The Resource Curse: Hampton Road's Call to Action

The Hampton Roads region of Virginia receives tens of thousands of servicemembers leaving the military. They carry valuable job skills, personal attributes formed in the discipline of service, as well as educational and housing allowances of the GI Bill. Many, of course, are predetermined to return to their hometowns, but many would be willing to stay, build a career, and invest, if they were given an honest chance. Instead of embracing the growth mindset, local leadership is personally invested in auto dealerships and major appliance stores galore. The demand for these items come from young couples furnishing their first apartments and houses, with the help of military housing allowances. It would be amazing if dishwashers and refrigerators were built locally; however, the big-box sales jobs are often low-paid retail work. I have previously written about the need for better public transportation on and near military bases, servicemembers without cars are unfortunately often seen as a “difficulty”; the pressure to own a car comes not just from peers, but also from supervisors. (Naval Station Norfolk’s on-base shuttle just celebrated its 2nd anniversary of service). The economic drivers for the region are transportation and the military, particularly the receiving end of such. More positively, we could call it the “tip of the sphere”. While Northern Virginia – home to the Pentagon and CIA, retains the headquarters of major defense firms, homegrown entrepreneurship in the defense sector hasn’t received much attention in the Hampton Roads region. Much of it seems to be cults of personality; the former special operator who performs training sessions as an independent contractor, for example. However, Virginia Beach is the hub of transatlantic communications cables, and good work is being done in the UAV space (see Drone Up, for example). Shipyards are a major employer, but flush with government work, they have not embraced newer technology seen at modern Asian shipyards. The limits of innovation are certainly underwhelming: An engineer was tasked to determine that it was better for the boilermaker to press harder and work quicker; than to be gentle with the five-dollar drill bit, at one local shipyard. A resource curse comes with the misallocation of political power and capital investment. I am surprised by how difficult it is to raise capital for important projects, such as building overpasses over busy train tracks; or for community improvements in older neighborhoods. There seems to be plenty of funds, however, for municipalities to become owners of parking lots and tired shopping malls. Redevelopment by the major real estate players will come sometime, they promise. Or, witness the large companies that reap the benefits of a company town (captive workforce), without embracing the financial responsibilities of running a company town (underwriting bonds and sponsoring community amenities). A significant part of Hampton Roads faces an existential challenge: Rising sea levels. Within the next 50 years, easy living won’t be so easy as floods become more frequent. Awareness and action on coastal resiliency have begun recently, but we must stay ahead of the rising tide. In comparison to coastal Louisiana, once oil-rich but now stagnating after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Hampton Roads must make itself worth saving.

Farewell to the Old Ways

This week, we bid farewell to former President Jimmy Carter. Living to the age of 100, he had decades to build a post-presidential legacy. Among these accomplishments were peacemaking efforts, and building homes for the destitute, through Habitat for Humanity. While in office, some of the lesser-remembered points were implementing the metric system (which is officially on the books), legalizing homebrewing, and beginning deregulation of the transportation industries. We can also remember him as the last president of the old economy. During his administration, ocean shipping companies built ships in the United States with Construction Differential Subsidies, then sailed them with well-paid American crews with Operational Differential Subsidies. (The leaner and scrappier Maritime Security Program of today cannot be compared to the largess of the pre-1981 era). Ships built in that era, including the former M/V Mary Ann Hudson, which I sailed upon as a maritime student, have mostly headed to the scrapyard. But they sure provided stable employment for decades. Outgoing President Joe Biden awarded George Soros, among others, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. George Soros has been many things. Ironically, the Old Left used to criticize Soros for ending central planning in Eastern European economies. Then, according to some pundits, he became a boogeyman for the Right, with his large donations to Democratic Party causes. In the 1990’s, he was a neoliberal reformer; in the 2000’s, a contributor to left-wing causes, and most recently, a menace to public safety through massive, targeted contributions in District Attorney races. Flush with campaign cash, Soros’ team boosted ideological, often poorly-qualified, District Attorney candidates in Democratic Primaries. They would win, usually by narrow margins, on a wave of support from activists. These nominees were then elected in November when voters chose the party line. When in office, these “Reform Prosecutors” would burn the system down by tampering with pending cases, and imposing blanket policies such as denying pre-trial detention of violent offenders, and not prosecuting large categories of cases, even for repeat offenders. Apparently, voters have denied half of the “Soros prosecutors” a second term, both in the regular election cycle and in recall elections. Despite all this, we can’t forget that Soros has raised up free-market proteges through his investment firm. One of them is incoming President Trump’s Treasury Secretary pick, Scott Bessent. Trump had to thread a needle, picking someone palatable to Wall Street, while satisfying the nationalist, perhaps autarkist, economic policies demanded by Trump’s political base. I do hope that Scott Bessent becomes Soro’s final legacy, and that we can put the “Reform Prosecutor” era to rest, as a bad dream. Coming full circle on an old blog post: From January 1st of this year, large-windowed red buses have no longer been plying the streets of central Washington, DC. The city’s Circulator service, having operated for 20 years, was featured in one of my earlier blog posts, under the title “Circulation Dead”, for its low operating speed. As an augment to Metrobus, the regional bus service, Circulator at its peak was slow but provided extensive and fairly reliable service. Its $1 fare also never increased with inflation. During the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards, the buses stopped arriving in a predictable fashion. While the operating company blamed driver shortages, one could see the supervisors and drivers loitering at terminals, without a care about schedule. Bus tracking software was turned off. Metrobus, the regional system, got better, with dedicated bus lanes, real-time tracking, less bunching, and more efficient routing in the downtown area. While ridership on subway lines and regional buses recovered to the greatest part, ridership on the Circulator was a mere fraction of what it was pre-Pandemic. By 2024, choice riders could choose between regional buses using bus lanes (which Circulator did not use), the improved subway system (the Pandemic lull gave time to perform extensive track maintenance), shared scooters, and even rideshare options.