Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992 TAG: 9201030383
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WESTERN VA. CAN MAKE IT A GOOD '92
WESTERN Virginians greet 1992 with the same misgivings shared by millions of other Americans. They're worried about the economy. Sales are down; joblessness is up. Layoffs are announced; budgets, both public and private, are squeezed.Generally, our region is better off than many other areas of the country. Gazing at a changed Roanoke skyline at the end of 1991, for example, one might think from the new spires and promontories that the city were in boom times.
It isn't, of course, nor is the region as a whole. The truism may still hold that the Western Virginia economy tends to be less volatile than elsewhere, experiencing neither the full glow of boom times nor the darkest depths of bad. But there is no immunity here from a stubbornly persistent national recession.
The impending shutdown of the Grumman plant in Roanoke, if not headed off, will idle hundreds of workers. In the New River Valley, there have been layoffs at the Radford arsenal, and cutbacks in state appropriations to Virginia Tech and Radford University have hurt. Countless smaller employers in this end of the state have had similarly tough years.
The ripple effects of such downturns are felt by many. In the latest Roanoke Valley Poll, more than three out of four residents questioned thought they either had made no financial progress since a year ago, or are worse off.
That may be the fact in many cases. Yet there is also in this region evidence of a kind of pessimistic fatalism.
The Roanoke Valley long has looked upon itself as dependent on the decisions and actions of others. Will the railroad finally move? Will General Electric lay off employees? Will some far-off corporation smile on the area and settle a major operation here?
We Western Virginians make a major mistake if we choose to be passive about our economic future. As Western Virginians, we can exert considerable control over the economy where we live. For example, we can:
STRENGTHEN coordinated efforts between government and business.
The Regional Partnership is one means by which the Roanoke Valley pursues prospective employers and encourages local expansion. So do localities, although they would do better to pool more of their efforts.
SELL our region more aggressively.
Particularly in times like these, the valley - like most of Western Virginia - has a product to sell: pleasant and accessible surroundings, industrial sites, ample water, a sizable labor pool here and in surrounding areas, attractive residential neighborhoods, good schools, and amenities surprising in a community of this size. Western Virginia needs to be more aggressive about selling itself.
A prime example is tourism. The state is finally doing more to talk up this end of Virginia, but locally funded tourist advertising and promotion remain embarrassingly small. They need to be increased dramatically. Tourism is clean industry that generates economic activity and tax dollars without adding greatly to tax-paid services.
As for the less-clean kind, Western Virginia can better influence what it gets if it puts more effort of its own into economic development.
RECOGNIZE that good schools are, among other things, a continuing investment in economic development.
They help attract new industry and keep what's here. They are also expensive, and when revenues drop become a target for the scissors.
Local governments should resist the temptation to reduce spending further on schools already suffering from state cuts. The region's schools have been too painfully raised to their present standards; a lowering is unacceptable - even if that implies a greater local effort to offset state cutbacks.
SECURE better cooperation among localities.
This is a shibboleth in the Roanoke Valley (where, sadly, it seems honored as much in the breach as in the observance). But it applies to the broader region as well.
Stronger links between the New River and Roanoke valleys, for example, would be of mutual benefit. Working together on such projects as the "smart road," Explore and the Hotel Roanoke reopening, the two valleys can help each other achieve their potential. Virginia Tech is much more than an educational institution; it is also an important tool of research and development, and there is mutual advantage in closer ties between the university and the Roanoke Valley. The hotel and conference center project is correctly a top priority.
FACE UP to our liabilities, so they may be remedied.
The Roanoke Valley has a few troubling ones, including race relations. Roanoke city, whose black population is less than 25 percent, has been headed for 15 years by a black mayor who is one of the city's most popular residents. But that and other outer evidence of racial harmony is offset by signs of festering resentment in the black community. There is a feeling, apparently widespread, that despite civil-rights gains of the past two decades, blacks in this area are discriminated against in jobs, promotions and business transactions.
It is a situation ripe for backlash from whites, and for exploitation by demagogues, already showing up on the political scene as an election season begins. Through outreach projects and social exchanges, strained racial feelings and potential friction need to be headed off. Such contacts need to be continued when the election year is past.
Suburban enclaves of heavily white population cannot escape fallout from inner-city ills. The suburbs share an interest in coping with such problems as access to affordable housing, just as the city has a stake in helping sister governments avoid traffic tie-ups.
Constructive cooperation on such shared interests may not always be feasible, but surely there are many occasions where it would be. Maximizing assets is only part of the way we achieve our potential. We also must go to work on trouble spots.
To many, these times may not look auspicious. But, goes the saying, they are very good times if we but know what to do with them. In a moment of uncertainty, the right amount of initiative can carry far.
Getting the region off the dime on tourism, adding life and dollars to its jobs-promotion efforts, preserving the quality schools and other resources that make its residents prize the area, working on liabilities - all are among the ways Western Virginia and the Roanoke Valley can make 1992 a very good year.