Old Point Comfort with Fort Monroe nominated as one of
America's Most Endangered Historic Places (Read more)

MULTIMEDIA

Dec. 6, 2007: WAVY TV-10's OREN LIEBERMANN aired a nice interview piece about the Dec. 6 meeting where National Park Service officials and over 130 people from around Tidewater engaged engaged in a discussion of the possibilities for a Fort Monroe National Park. (See the 2-minute video at WAVY.com.)

Nov. 2, 2007: WVEC TV-13's MIKE GOODING ASKS CANDIDATES ABOUT FORT MONROE. Either Tricia Stall or John Miller will join not only the Virginia Senate, but the panel deciding Fort Monroe's future. In brief sound bites, Mrs. Stall warns energetically about the threat of inappropriate development, while Mr. Miller advocates awaiting re-use study results. (Note: While it must be said that Mike Gooding stands out among journalists in treating Fort Monroe as a serious issue, it must be noted that his question factually misrepresented what's historic at Fort Monroe. The entire post, not just the moated fortress, was designated a National Historic Landmark a half-century ago.)

Aug. 29, 2007: Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder discussed Fort Monroe with two key African-American cultural leaders on Cathy Lewis's "HearSay." He talked to Gerri Hollins, who presides over the Contraband Historical Society (and is a vice president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park), and Sheri Bailey, who leads efforts for Juneteenth, the annual celebration of slavery's end. Gov. Wilder expressed no opinion about what Fort Monroe should come to look like, but he emphasized that in his view, the post should remain completely in the hands of its owners, the public. And he agreed that the Contraband story should be a major American memory instead of a little-known one. The local NPR broadcast on 89.5 FM later included some discussion with CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen about the proposal for a Historic Quadrangle having a Civil War component made up of Fort Monroe augmented by the Mariners' Museum's Monitor Center. On the timeline of the show, the Fort Monroe and Historic Quadrangle parts can be heard as follows:  

* From time 14:00 to 19:13, Sheri Bailey & Gov. Wilder
* From time 19:13 to 21:10, Gerri Hollins & Gov. Wilder
* From time 35:45 to 40:30, Steve Corneliussen described the Historic Quadrangle
* From time 45:25 to 47:00, a caller praised the Historic Quadrangle idea

Link to MP3 Audio

Link to streaming audio

(Also: You might want to read the report and analysis that Steve Corneliussen wrote about  this radio discussion.)

Aug. 15, 2007: Coy Barefoot of the Sorensen Institute and Charlottesville radio station WINA inteviewed Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant for a response to one, but only one, of the points raised in the Aug. 13 interview that's linked just below on this page. Secretary Bryant treated Hampton as having, in effect, a sort of ownership of Fort Monroe, calling the post "economically strategic for the city of Hampton" and stating that the Kaine administration is "working in partnership with the city of Hampton to come up with a good reuse plan." The secretary noted something alarming, that this is all being done "recognizing that housing and some commercial development will be a part of it." So, does Hampton get its gated-community-without-the-gate on our land -- yours and mine -- after all? It is becoming increasingly clear that the Kaine administration has had its own plan for Fort Monroe from the beginning, with only a nominal level of interest in ideas from people who do not live in Hampton and who do not share a standard, routine "development" mindset. The deep irony, of course, is that if you only care narrowly about the money, the option of making Fort Monroe a grand public place would actually bring Virginia more, not less, prosperity.
Link to the interview posted online, and please note that you can post a comment
Aug. 13, 2007: Coy Barefoot of the Sorensen Institute and Charlottesville radio station WINA inteviewed CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen about the June 26 interview, linked just below on this page, in which Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant told the audience that Fort Monroe will define the Kaine administration's legacy, but not once so much as mentioned the national park option.
Link to the interview posted online, and please note that you can post a comment

June 26, 2007: Coy Barefoot of the Sorensen Institute and Charlottesville radio station WINA inteviewed Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant about Fort Monroe's future. Though the secretary told the audience that Fort Monroe will define the Kaine administration's legacy, not once did he so much as mention the national park option.

Link to the interview posted online

June 11, 2007: Mike Gooding of Channel 13 interviewed Congresswoman Thelma Drake about the National Park Service study requested in a special paragraph in the new state law about Fort Monroe. This video segment also includes a comment from CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen. (NOTE PLEASE: Mike Gooding does a great job reporting about Fort Monroe, but it must be stipulated that the National Historic Landmark comprises almost the entire post, not just the moated stone fortress.)

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March 27, 2007: Mike Gooding of Channel 13 interviewed CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen about the new planning panel for post-Army Fort Monroe. (Please note that the clip begins with a brief commercial.)

