Monthly Archive: February 2010

Feb 27

Port and Harbor Security in Hampton Roads

Categories:

Innovation, Military Bastion, Transportation

by HR Partnership

The Small Business Administration and the Office of the Secretary of Defense sponsored a workshop on January 25th and 26th at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel for a recently announced Robotics Technology Cluster initiative.  Hampton Roads is one of three regions participating in the pilot initiative. Southeastern Michigan and Hawaii are the other two.  The Michigan cluster focuses on ground robotics, Hawaii’s on undersea robotics. The Hampton Roads cluster focuses on port and harbor security.

This cluster aligns with the strategic vision of the Hampton Roads Chapter of Autonomous and Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) professional group and the regional Robot Venture initiative sponsored by the Hampton Roads Military & Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA).

Over 240 participants  heard key note talks from Congressmen Glenn Nye and Randy Forbes.  The workshop included several panel discussions on resources available to the small business and robotics communities both on a local and a national level.  Presenters represented the Department of Defense (DoD), the Small Business Administration, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and other regional stakeholders.  After listening and questioning the presenters and panel members, attendees participated in group breakout sessions where ideas and strategies were gathered to identify port and harbor security focus requirements.

The six breakout topics covered: Comprehensive port and harbor security, emergency management, sensors fusion, alternative energy, manned and unmanned systems integration, and workforce development through a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics focused education approach.  Discussions were facilitated by subject matter experts in each topic area, and the majority of participants attended up to four different topic sessions over the two day workshop.  Feedback from the workshops will be used to create a framework of action for the robotics cluster going forward.

Presentations from the workshop are available on the Robot Venture website: www.robotventure.org/rvinformation.html. More information as the cluster activity progresses will be posted as well.

by Program Managers Bill Piersol, Robot Venture, and Andrew Sinclair, Hampton Roads Partnership; Photo credit:  U.S. Navy

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Feb 27

Hampton Roads is happy, so who’s miserable?

Categories:

About Hampton Roads

by HR Partnership

Forbes announces America’s 20 Most Miserable Cities

Since we found out that Hampton Roads ranked as a “happy city,”  thought we’d explore the other end of the scale, the miserable index, and find out what our region is, thankfully, missing. As the saying goes, misery loves company. And sorry to say, but someone else’s misery makes you feel better about your own circumstance. Why else would soap operas be so popular?

Forbes’ Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. Forbes also factored in two indexes put together by Portland (OR) researcher Bert Sperling that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly corruption based on convictions of public officials in each area as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice was considered.

This year the 200 largest metro areas (population of more than 245,000) were eligible. And the winners (or losers, as the case may be) are:

No. 1 Cleveland, OH
Residents of the “Mistake by the Lake” endure brutal winters, high crime and a tortured sports history. They are voting with their feet as the net migration out of the metro area was 71,000 over the past five years.

No. 2 Stockton, CA
Stockton relinquished its most miserable city crown to Cleveland this year, but the city still faces jarring unemployment and violent crime. Unemployment is expected to average 18.5% in the metro area this year.

No. 3 Memphis, TN
Violent crime is second worst in the country and public officials are getting locked up at an alarming rate. On a positive note, the city’s sole pro sport franchise, the NBA’s Grizzlies, is winning some games after losing 72% of the time the past three seasons.

No. 4 Detroit, MI
Thousands of homes in this ravaged city were available for less than $10,000 last year. After shrinking for six straight years (including 9% in 2009), Detroit’s economy is actually expected to expand in 2010.

No. 5 Flint, MI
The city of Flint is buying up houses and demolishing them in an effort to shrink the size of the city to a sustainable level. The area received $25 million in stimulus funds from the federal government to help with the plan.

No. 6 Miami, FL
The weather and no personal state income tax are nice, but the city rates in the bottom 10% of areas when it comes to commute times, violent crime and corruption. Foreclosures hit 7.2% of homes in 2009, 10th worst in the U.S.

No. 7 St. Louis, MO
St. Louis is a baseball town, but what about those Rams? The NFL team has won only six games out of 48 the past three years, the fewest wins in football.

No. 8 Buffalo, NY.
This snowbelt city is still the second largest in New York state, but the population has fallen more than 50% over the past half-century as the industrial base waned.

No. 9 Canton, OH
The home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and home of President William McKinley has seen a net migration out of Canton in each of the past 15 years. Only 18% of the adult population has a college degree.

