Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993 TAG: 9307160377
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PETE D. CASTELLI III
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a June 17 news story in this newspaper, "Uniting to seek `vision' " by Daniel Howes, it was pointed out that Virginia Tech and the Roanoke Valley Business Council are taking the lead in pulling together various chambers of commerce from Southwest Virginia to work on the "vision thing." There are several reasons to be concerned about this process.
For one, it seems this exclusive club is being assembled to snatch up federal and state grants to further an agenda on development that, in my opinion, is very limited. I feel that the chambers of commerce, various development agencies and Virginia Tech represent a limited "vision" of how to bring in jobs, plan for growth and protect workers' rights and the environment.
Does this coalition plan to include civic organizations, labor unions and worker organizations in the planning and discussions? Environmental groups, alternative development think-tanks and activists would probably balance out this group a great deal.
After all, Tech is involved in everything from assisting large corporations with the disposing of sludge in the coalfields to helping waste companies build incinerators in Martinsville. Throw in the work Tech-connected institutions do on radioactive waste for the Department of Energy and the so-called smart road and you just have to ask: Can we trust Tech to bring in acceptable industry for our area?
Virginia is among the last in state worker-compensation laws, No. 3 on the United States' list for importation of outside garbage, and 14th in the nation for water contamination and water-quality problems. There is reason to worry when you see "economic-development alliances," which include the same entities that have been in charge in the past and which allowed exploitation of workers and the environment to occur.
Many grass-roots' organizations are interested and working on clean, sustainable industry for Virginia. They usually are ignored by traditional economic-development organizations because they are not part of the accepted good-ol'-boy business world of contacts, or they represent a threat to the traditional thinkers on economic development.
Building shell buildings and buying jobs with the lures of cheap taxes, cheap labor and little environmental regulation just do not cut it anymore.
We must have jobs and a way for our people of the region to prosper, but leaders must make a commitment to reach out to more diverse organizations, build new, nontraditional networks and not grovel and prostitute themselves for any smokestack $5-an-hour business that wants to breeze through here. Virginia's workers deserve to be in on the process that will affect their future. And if we continue to treat our environment in Virginia the way we have in the past 10 years, you can kiss goodbye tourism and businesses that want a clean, attractive environment with clean water.
Pete D. Castelli III of Floyd is an environmental activist.
by CNB