NORFOLK, Va. — In this area, there’s a constant conversation going on. Some people call it an identity crisis.
What are the seven cities together called? Hampton Roads? Tidewater? Coastal Virginia?
Now a new post on social media is throwing another opinion into the mix. The post claims the local cities are banding together to be called the “Greater Norfolk Area.
So far, the post received more than 100 likes and dozens of comments.
The post said the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth and Norfolk have outlined broad terms to collectively reorganize under the City of Norfolk Charter and ultimately referred to as the Greater Norfolk area. The post also said the restructuring is contingent upon securing approval from the cities of Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach to also come under the Greater Norfolk Banner.
Commenters on the post have mixed feelings. Some posted online asking what took so long, while others don’t want the name change.
13News Now reached out to every city spokesperson in all seven cities to try and verify this post. Chesapeake, Hampton, Suffolk, Newport News and Virginia Beach officials say they haven’t heard anything about the post.
Hill said, “We don’t have anybody that’s been able to tell us that it has any validity at all, so as far as we know there isn’t any truth to it.”
13News Now reached out to the Instagram poster, Oceanfront9. The group responded and said, “We get anonymous leads/calls regarding developments in the area all the time. We post the ones we find interesting, but do not do any further diligence. It could have been some over exuberance following the award to construct a high speed internet fiber for the region?”
13News Now found the claim to be false. The spokesperson for the city of Norfolk told 13News Now she has not heard about the post and is looking into it.