Hampton Roads combined into one city? (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: crime, neighborhood, places to live)

[damian]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

Yea you're right, this independent city thing really messed this area up.

Agreed, supposedly the Politicos in Richmond allowed the different localities to do this to reduce the clout of Southeastern Virginia, and quite frankly it worked.

[twilight61108]

Originally Posted by xGrendelx

I think I'm with you, hurley89. I always thought it'd be kinda nice to have Hampton Roads as one city, and to think of the 7 current cities as burroughs or something. It does seem like more good would get done when confronting our region's problems. Sometimes I feel like each city focuses too much on competeing with each other and we suffer from it. My main thing is I'd want to see a public transit system, like subway or light rail, that covers ALL of HR - not just our dingy bus system like we have now.

Its funny you mention transportation because where i came from in mass, it was an ok size city (not as big Norfolk though), and when i came here i was amazed to see the buses ran on sunday's lol. Where i used to live buses did not run on sundays and only half day on saturdays. Not too mention i had to leave 1hr earlier to take 2 buses to get to community college which car wise was only 10 mins away at most! But since this is a bigger community im sure public transporation could be improved.

[telemonster]

The last figure I heard was that Hampton Roads had a population of 1.8 million.

There is some 2.2 million people locked up in the USA.

Pretty staggering.

[ToughLuv]

Originally Posted by telemonster

The last figure I heard was that Hampton Roads had a population of 1.8 million.

There is some 2.2 million people locked up in the USA.

Pretty staggering.

Im trying to understand the correlation here but im just not seeing it lol..Are you tryna get us to realize exactly how many people are locked up?, By saying if you let all the criminals out there would be enough people for them to form there own metro area?..

[telemonster]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

Im trying to understand the correlation here but im just not seeing it lol..Are you tryna get us to realize exactly how many people are locked up?, By saying if you let all the criminals out there would be enough people for them to form there own metro area?..

Yea, how many people are locked up. The minute I saw the locked up statistic I remembered the stat of the size of Hampton Roads.

If you never saw it, years ago the Pilot had a April Fools day joke paper where the headline was several cities merging.

[hurley89]

If Hampton Roads has a population of 1.7 (or 8) million people and it combined into one city, it would be the fourth largest city in the United States.

I think it'd become more urban if it combined, since the bigger businesses would move in. Also, I think if it combined, the school systems in the poorer cities would improve since the tax revenue from the whole area would be combined. Not to mention better roads, police dept, fire dept, hospitals..etc. VB's tourism dollars, wouldnt just go to VB anymore, and Norfolk's military economy wouldnt just be heavily in Norfolk. Every citizen in Hampton Roads would benefit from this.

We'd get an actual identity if the cities combined:


You think of New Orleans you think of Mardi Gras and the French Quarter,

You think of Miami and you think if palm trees, sun, and hot girls in thongs,

You think of LA you think of Hollywood, celebrities, surfing,

You think of Hampton Roads and you go....


Everyone would benefit if the cities combined. Our region has basically anything you would want, but it's overshadowed because the cities cant agree on anything. With the cities combined, I think it would be one of the best places to live (Forbes list anyone? haha). What do you guys think?



But the county idea sounds appealing also.


I love my urban studies class !

[telemonster]

I don't think a name change would change the people. It'd still be full of bible beating non-progressive boring people.

And the people would still be highly transient.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

We should combine them and call it Virginia City, that would be a legendary move.

There already is a Virginia City in Virginia.

I don't think it would be a good idea to combine the entire area. It would just be geographically so large and I don't think any local government or council could effectively govern the entire area. But it probably would make sense to consolidate certain areas to increase political clout and decrease the excessive number of city governments in place now.

Without getting into specific communites, which some have done, and would probably need to be done if this is ever seriously looked at ... Suffolk is very unique, covers a lot of square miles, more rural, and just different so I don't think it would be best for them to be part of it. Virginia Beach, mainly for tourist reasons should maintain its name and status as a beach city. There are parts of Chesapeake that could become Virginia Beach.

Norfolk and Portsmouth should definitely combine because the area could be governed much more efficiently. They have very similar problems, a very similar landscape, and it would be much easier to solve tunnel problems if the Midtown and Downtown began and ended in the same city. Same goes for Newport News and Hampton.

[ToughLuv]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

There already is a Virginia City in Virginia.

I don't think it would be a good idea to combine the entire area. It would just be geographically so large and I don't think any local government or council could effectively govern the entire area. But it probably would make sense to consolidate certain areas to increase political clout and decrease the excessive number of city governments in place now.

Without getting into specific communites, which some have done, and would probably need to be done if this is ever seriously looked at ... Suffolk is very unique, covers a lot of square miles, more rural, and just different so I don't think it would be best for them to be part of it. Virginia Beach, mainly for tourist reasons should maintain its name and status as a beach city. There are parts of Chesapeake that could become Virginia Beach.

Norfolk and Portsmouth should definitely combine because the area could be governed much more efficiently. They have very similar problems, a very similar landscape, and it would be much easier to solve tunnel problems if the Midtown and Downtown began and ended in the same city. Same goes for Newport News and Hampton.

There's a VA city but not in Virginia. And NN/Hampton should merge, but thats it.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by ToughLuv

There's a VA city but not in Virginia.

Yes there is, I've been there several times. It's in Southwest Virginia. Dominion is building a power plant there now. Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center

There's also a Virginia City tourist town in Virginia. Virginia City It doesn't appear to be a real city though.

Still, I think dibs on the Virginia City name is already taken in Virginia.