Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 16, 1994 TAG: 9401170229
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Hugh McColl
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Through the leadership of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce - and a partnership that reaches across the valleys - you formed the New Century Council, signaling your ambition and intent to meet the new century prepared.
Your success in raising funds for the revival of the Hotel Roanoke demonstrated extraordinary public commitment to your community's well-being.
The Roanoke Valley is outpacing the state in job growth.
The development of the Explore Park and the concept of a ``smart road'' linking Roanoke with Virginia Tech indicate that you are indeed using ``New Century'' thinking.
Those are the building blocks of a strong and lasting regional vision. But if your vision is to stand the tests of time and weather, it will need mortar to hold those blocks together. While Charlotte has tasted success, I don't mind telling you that our vision is constantly being put to the test.
Charlotte, like most cities, came late to regionalism. The city evolved first to a seven-county metropolitan area. Today, we define the region - what we call the Carolinas Partnership - as 14 counties.
Regionalism has worked because we first established a strong vision for our city. It began to take shape in the 1960s amid the atmosphere of public- school integration. As we threw off the yoke of segregation, we redirected our efforts to creating not just one school system, but one city ... one community. The business sector, the government sector, the citizens groups came together and established a true consensus about where we wanted our city to go. We wanted to build a strong central city, a city whose government was friendly to business, a city that cared about its people of all economic levels and races.
We agreed to reset the cornerstones of our central city, to build an airport capable of fueling economic growth, to nurture a growing university. And all the while we maintained consensus that kept us moving forward.
When we launched our push toward regionalism in the mid-1980s, not only had the role of the city been established, but so had the roles of the surrounding counties and communities. The realization of our interdependency grew. Today, we understand that Charlotte's tax rate prevents it from being a manufacturing center. Surrounding counties have long been more attractive to industry, dating back to Reconstruction. What the city can do, however, is help surrounding counties win new industry - and we do. Industrial developers cooperate. The banks cooperate. Duke Power Co. does its part. T In thinking
about all this, it became clear to me how much our regions have in common. Roanoke serves as the distribution, financial and professional hub of its region, with its own flow of in- and out-bound commuters. You have built a beautiful new airport and plan a giant new conference center, which ready you for more growth. So you have maintained your natural strengths - and improved upon them.
As Charlotte grew from being a city to effectively being a region, we began to think of our resources - the airport, our largest hospital, comprehensive highway planning - as truly regional. Perhaps most important, educational objectives now span the Piedmont of the Carolinas, leading toward the day when we have a work force of uniform quality and capability.
Our shared growth has made possible things that make life better for everyone in our region - a new performing-arts center, a new basketball coliseum and an NBA franchise that calls it home, a new convention center that will bring more visitors. And, most recently, a new stadium - downtown, I might add - and an NFL football team. Those are building blocks but it takes more than the right materials. You've got to have the mortar to hold it all together.
The good news is that the Roanoke and New River valleys are in position to ensure that these bonding elements are in place as you construct your vision for the next century. What are the elements of this mortar?
First, and most important, consensus. Be inclusive in drawing up your vision. You must first sell your it to the people of the Roanoke and New River valleys. But then you've got to sell it to those you want to come here. So make it clear, inspiring and attainable. Then stick to it. Your own success with Design '79 and what it accomplished for your central city illustrates the wisdom of sticking to the plan.
Second, boldness. As federal resources dwindle and challenges such as crime reach overwhelming proportions, it's easy to shrink your vision to simply managing the status quo. But true progress requires bold initiative. So dream big.
Visiting reporters sometimes have returned home and written that Charlotte's optimism and intense focus on future success amount to arrogance. We admit only to being confident. We were long shots to get the Final Four, but America is coming to Charlotte in April. We were underdogs to get an NFL franchise, but were the unanimous first choice of league owners.
I think the ``smart road'' concept fits in the same mold - bold, out of the ordinary, even a bit courageous. If it attracts critics immediately, you know you're on to something. Third, understand that success depends on
interdependence, and has no room for in-fighting. Resources are scarce. Local governments must work together to leverage what resources there are. Establish a plan that requires you to cooperate, complement and work for the common good.
