A tale of two meetings

Saturday morning, I attended a symposium on regional unity, sponsored by The Future of Hampton Roads, Inc. The event featured a panel comprised of Dels. John Cosgrove, Glenn Oder and Joe Bouchard, along with Art Collins, the retiring executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. While the overriding theme of the symposium was identification of issues that require regional unity, one thing dominated: transportation. The discussion with the panel and the subsequent small-group breakouts were civil and informative. Attendees included people from throughout the region. Although this event started at the ungodly hour of 8:30am, I’m glad I took the time to go.

Monday evening, I attended a transportation town hall meeting sponsored by Del. Paula Miller and Sen. Ralph Northam. Featured at this meeting was Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer. Also in attendance were Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, who chairs the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization. The event was well-attended. While some people were from the surrounding cities, most were from the Norfolk areas most likely to be impacted by construction related to the HRBT. Naturally, the fear and uncertainty surrounding potential changes to the HRBT created an atmosphere that was less than welcoming.

Before attending the Monday meeting, I obtained a copy of a survey of Hampton Roads residents that was released today. It was with this in mind – that there is strong support for improvements to the HRBT – that I wanted to hear the concerns of these residents. Homer took some heat for having said that VDOT will be studying whether or not tunnel improvements are feasible. And Fraim actually encouraged residents to pick up the Daily Press and make their opposition voices heard.

What struck me as I compared the two meetings is the same thing that I notice time and time again: when people are informed – about choices, about consequences, about process – they are more likely to have a reasonable and reasoned discussion about issues. When they are not, the only issue is self-preservation.

And this is where the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement comes in. A new organization, HRCCE has, at its core, the idea that I keep in my sidebar: “to inform their discretion by education.”

The mission of the Center is to support sustainable deliberative democracy in Hampton Roads and to connect public decision making with civil dialogue and the informed judgment of the region’s citizens.

The conversation about transportation – needs, funding and all else that goes along with it – is just starting amongst the citizens. I watched the lightbulbs go on Monday night when Fraim explained that the MPO decides what projects are important but that the funding has to come from the General Assembly. This is the kind of information that was taken for granted at Saturday’s meeting.

I hope that the PTB will engage HRCCE on this critical issue.

Oh – and about that poll?

The telephone poll of 500 registered voters was conducted April 16-20 by the university and the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement.

New but already engaging 😉