Only one reader has expressed surprise and a tinge of
indignation at my use of the moniker, Tidewater, in my banner.
The name Tidewater has style. The name Hampton Roads has no
style. And we need style around here.
If Hampton Roads was the name to describe our region, maybe
we should tell the following organizations to change their names.
Tidewater Builders Association
Peninsula Builders Association
Tidewater Community College
Tidewater News
Tidewater Libertarian Party
Tidewater Striders
Tidewater Mortgage Services
Tidewater Mortgage Bankers Association
Tidewater Association of Service Contractors
Tidewater Beekeepers Association
Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni
Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Society of CPAs
Imagine these professionals attending events and conferences
in New York, Boston or Philadelphia.
Where are you from? They are asked by their fellow professionals
and alumni brothers and sisters.
Pause.
And then their reply: Hampton Roads.
Perplexed, your fellow professional asks: “But aren’t you
with the Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Society of CPAs?”
“Yes,” this resident of Norfolk, Virginia Beach,
Chesapeake…says sheepishly.
“Where’s Hampton Roads?” they are asked.
“It’s complicated,” says our Hampton Roads resident.
It gets even more complicated.
There’s the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. Yet we have
the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce.
There’s Opportunity Inc., a workforce initiative for
southside, and yet we have the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development.
We have the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, the
umbrella marketing group that pitches the region to companies.
Yet each city has its own economic development department
and economic development authority, each pitching and preaching, and each with
its own budget.
Ask them if they get along and they gush about their
cooperation.
In public, at least.
In private, they snipe at each other.
If politicians and community leaders were really serious
about regionalism, they would change the name of the major airport in the
region to Hampton Roads International Airport instead of Norfolk International
Airport.
And when travelers arrive in Norfolk, they see signs
welcoming them to the Greater Norfolk Area.
And last May the marketing geniuses at the convention and
tourism bureaus (bureaus?) decided Coastal Virginia had sex appeal and that
families in Pennsylvania or New York would recognize where we are located.
Coastal?
The only coastal city I know of in the region is Virginia
Beach.
The rest of Tidewater’s cities sit on the Chesapeake Bay or
are surrounded by fields and swamps.
As I said, it’s
complicated. Just imagine how visitors feel.
This area preaches regionalism but does not practice it. Charlotte, NC, as it is promoted, is made up of approximately 27 cities, towns and counties. They were smart enough to understand that marking their region under a recognizable banner would benefit everyone. Unfortunately, we have refused to do that. Hampton Roads is a designation on a navigation chart. Throughout the world, the City of Norfolk is recognized, sorry Virginia Beach, other than for tourism, little is known of the State's largest city. If we truly want to grow on the Southside, the "Greater Norfolk" makes the most sense. However, parochial interests and egos being what they are, we will sooner see pigs fly.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the concerted effort to rid the region of the "tidewater" moniker. Besides being extremely prescient for the times (it floods at every high tide), it's also rooted in history. A lot of civil war literature references the area as tidewater. Lose that connection and our self-perception as being geographically significant may be lost as well. Besides, it just sounds sexy. Tidewater.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least the Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads serves all the cities and counties in the Hampton Roads region and the Eastern Shore as well. Started in 1990 the Center is the first "regionally-focused" enconomic development entity.
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