Economist Predicts Sour Decade for Hampton Roads- Closed Mindedness Carries a Price

The economic outlook for the Hampton Roads area of Virginia is not looking good for the balance of the decade. Given the outlook, the question is whether or not the business leaders and elected leaders of the region will wake up and try new development approaches and techniques or merely continue doing the same failed approaches over and over again and somehow expecting a miracle to occur that will yield a different result. The self-anointed "leaders" of Hampton Roads are long on bigotry and closed mindedness and short on innovation, tolerance and progressive ideas which might actually attract new businesses to the area. On the south side of Hampton Roads(pictured at left), the mindset can be summed up by Norfolk International Airport which greets newcomers with a huge hideous display of Pat Robertson and Regent University - one cannot help but wonders if some arriving travels turn around and leave as a result. And I might add that the Region wide chamber of commerce scoff at the idea of a LGBT chamber.

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Only the City of Hampton has so far shown any open mindedness and willingness to think remotely outside the box and court the LGBT business community. While the staid city of Richmond has begun to court the LGBT travel dollar, no city in Hampton Roads has yet awakened to this passed up opportunity. Then, of course, to add to the problem we have the strong anti-progressive message emanating from Taliban Bob McDonnell and the certifiably insane Ken Cuccinelli that certainly must be scaring off many businesses contemplating relocating. Personally, I am not optimistic that things will change, but one can always hope. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on the sour economic forecast:
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Hampton Roads faces a “mediocre” economic outlook over the next decade, weakened by a decline in defense spending and the after-effects of the recession, according to Old Dominion University’s annual state of the region report, released this morning.

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In addition to the loss of the Joint Forces Command, or JFCOM, and its 6,000 jobs, Koch said the probable shrinkage in defense spending could cost the area at least one aircraft carrier.
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“We’ve seen our best years in the first part of this decade,” said James Koch, an economist and former president of Old Dominion, who served as editor of the report. “It appears that those are circumstances we’re not going to repeat.”
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His dour forecast said rising water levels and a net loss of population also would inhibit growth. Companies such as Norfolk Southern Corp. and Northrop Grumman Newport News “have to be thinking whether locating themselves here is viable in the future,” Koch said during an interview.