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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994                   TAG: 9404130112
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FITZPATRICK SEES DOWNTOWNS AS PEOPLE SPACE

Cities and towns that want to begin or continue their paths toward renewal will have to rely on "new and different anchors," including government and educational buildings, New Century Council Director Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. said Tuesday at a downtown revitalization conference in Roanoke.

Fitzpatrick's luncheon speech concluded a two-day statewide conference on downtown development.

Fitzpatrick suggested downtowns may have to become the "alternative" to the impersonal conferences that often take place through telephones, computers and fax machines.

Downtowns might focus on becoming places where people go to meet face-to-face, he said. Despite its success with the City Market, Roanoke has yet to develop its downtown as a place where people both work and live, he said.

"Downtown is everybody's neighborhood," Fitzpatrick said. "You've got to make sure it doesn't take on a sense of elitism or a place where only certain types of people go."

by CNB