For this video, I took I 264 East and drove into the city of Portsmouth, Virginia, down in the southeast corner of the state. This part of the state part of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia - an area rich in history, and a strategic location for our naval presence. The day was Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 2 pm
Now, we’re going to give you a pretty good perspective on this city, as we’re going to start off in a bad part of town, then drive into downtown proper, then drive into a nicer neighborhood of Portsmouth, all in one continuous shot. This is one of the worst parts of town, in an area just southwest of downtown proper. However, there are far WORSE parts of town, they’re actually way further south in an area here. Seems that a lot of south Portsmouth is rough, and the further you get away from downtown, the worse it gets.
In any event, this is a good idea of what some of the more rundown neighborhoods of Portsmouth look like. But to me, they weren’t THAT bad. Clearly there are far worse bad hoods in many of our major cities. We’ll drive through this bad part for a while and then head downtown.
While it has an urban character in many areas, the housing stock in Portsmouth is dominated by small single-family homes and low-end suburban-style apartment complexes like this. Homes in this part of town are about $150-$175,000. As Hampton Roads’ population has grown, home buyers in this part of the state want newer, more modern homes. Portsmouth isn’t able to annex nearby land to grow, so they can’t easily build new communities, so it’s been hard to attract wealthier professionals. There just aren’t many places to build new homes here.
Sixty percent of Portsmouth’s housing units are more than 45 years old. The steady exodus of wealthier residents means that Portsmouth’s median income and educational attainment levels have lagged behind the rest of Hampton Roads.
Portsmouth is losing people these days. At one point, in 1960, Portsmouth had 114,000 people. In the last 60 years, its population has dropped by 17%, due primarily to outmigration of middle class families with children, who want safer and nicer. Today, there’s less than 100,000 people here.
Now, we’re getting into downtown. There’s a big navy presence here, and as you’ll see later, Portsmouth is directly across from the Elizabeth River from the city of Norfolk. The downtown area of Portsmouth gets a lot of tourism, mostly due to the city’s history, and because of the Navy presence. Portsmouth was founded in 1752, and has always been major port for the east coast, a place where ships were constructed, and the surrounding area was used as plantations, primarily cotton and tobacco. Portsmouth also saw many battles during the Civil War, due to its strategic location as a shipbuilding hub.
They’ve been talking about giving the downtown area a makeover and gentrifying parts of downtown with more modern retail and fancy waterfront condos. However, for now, the trend is moving AWAY from downtown urban cores, not building more housing stock within them. But Portsmouth leaders have discussed ways to reinvent their aging downtown in order to attract more business and residents.
Here’s more of downtown Portsmouth.
Here are some of the nicer neighborhoods in Portsmouth. This is a neighborhood called Park View. Homes here are anywhere from $175 to $325,000. This is only a few blocks from downtown proper.
And that’s a look at Portsmouth, Virginia. A city that’s slowly shrinking in size, and one that has had a hard time attracting new urban professionals. And that’s despite the general Hampton Roads population growth. So, Portsmouth is struggling.
#portsmouth #virginia
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