■ 13 June 2008 | 7:33 AM
Cleveland's lessons
Hampton Roads will never be a major city until it acts like one. Specifically, we need a downtown with businesses and people who live there, mass transit for commuting to work and a central government that is looking out for the good of the entire area.
Cleveland is back from the grave because it invested in a downtown that made young people want to come back. Anyone who looks at Denver can see how quickly light rail became a vital part of the community. If we were a single city, we would have more jobs and the military.
Scott Leveque
Norfolk
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Utopia
Ptown, surely you jest. The bigger an area gets, the harder it is to keep it going in the right direction. Utopia that you speak of is another word for hell on earth.
Being a big city cures everything...
Detroit is a big city. The Tidewater area needs to do everything it can to become a carbon-copy of Detroit. Let's pay the Detroit City Council to come here, and solve all our problems. Only then can utopia be attained.
No Merger
The idea of merging cities in Tidewater has floated around for years. No one wants to give up their fiefdom and is not likely to ever happen. The cities are rather diverse and do not complement one another.
Well, then, Scott...
Maybe you should move to Cleveland. I really do not care to go to Norfolk unless I absolutely have to. Why do we need a big city anyway? Town center in VB is a stupid step in the wrong direction, if we want traffic and tall buildings, we can go to Norfolk. The problem is that the different cities in the area are not defining themselves to what they are best suited. VB is a military and tourist city. Norfolk is military and city living, Chesapeake could be a recreation city and we could all keep away from Portsmouth. The different cities in the area need to define thier strenghts and go with it.
Growth is a poison pill
First, not everyone wants to live in a major city. If the writer wants a major city, such cities exist all over America. Personally, I came here 35 years ago precisely because the region was not a major city.
Since we have grown, our city has been given to big businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to manage for their personal enrichment. Growth does nothing to the man ho already has a job, other than raise his property taxes, higher cost of living with consequential decline in quality of the environment. Our beaches have been handed over to big-business resorts and private owners along the shore lines.
Additionally, the writer says that as a single city, we would have more jobs. Jobs for whom? Oh yes, I remember. We need at least one million new jobs in this country for the one million new illegal immigrants entering our nation annually.
And writer sees all this as progress. Is writer a member of the Chamber of Commerce?