Beyond governmental cooperation, foster a sense of interdependence among your valley's people. A true sense of interdependence requires a quality that seems out of popularity in the '90s - toleration of views other than one's own. But I challenge you to go farther: Value and appreciate different perspectives, new ideas and new leadership.
Intolerance - and the divisiveness it creates - acts as a cancer to consensus. It breaks down unity of purpose and blocks certain segments from contributing to the vision. Part of what I'm talking about is race. But more than that is the growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots, the hopeful and the hopeless, that threatens American society. The crisis facing most cities today is the growing underclass that - lacking education or training - is sure to become only more hopeless, more desperate and more dangerous. No vision is complete without realistic solutions to this crisis and the commitment to see them through. Understand that your fate is interwoven with that of your entire community.
Unfortunately, the challenge for local communities in closing this gap is now even more complicated. I cannot speak for Roanoke, but in Charlotte the seed of further separation has been planted: - the arrival of national politics in local government. As candidates impose national political platforms on local elections, our community is being drawn into camps - and there is a dwindling middle ground.
I fail to see what the issue of abortion has to do with roads or utilities or economic development. I fail to understand how the question of what the Boy Scouts should or should not say about God affects how a city works to remain healthy and vibrant. We are losing our common purpose and dividing ourselves into groups that are only against things and not for things. We have candidates being elected to office whose sole qualification is that they are against whatever it is the government is doing.
All too frequently, the naysayers pin local problems on growth. Well, I've got news. There's no turning back. As soon as you stop growing, you start dying. You've got to work with what you've got. You've got to mine the new gold mine.
If these forces of division aren't at work in Roanoke, they soon may be. Rally behind leaders or candidates who are locally focused. As the advertisement says, accept no imitations.
What lies ahead for Roanoke and its region?
You are engaged in a process that dates back to our nation's first settlements. Cities, towns and communities have always sought to define their identities, their profiles, their roles. But those roles change as demographic shifts take place, technology advances and economies evolve. Communities, in turn, must continually refine their visions.
I applaud the name of your "New Century Council" because it says you are bold enough to define what you want to be . . . not what you have been. I understand the council intends to look as far out as 2015. Don't be afraid to go even further.
I also like the sound of another description I've heard - that Roanoke is the capital of Western Virginia. Twenty-five years ago, some scoffed at the idea that Charlotte would one day serve as the true hub of the Carolinas. But geography was on our side and we worked hard to fulfill that description.
The same can happen for Roanoke - really, it already has. Part of the task ahead is to magnify your role as the medical, educational, financial and distribution center for this region. The adage "Play to your strengths" may sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many communities fall behind trying to remake themselves.
Roanoke and Charlotte were both on the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road that brought German and Scotch-Irish traders south from Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Those old trading patterns continue to define both of our regions as centers of distribution and commerce, and will for some time to come.
Playing to your strengths requires a first step that some overlook: Look after the businesses you've got. Second, invite others in. Make it easy for them. Offer an infrastructure - roads, water, sewer, labor, schools- that puts you ahead of the competition. Industry trends in banking and transportation have posed challenges to this community, and you have responded well. Transkrit, Connex Pipe, Yokohoma Tire, Service America, Retired Persons Services have added well over 1,000 jobs - and that's an economic-development record that holds up against any community's.
The growth trends bear out your future. Atlanta led the South in growth. Now the momentum has shifted to Charlotte and its peer cities. Inevitably, the same growth will reach Roanoke. Demographers predict 60 million people will move to medium- and smaller-sized cities over the next 30 years. Noted forecaster Harry Dent says Roanoke will be among the winners of that shift.
The question is: Will you be ready?
Be bold. Dream big. Be inclusive. Abide by the plan.
And stick together.
\ Hugh McColl of Charlotte is chairman of NationsBank. This is adapted from his address Tuesday night at the annual meeting of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.
by CNB