No. 10 Chicago, IL
The “Windy City” has a higher unemployment rate than Modesto over the past three years. It is expected to average 18.5% in 2010. Foreclosures affected 8.5% of homes in 2009 according RealtyTrac, sixth worst in the U.S.

No. 12 Akron, OH
Home to Goodyear Tire and LeBron James, misery will be off the charts if favorite son James bolts the Cavaliers after this season for a new NBA team. Akron’s 2.25% local income tax rate is one of the highest in the state.

No. 13 Kansas City, MO
High taxes and crime rates hurt Kansas City’s standing, but what moved them up our misery list were its two awful pro sports teams. The Royals and Chiefs combined finished outside of last place only once in the past three years.

No. 14 Rockford, IL
Once known as the Screw Capital of the World because of the billions of screws and bolts made locally, Rockford has struggled with high crime as well as soaring unemployment, which is expected to average 16.9% this year.

No. 15 Toledo, OH
Cost of living is cheap in Toledo (15% below the national average), but that has not kept residents from leaving as there has been a net migration out of the metro area every year over the past two decades.

No. 16 New York, NY
Yes, the biggest city in the U.S. has much to offer in the way of cultural opportunities and corporate headquarters. But the trade-off is torturous commute times and nosebleed-inducing income tax levels. Both are the highest in the U.S.

No. 17 Sacramento, CA
Foreclosures hit 5.6% of the housing units in 2009 in Sacramento. The city has been in a battle with the hometown Kings over funding for a new NBA arena. The Kings are coming off their worst season ever winning only 21% of their games.

No. 18 Youngstown, OH
Youngstown’s favorite son, former Congressman Jim Traficant, is considering running for Congress again after serving seven years in prison on bribery, racketeering and tax evasion charges. Needless to say Youngstown ranks high on our corruption metric.

No. 19 Gary, IN
Gary’s decline kicked off in the 1960s with the deterioration of the steel industry in the U.S. Violent crime rates in Gary continue to be one of the highest in the U.S.

No. 20 Philadelphia, PA
The city’s sports fans basked in the Phillies 2008 World Series win, which ended a 25-year sports title drought for Philly. The win can’t mask the city’s problems though: long commutes, high crime rates, lousy air quality and lots of pollution.

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Feb 26

Hampton Roads, Where Art Happens

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Business & Economy, Tourism, Arts & Culture

by HR Partnership

Click on image to download your copy of Bravo!

From Particia Rublein, Executive Director of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, committed to leveraging arts and culture as one more key industry our communities need to become great places to live and work.

The importance of the arts in our communities and in our schools:

Like most economic endeavors, these are not easy times for the arts. But we need the arts. A healthy arts economy not only nurtures our well-being but contributes to a healthy tax base. The arts need to be recognized as part of the solution to our economic turmoil.

It is gratifying to see the advancement of many arts and cultural projects moving forward, especially the renovation and expansion of the Children’s Museum of Virginia located in Portsmouth and the expansion of The American Theatre in Hampton.

Several Hampton Roads arts organizations are looking ahead positively with an eye toward advancement and growth. The pages in this edition of BRAVO! speak to that work.

The businesses and citizens of Hampton Roads understand the need and continue to provided generous support to the effort. Each year arts and culture organizations host, and provide jobs to, thousands of Virginia residents, and generate millions of dollars in revenue, adding a large infusion of visitors to local economies.

More than 300 arts and cultural organizations and individual arts call Hampton Roads “home.” From Williamsburg to the North Carolina border our region hosts historical restoration sites, museums, premiere opera, symphonies, galleries, literary festivals, theater, ballet, art studios, choral groups, independent movie theaters and arts education opportunities.

These resources are what economic development professionals refer to as their “quality of life,” and are, in many respects, the key ingredient in our efforts to attract high-end and high-paying business enterprises to the area.

Beyond the bottom line, research informs us that when students study music, when they read, perform in a play or visit an art exhibit, they learn to appreciate those who produced those works, and become more receptive to other people. The professional artists associated with those institutions become our children’s teachers. And we have found that through involvement in the arts children learn better.

Whatever our economic situation, the arts overlap with almost every discipline of daily life, promote healing, enhance the environment, foster a healthy workplace and improve education – primary tools to sustaining a high quality of life. These are the features that define our civic identity.

Bravo! Magazine is the definitive arts and culture printed resource in Hampton Roads for venues and events in dance, museums and lectures, music, theater, visual arts, festivals and the friends who bring them to us all.

