NORFOLK, Va. — Major transportation projects, casinos, growing the ports, and building back from the economic impacts of a global pandemic.
This is the state of Hampton Roads today.
Some of our top priorities have changed over the last two years -- mainly controlling the future spread of COVID-19 -- but we wanted to see how different the region’s priorities were back in the 1980s.
A 13News Now story from 1984 shows us regionalism was critical to the area’s future success.
The group "The Future of Hampton Roads" was just formed, and it was a big step toward that goal.
Back then, the cities of Hampton Roads were divided to the point of war. In fact, when a massive drought hit the area, leaders in different cities couldn’t even agree to share freshwater resources even though some areas needed them critically.
While things may not be perfect today, our neighboring cities get along much better than they did back then. Moving forward, things like transportation, building our ports, and offshore wind are all regional priorities.
However, it’s finding a way to combat climate change -- specifically sea-level rise -- that could end up bringing us closer together than ever before.
You could say it’s another water war... but this time the fight has us all on the same team.
That is the future of Hampton Roads.