Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509070070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sometimes, we Roanokers get worked up over the oddest things.
Years ago, we fell in love with a sick circus elephant named Frump-Frump. A couple of summers back, folks rallied to save the gas company, of all things. Earlier this year, we got positively excited about a punked-up Big Boy statue atop a downtown restaurant.
Now, it's a piece of transportation infrastructure we've fallen for. Not just any infrastructure, mind you - the new $7 million pedestrian bridge across the railroad tracks in downtown Roanoke.
By golly, we want the thing to have a name. Why? Because, well, maybe Laura Bingham of Roanoke County put it best: "I think anything that cost $7 million ought to have a name, an identity."
Can't argue with that. Well, you could, but it wouldn't be a very popular argument. When The Roanoke Times invited readers last week to cast their votes in a telephone poll on whether the bridge should have a name, the response was a circuit-jamming outpouring of civic concern for nomenclature.
Not only did 452 people call in, some 92 percent of those voted yes, of course the bridge should have a name.
More impressive yet, more than 300 people left messages about what they think the bridge ought to be named. Granted, a few people voted more than once (we recognized your voices). But sometimes, whole families would call in and pass the phone around to record their different recommendations on the same message.
The Salmon family in Roanoke County is big on the "star" theme. Josh wants "Star Cross," Judy prefers "Star Gate," while Stephen opts for "Star Span."
And then there were messages like this one, from the Buckley residence in Vinton:
Adult's voice: "This call is from David Buckley, age 6. David's watched the construction of the bridge three days out of the week for the last year on his way to preschool, and his idea of a good name for the pedestrian bridge would be ... (sound of telephone being handed to someone else) ...
Child's voice: "David's Bridge. I think it should be David's Bridge. I like the bridge, and it's been fun watching it."
Adult's voice: "That was from David Buckley, a real supporter and fan of the new pedestrian bridge."
It hasn't even been open for a week, and already the bridge seems to have captured the the hearts of Roanokers, some of whom say they've made special treks downtown just to walk across the thing. "Boy, that is something," marvels Ed Ewing, a retired Virginia Tech communications professor who lives in Roanoke County and brought a friend downtown over the weekend to try out the span. "It's impressive."
Indeed, it's hard to tell which is more impressive here - the engineering or the public's enthusiasm for a name. Not that we should have been surprised, says Roanoke College sociologist Marvin Pippert, who specializes in figuring out why communities act the way they do. "There's a real sense of place here," he says. "Issues of identity, of connectedness, are very important."
So, of course we want to name it.
And just what do we want to name it?
Well ...
A few spoilsports made it clear they don't think much of this expenditure of public funds - and want a name to match.
Charlie Custer of Roanoke County suggested "Taxpayers' Burden." Ken Perry of Roanoke liked "Roanoke's Glass Folly."
Most callers took their civic duties seriously - some so seriously they even looked up the middle initials of the people they wanted to name the bridge after.
By far, the most popular proposal was to name the bridge after Noel Taylor, the former mayor. In all, 31 people left variations on the Noel C. Taylor Bridge or Noel C. Taylor Walkway.
Some thought it particularly appropriate to name a bridge after Taylor, the city's first black mayor. "To me, he represents the link between the two communities," said Barbara Temple of Roanoke. "I feel that this pedestrian bridge is a link in the city just as he's been a link in tying the two ethnic groups together."
However, the most popular group of names was based on Roanoke's nickname "the Star City of the South" - mentioned 70 times. The most common variations were the Starwalk (8 mentions), the Star City Walkway (7) and the Star City Bridge (6) and Stargate (5).
Other, even more colorful, alternatives ranged from "the Starlight Pass," suggested by Laura Damico of Roanoke, to "the Starlight Bridge," which Libby Hofstetter and Lois Huffman of Roanoke preferred.
In the grand scheme of the cosmos, the Mill Mountain Star is a relatively new beacon. But in the nearly half-century that it's shone down on the city, the onetime promotional gimmick clearly has worked its way into the public's consciousness as a symbol of the city.
"Face it, we're the Star City, just like Chicago is the Windy City and Detroit is the Motor City," said Jeffrey Douglas of Blacksburg. "We can't ignore that, and we shouldn't want to." He likes "StarSpan."
Many callers latched onto the "star" name because they read a double meaning into it, at once old-fashioned and newfangled. Said Mike Lambert of Roanoke, who was pushing "Starwalk" as a name: "It's kind of like saying, here's the old Roanoke and the way it used to be, and its pathway of new beginnings."
Douglas, the "StarSpan" voter, agreed: "I know it sounds kind of galactic, but it seems to link the past with the future in a smooth and sleek way, like its architecture."
Other old-fashioned names didn't win much support. Not a single caller proposed a name based on Roanoke's early nickname, "The Magic City." And for a bridge over the railroad tracks, in what used to be a railroad town, there weren't many train-related suggestions.
Instead, callers were more captivated by the bridge's appearance. "Why not call it 'The Glassway,' since it is primarily glass?" suggested Mae Sigmund of Vinton.
Carleen Coleman of Roanoke had a similar thought. "I think the bridge looks like a long stretch of window panes," she said. "How about the name 'Window Pane Bridge' or 'The Window Way Bridge' or just simply 'Windows Way'?"
She, too, saw a high-tech connection. "I like incorporating windows into the name not just because it looks like windows, but because of the Windows 95 [computer] program. Giving the bridge a 'Windows' name would symbolize the promise of the future."
This is, after all, the era of corporate sponsorships. The Capital Centre near Washington is now the USAir Arena. The Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis has become the RCA Dome. Perhaps Roanoke could recoup the cost of the bridge by selling the rights to Bill Gates and Microsoft?
First things first, though.
The city has no official plans to name the bridge, and Mayor David Bowers brushed off the idea when he first heard about it. But once residents started approaching him on the street and calling his office last week with suggested monikers, he began to warm to the notion. "I guess I'll wait to see if a public consensus emerges," he now says.
Other council members, though, are more sympathetic. "I think [a name] is a great idea," says Elizabeth Bowles. "You don't want it to be an 'it', do you?"
Don't know. Do you?
Staff writers Dan Casey, Betty Hayden and Mary Linn contributed to this story.
by CNB