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Feb 26

Global Access to North America’s Largest Maritime Museum in Hampton Roads

Categories:

Education & Workforce, Military Bastion, Tourism, Arts & Culture

by HR Partnership

The Mariners’ Museum, located in Newport News, Virginia, is the largest maritime museum in North America. Hampton Roads, with the largest naval base in the world, is a fitting location for such a gem.

Besides world class exhibits, the Mariners’ offers educational opportunities for all ages from school programs about the Age of Exploration to adult lectures on topics from the Revolutionary War to World War II.

The Museum invested in cutting-edge technology to provide exhibitions and information about maritime history, science, and culture via the internet. Approximately one million visitors now log onto the web site annually, and the number of people reached through educational programs has grown exponentially. A key aspect of this growth strategy involves interactive video conferencing (IVC) of the educational programs, which increased by 175% in 2008 alone. The IVC facilities have tripled the capacity to broadcast educational programs across the world.

The Mariner’s also offers educational programs designed to meet Virginia SOLs and the National Standards of Learning, online exhibitions, homeschool and scouting programs.

Dollar Tree, headquartered in Chesapeake in Virginia’s Hampton Roads, is an underwriter for these programs.

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Feb 25

We are the Region, working together

Categories:

Business & Economy, Education & Workforce, Military Bastion

by HR Partnership

A truck pulls out of a parking lot at the corner of Union Camp Drive and Jamestown Lane in the shadow of International Paper Corp. on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. The paper company announced the day before that it will close its Franklin paper mill next spring.
(Photo credit:  Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot)


by Donna Morris, Executive Vice President of Hampton Roads Partnership

A recent meeting of the Paul D. Camp Regional Workforce Development Council held in the soon-to- be-closed International Paper Mill in Franklin was a slice of re-dedication to “regional cooperation” in Hampton Roads.  The Workforce Development Council includes representatives from business, education, and local government.  Most of those attending the meeting work or live in Franklin, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Suffolk.

I was asked to summarize the region-wide comprehensive economic development strategy, Vision Hampton Roads, as a representative of the Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP), as well as provide empathy, share encouragement and learn.   I considered the challenges that closing the paper mill had given us.   This part of our community had a shared history of calamity and recovery.  In recent times they have endured the effects of a disastrous 500-year flood, damaging hurricane spawned tornadoes, and now the closing of one of the oldest and largest manufacturing businesses in Hampton Roads.

On the morning of the meeting, I left the Virginia Beach oceanfront at 5:30 am, not sure how long the commute would take with the tunnel, traffic congestion and 60-odd miles of highway to Franklin.  I thought that talking about Vision Hampton Roads, which the Partnership and other regional organizations and individuals have been working on for nearly a year was easy, but how could I offer empathy and encouragement?

I remembered a roadside sign in Southampton County some time ago that read “This is God’s Country, please don’t drive through it like hell!” There are few places where you see a sign advertising God’s country.

The funny sign and the positive message were in my thoughts as I drove through an area of farmland and natural beauty.  I thought about our ancestors who had tended this land for hundreds of years growing crops for themselves and others, and how lumber, paper and agriculture had historically been the driving part of the economy.   People living here had always shown resilience, and it felt good to be in “God’s Country.”

I found myself thinking about the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and that helped put what the region was facing into perspective.  And then I thought of the “We Are The World” anthem that I had heard the evening before: “There comes a time when we heed a certain call…When we must come together as one… and it’s time to lend a hand…We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving.”

During the meeting, the members of this regional workforce development council were at the top of their game.   They showed well-thought-out plans, positive, can-do-attitudes and a spirit that made me proud of their responsiveness to our regional needs.  They focused on helping those soon to be unemployed.  They were planning for success in the future, not hand-wringing about our plight.  They discussed resume-building; managing change workshops; basic computer skill development; writing resumes; interviewing; career fairs; on-line courses and certifications; and counseling services through Paul D. Camp Community College and Tidewater Community College.

On-site there is an International Paper Employee Transition Center with representatives from Opportunity Inc., Virginia Employment Commission, Paul D. Camp Community College, Tidewater Community College, Chowan University (NC), the Workforce Investment Board partners from North Carolina, and the Crater Workforce Investment Board (Emporia area), a product of their collective efforts.

