let's start with cities that border each other before we partner with our neighbors 2 hours away. 

[BFG]

I think this is gonna happen, but we definitely need to create a unified regional government first. If this happens, the first thing on the table should be a high-speed rail that goes from downtown Norfolk to Richmond.

As for locally, I think the ship has sailed on having one city, due to the inability to decide what to call it. Something similar to Long Island makes sense, if we became a county (Hampton Roads County? Tidewater County?) as opposed to one city. There, you would still have an elected mayor and a larger council of 30-40 members. That way, the seven cities could still maintain a bit of independence, but work closer together. We would have no choice.

Become one county or city first, then revisit the HR-RVA discussion in another five years.

[BFG]

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/economic-development/article_df17f3c0-fa15-11e8-9843-4f5fc386119e.html

HR Chamber of Commerce plans to focus on "rebranding". Again. If this rebranding only turns out to be another vague name change, and doesn't actually address the idea of collaboration, I'm not interested.

[HRVA]

5 hours ago, BFG said:

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/economic-development/article_df17f3c0-fa15-11e8-9843-4f5fc386119e.html

HR Chamber of Commerce plans to focus on "rebranding". Again. If this rebranding only turns out to be another vague name change, and doesn't actually address the idea of collaboration, I'm not interested.

I find this very surprising. I attended the tHRive event on regionalism mentioned on the previous page of this thread. Bryan Stephens opened the discussion and I recall him saying that the region should stick with the Hampton Roads brand and encourage everyone else to unify behind it. I even remember cringing when  VWU president Scott Miller immediately followed by calling the region Coastal Virginia. The region’s branding was a major topic of the discussion with at least two of the four panelists firmly against rebranding. I am curious as to what caused the complete 180 by Stephens & the Chamber. 

And the rest of the article is about the importantance of our area’s waterways to the regional economy. What better way to honor that significance than sticking with a brand inspired by our critically important harbor?

[BFG]

This is in St. Louis, but they’re looking into merging the city and county. Someone on our local councils need to see this. 

https://bit.ly/2Vungbj

[wrldcoupe4]

General Assembly needs to see it. 

[Mountain_Junior]

On 4/10/2018 at 3:46 AM, urbanlife said:

I am actually amazed Hampton Roads stuck, I remember when the area was just referred to as Tidewater when referring to the metro.

Little late to the post here, but I just found out recently that Tidewater is apparently defined in VA Code. See https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/62.1-44.15:68/ and http://www.virginiaplaces.org/chesbay/11chesa.html. Tidewater technically refers to a big section of eastern VA, all the way up to Fairfax. Apparently it is everything seaward of the "fall line", which is basically where the land rises from the coastal plains into the Piedmont.  Because of this rise, there are waterfalls in the rivers (i.e. creating the "fall line") and that means that the ocean's tides do not affect anything above that line, but the waters below that line are affected by tides, thus tidewater. It seems that maybe over time that moniker has been used largely (though not exclusively) by people in Hampton Roads to refer to their region.

[Mountain_Junior]

On 12/10/2018 at 6:02 PM, BFG said:

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/economic-development/article_df17f3c0-fa15-11e8-9843-4f5fc386119e.html

HR Chamber of Commerce plans to focus on "rebranding". Again. If this rebranding only turns out to be another vague name change, and doesn't actually address the idea of collaboration, I'm not interested.

The problem I think is not the brand itself but the thing being branded. On this topic, people often say that we need a name that calls to mind our strengths. This is why people like "Coastal Virginia". It evokes thoughts of the water and the beach. It's why for a while, people liked "America's First Region" as a tagline for us. It evokes the history. I think the problem is that we're chasing a flashy name when that's not where the focus should be. It's like if you are designing a car, you don't spend 50% of your time working on the name and 50% on the car itself. Otherwise, your car sucks, even if the name is great. You make sure the car is awesome first, then worry about the name as an important, but nevertheless secondary, consideration.

In this article on the name debate (http://www.coastalvirginiamag.com/March-April-2018/Hampton-Roads-vs-Coastal-Virginia-The-Debate-Over-Regional-Identity/) they quote people who think the names Tidewater and Hampton Roads are "nondescript" and lacking "clarity of meaning." But I would ask you what images or impressions come to mind why I mention the following:

Hollywood

Broadway

Manhattan

When I mention Hollywood, you probably picture the heart of the movie/tv industry, the hillside letters, studio lots, director's chairs. It's name means movie/tv industry. It has become the brand. Broadway evokes scenes of theater, singing, dancing, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Hamilton, whatever. Same for Manhattan and pictures of tall buildings and bustling city streets. None of those names have any direct association  or reference to those pictures in your head. Hollywood doesn't mean "movies." Manhattan doesn't mean "tall buildings." It's because in popular art, songs, movies and other media, they have been put together time and again, because they were significant enough to be talked about.  

We are significant here and have all the offerings that people want. The problem is that cities refuse to work together on marketing all their assets and advantages jointly, so the effect is diluted. To quote from this article (https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp950430/04290232.htm):

Lack of money behind focused marketing efforts has prevented widespread national recognition from developing in Hampton Roads, said Greg Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a joint public-private economic development agency. Wingfield resigned from Forward Hampton Roads, the economic development arm of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce which he headed, last year out of frustration over the lack of progress made in regionalism. Only Forward Hampton Roads funds active marketing of the name when it tries to “sell” the region. Its budget - $500,000 - is a fraction of that of other cities half the size or population of Hampton Roads. Through the Greater Richmond Partnership, Richmond commands a $2.4 million war chest, which helped land Motorola's new semiconductor plant in Goochland County. Even the Roanoke Regional Economic Development Partnership has a $600,000 budget for a region one-sixth the size of Hampton Roads. “Why don't we do this?” asked Michael Barrett, a former chairman of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. “Parochialism.” “You keep going back to the fact that some leaders, particularly political leaders, want to keep us parochial, and consequently we suffer as a region,” Barrett said.

