Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993 TAG: 9302160340
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RESTORING JOBS IN THE REGION
"HOW SHOULD the region respond to job losses?" we asked readers the other day. In the responses on today's Commentary Page, a couple of points stand out:
Only faint echoes can be heard of the region's traditional "growth vs. no growth" argument.
Nothing about the region, or the Roanoke Valley in particular, makes economic growth and a reversal of the jobs-loss trend a hopeless dream.
For years, Roanokers and Western Virginians have debated whether growth is a good or bad thing. Life here is fulfilling, argued one side, and would become less so if Roanoke were to become, say, "another Charlotte." The region must grow or wither on the vine, argued the other, and becoming "another Charlotte" is not a realistic hope/fear in any event.
The hemorrhaging of jobs may have quieted the quarrel, the perils of no-growth becoming entirely too clear. In any event, the old debate was not renewed in this Readers Forum.
In her reminder that the environmental health of the valley should be considered along with its economic health, Betty North perhaps came closest to touching on the old issue.
Certainly the environment should be respected. But absolute purity can never be guaranteed. Were minuscule environmental risk allowed to block substantial economic reward, it could pave the way for greater environmental damage later, when the economic reward is sought more desperately.
As a rule, readers seem to have faith in the basic soundness of the region as a place for people to live and work: The first two-thirds of Oliver Sage's analysis is a good summary of the area's positive attributes.
But the search is on for that missing key - whether it be transportation (Sage) or tourism (M. Rupert Cutler and Audrey W. Humphrey), local-government collaboration (Donald R. Cole and George Gorbatenko Jr.) or a program of sales ambassadors (Barbara Bryan) - which can unlock the door to prosperity.
The most exotic key was suggested by Humphrey, who proposes a casino in the empty old Norfolk Southern office buildings. That may be a tad outre - but Cutler of Explore Park offered evidence of the economic potential of playing the non-gambling tourism card.
Only Gorbatenko, however, specifically cited the role of technology and higher education in economic development (though Clayton Braddock did so in a more general way in his call for renewal of the entreneurial spirit). Building on the area's technological specialties, as Gorbatenko urges, seems as solid a way as any for ensuring that jobs now vanishing will be replaced by new and better ones.