While driving back to our Norfolk office, I remembered when HRP formed 14 years ago (in 1996) that Franklin and Southampton County led an early success in regional cooperation with their joint business park.  They understand regional cooperation.  The visit to this part of our region during this challenging time reaffirmed for me how much we learn from one another and how resilient the human spirit can be.

“We will make a better day…” was playing in my head.

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Feb 24

Hampton Roads mortgaged homes “underwater”

Categories:

Business & Economy, Military Bastion

by HR Partnership

About 22% of Hampton Roads homeowners with a mortgage owe more on their homes than they’re worth, according to a new report.

Nationally, 24% of residential properties with a mortgage were in “negative equity,” up from 23% at the end of the third quarter, according to the fourth-quarter report released by First American CoreLogic this week.

Negative equity, also called being “underwater” or “upside down,” occurs because of a decline in home value, an increase in mortgage debt, or both. It’ll probably get worse before it gets better, said James Koch, an economist and president emeritus of Old Dominion University.

“This is not going to improve until the job market and the economy in Hampton Roads improves,” Koch said. “The housing market in Hampton Roads very closely tracks employment numbers. Not only have those numbers gotten a little bit worse, the outlook for the future isn’t especially good, either.”

He points to the closures of International Paper in Isle of Wight County and the discussion of moving an aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla.

“Probably more individuals are going to find themselves below water and as a consequence, more individuals are going to walk away from their mortgages or declare bankruptcy.” he said.

“Negative equity is a significant drag on both the housing market and on economic growth. It is driving foreclosures and decreasing mobility for millions of homeowners,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist with First American CoreLogic. “Since we expect home prices to slightly increase during 2010, negative equity will remain the dominant issue in the housing and mortgage markets for some time to come.”

For home buyers, negative equity is a good thing, because it means more homes will be available at lower prices, Koch said.

“If you’re selling, it’s not good news at all,” he said. “It means there’s a lot of inventory out there that’s likely to come on the market that’s likely to drive down prices.”

Walking away from a mortgage, once taboo, is now more commonplace, Koch said. Even those who are able to pay are walking away if they’re underwater, seeing it as a bad investment that will take years to regain.

excerpts from Veronica Chufo, Daily Press, February 24, 2010

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Feb 23

Yes Virginia, Yes Hampton Roads

Categories:

Business & Economy, Innovation

by HR Partnership

Kimon Jackson, a Nuclear Medicine Supervisor at Riverside Diagnostic & Breast Center, a nationally recognized “Breast Imaging Center of Excellence” and part of Riverside Health System, uses the Dilon technology. Riverside sees between 20-25 patients a month for imaging procedures on the Dilon 6800.


BSGI—Breast Specific Gamma Imaging. If Dilon Technologies Inc. has its way, the abbreviation will soon be as common as MRI. Based in Newport News, Dilon Technologies is poised for such success. Not only is this company changing the face of nuclear imaging in the medical industry, it’s improving the quality of and access to women’s health care.

A diagnostic tool used to detect breast cancer, BSGI images the activity of anomalies within the breast. Normal cells act a certain way;cancerous cells act a different way. An injectable radio pharmaceutical is used to absorb abnormal cells at a high rate. The abnormal cells then give off gamma rays, which are detected by the camera. An image is made to detect abnormal cell activity.

NOTE:  Dilon Diagnostics® designs, manufactures and commercializes innovative medical imaging solutions worldwide based on cooperative research and development with the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and leading medical universities.


They can make a difference in the life of a patient. They assist with a doctor’s success. Anyone who has ever had a surgical procedure done at the hospital has been touched by AVID Medical Inc.

Located in James City County, AVID is a Virginia start-up success story that has been recognized by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as one of the fastest growing companies in the Commonwealth. It recently celebrated its second expansion in five years, investing $7.9 million to double the size of its facility and create more than 300 new jobs.

Founded in 1998, AVID Medical sells custom procedural trays for surgical, cardio catheterization and labor-and-delivery procedures to approximately 800 hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, government medical facilities, and organ and tissue procurement agencies.

Photos and highlights from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Commerce Quarterly, Winter 2010.  Download your copy here for even more stories on Virginia’s economic development work.

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Feb 22

Focus on Hampton Roads Communities: Norfolk

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Government & Citizens

by HR Partnership

Mayor Paul Fraim delivered his Norfolk State of the City Address (full text here) on Friday, February 19th to a standing room only crowd at the downtown Norfolk Waterside Marriott. The event kicks off the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce spring State of the City Series.