In short, we're trying to put the cart before the horse. I'm a supporter of consolidation and this is one reason why. You could market the region by saying "Want beaches, dining, nightlife, shopping, history, outdoor activities, museums, performing arts, theme parks, agritourism, and major league sports? Then visit Colonial Coast, Virginia! All that’s missing is you!" or something like that. (And pick whatever name you want to put in there instead of Colonial Coast - no one agree with anyone else anyways) Right now it's more like "come to VB for beaches, dining, and shopping! And come to Portsmouth for history and a beautiful waterfront. And also come visit Hampton, it has a waterfront too, and shopping, and nightlife. And come to Norfolk, it has performing arts, nightli- hello? hello? I think they hung up." 

My point is that we have all the great stuff here already, but even if the Chamber of Commerce or whoever comes up with the best, catchiest, most-descriptive brand out there, it's not going to be worth the paper it's written on if the region's cities continue to want to go it alone. And hindsight unfortunately shows us that that's almost certainly what they will do, so long as political borders divide us that give politicians an incentive to care about their locality alone.
 

[BFG]

Well said, and I agree 100%. It's baffling to me that they focus so much on a nickname, when the branding efforts are still what you described: "Visit Norfolk" or "Visit Virginia Beach". I don't think either city offers enough to stand alone, and this area would benefit so much more if folks realized you can catch a show in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, and see the coastline in both cities, as well as in Hampton.

We have a lot to offer, and could do so much more with a regional branding effort. The nickname is not going to bring people here.

[Norfolk757Kid]

Found this haha: 

 

[Willy18]

Haha, great find...99% never gonna happen in our life times. If it every did though it should be called "Norfolk"...period. Though everyone in the crystal city of Va. Beach would have a kittens. 

[Urbanlooker]

Virginia Business has an article from a few days ago about a bunch of companies expanding and their developments going on in the cities of HR.

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/regions/article/a-sense-of-momentum

Edited March 8, 2019 by Urbanlooker

[BFG]

Quote

Additionally, Tegra Global invested $4 million in an expansion expected to create 300 jobs, and a 20-story, $80 million downtown office tower being built by HL Development is scheduled to open in 2020.

Is this Gateway Tower? Unless they mean late-2020, I can't imagine that opening next year.

Looks like Tegra is a clothing company, dealing with the manufacturing and distribution side. I'm guessing the port comes into play there.

http://www.tegraglobal.com/

Edited March 8, 2019 by BFG

[HRVA]

HL Development is Harvey Lindsay so it is the Gateway Tower. 

[vdogg]

The office tower is definitely Gateway but I’ve read this paragraph 3 times and still can’t quite parse whether tegra is a tenant, or whether tegra and the office tower are 2 separate developments.

[BFG]

Some experts believe HR could become a Silicon Valley of sorts, with more companies coming here to study sea level rise. 

https://pilotonline.com/news/government/virginia/article_627a6e44-45b8-11e9-9eb6-ab83b2886550.html

[EJ_LEWIS]

A really cool video from 1960  promoting the Tidewater Market.  A lot of video showing Downtown Norfolk at the dawn of redevelopment. 

 

[Up2313]

This was a really great video to watch. Thanks for sharing. Its a shame some of these things didn't happen.

[BFG]

"The Manhattan of the South..."

Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties just had to become cities...(sigh)

[BFG]

Ikea opens tomorrow, Something in the Water festival is in 2-1/2 weeks. Maybe it's me, but this is shaping up to be a very monumental month for the region. I can't think of this area having so many major events at once, and we're barely one week into the month. Hoping for some more big news in 2019, although it might be hard to top those two things.

[Urbanlooker]

1 hour ago, BFG said:

Ikea opens tomorrow, Something in the Water festival is in 2-1/2 weeks. Maybe it's me, but this is shaping up to be a very monumental month for the region. I can't think of this area having so many major events at once, and we're barely one week into the month. Hoping for some more big news in 2019, although it might be hard to top those two things.

Maybe something will come out in Norfolk's state of the city.

[BFG]

It's from last year, but if I'm reading this correctly, it looks like starting next year, the Census will include the home bases of deployed troops. I imagine this would boost the area's population quite a bit. I dunno how many service members and their families are stationed across Hampton Roads, but I would think this adds at least 50-100K to the population?

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/25/697315761/restrictions-on-deployed-u-s-troop-data-could-put-2020-census-at-risk

[Mountain_Junior]

HRCOC claims its 83K so yeah I’d say that’s a boon for Hampton Roads.


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[BFG]

That's about a 5% increase in just three years (about 1.73M in 2017). Even with the technicality, it makes the region look attractive.

[Mountain_Junior]

True, especially since those same numbers will be taken from other urban areas all around the country (although this may be negligible).

I think another interesting angle to this is who will benefit locally. I’d seem to me that VB and Chesapeake might have more to gain than Norfolk and Portsmouth given that lots of the workers from those cities reside in VB and Chesapeake. VB already is ahead in population so it may not make enough of a difference to matter but it probably will skew in their direction a bit. Also I wonder if that could cause electoral districts to look really different.


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