Ed. — From the Sunday, Dec. 11, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — Virginia Beach leaders have long struggled with how to attract young people to settle in the area. Is it job opportunities, housing affordability or proximity to the ocean that will appeal to them and make them want to stay?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that our attractiveness to the next generation is a complicated matter.
Young people entering adulthood today often have different priorities than past generations when considering where to put down roots. A recent City Council decision illustrates that our city leaders are out of touch with what concerns young adults and how the decisions these leaders make today might work against all of us in the future.
It was hard to watch the City Council proceedings last month when our leaders rejected the Human Rights Commission’s legislative agenda request to support access to continued safe, legal reproductive healthcare for women.
I was baffled by their inability to comprehend the intent of the request, which wasn’t to convey an opinion about abortion. The request was to shield the current standard in Virginia from further restrictions. As baffled as I was by council members’ failure to understand, I was even more alarmed by the lack of foresight while I considered the city’s dreams for its future.
I’ve often heard our leaders express great hope that Virginia Beach will become a destination for young people. They envision a city diverse in opportunity, populace and culture. One that can compete on the world stage for those young minds shaping our future. This dream eludes reality when the city’s leaders think regressively.
Past generations may have made adult decisions about what to do and where to live based on job opportunities and housing affordability. Young people today often make decisions based, at least partly, on where their fundamental human freedoms flourish and are supported. These freedoms are tipping points for young people.
For many young adults, social issues are at the top of the list when scouting a region for a place to call home. These “youngsters” understand that the decisions leaders make about our common human rights reflect a set of shared values that affect their lives daily. Young people want to know whether area decision-makers support their personal freedoms, such as choosing life partners and making reproductive healthcare decisions.
Imagine being female and longing for a career that thrives in Virginia Beach. But in Virginia, family-planning options, which have always been difficult for poor women and women of color to afford or access, could be further hampered by draconian laws that make abortion illegal and contraception almost impossible to attain.
Long-term family planning is central to many young couples’ career goals and lifetime hopes and dreams. Thus, where couples reside may be determined not by their career plans but by whether a state provides them protections under the law to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions without government intrusion.
This state-by-state inequity, in turn, will affect their career opportunities, salary potential, housing choices, family planning, childcare options and healthcare affordability.
One of the things young adults look forward to as they head into their own lives is the privacy of personal decision-making. But today, some of their most intimate decisions – their reproductive choices – are of public interest and subject to the scrutiny of politicians and officials who make and enforce law.
When states hamper women’s ability to make healthcare decisions independently, they impede their ability to reach their full potential. We hinder an entire society when this occurs. No one likes to think of women’s reproductive healthcare in terms of economics, but there it is.
Rejecting the Human Rights Commission’s request to support the current women’s reproductive healthcare standard was one giant out-of-step back for Virginia Beach city leaders.
When they envision the future, they will do well to consider social issues like this from an economic standpoint – as their children and grandchildren are likely to do. The city’s vitality depends on it.
The author is a former Virginia Beach Planning Commissioner and college professor. Reach her at leejogger@gmail.com.
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Well thought out and written article. You are ABSOLUTELY right that this draconian thinking is going to kill not only Virginia Beach’s chances of keeping young folks there, but the entire state if they continue to adopt this kind of thinking. Virginia Beach has been LUCKY so far, that the military has not closed any more bases. If that ever happens again, and they close down bases around it, they will lose a LOT of residents and future residents. It’s pathetic that there’s a last gasp of restricting freedoms from those who claim to be “patriotic” and “family values” people. They are neither.
Hi Denise,
Thank you for responding to my article. I feel as you do and as strongly as you do about the economic impact of regressive decision-making such as our city leaders engaged in during this discussion and opportunity to lead.
The next generation will surely look to the locate where their opportunities are great and their basic human rights are respected and protected. Virginia must consider this and VB must begin to “lead” rather than cowtail when it comes to human rights and issues that relate to them.
Keep writing me your thoughts and sharing your perspective…key to deeper thinking on my part and a bright future for others.
Karen