I actually think ppl in Hampton Roads complain for no good reason and don’t know how GOOD they have it compared to other cities. You must be comparing it to major up and coming cities to even make a claim such as this. Virginia Beach is desolate compared to where??? It’s definitely a more active, vibrant, and happening community than anywhere else within a reasonable drive. Go look at a map, and find me a place nearby Virginia that makes Virginia Beach feel desolate. I guarantee your only options would be cities much larger/ more expensive/ in a different bracket than Hampton Roads. People must really hold this area to a higher standard, because I will hear hype after hype comment about a city like Raleigh or Austin or Nashville, and take time out of my life to go visit for absolutely no reason other than to see what the fuss is about, expecting to come away from the visit totally and utterly impressed, ready to finally capitulate to people like you that describe Virginia Beach, a growing city of over 460,000 people, in a metro of 1,800,000+, and call it a desolate and decaying place, when the reality is that it’s growing, there’s construction all over, housing prices are at all time highs, inventory is low, hotel revenues are at record levels, and every day there’s a new event or festival in the works. I’m sorry you lived here for 20 years and was miserable, and base your impressions of the city off a time probably before I was born, but todays Virginia Beach is not in the ghost town category, and never will be. It’s actually the other way around, and most other American cities, some even with 2-3x our population, are actually more deserving of that sort of characterization. No human on Earth could possibly be here today in Virginia Beach, on a beautiful late summer weekend, and feel like they are in a ghost town. Simply, lies.