Link to streaming video from Channel 13
Feb. 12, 2007: Mike Gooding of Channel 13 put politicians on camera about the starkly contrasting Tom Gear bill vs. the Kaine-Williams bill.  (CFMNP's snapshot-brief handout summarizes the two bills.) In Gooding's TV clip, Republican Sen. Williams, Democratic Gov. Kaine and Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott support Kaine-Williams and thus argue, in effect, that Fort Monroe belongs to Hampton -- and not to its actual owners: all Virginians. It's particularly disappointing to see Congressman Scott characterize Kaine-Williams as ensuring "broad representation," given that Kaine-Williams in fact calls for alarmingly narrow representation. Kaine-Williams calls for a panel of five politicians from the Hampton-favoring, development-minded Kaine administration, plus Sen. Williams and Del. Gear, plus seven Hamptonians -- without the many non-Hamptonian Virginia citizens and nonpolitical citizen experts called for by Del. Gear's bill. (For more on the stark contrast between the Gear and Kaine-Williams bills, please see the second Feb. 10 entry on our Articles&op-eds page.)   
Link to streaming video from Channel 13
Feb. 9, 2007: Mike Gooding of Channel 13 asked CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen to summarize the differences between the Kaine-Williams bill to donate Fort Monroe to Hampton for narrowly envisioned purposes and Del. Tom Gear's bill to treat Fort Monroe as a strategic economic and quality-of-life asset for the region and the state.
Link to Channel 13's streaming video
Feb. 8, 2007: CFMNP's Gerri Hollins discussed Fort Monroe and the Contrabands with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West on Cathy Lewis's "HearSay" on WHRV FM 89.5. Smiley and West were appearing in advance of the Black State of the Union event upcoming at Hampton University and Jamestown. Gerri, president of the Contraband Historical Society, said of the Contrabands that "in liberating themselves, they liberated our nation."
(Duration: about 4.5 minutes; scroll to time 17:40 to hear Gerri's phone call.)
        Listen (Streaming audio from WHRV)
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Jan. 31, 2007: Cathy Lewis on AM 850 interviewed CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen about Fort Monroe and the General Assembly. Duration: ten minutes. 

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Jan. 29, 2007: Tony Macrini on WNIS 790 AM interviewed CFMNP's H. O. Malone and Mark Perreault in a wide-ranging, nearly hour-long discussion of Fort Monroe's future. You can listen to part or all:

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Jan. 24, 2007: On WHRV 89.5 FM's "HearSay," Cathy Lewis and Governor Kaine discussed Fort Monroe's future based on a question submitted by CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen -- although the governor took off discussing the premise and never did get to the question itself. The governor led off the show in an interview of nearly 20 minutes. You can scroll to the Fort Monroe part (from time 16:25 to time 19:00) near the end of the interview, and then scroll a few minutes more to hear Cathy and Steve discuss the question further (time 24:15 to time 30:00).

Listen Here (Streaming audio from WHRV)
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Virginia Delegate Tom Gear is seeking a NATIONAL PARK FEASIBILITY STUDY by offering legislation -- a General Assembly resolution calling on Virginia's congressional delegation to cause the Congress to mandate such a study by the National Park Service. Del. Gear has also introduced a resolution calling for a state study commission on Fort Monroe, comprising eight legislators and six citizens. Hear the 41-second news report that WHRV 89.5 aired on Friday, January 12, 2007:

Audio  (1 meg mp3 download)

Reporter Mike Gooding of WVEC Channel 13 interviewed CFMNP Vice President for Communications Steve Corneliussen and Hampton Mayor Ross Kearney for a 90-second news spot on Dec. 8, 2006.  (Note from Steve: In this special case, it's sensible for me to continue writing this Multimedia entry in the first person. And we don't even actually have a link to any video in this case. But please read on anyway.)
    With this report, Mr. Gooding made himself a pioneer in Tidewater commercial TV. He's the first commercial TV reporter to treat the Fort Monroe question with the seriousness it demands.
    It must be noted that the Army, which supports donating Fort Monroe for Hampton's "redevelopment," denied Mr. Gooding permission to interview me on site at the post, though the mayor was welcomed. 
    (On Nov. 16, the Army had similarly denied permission to Cathy Lewis of WHRO to have me speak to her Regional Leadership Institute when they visited Fort Monroe. For my part of that day's program, Ms. Lewis, over 40 regional leaders, Mr. Rick Russ of the city of Hampton and I were forced to improvise in a building in Phoebus.)
    So Mr. Gooding interviewed the mayor at scenic Fort Monroe, and interviewed me in a parking lot next to Mill Creek, with Fort Monroe sort of visible in the distance. As recorded in a rough transcript -- which I've annotated concerning several factual matters -- I got a couple of good chances to advocate for a Fort Monroe National Park.
    I was grateful for the chance, especially given the inattention to the Fort Monroe question so far by Tidewater's commercial TV stations.
   As my transcript annotations show, however, I believe either Mr. Gooding or his news editor misunderstands certain fundamental dimensions of the overall issue. WVEC apparently doesn't know that it has bought into the Hampton-owns-it presumption. That false notion actually died last summer -- though the threat of Hampton's takeover of Fort Monroe is by no means dead.
    So it's not from my usual authorial vanity as an op-ed writer, but is instead from my zeal for Fort Monroe and the simple facts, that I wish Mr. Gooding and others who still buy the Hampton-owns-it presumption would simply read the obituary for that presumption that appeared on the Daily Press op-ed page on Sept. 30.

