Newport News

Newport News, affectionately known as Bad Newz is one of Virginia's largest cities in perhaps the largest metropolitan area in Virginia. The overall feel of the city is industrial urban/non-descript urban sprawl. The most charming & distinctive areas of the city are Hilton Village, Port Warwick, City Center, East End, and Huntington Heights. To the ears of other cities in Hampton Roads which is the surrounding metro area, Newport News conjurs images of shipyards, ports, violent crime, drug infested neighborhoods, and beautiful river vistas. Newport News has some of the best shopping and retail for 100 miles around, with vast commercial areas including shops, department stores, hundreds of resturants, and theaters. Within the past 5 years Newport News has seen unparalelled urban and highrise growth and renewal, now making the city one of the finest cities in the Tidewater area. Newport News may still have that ghetto reputation but it is becoming more than just a rusted, industrial, cookie-cutter, urban no-where-ville that it was from the 70's through the 90's. The city is now capturing an identity of it's own, and a renaissance of sorts is happening there as we speak! Newport News is home to Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Baily, Michael Vick, Allen Iverson, Arron Brooks, Marcus Vick, and many future famous people. 50cent refers to Newport News in his song Ski Mask Way, stirring controversy with local rappers. Newport News is one of the most (Black to White) integrated areas of the U.S. Demographics are nearly split with many neighborhoods in the city splitting 50/50. The East End and many areas of Denbigh are exclusively African American, while there are virtially no exclusively White parts of the city. Bottom line, this place is probably quite different from where you live, anywhere else in America.