A Voice for Hampton Roads

by James F. Babcock

“Who Speaks for Hampton Roads?”

This excellent question, raised by Louis Guy in a Virginian-Pilot (V-P) Dec. 27, 2008 op-ed, is especially pertinent now as the region faces a perennial crisis in transportation funding, the possible loss of an aircraft carrier, a decline in tourism, a weakened economy, and budget cuts all around.

The answer is, “No one entity ─ it depends on the issue.” Numerous private regional associations exist to speak out for particular interests: the Retail Alliance for retailers, HRACRE for commercial realtors, the Chambers of Commerce for business in general, the Cultural Alliance for the arts, and so on.

On public issues, however, where the right to answer for the general public depends on legitimacy conferred by election, the only regional organizations that can speak for the region are those in which the region’s legislators or its mayors and county chairs serve. These include the Legislative Caucus, Planning District Commission, Metropolitan Planning Organization, Mayors & Chairs Caucus, and Hampton Roads Partnership.

Each of these entities was created at a different time for a particular limited purpose. None can be said to do an especially effective job of involving the public in its decision making. And each suffers limitations that would not apply, say, to a full-blown regional government, which the public doesn’t want. As a result, as Mayor Paul Fraim observed in his year-end V-P op-ed, “No one is in charge.”

Over the past few years, the Future of Hampton Roads, a volunteer organization, through its Regional Structure Project, has sponsored conferences and study groups to produce thoughtful recommendations for improving the performance of these regional organizations without either merging our municipalities or creating a regional government. Detailed reports have been submitted in the past year to the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Hampton Roads Partnership, and Mayors & Chairs.

One study group report soon to be submitted to the elected leadership specifically deals with the urgent need identified by Mr. Guy to create an authoritative voice for Hampton Roads. Based on successful regional models elsewhere (Metro-Dade, Twin Cities Metro, etc.) but adapted to our region’s unique circumstances, the recommendation is to obtain a state charter for a Hampton Roads Metropolitan Council.

The proposed Metro Council would undertake key tasks not now being performed. It would:

• oversee the regional aspects of economic and tourism development;
• direct periodic updating of a comprehensive regional vision;
• coordinate preparation of an annual regional legislative agenda; and
• strengthen regional decision-making.

Supported by Planning District Commission staff, the proposed Metro Council would establish working relationships with the other regional organizations. For example, an updating of the regional vision every five to seven years might best be performed on behalf of the Council by the Hampton Roads Partnership. Also, the Council could engage the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement to assist in creating essential public participation in basic decisions.

An alternative to creating the Council might be to refashion one of the present regional organizations. In any case, having a Metro Council with definite power to make decisions on a short list of key regional issues would provide a vehicle for more assertive regional leadership and to fill the present gap in high level policy formulation.

The huge challenges the region now faces warrant serious attention to implementing this structural improvement. We should accept Louis Guy’s advice. Let’s get organized.

Mr. Babcock, retired Chairman and CEO of First Virginia Bank Hampton Roads, is a founding member of the Hampton Roads Partnership, Vice Chairman of the Future of Hampton Roads, Inc. (FHR) and manager of FHR’s Regional Structure Project, whose reports are posted on http://www.fhrinc.org.

Hampton Roads flag, the first regional flag in U.S.

It is flown and shown - on sign posts, lapel pins, etc. - all around the Hampton Roads region. How do you share the regional flag? Send us a picture!

Creation of a regional symbol

The flag of Hampton Roads is named for one of the finest natural harbors in the world and the surrounding Southeastern Virginia metropolitan area of the same name. The flag was created in 1998 in a highly public process sponsored by the Hampton Roads Regional Identify Task Force. As one of a number of measures to promote recognition of the region’s historic name, Task Force Chair (and current Hampton Roads Partnership Board member), Jim Babcock, proposed a contest among high school students to create a regional flag. Assisted by noted vexillologist (the study of flags) Peter Orenski, the contest produced over 1,000 designs which were winnowed by the region’s seventeen school districts to 83 finalists. From these, a jury appointed by the region’s mayors selected three final designs that were then voted on by the general public through the media.

At a celebration on 15 June 1998, the contest winner, sixteen year-old Andrew J. Wall of Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, raised the new regional flag for the first time to the mast of the Spirit of Norfolk, moored in the Harbor. Used for several years by the ship, the first flag was subsequently framed and donated to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which displays it in the lobby of the Regional Building at 723 Woodlake Drive in Chesapeake, Virginia. A local company, U.S. Flag and Signal, manufactures the flag in various sizes for residential and business display.

The region of Hampton Roads In Southeastern Virginia, Hampton Roads includes among its sixteen municipalities--symbolized by the flag’s stars--such famous cities as Norfolk, Williamsburg, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk and the most populated and largest tourist city in Virginia: Virginia Beach. The original name, “Southampton Roadstead,” was given in the early 1600s by then royal governor, Lord de la Ware, in honor of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, an energetic financial sponsor of Virginia colonization (and principal patron of William Shakespeare).

The nautical term “roadstead,” meaning a safe anchorage, evokes the area’s great history as a naval base, port, and center of shipbuilding since our nation’s beginnings. Renowned research facilities in aerospace, particle physics, oceanography, modeling and simulation, together with tourism, higher education, health care, and high tech manufacturing, characterize the area’s modern economy. Its famous museums and myriad of world-class performing groups make Hampton Roads the arts capital of Virginia. The new flag is itself historic; it is the first flag ever created for a metropolitan region of the United States.

The symbolism of the flag
The blue panel evokes the predominantly maritime character of Hampton Roads, which is the largest naval base in the world and the East Coast’s second largest seaport. It recalls the first European settlers at Jamestown in 1607, the first battle between ironclad ships in 1862, the importance of its shipbuilding and ship repair industry to the nation, as well as maritime commerce, fishing, recreational boating, and the major military and government installations around the region’s shores.

Agriculture, the environment, tourism, industry, and a healthy quality of life are symbolized by the lower panel of green.

The white wavy line represents the sand dunes and surf that help make the region one of the nation’s most visited tourist destinations - from Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown to Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum and the famous resort area at Virginia Beach. The three crests in the wave suggest past, present, and future.

The sixteen white stars, symbolizing the region’s cities and counties, are displayed in a circle, the classic symbol of unity, all pointing inward to represent regional cooperation.

Water is the central theme. It touches all components and binds them together, as we are bound together as a region.

The flag as a whole stands for the strong sense of community and unity shared by the region’s 1.6 million residents in “Hampton Roads: America’s First Region.”

To learn more about flags, visit the “Flags of the World” website.

To purchase the Hampton Roads Flag, visit www.FlagMaker.com.