Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9409270008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To be sure, it wasn't to be found a couple of blocks west of Virginia's Capitol at what was then the downtown's heart - Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimer's department stores, specifically. Those twin dowagers were beginning to droop, and the Sixth Street Marketplace that was supposed to revive the heart never caught on with Richmonders or out-of-town visitors.
But the river? In the downtown section, it was just something you had to cross to get to shopping malls on the Southside, and something to be gaped at when it flooded. If the river was the future, some said, downtown Richmond was up a creek without a paddle.
Today, though, the downtown's only interesting growth and development is indeed along the river. And from what I can tell from recent visits, the new Valentine Riverside project is about the only reason why Richmonders who don't work downtown are still going there nights and on weekends.
Richmond's out-of-control crime problem - drive-by shootings; an eye-popping murder rate - obviously frightens away many. But even without the fear factor, Richmond's downtown had been virtually deserted by residents in the last years I lived there. Moving back to Roanoke in 1990, I could hardly believe it: the historic City Market actually bustling- with Roanokers! - on Saturdays.
The $23 million Valentine Riverside project conceivably could do for Richmond what the renovated market did for Roanoke. That is, make its downtown a destination point once again for area residents. (Yes, yes, for tourists, too. Can't forget TOURI$T$! But just for once, can't we talk about downtown attractions for the home folks?)
Valentine Riverside is primarily an eight-acre urban park, an inviting green space beneath skyscrapers. The rest, as they say, is history.
Its centerpiece is the restored ruins of the 19th century Tredegar Iron Works on the James, which launched Richmond's industrial development and served as the Confederate Gun Foundry during the Civil War. So it's one-part museum - with old factory machinery still in working order. There is, for instance, the rolling mill that made the iron plate for the Merrimac.
But it's also a state-of-the-art multimedia adventure, featuring computerized ``time machines'' and high-tech wizardry that allow visitors to sample Richmond's historic sights and sounds, and to contrast them with the new and modern. At night, a dramatic sound and light show for outdoor audiences is projected onto the iron factory's 60-foot-high Pattern Building.
And it's a playground for children of all ages: There's a restored '30s-vintage carousel to ride; a World War I-era trolley car, a 1918 locomotive and an old caboose to climb aboard; and hands-on exhibits to try out one's industrial skills.
Raft rides on the James are offered - gentle ones or whitewater thrillers. Bikes are available. You can explore Belle Isle, site of a Civil War prison, picnic on Brown Island, or watch an archaeology dig in progress.
You can park your car (free), even park little kids for up to two hours in a supervised Discovery Room, and take a shuttle van (free) to other historic sites. These include the renovated Shockoe Slip - which perhaps has more tony boutiques, but lacks the lively mix of farmers, artists and occupationally challenged persons that gives Roanoke's historic market area its eclat.
I was impressed by this thought: The Valentine Riverside project has plenty of good ideas that Roanoke can borrow or steal for its proposed linear railside park to link the market with an enhanced Virginia Museum of Transportation - a development intended to put greater focus on Roanoke's rich railroad heritage.
We can do computerized time machines; we can do an outdoor sound-and-light show. Maybe whitewater-rapids rides in downtown Roanoke are out. But we certainly have no shortage here of locomotives and cabooses, or historic sights and sounds.
For tourists, why not have shuttle vans to the new Explore Park in Roanoke County, and to Salem? Not just for tourists but also for area residents, why not have short but regularly scheduled train excursions to, say, Christiansburg and Bedford? Oh, I'm sure some folks hereabouts can give reasons why not - but this isn't the naysayers' column.
In many respects, Roanoke has much more going for it than does Richmond. But as one who loves Richmond, I say give that city its due. It listened to its visionaries who, in the '70s and early '80s, saw an unlovely part of its downtown - old warehouses, deserted buildings, dangerous parking lots and, yes, railroad tracks - sparkling with new developments, the Valentine Riverside included.
It did not listen to the naysayers, as Roanoke - with a gracious plenty of all the above-mentioned unlovely parts - so often tends to do.
by CNB