Why Not Here? Young Residents Tell Why They Love Hampton Roads

At realtor/marketing savant Jake Maines’ monthly Networking Happy Hour, held at various watering holes in Virginia Beach, you can learn a lot about why young people are in Hampton Roads and for how long…just by asking. 

Tatiana Usynina is a transplant from the Ural region of Russia, brought here by an “agency” at age 24. Now 40, she has been married for 15 years, her husband an employee at the Navy Exchange. They have three children, a 12-year-old and 7-year-old twins. “I am a life and health insurance agent and enjoy it, because I’m helping people.” Now a US citizen, this was her first networking event and hopefully she picked up some new clients. “I really like it here, it’s manageable, affordable.” 

Software developer Zack Lauck, who settled here after 30 years in the Navy as a helicopter pilot, is not so enthralled. “I think this area is not particularly interesting,” pointing to its lack of hills and walkable neighborhoods, Virginia Beach not being Ghent or Old Towne. “You have to drive everywhere here. I’ve stayed because my wife has a successful event planning business. My two kids have said they would never come back here,” says Zack, who despite his lack of enthusiasm was meeting people at Jake’s event at Voodoo Brewing near Town Center. 

So was Travis Tisdale, Granby High Class of 1995, who earned an associate’s degree in Indiana before returning home to finish college at ODU. “I was then at Trader Publishing for 18 years” before taking his upbeat personality, sales skills (and love of music) to Sinclair Communications, owner of five radio stations from the Coast and BobFM to WNIS and 96X. “I cannot imagine not being here,” says Travis, who skis, fishes and goes to Tides’ games. “What can’t you do here?” 

At Voodoo, he was chatting with Paul Telkamp who runs a pair of businesses, one providing Microsoft services, the other vacation rentals. What brought him to Hampton Roads? “I grew up in Bampa, Texas, near Amarillo and was working there when the economy cratered in 2008 and I lost my job,” says Paul. “I went on Linked-in and said I would go anywhere for a decent one.” The Navy Reserve here reached out, and Paul took it. He’s also been with Ferguson and Stihl but now he’s his own boss, with three kids. “I really appreciate the diversity here and the climate.” 

Trevor Knight is a native, a 2014 graduate of Kempsville High and Mount Olive University in North Carolina. “That place either smelled like pickles or a slaughterhouse,” Trevor recalls but he did earn a degree in music production and pedagogy. Today he is a New York Life agent and contemplating his next move. “I don’t think I’ll be forever although I enjoy being close to family.” Maybe that or Jake Maines will keep Trevor in Tidewater.