Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412100060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE KNEPLER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Throughout the day-long conference Thursday, more than 400 mayors, city managers, business leaders and neighborhood activists blustered, fussed and joked about how development of North Carolina's metropolitan areas has powered past their competing regions in Virginia.
Jean Clary, chairman of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, flashed a picture of Money magazine's cover story naming the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., region as the best place to live in America. "I am tired of North Carolina eating our lunch,'' she said, declaring that she wants Virginia to get such national recognition in the future.
But to make Virginia's metropolitan areas more competitive with fast-growing regions in other states, the cities and suburbs here have to work harder together to solve urban problems, many conference participants agreed.
"We cannot have a competitive state, a healthy, vigorous commonwealth, so long as we have various cities in a state of sickness,'' warned Warner Dalhouse of Roanoke, CEO of First Union National Bank of Virginia.
There was little disagreement about the problems. Most speakers trotted out the traditional list of issues: crime, affordable housing, poverty, poor-quality public education, widening income gaps between cities and suburbs.
But many participants said they were encouraged that city and business leaders from across Virginia were beginning to talk about regional solutions.
The Urban Summit was sponsored by a group of 15 cities that joined with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce to create a statewide organization, the Urban Partnership.
The idea for that organization sprang from a meeting last year of Roanoke Mayor David Bowers and the mayors of Richmond and Norfolk. Business leaders from around the state also were studying urban issues; this past spring, the two groups came together.
Some issues and possible solutions that were proposed included:
Reducing poverty by creating regional governmental entities to ensure equitable delivery of various social services.
Reducing the fear of crime by improving the image of downtowns so they can attract more shoppers, businesses and residents.
Helping local governments become more able to make ends meet by offering financial incentives to promote greater cooperation among cities and suburbs. Also, giving localities more taxing alternatives.
Improving education by developing more equitable formulas for state funding of urban and suburban school districts.
Promoting strong economic development through regional sharing of some revenues from development and taxes.
Regional sharing of revenues may turn out to be one of the most controversial proposals, but it received strong backing from some of Virginia's top business leaders Thursday.
"You need to look at the legal issues of how to share revenue and solve problems,'' said Richard Tilgham, CEO of Crestar Bank. "Our [city] structure inhibits the flow of revenue. We can only do it if we have involvement from the state government level to the local communities. We've got a coalition at work that might pull this off.''
Participants acknowledged that advancing regional solutions will not be easy.
"We're only at the starting line,'' Roanoke City Manager Bob Herbert said. "And this is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.''
Another Urban Summit in May will work out legislative proposals for the 1996 General Assembly.
by CNB