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

DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993                   TAG: 9306010222
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

USE BRAIN POWER TO REBUILD ROANOKE

I RECENTLY returned to Roanoke after being away 11 years and found a city with many disturbing problems. There has been little population growth in the past 10 years, the downtown area has declined commercially, and good-paying jobs are evaporating as industry moves out of town to more progressive areas. City officials have not been able to grasp the formula for increasing the community's standard of living.

A recent study by The Economist magazine reveals that most thriving cities are based upon an educated work force that attracts high-tech businesses and promotes entrepreneurship. This means that prosperity is directly linked to the presence of a university or college specializing in the sciences.

Roanoke needs a four-year technical college, not tourism. We can't compete with other legitimate, historical locations, such as Williamsburg, but we can compete for industry by investing in education. Hotel Roanoke and the Explore Project will create low-paying jobs, not the high-paying positions lost when Norfolk Southern moved operations out of town.

At the moment, the only growth industry that the city has is health care. And if you talk to hospital administrators, their greatest problem is finding trained nurses and other technical workers. The point is that the $42 million being spent on the hotel can be used more effectively by making Virginia Western a four-year high-tech college, because brain power is the basis for long-term economic growth.

Merchants want the hotel in hopes of reviving their businesses. But the real reason people don't go downtown is because it is a hassle to park. Put a free parking lot in every block, and traffic will increase. Make it easy for the consumer - as the malls do - or else the only people left downtown will be bankers, lawyers, their staffs and, of course, the city officials who didn't see it coming.

ALAN H. MOORE\ ROANOKE

by CNB