In the March 5th article, “State Police put Brakes on Street Racing,” I offered that a place for auto enthusiasts to meet would reduce drug use and drinking and driving among our young people. Many people may have laughed my statement off and viewed it as a choice of the lesser of two evils. I’m here to tell you that it’s not. Here is my message to parents: Contrary to what the local media wants you to believe, your child’s interest in working on cars is by no means evil.

In addition to running DragVA.com, a popular online community of auto enthusiasts in Virginia, I served as Chairman of the Newport News Mayor’s Youth Commission and was a member of the National League of Cities Council on Youth, Education, and Families. The latter is a group of mayors, councilmembers, and executives of youth serving organizations from around the nation who have an expressed interest in issues related to young people in this country. The one constant question I would be asked by local elected officials was in some form: Why are so many young people involving themselves in underage drinking and doing drugs?

The (short and simple) answer is this. There just are not enough things for our youth to do in our communities.

Yet, here in Hampton Roads we have an immense number of people who are auto enthusiasts who would want nothing more than a place to congregate with other locals who share the same interests. Meeting together in empty parking lots to admire each other’s hard work, participate in good fellowship, and create new friendships is a harmless combatant against underage partying.

With all due respect to the concept of “teen centers,” no teen center in Hampton Roads would come close to drawing the numbers that the “car crowd” could bring in week in and week out. With support from local law enforcement in the form of moderate supervision; designating a VDOT lot as a hangout spot would be the golden ticket to answering the age old problem of providing young people something to do.

A seemingly simple, effective, and cheap solution. So why would anybody be against it? The fact of the matter is that by choosing to only cover the bad apples of auto enthusiasts, it creates a negative view on the community as a whole. The local media was all over the street racing bust on March 4th, and rightfully so. We are unapologetic of those who participate in illegal activities and they should face the consequences. But where is the coverage of all the positive stories of the local auto enthusiasts?

Stories like that of the hundreds of people who join Team Top End, a local car club, in donating to charities such as the Food Bank of the Peninsula multiple times a year. Or the story of the high school senior working an after-school job just so he can modify his car to shave a second off his quarter mile time at the track each summer. Or the story of the regular joe who translated his devotion to cars into a successful business venture.

Stories of charity, hard work, goal-setting, and entrepreneurship don’t make auto enthusiasts seem so evil now do they?

Chasing people out of parking lots like they are some sort of parasites is not part of the solution. It’s part of the problem. Encouraging people to drive around looking for the next hang out spot will only encourage more illegal street racing. The answer is for local officials and authorities to work together with the local auto enthusiast community to control where to go. A partnership and some communication would go a long way in solving a lot of the problems regarding street racing, promoting positive values, and underage partying.

Sung Kim is a third year political science major at Old Dominion University and owner of DRAGVA.COM. He may be reached by e-mail at: sungek@gmail.com