ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DICK HOWARD
FIRST, let me say that I grew up in the Roanoke Valley, lived in Richmond for 19 years, hating every second of it, and couldn't wait to return to the Roanoke Valley because it's a wonderful place to live. That said, I have some comments on Mike Silver's April 29 letter to the editor titled ``Roanoke's image problem.''
The fact that Roanoke isn't competing with Asheville for tourists has little to do with image and everything to do with reality.
We have no product - Asheville does.
Other than our charming City Market area, why would any tourist want to spend time in the Roanoke Valley? To gaze stupefied at ``the world's largest neon star''? To observe ``rust on parade'' at the Transportation Museum? The Blue Ridge Parkway? That's just a nice road out of town. Sadly, it's a very short list.
Asheville and Western North Carolina in general have a history of being a major tourist destination, dating from the 1800s. It's no coincidence that the Vanderbilts decided to build their mansion there. Western Carolina can be rural, rugged and wonderfully Southern, and a glance at a map shows thousands of acres of public-access land. For people who don't need their vacations to be prepackaged and served, this is a great area to visit and roam. Roanoke and Southwestern Virginia cannot begin to offer this quantity and quality of vacation opportunities.
Silver mentions Asheville's people and describes them as being ``a great product.'' I've found Asheville to be much more cosmopolitan than Roanoke, and I think this flows from its ability to attract, welcome and hold on to people from the outside world.
The Roanoke Valley is socially and culturally inbred to the point that people in Salem consider that to be a virtue! The best and brightest of our youth leave for jobs or just to experience the real world. Many of those who remain are clueless and, unfortunately, from this pool come our political and civic leaders. They bicker like a bunch of schoolyard juveniles over funding for a Roanoke Valley tourist center.
The lack of vision our leaders show is sad and maddening.
Last summer, I wrote Mayor David Bowers a detailed letter proposing hiking and mountain-biking trails on city-owned Mill Mountain, and I explained how they could be built at very little expense for taxpayers. I've yet to hear from him.
But, of course, he was observant enough to notice that as a county resident I was not a potential vote in his re-election bid.
Why doesn't the city exploit the recreational potential of the public land surrounding Carvin's Cove? Don't give me that ``protect the watershed'' defense.
Roanoke County has a watershed to protect at the new Spring Hollow Reservoir. I've seen the plans for that area, and hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders are going to be delighted with the opportunities the county will give us.
Roanoke does have an image problem: It's a problem based, in part, on our tendency to embrace the status quo when competing with areas that don't.
Dick Howard of Salem is a registered nurse.
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