Highlights of 2009:

  • The Great Recession is over but now there are no stimulus funds to offset shortfalls in the city’s budget this year or the projected $54M gap for FY2011;
  • “There will be consequences…. this is not business as usual,” said Fraim;
  • Despite a 8.6% unemployment rate, the highest in 20 years, the homeless rate in Norfolk decreased, thanks to a grant from the Dragas Family Fund;
  • Take the Waterside Marketplace Survey and share your vision of what the city can do with that valuable property;
  • Reserve your copy of the 2010 Norfolk Annual Report to be distributed in April;
  • Major announcement:  purchase of the Norfolk Ford Plant by The Jacoby Group of Atlanta for conversion into an alternative energy park; closing anticipated as early as this fall;
  • And on Light rail, according to The Virginian-Pilot: “Even with the overruns, the project remains the cheapest among recent rail projects in the United States, at around $44 million per mile. A project in Charlotte, N.C., cost $48 million per mile”;
  • Light rail is “not a Norfolk-only project,” but a starter line for regional transit from Williamsburg to the oceanfront;
  • Second Midtown Tunnel is estimated for a 2015 completion;
  • Commonwealth Transportation Board’s unanimous vote in favor of the region’s preferred route on Thursday, Feb. 18th is “enormous good news” signaling a major step in bringing higher speed rail to Hampton Roads and a major step in regional cooperation;
  • Another major announcement: US Development of Columbia SC, purchaser/developer of the Union Mission to bring middle income housing to downtown, is also negotiating to buy 101 Granby Street, the “leaning tower of Granby”;
  • Public schools are a top priority of the city; however, with a per student expenditure second only to Virginia Beach in the region, the schools fall short of accreditation; “this is unacceptable,” said the Mayor and work is in process to make improvements;
  • Other neighborhood projects of note (see the Mayor’s full speech for details): Wards Corner, Broad Creek, Berkley, Campostella, Lambert’s Point, East Beach and Central Hampton Boulevard;
  • For the year, violent crime is down 14% and juvenile arrests down 52%; for the past 10 years, overall crime is down 14% and violent crime down 19%;
  • New campaign to celebrate trees with a green government challenge;
  • Higher education mentions: Tidewater Community College’s first student center opens downtown this fall; Old Dominion University football is back after 60 years; Norfolk State University celebrates 75 years;
  • Is state funding for public education following the same path as transportation funding?
  • Norfolk may be an old seaport town, but it is “the business, financial, cultural, educational and medical hub of Hampton Roads,” said Fraim.
Photo courtesy of AltDaily.com

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Feb 21

One of the Nation’s 20 Worst Commutes is in Hampton Roads

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Transportation

by HR Partnership

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis.

Congestion consumes billions of gallons of fuel, wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and causes billions of stress headaches. Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option. “We put so much of our national wealth and our identity into the whole motoring thing,” says James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere, “that we can’t imagine doing something different.”

Anthony Downs, author of Stuck in Traffic has identified four reasons for America’s congestion problem, also applicable to most European and Asian economies:

  • first, most of us work during the same hours of the day;
  • second, the country’s economic success has allowed households to buy multiple cars;
  • third, there are more people now than when most roadways were conceived;
  • fourth, more cars means more accidents which means more delays.

In other words, this problem isn’t going anywhere. So the Daily Beast set out to figure out the worst of the worst. It was a two-step process, done with data from traffic-tracking firm INRIX, which culls information nationwide from more than 1.5 million GPS units, mostly in freight trucks.

First step was ranking the metropolitan areas with the worst rush-hour congestion. The order is based on the peak hour Travel Time Index (TTI) for the metropolitan area each highway is in. TTI is a measure of how much longer it takes to complete a road journey during peak congestion hours compared to free-flow hours. (Peak hours are defined as 6 a.m. to 10a.m., and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) Speeds during non-peak hours are used by INRIX to establish this free-flow baseline.

After determining the 75 worst metro areas, then the worst highway was found in each, defined as the most hours of bottleneck congestion, as reported by INRIX. The rankings then provide a still deeper look—at the most congested bottleneck segment for the worst highway in each area.

