Forward Thinking is What We Need in Hampton Roads

Forward Thinking represents the future of the “Future of Hampton Roads” (FHR), 

a forty plus year old organization of volunteer champions of our region. With this publication, we will have a home for our, and your, thoughts on what we’re doing right and wrong and how we can be, as my friend Mayor Meyera Oberndorf used to say, a “community for a lifetime.” 

Through the year, we will delve into issues from the “brain drain” to transportation, affordable housing to workforce development, the arts to education, the military, sports, tourism and more. The goal? To get the conversation started or moved along, thanks to cogent prodding from individuals with first-hand knowledge of their topics. 

Some notable Hampton Roads Movers and Shakers, from left to right: Captain John Smith, Amadeo Obici, Collis Huntington, Henry Clay Hofheimer, Frank Batten, Jessie Rattley, Pete Decker, Joe Jordan, Paul Trible, William Harvey, Ann Kilgore, Blake Cullen

You don’t have to be as extraordinary as some of the movers and shakers pictured elsewhere on this page. But have you ever put your thoughts in front of an 

audience and stepped up when others cautioned you to shut up? This is your chance. 

Where is racial progress occurring and what keeps us apart? Should we drop the borders and become one big city? Rather than angst over our lack of big-league teams, should we focus on where we can be better (or the best!) in literacy, customer service, heart health, energy research, the trade skills…even crabcakes. 

To get the ball rolling, there is a lot from me in this initial edition, but fear not, subsequent ones will introduce more voices. All we ask is that you write from your own experience (we also do interviews), telling us things we might not know that would be good for everyone in Hampton Roads, not just your “neck of the woods.”