Congratulations to Suffolk for
their fantastic success in economic
development. Suffolk incomes are in
a virtual tie for first place in the
region, while Virginia Beach has fallen
to third.
What that means to Virginia Beach
residents is that the chickens have
come home to roost. While Suffolk's
leadership was excelling at salary-focused
job creation, Virginia Beach's leadership
was pushing an economic strategy
for stagnation.
While Suffolk was landing defense
contractors and high-tech modeling
and simulation jobs paying $60,000
salaries, Virginia Beach was spending
time and money developing tourism
projects and restaurants. While these
are important to our city, when is
enough enough?
We should
learn from our neighbors and understand
that we reap what
we sow. If we continue to focus on
low-paying industries, we’ll
only gain low-paying jobs.
We truly need a new economic direction
focused more on growing the family
budget than the city budget. Families
need a better deal in Virginia Beach.
