> This sounds very nice.

Parts of the new reuse plan really are nice. If you had shown me this reuse 
plan back in September 2005, when I published the op-ed that appears at 
http://www.cfmnp.org/Future_of_Fort_Monroe.htm , I'd have been elated. Back 
then, there was no evidence that Virginia's leaders had any idea what they 
were dealing with. We have risen a long way since those days. However:

> I hope that all Virginians and Virginians
> at heart will make sure that this works.

What I hope that Virginians will do is make sure that our leaders continue 
to move away from the unwise planning that began in 2005, and toward the 
kind of future that the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has endorsed. (More about 
that below.)

Some might be interested in the two e-mailouts that my organization, 
Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, has distributed today. Along with 
the Pilot, we advocate a self-sustaining, revenue-generating, innovatively 
structured Fort Monroe National Park -- the whole National Historic Landmark 
at Old Point Comfort, not just the moated fortress. Our precedent, though 
it's not a direct model, is San Francisco's Presidio.

Those two messages follow:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "S. Corneliussen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "S. Corneliussen" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:08 PM
Subject: Ft Monroe's future & Gov. Kaine

At Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park (CFMNP.org), we hope many of 
Fort Monroe's actual owners -- American citizens -- will turn out for 
Wednesday's 9 A.M. public event with Governor Kaine at Fort Monroe's 
Chamberlin Hotel. And we'd like to contribute one key thought.

 In June, following release of the National Park Service study, a Norfolk 
Virginian-Pilot editorial emphasized that post-Army Fort Monroe will need 
National Park Service involvement via a public trust, and that this requires 
"local, state and federal leaders [to] unite in the obvious -- creating Fort 
Monroe National Park." We hope that Governor Kaine will take the lead on 
that tomorrow.

 For more information, please see "What's New" at CFMNP.org. If you can 
come,  you'll want to arrive much earlier than 9 because of the day-pass 
bottleneck  at the post's gate. (Be sure your license and registration are 
up to date,  by the way. Passengers too must show photo ID.)

 Thanks.

 Steve Corneliussen
Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park (CFMNP.org)
(Comments? Please use reply e-mail.)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: S. Corneliussen
To: S. Corneliussen
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:39 PM
Subject: Governor's Ft Monroe news release


Note to reporters and others concerning the governor's Fort Monroe press 
release that appears below:

At Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, we're glad that there's much to 
recommend the Fort Monroe reuse plan, but we also believe that the governor 
should engage the letter that our president, Dr. H. O. Malone, sent him 
about problems in the plan. That letter, and the Virginian-Pilot's crucial 
editorial from June, are available through our CFMNP.org "What's New" page.

Some observations that the press and citizens might want to consider:

We're glad that the governor has switched to "maintains full public access." 
He used only to promise a good bit of public access to this National 
Historic Landmark that belongs to everybody, not just to Hampton.

It's false or nearly false, of course, to say that the NPS contributed to 
the reuse plan. This matters because the NPS is obviously put off by all of 
the development-for-the-sake-of-development that still mars the planning --  
not to mention the residual component of development for the perceived sake 
of a small number of powerful Hamptonians.

It's true that "new development within strict guidelines" is better than 
before -- better than when Hampton was going to pave the heart of Fort 
Monroe with upscale multistory houses, as shown at the home page of 
CFMNP.org -- but this promise still does not appear to live up to what Fort 
Monroe Authority Executive Director Bill Armbruster has promised in public: 
no development merely for the sake of development. We hope that the governor 
will address this apparent inconsistency. We hope that reporters and 
citizens get a chance to ask him about that tomorrow.

The press release also says that "the 18-member FMFADA will continue working 
with the Army, community leaders, and the City of Hampton to prepare to 
implement the plan upon the Army's departure in three years." That goes 
against the Pilot editorial's prescription for Virginia's leaders:

QUOTE
"But none of those stories will be told as effectively or reach as broad an 
audience unless the National Park Service is involved in the next stage of 
Fort Monroe's history, unless preservation groups commit resources to 
establishing a public trust for its protection, and unless local, state and 
federal leaders unite in the obvious -- creating Fort Monroe National Park."
UNQUOTE

We hope that the governor engages this problem, and takes the lead on this 
opportunity.

Thanks very much.

Steve Corneliussen
Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park 

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