Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 1, 1993 TAG: 9306010211
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Know thyself.
This counsel was inscribed at the Delphic Oracle, a place where Greeks went to hear the future foretold. Indeed, self-knowledge and destiny always have been intertwined - not just for individuals but for communities.
How might a better understanding of ourselves aid the effort to craft a long-term economic strategy, which the region's business community is about to undertake?
For starters, it could help us better discern our limits and our potential.
People and places aren't infinitely malleable. Residents of this community shouldn't kid themselves; some things in life are given.
Given, for instance, are the considerably long odds against our region surpassing Austin in high-tech operations, or Charlotte in developable flat land, or New York as a site for Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, or Disney World as a tourist attraction.
Less obviously: If the state is unlikely (anytime soon) to fund construction of a new free-standing university in Roanoke, attention ought to focus on other prospects for developing higher education - in particular, closer ties with Virginia Tech.
And if the aging trend, which has left this region older per capita than most, is unlikely to reverse course, we should concentrate on minimizing the drawbacks and capitalizing on the (now underestimated) pluses.
Which isn't to say a realistic assessment of the region will indicate only what we cannot or should not attempt. Self-knowledge also can surprise us, showing what we are capable of.
Surely, whatever control this region might gain over its destiny, whatever greatness may lie within its grasp, is likelier to elude us if we fail to recognize our own potential.
Most people know, for example, that schools here are pretty good. But how many realize that - with enough sustained and intelligent effort, clear and measurable goals, and strong community support - our schools could be the best in Virginia?
How many realize that numerous Roanoke-area employers are creating a culture of intense quality management and continuous improvement? How many appreciate the wonders that could be achieved (indeed, just in reputation and marketing alone) if this culture were extended throughout the region's business community and - why not - local governments?
While everything isn't possible, more would be if we could get better acquainted with ourselves.
Toward that end, the citizenry could commend a radical idea to elected officials: that there is merit in talking occasionally with other public officials within the region but across arbitrary political borders.
The homework required for the Roanoke Valley Business Council's initiative - to forge a regional economic strategy - also should help. Hard data need to be collected so we may consider our future not in terms of the old growth debates of the past, but in relation to reality: the economic and demographic trends that define our future.
More fundamentally, we need to begin thinking of ourselves as what, in fact, we are. For certain important purposes - economic development prominent among them - we are a region.
Increasingly, regions are the world's economic players, the global market tending to lift or drop them as integrated units. As such, the fates of a region's residents - rich and poor, black and white, young and old, suburban, urban and rural; and their families, their jobs and their neighborhoods - increasingly are linked to each other, and to the region's destiny.
We are in this together whether we know it or not. But we shouldn't need an oracle to tell us that the communities whose people and leaders realize they are a regional economy, and act as one, will find themselves better poised to fashion their future.
by CNB