A recent article in the Daily Press reminds us that, in 1950, "several municipalities on the Virginia Peninsula — Warwick County, Newport News, the town of Phoebus, Elizabeth City County and Hampton — embarked on the idea of becoming a political counterforce to the larger cities and counties on the Southside." They wanted to call the new metro area "City of Hampton Roads."
It didn't work. There was no way to confine "Hampton Roads", not then nor today, to just the Peninsula and thanks to a handful of voters in the town of Phoebus. However, in 1952, Elizabeth City County, Phoebus and Hampton. And, in 1957, Warwick City and Newport News voted to consolidate, and they officially merged on July 1, 1958.
Thanks to Wikipedia.org, I also found that the city of Chesapeake was formed in 1963 by consolidation of the City of South Norfolk and Norfolk County, which dated to 1691. (Yes, some things take a while to work out!)
In 1974, the city of Nansemond (which had been a county earlier) and the outlying unincorporated towns of Holland and Whaleyville consolidated to become today's city of Suffolk, creating the largest city geographically in Virginia.
The most populous city in Virginia is Virginia Beach which became a small city independent from Princess Anne County in 1952. In 1963, the city of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County consolidated to form the city as we know it today.
I found this enlightening post with stats showing the strength Hampton Roads would have as a consolidated region (think NYC) from fellow blogger, "Foundation For A Greater Hampton Roads". Imagine having the regional power with the likes of NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philly and putting us AHEAD of San Antonio, San Diego and Dallas!
This blogger has also found some great older articles from Port Folio Weekly about the subject:
all by Alex Marshall, NYC journalist
The blogger, "Foundation For A Greater Hampton Roads", even notes:
...recently the Hampton Roads Partnership started their "America's First Region" campaign. This is a great step in the right direction but it must keep going forward. The region will be able to run more efficiently and at a lower cost if certain services are combined.
When you look at it this way: Hampton Roads doesn't look so different from NYC, does it?
Posts
1 comment:
Thanks for the support! I definitely need to get the word out more about this. I dont know if you have done so, but feel free to check out my other blog, 757hamptonroads.blogspot.com It has a much larger audience (200-300/month). I work at a Boy Scout camp in Surry during the summer, so i am not connected online frequently, but i still get on every few days.
Post a Comment