    Overall, I thought Mr. Gooding's heart was in the right place, and I can say on behalf of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park that we hope he will continue to pioneer serious commercial TV coverage of the Fort Monroe question. He'll be especially needed in January 2007, when the legislature convenes.

San Francisco's Presidio, a precedent and possible inspiration for a vibrant, self-sustaining Fort Monroe National Park, was profiled in a nine-minute "NewsHour" PBS report on Nov. 30, 2006. The report underlines this young national park's growing success. In doing so, it illustrates an instructive contrast.
    In California, skepticism about the Presidio bayfront national park -- a park made from a remarkable old Army post -- comes mainly from people who prefer a traditional national park to an entrepreneurially self-sustaining one. 
    In Virginia, however, skepticism about a possible Fort Monroe bayfront national park -- a park made from our own remarkable old Army post -- comes mainly from people who would prefer to see the post economically exploited by one city. Some Virginia skeptics would rather not see Fort Monroe become even an entrepreneurially self-sustaining national park, not to speak of becoming a traditional national park.
    Often Virginia's skeptics haven't actually familiarized themselves with higher Presidio-inspired possibilities. Often they operate under the misimpression that a national park of any sort at Fort Monroe would mean making the post into a taxpayer-burdening museum instead of into a self-sustaining, grand, vibrant public place full of life and activity.
    At Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, we hope those skeptics and many others will consider all that the Presidio's success shows is possible for Virginia at Fort Monroe. Links are available below.
    Please note: At one point in the profile, the reporter observes that "the success of the Presidio has raised speculation that Congress could force other national parks to pay their own way." Presidio executive director Craig Middleton answers that that's "unlikely, because the Presidio is unique. This model fits here; we're next to an urban area; we can generate revenue from the buildings that we have; it doesn't work other places." 
    But the Presidio is in fact not unique. The attributes Middleton cites apply also to the analogous Fort Monroe.
    He's clearly parrying California-style skeptics, and not thinking about Virginia-style skeptics or about the realities and consequent opportunities at Fort Monroe -- which, by the way, is in many respects in better shape to begin following the Presidio inspiration than the Presidio was.
Audio only (mp3 download)

Lower-resolution video (for modem/dialup: WMV, length 9:31, 2.9 MB)  
Higher-resolution video (for broadband: WMV, length 9:31, 10.6 MB) 

CFMNP Treasurer Louis Guy -- who is also president of the Norfolk Historical Society -- discussed Fort Monroe's post-Army future with historian John Quarstein, Hampton official Rick Russ, and moderator Joel Rubin on Channel 13's "On the Record" on November 19, 2006.  Click here for a link to the program on WVEC's website.

CFMNP President H. O. Malone spent an hour on August 2 talking with Tony Macrini on WNIS AM 790. Tony is a member of the Casemate Museum board, and he loves the idea of a Fort Monroe National Park . He gave Dr. Malone a great opportunity -- and Dr. Malone made the most of it.

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Listen Here (MP3 - 41 minutes, 9.34 MB)

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    Part 1 (21 minutes, 3.1 MB)
    Part 2 (19 minutes, 2.8 MB)

Several CFMNP representatives spoke on "Inside Hampton Roads," a half-hour civic affairs show that first aired on Sunday, July 30, on four stations, and then again on Sunday, Aug. 6, on STAR 94.1 FM. Interviewer Mark Rawlison did a great job getting the Fort Monroe National Park story told.

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Listen Here (MP3 - 30 minutes, 6.85 MB)

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    Part 1 (15 minutes, 2.2 MB)
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Fort Monroe National Park Discussion on 89.5 FM Radio, Tuesday, July 11. On the call-in show HearSay, Cathy Lewis interviewed Steve Corneliussen of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park , Brian DeProfio of the city of Hampton , and the Daily Press's Fort Monroe reporter, Kimball Payne.  This 40-minute interview also includes important observations from Craig Middleton, executive director of the Presidio Trust.

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You can download either a broadband or a dial-up version of the 46-minute Fort Monroe National Park discussion held June 15 on "Macrini's Morning News Team" radio show on WNIS AM 790. Guests were Mark Perreault, a vice president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park , and Ed Novi, a communications official from the city of Hampton . Both had a lot to say about vital Fort Monroe questions.

Broadband Connection (18.2 MB)

Dial-up connection - Full Version (6.5 MB)
    Part 1 (18 minutes, 2.6 MB)
    Part 2 (17 minutes, 2.4 MB)
    Part 3 (11 minutes, 1.5 MB)

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Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park .
Revised: December 06, 2007