BILLY SHIELDS: A curious Commonweal viewer named Christi asked the question: why don't the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads get along?

So I hit the road and came here to Hampton Roads.

CASSANDRA NEWBY-ALEXANDER: The problem, I think, has... has its roots in the 1920s.

Although there were some issues prior to that.

BILLY SHIELDS: A map of the Hampton Roads area in the first part of the 20th century reveals rural counties that became independent cities.

What we call the Seven Cities.

Virginia Beach, Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk.

JOHNNY FLINN: As the population suburbanized, there's a demand for services outside of the central core of cities and also the racial makeup of the city, the racial geography of the city, is changing.

And so for a variety of different reasons, the cities started to annex county land to keep that expanding and the — that population that was expanding in numbers and in geographical footprint, to keep them within the city.

BILLY SHIELDS: Norfolk started rapidly expanding from 1923 to 1955.

JOHNNY FLINN: There was a racial dimension to it as well, but as white folks moved out to the suburbs, what a lot of people call “white flight,” those suburbs were out in the county.

And so for the cities to maintain their tax base and for the cities to maintain their white majority population, they needed to grow out to incorporate or annex county land into those cities.

BILLY SHIELDS: In the ensuing decades, other cities followed suit for complex reasons that crossed into politics, race and economics.

CASSANDRA NEWBY-ALEXANDER: In the 1950s, after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, then you have, essentially this fast creation of cities like Virginia Beach.

JOHNNY FLINN: And as one city did it in the direction of another, the other city did it back towards them.

And so you have, basically, from the 1950s to the 1960s this kind of tit-for-tat annexation, and then a couple of big consolidations.

BILLY SHIELDS: Virginia Beach, which began as an independent resort town, grew exponentially following the US Supreme Court decision Brown v. of Education.

JOHNNY FLINN: The population of Princess Anne County, rather than being annexed by Norfolk, it was — they preferred, largely based on either overt or subconscious racial bias and animus, preferred to be a part of the more white, the whiter, more affluent Virginia Beach, than be annexed by the less white, less affluent city of Norfolk.

Even though the political machine in the city of Norfolk at that time was still controlled by Norfolk's white population.

BILLY SHIELDS: By the early 60s, almost all of the counties in Hampton Roads had been consolidated into one of the Seven Cities.

One example Newby-Alexander points to is a sore point for the region... is Norfolk's transit system.

In 2016, Virginia Beach residents voted down a referendum extending Norfolk's light rail system, The Tide, into their city.

Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer says residents voted against the project because of its design.

BOBBY DYER: What we needed was a system, not just an east west.

Because you would have to drive to get to it.

BILLY SHIELDS: Not because of harbored tensions.

BOB CRUM: The narrative that Hampton Roads does not get along, the narrative that there is no regional cooperation, is a tired narrative from yesteryear.

BILLY SHIELDS: Both Dyer and Crum belong to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which meets monthly in Chesapeake.

Its focus is fostering regional cooperation.

Hampton Mayor Jimmy Gray points out: JIMMY GRAY: Maybe there was a time where regional cooperation wasn't what it is today.

You know, I wasn't in politics back then.

And so — but I think now we kind of fully understand that, you know, we're better as a whole region as opposed to each individual city.

BILLY SHIELDS: In the last decade, the area's jurisdictions have greenlit billions of dollars in regional highway improvements, including the Hampton Roads Bridge tunnel expansion.

And a Virginia Beach businessman has a dream to build an NBA-sized stadium there without using taxpayer dollars.

COLEMAN FERGUSON: I have a potential plan to let anybody invest in this.

And, so crowdfund this whole thing.

Let the Virginia Beach residents have a say.

If we were to sell shares, Virginia Beach residents could potentially get five times voting rights.

So I think my approach is that, which makes it different.

And I think that's what gives it an opportunity to succeed.

BILLY SHIELDS: He points to the metropolitan areas population, 1.8 million people.

COLEMAN FERGUSON: We're actually the largest city in the United States that doesn't have its own arena.

BILLY SHIELDS: But can Hampton Roads move beyond its public perception of infighting, despite a history of rocky race relations and internecine conflicts?

The ongoing Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel is an emblem some point to as indicative of collaboration.

It's one of many road works underway in the region.

JIMMY GRAY: And all of these projects were really designed to relieve congestion.

But the regional leaders had to come together and make a decision together on which projects would be funded first.

BILLY SHIELDS: These days in Hampton Roads, the Seven Cities are building bridges.

Maybe with a few lingering groans about traffic.

For VPM News, I'm Billy Shields.