Here are the top 18, starting with Hampton Roads:

  • #18, I-264, Virginia Beach/Norfolk, VA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 97 Worst bottleneck: Westbound, City Hall Ave/Exit 10 Length of worst bottleneck: .15 mi Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 28 Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 8.9 mph
    Commuter Buzz: “We’re the second-largest region in the state by population and we had a year in which there’s no interstate funding—I just didn’t want to set that precedent,” Aubrey Layne told the Virginian-Pilot in December 2009, after securing a $7.7 million in state funds for updates to the I-64/264 interchange.
  • #17, I-494, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 184
  • #16, I-5, Portland, OR Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 238
  • #15, Loop 820, surrounds Dallas-Fort Worth Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 172
  • #14, Southeast Expressway, Boston, MA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 305
  • #13, I-10, Baton Rouge, LA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 93
  • #12, Loop 610, surrounds Houston Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 189
  • #11, Bayshore Freeway (US 101), San Jose, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 231
  • #10, Airport Expressway (State Road 112), Miami Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 183
  • #9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago, IL Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 712
  • #8, I-95, Bridgeport, CT Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 272
  • #7, I-5, Seattle, WA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 256
  • #6, Cross Bronx Expressway, New York City, NY Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 421
  • #5, James Lick Freeway (US 101), San Francisco, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 190
  • #4, I-35, Austin, TX Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 460
  • #3, Capital Beltway, surrounds Washington, DC Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 194
  • #2, Lunalilo Freeway (H-1), Honolulu, HI Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 347
  • #1, Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 686

    • And the rest of the top 50 worst commutes:

  • #19, San Diego Freeway (I-5), San Diego, CA
  • #20, Schuylkill Expressway, Philadelphia, PA
  • #21, Baltimore Beltway, surrounds Baltimore, MD
  • #22, I-75, Atlanta, GA
  • #23, I-275, Tampa, FL
  • #24, I-25, Denver, CO
  • #25, Riverside Freeway, Riverside, CA
  • #26, Ronald Reagan Freeway, Oxnard, CA
  • #27, I-10, New Orleans, LA
  • #28, I-91, New Haven, CT
  • #29, Papago Freeway (I-10), Phoenix, AZ
  • #30, Penn Lincoln Parkway (I-376), Pittsburgh, PA
  • #31, Capital City Freeway, Sacramento, CA
  • #32, I-15, Las Vegas, NV
  • #33, I-84, Hartford, CT
  • #34, I-94, Milwaukee, WI
  • #35, East Independence Blvd, Charlotte, NC
  • #36, I-75, Cincinnati, OH
  • #37, I-65, Birmingham, AL
  • #38, Loop 410, surrounds San Antonio, TX
  • #39, Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94), Detroit, MI
  • #40, I-10, El Paso, TX
  • #41, I-195, Providence, RI
  • #42, I-90, Cleveland, OH
  • #43, I-26, Charleston, SC
  • #44, I-40, Nashville, TN
  • #45, I-270, St. Louis, MO
  • #46, I 4, Orlando, FL
  • #47, I-24, Chattanooga, TN
  • #48, I-95, Jacksonville, FL
  • #49, I-65, Louisville, KY
  • #50, I-40, Raleigh, NC

Last year, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization reached pretty much the same conclusion. It singled out the Downtown Tunnel as having the longest recurring afternoon delay in the region, about triple any other thoroughfare.

“Pound for pound, the Downtown Tunnel is about as bad as it gets for congestion,” said Dwight Farmer, the organization’s executive director.

“That’s not necessarily something to be proud of, but it surely makes our case – we need some help.”

Excerpts and photo from The Daily Beast; Clark Merrefield was the chief reporter and writer for this ranking. Additional reporting by Debbie Messina, The Virginian-Pilot.

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Feb 20

Hampton Roads is Happy, says Gallup

Categories:

About Hampton Roads, Tourism, Arts & Culture

by HR Partnership

Today is a “happy” day, as is most every day in Hampton Roads. At least, that’s according to Richard Florida’s Creative Class project which reports that the Hampton Roads MSA has tied for 7th overall as the “Happiest Metro Area” based on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. San Jose, CA, Washington, DC and Raleigh/Cary, NC lead the pack of “happy cities” for 2009.

The “cities” referenced are based on the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In many cases, more than one city is included in the same MSA. The San Jose metropolitan statistical area, for example, also includes the smaller nearby cities of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in addition to San Jose itself. Each respondent is attributed to his or her MSA based on the self-report of his or her ZIP code, and all large metropolitan areas had sample sizes ranging from 969 (New Orleans) to 16,772 (New York).

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index score measures for each city an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities. The overall composite score and each of the six sub-indexes’ scores are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents fully realized well-being.

Gallup and Healthways initiated the Well-Being Index in January 2008.

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