
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1994                   TAG: 9407200076
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TENDING TO CITIES AND BUSINESS

PLAINTS OF fiscal and socioeconomic distress by Virginia's central cities have been, for years now, largely ignored by the General Assembly, where controlling influence rests increasingly with suburban interests.

The General Assembly, however, is not in the habit of ignoring the state's business lobby. With SOS signals also coming now from business leaders, who understand what's at stake, lawmakers may finally start getting the message.

Here it is: Continuing urban decline - with central cities abandoned to losing struggles - threatens not just pockets of poor people, but the economic development and viability of entire regions and the state as a whole.

Had just 12 urban governments set out in search of a city-revival strategy, they would have been pooh-poohed in some quarters as the same old self-serving officials seeking more taxpayer money. Joined by the 1,500-member Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the elite Virginia Business Council, they can't be so easily dismissed.

In announcing their undertaking this week, principal players took care not to place blame on Virginia's unique and irrational local-government system, with cities divorced from the counties wherein they exist. The leaders took care, too, not to predict that the coalition's proposals to lawmakers will focus on changing this structure, or on ending prohibitions against city annexations to expand territory.

That's fine. They shouldn't presume to know the outcome of their work. And no one, in any case, should believe that such reform is a cure-all for urban ills.

But Warner Dalhouse, chairman of First Union National Bank of Virginia and an instigator of the collaboration between state business leaders and municipal officials, did say this plainly: You can't have "sick cities" and a healthy commonwealth. When cities have "serious, deep and pervasive problems," that adversely affects every citizen and every business. New-business prospects, for instance, may come to the Roanoke Valley to consider sites in Roanoke or Botetourt counties. But they're going to check the pulse and other vital signs of the city of Roanoke.

State business leaders, Dalhouse says, are already seeing adverse effects, and fear for Virginia's ability to prosper and remain competitive with other states, and on the national and global stage. Roanoke city's problems may not be as serious and pervasive as some other cities', but Dalhouse worries: "Where will Roanoke be 20 years from now if we do nothing now?"

That question helped spark meetings a year ago involving Roanoke's Mayor David Bowers, City Manager Bob Herbert and their counterparts in Richmond and Norfolk. The three-city cabal soon expanded to include Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, Petersburg, Arlington, Charlottesville, Danville, Martinsville and Lynchburg.

Calls were made, conversations begun with business leaders in each of the urban centers. And from this evolved the partnership with the Virginia Chamber, which had been on its own urban-renewal trail as part of a push for statewide strategic planning.

The next step - to develop a strategy - will be harder, of course. Harder yet may be convincing residents and officials of other jurisdictions, notably suburban counties, that urban prosperity is in their interest.

Hardest of all may be overcoming legislators' resistance to change. The Allen administration, promising a strong economic-development thrust, may help. So, crucially, can a new show of leadership by Virginia's business community.

by CNB